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.
We put the clocks forward
We put the clocks back
The mirror is never fooled
It remains slow moving liquid cool
As we speed headlong into the berzah
Jinn stone of indians
Narkik and faded stars
The temperature is cold as clay
Ash on birthday cake a wine blushing bride
Stupefied our bad side's in decay
Stupefied our bad side's in decay
We put the clocks back
The mirror is never fooled
It remains slow moving liquid cool
As we speed headlong into the berzah
Jinn stone of indians
Narkik and faded stars
The temperature is cold as clay
Ash on birthday cake a wine blushing bride
Stupefied our bad side's in decay
Stupefied our bad side's in decay
Lyrics submitted by silentivo
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
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.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
I think the first paragraph is more smiple to define and the second one appears to have a mystical place.
First paragraph: I don't know. I don't have a good education in understanding liturature but i think its about the idea where people are acountable to the conscious.
Seond Paragraph: Its more mystical then the other songs on the album maybe even more then A Dog Is A Vapour. Anyway hope the meaning gets defined.
Okay I look'd up supefied it means "extremley surprised"
"Supefied our bad side's in decay."
As in coming to witness the shock of their negative ways disminashing.
Anyway still can't figure out the whole picture.
The song is nonsense. They just randomly strung words together to sound deep - but obviously, whoever this artist is, they know they're audience is just barely above illiterate. (See comments above.) If you don't know what stupefied means, anything will sound deep and profound.
The song seems like nonsense, but only to people who aren't good at using google. The words that are "nonsense words" are actually in Turkish. So, berzah is a long narrow strip of land, which makes sense to speed toward. Anyway, the song is basically about how we use culture to try to mask that we're animals, in my opinion. For example, day light savings makes no sense, but it doesn't fool the mirror (our mortality) because we're just animals who are going to die eventually. The second verse is about basically the same thing. "Stupefied that our bad side's in decay" is acknowledging that, while it may be a bummer that we're mortal, at least our bad side dies, too. This is only my opinion, but the previous comment pissed me off and I love this song, so I had to say something.