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 a town in the woods at the top of a hill
There’s a house where no one lives
So you take a big bag of your big city money there
And buy it.
But at night, the house is dark
And you’re all alone, there’s a noise upstairs
At the top of the stairs, there’s a door
And you take a deep breath and try it.
And the flashlight shows you something moving just inside the door
There’s a tattered dress and a feeling you have felt somewhere before.
And there’s the creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
So you scream and you close the door
And you tell yourself it was just a dream
In the morning you head into town,
‘Cause you want to go antiquing.
In the store there’s a strange old man
With a wandering eye and a withered hand
When he hands you the old wooden box
You can hear his old bones creaking.
And you know what you will find inside the moment that you see
That someone carved your name into the tarnished silver key.
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
And when you come home late, the doll is waiting up for you
And when you fix a snack, the doll says it would like one too
The doll is in your house and in your room and in your bed
The doll is in your eyes and in your arms and in your head – and you are crazy.
Now it’s late and you head downstairs
’Cause you just can’t sleep so you make some tea
And the doll disapprovingly asks
If you really need that much honey.
You decide that you’ve had enough
And you lock the doll in the wooden box
You put the box in the fireplace
Next to your bag of big city money.
As the smoke fills up your tiny room there’s nothing you can do
And far too late you see the one inside the box is you.
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
There’s a house where no one lives
So you take a big bag of your big city money there
And buy it.
But at night, the house is dark
And you’re all alone, there’s a noise upstairs
At the top of the stairs, there’s a door
And you take a deep breath and try it.
And the flashlight shows you something moving just inside the door
There’s a tattered dress and a feeling you have felt somewhere before.
And there’s the creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
So you scream and you close the door
And you tell yourself it was just a dream
In the morning you head into town,
‘Cause you want to go antiquing.
In the store there’s a strange old man
With a wandering eye and a withered hand
When he hands you the old wooden box
You can hear his old bones creaking.
And you know what you will find inside the moment that you see
That someone carved your name into the tarnished silver key.
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
And when you come home late, the doll is waiting up for you
And when you fix a snack, the doll says it would like one too
The doll is in your house and in your room and in your bed
The doll is in your eyes and in your arms and in your head – and you are crazy.
Now it’s late and you head downstairs
’Cause you just can’t sleep so you make some tea
And the doll disapprovingly asks
If you really need that much honey.
You decide that you’ve had enough
And you lock the doll in the wooden box
You put the box in the fireplace
Next to your bag of big city money.
As the smoke fills up your tiny room there’s nothing you can do
And far too late you see the one inside the box is you.
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open…
And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole…
Lyrics submitted by PureSophist
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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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,
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Not a very deep thinker, are you?
I think this song has a lot of meaning, even though it seems that the artist didn't intend it to be so. The doll could resemble his conscience. It always follows him, nagging at him until it annoys the crap outta him. He tries to get rid of it (box in the fireplace), but he can't, because it's him.
You make a good point. Maynard James Keenan (singer/songwriter) always said it's important to find your own meaning in songs. That's why he never told his fans what his songs were about. I think this song is just poking fun at horror movies. I love how unique it is from his other songs, it might be my favorite. I also love how it sounds like a theme to a horror movie (the eerie nursery-rhyme-like tune with a heavy chorus).
I think this song should be taken at face value. Not all songs have some deep spiritual meaning... It's about a creepy doll...
that always follows you.
There's nothing wrong with NOT trying to attach some batshit deeper meaning to a straightforward horror movie parody song, DragonChild.
You can certainly say that the doll represents his conscience. I could say that the doll represents drugs, if I wanted, or that it represents his mother. But that doesn't mean either of us are right. Attempting to project profundity onto the lyrics doesn't make it a better song.
Per Coulton: "I don’t know what’s going on with this one, I just decided earlier this week that it was time to write a song about a creepy doll. I was thinking about various 70s horror movies that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Back then you didn’t need to torture people with chainsaws and drills to make a scary movie, it was enough just to have a doll that kept showing up. Or maybe a clown. I couldn’t keep a straight face though, somewhere in the middle of the song the doll just becomes not so much creepy as annoying."
So, yeah. No deep meaning. Just some wacky fun. Take what you want from it.
"I couldn’t keep a straight face though, somewhere in the middle of the song the doll just becomes not so much creepy as annoying."
That's one of the things I love about this song. The thing that finally makes the narrator snap isn't that the doll scares him out of his mind, but that it sort of calls him fat.
This song would be better if his voice was deeper... Other than this song is cool.
There's a clip on youtube of a live performance with Neil Gaiman reading the second verse. Creep-freakin-tastic.
I think its talk about how his past can haunt you. Until you finally put it all away.
Alright... This game me some extreame goose bumps and eye teared. Ya'll know about the fenomenom of My little pony: Friendship is magic is pupular with males? Anyhow. They're alot of fanfics based on it. Alot of horror fanfics as called creepypastas. I read a MLP: FiM based horror novel, and it was based on this song... It gave me some good creeps and if you wanna read it and see how it related to the lyrics, here is a link to it: equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-box.html Find the link to the document in that link. ;)