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.
["Network" quote
I don't have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It's a depression.
Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job.
The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy.
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything.
Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad!
]
We all lie
To ourselves
It never changes a thing
We all lie to ourselves
Never changing
Never changing
A thing
Red wine and worry
The demons are watching us/washing lips
I feel sober ???
Goddamn me and everything
The trials of hate and heartache
Are the martyr of my best days
I will destroy it all
I don't have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It's a depression.
Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job.
The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy.
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything.
Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad!
]
We all lie
To ourselves
It never changes a thing
We all lie to ourselves
Never changing
Never changing
A thing
Red wine and worry
The demons are watching us/washing lips
I feel sober ???
Goddamn me and everything
The trials of hate and heartache
Are the martyr of my best days
I will destroy it all
Lyrics submitted by xdvr
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