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.
A prima donna with a premonition feels like he's preachin' to the choir
A superstar filled with superstition can't pull himself out of the mire
All you ever dreamed of is finally in your reach but careful what you wish for
If you don't practice what you preach
The circus came to town, I guess it must have stayed
It's like an endless parade
All these people you can see through like ghosts, maybe you've seen too much
Nothing's real, nothing you can feel, no one you can touch
Strangers stare in silence, they think they know your mind
No place to jump off, that's the way the game's designed
Another new day dawns, another sunset fades
It's like an endless parade
Music, music and more music imploding inside your brain
The life that you have chosen did it finally drive you insane
Psychopathic tirades fill your head with ammunition
Sights set on your enemies but you keep losing your position
Reluctantly you face the day try to get your gameface on
What used to be a fantasy has now become a marathon
Every heart you ever broke, all the people you've betrayed
Another new day dawns
Another sunset fades
Yeah, the circus came to town, I guess it must have stayed
It's like an endless parade
A superstar filled with superstition can't pull himself out of the mire
All you ever dreamed of is finally in your reach but careful what you wish for
If you don't practice what you preach
The circus came to town, I guess it must have stayed
It's like an endless parade
All these people you can see through like ghosts, maybe you've seen too much
Nothing's real, nothing you can feel, no one you can touch
Strangers stare in silence, they think they know your mind
No place to jump off, that's the way the game's designed
Another new day dawns, another sunset fades
It's like an endless parade
Music, music and more music imploding inside your brain
The life that you have chosen did it finally drive you insane
Psychopathic tirades fill your head with ammunition
Sights set on your enemies but you keep losing your position
Reluctantly you face the day try to get your gameface on
What used to be a fantasy has now become a marathon
Every heart you ever broke, all the people you've betrayed
Another new day dawns
Another sunset fades
Yeah, the circus came to town, I guess it must have stayed
It's like an endless parade
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Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
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.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
I love this song, especially how the lyrics move through your mind while the bassline dances with your soul.
For me, this song is all about someone who is going back over their struggle to find happiness in life and trying to make sense of it all. A lifetime of trying and always coming up short of happiness . . . having a jaded perspective.
I think "endless parade" speaks to someone who has experienced an unending series of bad relationships. They can't understand why relationships always fall apart. "...maybe you've seen too much...nothing is real...nothing you can feel...no one you can trust..." the development of disillusion and started to see how fake people can be . . .
"All you ever dreamed of is finally in your reach" is thinking you've (now) finally found the right person, "be careful what you wish for if you don't practice what you preach" is an internal fear that it's going to fail like everything prior.
"Did the life that you have chosen, did it finally drive you insane?" Someone who has done well at navigating the working side of life but remains deeply hurt, disillusioned, and lonely after trusting the wrong people, loving the wrong people. Trying to figure it out brings more questions than answers which circles back into more questions . . . spiraling into slowly falling into giving up ever finding personal happiness.
"... fill your head with ammunition, sights set on your enemies..." speaks to deep emotionally driven thoughts at striking back at the people that caused the hurt, but a forgiving nature keeps it from ever being acted out.
"...get your game face on..." trying to act like you're okay but deep inside you feel dead. The person has started becoming numb to life. They feel as if they're moving through life with no attachment to it.
"Every heart you ever broke, all the people you've betrayed" is some self-doubt thinking they did not do enough and every failure is all their fault. Thinking that they've somehow caused the people they loved to treat them badly and leave.
Just arriving at a point in their life of shuffling through life, feeling defeated . . . very defeated. Still wanting to try but it's getting harder . . . the destruction of a good soul is very sad process. . .