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.
Green world, lovely chloroform
Front porch in the thunderstorm
Controlled chaos, confused energy
Stop reading the weather charts
Stop counting the playing cards
There's no system, there's no guarantee
That the love you feel you carry inside can be passed
You try I know you do you still talk to your plants
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"
Some wander the wilderness
some drink cosmopolitans
Some cull science
some glean astral planes
I can't tell where the canvas stops
homesick as an astronaut
Just keep drifting, but still can't explain
How the love we feel we carry inside can be passed
See a brother in the gutter you reach out your hand
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"
What guage measures miracles?
Whose heart beats electrical?
We feign sickness with our modern joy
Even Western medicine
it couldn't save Danny Callahan
Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy
But the love he feels he carries inside can be passed
He lay still his mother kissed him goodbye Said, 'Come back, where are you going to alone?'
Where are you going all alone?
Front porch in the thunderstorm
Controlled chaos, confused energy
Stop reading the weather charts
Stop counting the playing cards
There's no system, there's no guarantee
That the love you feel you carry inside can be passed
You try I know you do you still talk to your plants
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"
Some wander the wilderness
some drink cosmopolitans
Some cull science
some glean astral planes
I can't tell where the canvas stops
homesick as an astronaut
Just keep drifting, but still can't explain
How the love we feel we carry inside can be passed
See a brother in the gutter you reach out your hand
Ask, "How are you getting on alone?"
What guage measures miracles?
Whose heart beats electrical?
We feign sickness with our modern joy
Even Western medicine
it couldn't save Danny Callahan
Bad bone marrow, a bald little boy
But the love he feels he carries inside can be passed
He lay still his mother kissed him goodbye Said, 'Come back, where are you going to alone?'
Where are you going all alone?
Lyrics submitted by lovenothing__
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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.”
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yeah, i know, right? i googled him expecting to find a bunch of news stories of some dying kid, but nothing. I'm thinking it's just someone Conor personally knew, or knew of. Or perhaps he just made him up.
I love this song a whole lot.