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.
In the garden of love I saw
A moment of sun in her eye
And everything was quiet
In the garden of love I saw
Starlight sigh and shadow move
Faltering, no faltering, faltering
Before you go
A few words for your heart
Before you turn
Something to ponder in your heart as you go
In our garden of love we grew
Roses so red our hearts were busted open
All feeding on the dream we made
The bright and beautiful parade
That bloom by bloom began to fade
And blow by blow, oh
Before you go
A few words for your heart
Before you turn
Something to ponder in your heart as you go
How we tried to make everything right
How we fought and we talked through the night
How we nearly, we made it
In the garden of love I saw
A moment of sun in her eye
And everything was quiet
Stepping out into the light other side of the window
Blinking and blind in the light other side of the window
Falter, no faltering now, other side of the window
Falter, no faltering now, that journey is over, over
There's only so much that our heart can grow
Then everything else starts to overflow
But you're young and in love
Back then there was no way of knowing
So we pushed and we pulled with our nerves of steel
You had the pedals and I had the wheel
And the terrible truth
Is we never knew where we were going
There's only so much that our heart can grow
Then everything else starts to overflow
But you're young and in love
Back then there was no way of knowing
A moment of sun in her eye
And everything was quiet
In the garden of love I saw
Starlight sigh and shadow move
Faltering, no faltering, faltering
Before you go
A few words for your heart
Before you turn
Something to ponder in your heart as you go
In our garden of love we grew
Roses so red our hearts were busted open
All feeding on the dream we made
The bright and beautiful parade
That bloom by bloom began to fade
And blow by blow, oh
Before you go
A few words for your heart
Before you turn
Something to ponder in your heart as you go
How we tried to make everything right
How we fought and we talked through the night
How we nearly, we made it
In the garden of love I saw
A moment of sun in her eye
And everything was quiet
Stepping out into the light other side of the window
Blinking and blind in the light other side of the window
Falter, no faltering now, other side of the window
Falter, no faltering now, that journey is over, over
There's only so much that our heart can grow
Then everything else starts to overflow
But you're young and in love
Back then there was no way of knowing
So we pushed and we pulled with our nerves of steel
You had the pedals and I had the wheel
And the terrible truth
Is we never knew where we were going
There's only so much that our heart can grow
Then everything else starts to overflow
But you're young and in love
Back then there was no way of knowing
Lyrics submitted by dustfinger
Garden of Love Lyrics as written by Matthew Hales
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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it's a bit difficult to tell what this one's about... but I love the piano and guitar intro... it's a beautiful start for the song... and I really like the lines "But you're young and in love/ back then there was no way of knowing", as if 'back then' you couldn't tell if you were in love or something... that's what I think it means, anyways
i think that this song is about young lovers trying to make a relationship work. they were nieve and "grew" a love that was strong but the love faded, possibly from fighting and growing apart like the lyrics do indicate in one section.
it describes that they almost "made it" meaning they probably came close to fixing things but it just wasn't possible. the rest of the sections about "stepping into the light", "no faltering", "other side of the window" all indicate that the writer has moved on and is done with the hard "journey" that was the relationship.
I think: the beginning starts off talking about seeing "a moment of sun in her eye and everything was quiet" this to me means the time you realize you're in love with that person, where everything stands still and its just the both of you there.
When he says, "In the garden of love i saw starlight sigh and shadow move" he's seeing things that he couldn't see before her, she's given him new eyes to see the world with. And "faltering, no faltering, faltering" they're beginning to go through difficult times in their relationship its shaky, on and off, and then it finally just falls apart.
"Before you go, a few words for your heart before you turn, something to ponder in your heart as you go" he's telling her to remember all the times they shared.
"In our garden of love we grew roses so red our hearts were busted open all feeding on the dream we made the bright and beautiful parade that bloom by bloom began to fade and blow by blow, oh" he's explaining how their love was so strong that their hearts were full to bursting, and how that strong, glowing love slowly faded into a dim reminder of what once was.
"Before you go, a few words for your heart before you turn, something to ponder in your heart as you go" again he tells her to remember all the memories they shared together when they were in love.
"How we tried to make everything right how we fought and we talked through the night how we nearly made it" here he describes how they tried to reconcile their lost love.
"In the garden of love I saw a moment of sun in her eye and everything was quiet" he remembers the day he fell in love and how everything changed.
in this verse the "Stepping out into the light other side of the window blinking and blind in the light other side of the window falter, no faltering now other side of the window falter, no faltering now that journey is over over over" he's moved on and is on the other side of the window. He can look back and gain perspective about what happened that made everything go south.
"There's only so much that our heart can grow then everything else starts to overflow and you're young and in love back then there was no way of knowing" here he says that you can only love a person so much before you began to lose everything else in the relationship, that it needs more than love. but that when you're young and inexperienced in love you cant expect what will become of it
"So we pushed and we pulled with our nerves of steel you had the pedals and I had the wheel and the terrible truth was we never knew where we were going" that when they were in the relationship they didn't know where they would eventually end up, they were just along for the ride
"There's only so much that our heart can grow then everything else starts to overflow but you're young and in love back then there was no way of knowing" you can only take so much love in before you begin to lose each other in the relationship, but when you start it you never know where it will end, there's no way of knowing.
but then again this could be a totally wrong interpretation of this amazingly tragic song. Nevertheless its is a song that contains tons of emotion within the beats and rhythms alone. whatever your interpretation of this song might be its still very lovely to listen to.