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.
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news
The king sits on his face buttons all askew
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
They can't have it
You can't have it
I can't have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Princes stand in queues they stand accused
Death in solitude like Howard Hughes
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
Silence has it
Arrogance has it
I can have it ooh
Until I learn to accept my reward
Suddenly it struck me very clear
Suddenly it struck me very clean
All wrapped up the same
All wrapped up the same
You can't have it
I can't have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my reward!
The king sits on his face buttons all askew
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
They can't have it
You can't have it
I can't have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Princes stand in queues they stand accused
Death in solitude like Howard Hughes
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
Silence has it
Arrogance has it
I can have it ooh
Until I learn to accept my reward
Suddenly it struck me very clear
Suddenly it struck me very clean
All wrapped up the same
All wrapped up the same
You can't have it
I can't have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my reward!
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Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Fantastic song. At first it seems completely obscure, but I think not now. I this song is about imposter syndrome. Self-presentation, bluff, faking it till ya make it, and the attendant insecurities and feelings of inadequacy. It was written at the time of the TE's first press and the backing of John Peel. 'Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news' is said to be a reference to John Peel, who'd helped the likes of Bolan on his way. Is the writer really in that august company? The writer 'stands accused' or is self-accusing of being a middle class fake. So, what to do? Be arrogant, be silent, act the part, act like a star before you actually are, like Bowie. Thus the repeat references to Kingship, Royalty, essentially empty non existent things that people are fooled into investing in, by the power of image. 'The king sits on his face but it's all assumed' (your lyrics are wrong). It's all a bluff. Then, Howard Hughes, outwardly the ideal American male, but actually a basket case. Again, the lyrics are wrong, 'it's live in solitude'. The over the top histrionic bluster of the music and the horns fits this theme perfectly. Accepting the reward is accepting your own talents, specialness and success, and being at one with it. JC's one time bandmate Ian McCulloch seems to have been influenced by this song ( maybe he even contributed?) The Cutter by Echo and The Bunnymen (from the same time frame) is also about the anxieties of not measuring up. Strangely, that song also starts off with a coded reference to John Peel. Coincidence?