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.
Tonight's the night when the waters rise
You're groping in the dark
The ticket takers count the men who can afford the arc
The ticket takers will not board
For the ticket takers are tied
For five and change an hour
They will count the passers by
They say the sky's the limit
But the sky's about to fall
Down come all them record books cradle and all
They say before he bit it
That the boxer felt no pain
But somewhere there's a gamblin' man
With a ticket in the rain
Mary Anne, I know I'm a long shot
But Mary Anne, what else have you got
I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm
Many years have passed in this river town
I've sailed through many traps
I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
I keep a stock of amo
One of oil and one of gold
I keep a place for Mary Anne
Soon she will come home
You're groping in the dark
The ticket takers count the men who can afford the arc
The ticket takers will not board
For the ticket takers are tied
For five and change an hour
They will count the passers by
They say the sky's the limit
But the sky's about to fall
Down come all them record books cradle and all
They say before he bit it
That the boxer felt no pain
But somewhere there's a gamblin' man
With a ticket in the rain
Mary Anne, I know I'm a long shot
But Mary Anne, what else have you got
I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm
Many years have passed in this river town
I've sailed through many traps
I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
I keep a stock of amo
One of oil and one of gold
I keep a place for Mary Anne
Soon she will come home
Lyrics submitted by WinterLungs, edited by hemamorphy, jstanley
Ticket Taker Lyrics as written by Jeffrey Carl Prystowsky Benjamin Knox Miller
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm so surprised no one's commented on this song. It's gorgeous. Such a sweet love song tinged around the edges with the prescience of apocalypse. Perhaps the ticket-taker is not the best choice for a society that feeds on itself, values the men who "can afford the arc," but he is certainly the best choice for when he is the only arc, above the chaos with his solid valuables. There is also something pitiable in the narrator's hanging around an "old river town" stockpiling weapons, presumably waiting for both a woman and the collapse.
Another reading could be that the monotony of ticket-taking has wound up his psyche and made him into what Sherwood Anderson might call a grotesque-- someone fixated on only one aspect of their existence so as to ignore all other aspects and thereby turn in on themselves, exemplifying some spiritual malaise. I see this most prominent in that "Marianne" most likely snubbed him for a richer gentleman, and as a perfectly reasonable reaction, the ticket-taker has to make up for his lack of wealth in some other way. When she comes back to him after the sky caves in, he won't rub it in her face TOO much.
TL;DR It's one of the prettiest, most lyrically interesting songs I've heard in a long while.