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.
If this was the Cold War we could keep each other warm
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch that was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me
I never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the Bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
But as we waited for the Big One
I started singing her my songs
And I think she started feeling something for me
We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside
What five letters spell "apocalypse" she asked me
I won her over saying "W.W.I.I.I."
She smiled and we both knew that she'd misjudged me
Oh Marie it was so easy to fall in love with you
It felt almost like a home of sorts or something
And you would keep the warhead missile silo good as new
And I'd watch you with my thumb above the button
Then one night you found me in my army issue cot
And you told me of your flash of inspiration
You said fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought
And all night long you drove me wild with your equations
Oh Marie do you remember all the time we used to take
We'd make our love and then ransack the rations
I think about you leaving now and the avalanche cascades
And my eyes get washed away in chain reactions
Oh Marie if you would stay then we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
But I would only need one pin to show where my heart's at
In a top secret location three hundred feet under the ground
We could hold each other close and stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
And pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead
And carve our name in hearts into the warhead
Oh Marie there's something tells me things just won't work out above
That our love would live a half-life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping
I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous
I think about the Big One, W.W.I.I.I.
Would we ever really care the world had ended
You could hold me here forever like you're holding me tonight
I look at that great big red button and I'm tempted
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch that was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me
I never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the Bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
But as we waited for the Big One
I started singing her my songs
And I think she started feeling something for me
We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside
What five letters spell "apocalypse" she asked me
I won her over saying "W.W.I.I.I."
She smiled and we both knew that she'd misjudged me
Oh Marie it was so easy to fall in love with you
It felt almost like a home of sorts or something
And you would keep the warhead missile silo good as new
And I'd watch you with my thumb above the button
Then one night you found me in my army issue cot
And you told me of your flash of inspiration
You said fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought
And all night long you drove me wild with your equations
Oh Marie do you remember all the time we used to take
We'd make our love and then ransack the rations
I think about you leaving now and the avalanche cascades
And my eyes get washed away in chain reactions
Oh Marie if you would stay then we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
But I would only need one pin to show where my heart's at
In a top secret location three hundred feet under the ground
We could hold each other close and stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
And pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead
And carve our name in hearts into the warhead
Oh Marie there's something tells me things just won't work out above
That our love would live a half-life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping
I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous
I think about the Big One, W.W.I.I.I.
Would we ever really care the world had ended
You could hold me here forever like you're holding me tonight
I look at that great big red button and I'm tempted
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
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.
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.
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
The science is the relationship. The silo is Eden. The bomb/the button is the apple. The apocalypse is sin.
BIBLICAL ANALOGY:
This is a biblical analogy but it has been twisted so its implications and ramifications are backwards (I imagine purposely so). In the original biblical story of Adam and Eve, the apple signified sin but it also signified knowledge. If Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and ate the apple of knowledge they would be expelled from Eden to live and die as mortals. If they left the apple of knowledge alone they could've stayed in Eden for eternity. In choosing to eat the apple they were expelled.
In Ritter's analogy it is Adam and Marie's desire to remain in Eden that is dangerous. They realize that if they eat the apple (explode the nuke) they will be free to remain in Eden (the silo) indefinitely. Unlike in Genesis where their expulsion from Eden is the damning moment, in Ritter's song their decision to remain eternally in Eden (the silo) would be the damning moment - not just for them but for all mankind. In making this suggestion Ritter is saying that knowledge must by necessity be the ultimate pursuit, even if it sentences us to loss and hardship. We must surface. If Men accept their own ignorance out of fear then we are a self-damning race. We may as well be 'pushing the button' on ourselves.
SCIENTIFIC ANALOGY:
Biblical analogy then merges with scientific analogy. In the bible the apple was infused with knowledge and if Adam and eve ate the apple they would also be infused with its knowledge. Genesis effectively treated 'apple' and 'sin' and 'knowledge' as one thing. Ritter doesn't do this. He recognizes that biting the apple (detonating the bomb) would be 'sinful' but that it would also be ignorant. It would grant no knowledge; rather, it would obliterate knowledge. This intelligent understanding is what Ritter's character Marie understands and tries to explain to Adam: "We already have the knowledge of the apple, Adam" she is trying to tell him. "We already know all about it. We don't need to sin (detonate the bomb) to be given its knowledge, because we already know."
Chiefly, Adam thinks the bomb (apple) offers Marie and him the chance to remain eternally in the shelter of their love (the silo/Eden). This is why, when Marie talks to him of science - the science of nuclear warheads - she is also speaking metaphorically about the miracle of love. She is trying to help them both to understand that the apple (explosion and resultant apocalypse) doesn't contain anything for them that they both don't already have - they just can't understand exactly what they have yet. The science they know and the love they feel is beyond their comprehension. Marie, though, goes a long way to understanding both when she tells Adam of her "flash of inspiration":
"fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought and all night long you drove me wild with your equations"
In layman's terms, Fusion is what makes nuclear reactions so devastating: If, on an elemental level, an atom is disrupted it can cause a chain reaction of disruption in all the particles surrounding it. Thus, a very big explosion. This reaction happens because an incomplete atom must seek to find completion, or to do something with itself. It will try to bond with or disrupt other atoms.
Fusion can also be a metaphor for love: a single atom (single person) with a broken 'heart' is desperately lonely. So lonely that it will do anything to bond with another atom (person). It will thoughtlessly do anything - including, say, destroy the encroaching world in order to fully possess one other atom (person).
SEXUAL ANALOGY:
As though the depth Ritter has woven into his song weren't enough, he brilliantly includes sexual connotations as well. As J.R. said above, the missile can be seen as phallus and the silo as womb. Parting from this analogy slightly, I would argue that Ritter intended to draw vague parallels between clitoris and 'the button'. Adam is tempted by Marie and because he desires her he is also tempted to detonate the bomb, thus: "I think about that big red button and I’m tempted" can be seen sexually or literally.