The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Friend, this shouldn't be the way things end
But then, a break is just around the bend.
And when you tell me as I leave
You're scared you'll never see my face again
Well, I'm not sure it's the truth
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
But I can and I will and I do
You write, I read your letters every night
All right, I skim then just to be polite.
I fight embarrassment and shame
The mention of your name makes me turn white
But guilt still makes me refrain
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
But I can and I will and I do
I imagine you think I don't think of you
You know you couldn't be more wrong
If good intentions paved the road that gets me through
Then I've got a six-lane highway
And I intend to someday
Do all the things I say I can and I will and I do
Hey, it's hard for me to go away
Okay, I know it's not adult
But it's just as difficult for me to stay
And anyway you say
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you love you love you
But I can and I will and I do. I can and I will and I do.
But then, a break is just around the bend.
And when you tell me as I leave
You're scared you'll never see my face again
Well, I'm not sure it's the truth
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
But I can and I will and I do
You write, I read your letters every night
All right, I skim then just to be polite.
I fight embarrassment and shame
The mention of your name makes me turn white
But guilt still makes me refrain
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
But I can and I will and I do
I imagine you think I don't think of you
You know you couldn't be more wrong
If good intentions paved the road that gets me through
Then I've got a six-lane highway
And I intend to someday
Do all the things I say I can and I will and I do
Hey, it's hard for me to go away
Okay, I know it's not adult
But it's just as difficult for me to stay
And anyway you say
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you
You don't think I can love you love you love you
But I can and I will and I do. I can and I will and I do.
Lyrics submitted by I wax poetic
I Can I Will I Do Lyrics as written by Steven Page Ed Robertson
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
This is some sort of messed up relationship.
He is leaving her, he knows if he doesn't know he'll have to eventually ("a break is just around the bend"). Why is he leaving? You could infer that maybe he is having an affair with this woman. Any other ideas? He truly does love her, or at least thinks he does. However he knows that she doesn't think he does. One day, he says, he will prove to her how much he does love her and always will.
I also like the line "but guilt still makes me refrain" - to me it has a double meaning - he feels guilty about being with her and reading the letters that she writes to him and that guilt is making him stop or "refrain"- but also "refrain" can refer to the chorus of song which is exactly what that line leads into.
This song is about someone who tells his girlfriend that he loves her, and maybe he does, but he finds it difficult to stay around her, and is going away, and he doubts she'll be too unhappy. He reads her letters, and still thinks that he loves her, but doesn't really. Although it's difficult to leave, it's just as difficult to stay.
I think it is about a man who has a girlfriend/wife but he is cheating on her with another woman. This song is about the other woman. He feels guilty over the fact that he loves the other woman more than he loves his girlfriend/wife. He also feels guilty that he can't leave his girlfriend/wife for this other woman. ("The mention of your name makes me turn white. But guilt still makes me refrain.") He wants to do right by this other woman but he can't end the relationship he is in. The other woman doesn't think he really loves her, he thinks he does love her. He is "intending" to eventually show her how much he loves her, but whether or not he does isn't clear. I think this song is about guilt and indecisiveness, and how in the end both of them will end up hurt and alone.
I think that he knows he hasn't been doing a good job being there for her, or whatever, there's something he hasn't done for her that he should have, because he says "I can and I will" as if he's promising to better, and then, almost as an afterthought, he says, "and I do", as if saying, "wait a minute, why am I admitting I was wrong?"
Even though this song is about a romantic relationship, it really sums up a falling out (or growing apart i guess) I had with my friend. It boiled down to her thinking I didn't care about her, but I did and I still do. But I can't keep trying when it won't change how she feels.
This is why I love this band.