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.
Sleeping deeply in the blood
It turns my memories to mud
And gnaws inside me like a dog
Whose leg is caught beneath a log
It eats itself until it's free
But I'll eat them instead of me
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
And leave the ashes in the snow
It turns my memories to mud
And gnaws inside me like a dog
Whose leg is caught beneath a log
It eats itself until it's free
But I'll eat them instead of me
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
HUNGER! ANGER!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
PLEASE SOMEBODY! BURN MY BONES!
And leave the ashes in the snow
Lyrics submitted by Imperfect_Stranger
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
The Night We Met
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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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."
American Town
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
from the "Animal Lover" insert:
THE WOLF
The wolf was cold and hungry. He had followed the man for hours ...waiting, waiting, for just the right time. Waiting for a moment of weakness. Waiting for an opening. Not that the man presented much of a threat ...or much of a meal. But now something strange was happening. Standing still and staring up at the night sky, the man abruptly began to howl, in a most disturbing way. Maybe this was not a meal to consider.
The wolf had seen the man and smelled his scent around the forest for some time. He knew that the human lived with his two sisters in a small shelter not far away. He also knew that this winter was longer and colder than most, and food was nowhere to be found.
Turning his attention back to the man, the wolf noticed that howling seemed to swell in intensity. Gradually a feeling of discomfort crept up the animal’s legs, slithered across his back and slowly oozed into his chest. The feeling seized his throat and squeezed it tight. Feeling more and more uncomfortable, the animal told itself to run. Flee. Get away from the howling man. The man who now seemed to be glowing a white hot and impossibly bright light. The light of hunger mixed with fear, the light that illuminates the black pit of despair and makes anything possible. Makes anything desirable. Makes anything real.
Suddenly the man began to move. Quickly, silently, purposefully, towards the small shelter just over the hill. Transfixed, the wolf followed. And watched as the man quietly entered his home. Again the man howled, shaking the wolf’s soul as he heard a no longer human wail mixing and blending into the sound of several horrified screams.
No, thought the wolf, this was not a meal to consider.
Within the context of the accompanying story, the first half of the song is easy enough to interpret: the man is driven by hunger and madness to contemplate killing and eating his two sisters.<br /> <br /> The ending is a bit more challenging to interpret. Perhaps the titular lines, "please, somebody, burn my bones" are a request made after the man butchers his own kin; maybe he realizes that their deaths will not be enough to prolong his own, or maybe he considers suicide in light of his desperate, ghastly actions.<br /> <br /> This man, an animal and a killer in the end, wishes nothing more than an anonymous ritual to burn away his remains, the last physical evidence of a grisly tragedy in a cold, uncaring wilderness.
The song could also be about the story of the Wendigo, a spirit which takes over humans who turn to cannibalism to survive. If you look at the artwork in the Animal Lover liner, you can see a monstrous figure possessing the man in the song.<br /> <br /> After a cursory Google search, I've found that there is only way to kill a Wendigo; you must burn it.