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.
Well they chased her down the alley
And over the hill to steal her will
She was hot as Georgia asphalt
When the "A" crowd came to adore her brain
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
You should've seen her back in the city
Poetry and jewels, broke all the rules
She was high as a Georgia pine tree
Makeup and pills, overdue bills
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
Some sunny day when the hands of time
Have had their way
You'll understand why it was so hard to run away
She's a loser, she's a forgiver
And she still finds good, where no one could
You ought to want her more than money
Cadillacs and rust, diamonds and dust
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
Yeah, leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
And over the hill to steal her will
She was hot as Georgia asphalt
When the "A" crowd came to adore her brain
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
You should've seen her back in the city
Poetry and jewels, broke all the rules
She was high as a Georgia pine tree
Makeup and pills, overdue bills
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
Some sunny day when the hands of time
Have had their way
You'll understand why it was so hard to run away
She's a loser, she's a forgiver
And she still finds good, where no one could
You ought to want her more than money
Cadillacs and rust, diamonds and dust
So leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
Yeah, leave Virginia alone
Leave Virginia alone
She's not like you and me
She's not like you and me
Lyrics submitted by sillybunny, edited by jt11420663
Leave Virginia Alone Lyrics as written by Tom Petty
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Gone Gator Music
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The song makes sense if it is about Virginia Woolf. Adore her BRAIN. Check. Not like you and me. Check. Leave her alone. Well that might be a comment on her suicide or a comment on modern critics. Broke all the rules. Yes. From Wikipedia //Like many of her contemporaries, some of her writing is now considered offensive. As a result, she is considered polarising, a revolutionary feminist and socialist hero or a purveyor of hate speech.[344]. [345]//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf
Ah, Virginia … Written by Petty and recorded by Rod Stewart, Virginia surely was hot as Georgia asphalt or the aircraft wouldn’t have come to adore her brain. In this story, we play the aircraft—let your imagination run wild—and since Virge isn’t like you and me, she’s quite the loner. Like the poetry, Tom? Thought you might… and all them perspectives… virtual jewels … She said she hopes to hear more about that sunny day someday. Alas, she is a loser. She does like to think the best of people ….
I was the girl who was on fire<br /> I was the girl who was on fire<br /> Only a bird could get much higher<br /> (I look in the mirror)<br /> 'Cause I was the girl who was on fire<br />
We're all amused over the "Cadillac can rust" description--whatever that is, she says and we'll take it. Hmm... how does Cadillac rust behave? The diamonds and dust are a given.
Think it's Cadillacs AND rust...
Paraphrased poetry ...
Dazzled by the untamed, Electric aurora resplendent, persuaded me to adventure On an August night Vast-terrible and pure I love you with immeasurable aching …
Without questioning the red jacket of the stars The heart descends with a light leap Kissed me on the face and the grotesque and the enormous May the Nobel Prize be given to the chemist who will discover better than this. The heart burns while the oxen stare Some throw oranges The red arched palace laughs through its great portico Like Niagara Falls
Pleasant as the odorous month of May As glorious as light of day
Whom I admired as soon I saw And now her memory I pursue With such a superstitious lust That I could fumble with her dust
Pretty she was and ageless and wise And in her calling—so precise Thumper went and made their dove The sucking school mistress of Love
And Life ambitious to become Her pupil—left his ghastly home And seeing how we used her here The raw-boned rascal ravished her
Chuck Cotton (paraphrased)
I am Lyric—I am free A polar wish gave birth to me glittering one winter night My heart makes love in the wall of atomic submarines Glittering my name is whispered in nautical steamers Presidents love me as they love their best captains winter nights I glitter I look them all in the hearts Thunder booms in the icebergs I am also a very northerly totem pole winter nights When I go to sleep with my glitter I throw three witches on the floor They utter low shrieks They come back again. I love my glitter But also like the witches I fill their bellies with all my tales We puzzle, decipher, encipher Six translators—forty-two book reviewers I drank coffee and was still the same person
[paraphrased poetry]
And baby I wondered where you are Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas
We see ourselves as others see us And then become just what we see. It's magic of a sort, I guess. It holds us down or sets us free...