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.
With the Parthenon collapsed under Venetian bombardment
And my 7.5" Creature confiscated by the policeman's department
My Cosmo was at peace
As the garment of the goddessa Kali Ma dropped to the floor
But then the man from the draft board knocked on the door
And just like that your Lord had me off to the war
With seven crude chops of the sword to his neck
He was down on the deck and out for the count
I felt like Zeus as he exhaled a cloud
And saw it take flight across the pale, blue light of the moon
Chit-chattin' with the devil from the comfort of my living room
The talk left my tattered head kinda like thread through a loom
However if I must be a little more subtle
I'll tell you about the time as I was walking through the rubble of a city
That was burned and buried by German mercenaries
And turned to cemetery on the third of February
I was coolin' in my swamp front hovel as I felt the sky dawn the wrath of Thor
And fire was born in a passing storm
And it tore through the Earth like a horn through a matador
And it was...in San Salvador
So they said to flea east, instead I fled west
They caught me at rest in the shade of a friendly, old oak tree
I felt the blade of my much hated enemy stroke me so gently
I turned like the seasons, laughed with the rage of ten rabid hyenas
As they shackled me up
And chucked me like a ruck into the back of the truck
Now I gotta maintain, I'm three times a brother
And the one time son of a mother
To make sense out of senselessness
I gotta put it into terms that I can't understand
So my natural can grasp it
I spent the last several months in a cabinet
Hangin' from the wall like a set of wrenches
As a Tet offensive burned through the regiments of men
And then cemented the once green world I really thought I had
I'm talking mad
As I focus beyond to the void through the knothole
And noticed a long, black cloud rain down
A colossal amount of lethal Vegemite all over the rooftops
Then a rube dropped a lit camel light from his getaway plane
Flames annihilated the terrain
I was safe in the confines of brick
As the bonfire stripped the flesh of many men
And left a thick, rancid ash upstate New York style pile of snow
For six miles or so
Like a raven in the radio mast I saw the show unfold below
Now I'm meditating in a cloud of mosquitoes
Six breaths a minute 'til I found my aikido
In a gloomy Zen temple
Waiting for the General
Armed with a sharpened lead pencil
And my 7.5" Creature confiscated by the policeman's department
My Cosmo was at peace
As the garment of the goddessa Kali Ma dropped to the floor
But then the man from the draft board knocked on the door
And just like that your Lord had me off to the war
With seven crude chops of the sword to his neck
He was down on the deck and out for the count
I felt like Zeus as he exhaled a cloud
And saw it take flight across the pale, blue light of the moon
Chit-chattin' with the devil from the comfort of my living room
The talk left my tattered head kinda like thread through a loom
However if I must be a little more subtle
I'll tell you about the time as I was walking through the rubble of a city
That was burned and buried by German mercenaries
And turned to cemetery on the third of February
I was coolin' in my swamp front hovel as I felt the sky dawn the wrath of Thor
And fire was born in a passing storm
And it tore through the Earth like a horn through a matador
And it was...in San Salvador
So they said to flea east, instead I fled west
They caught me at rest in the shade of a friendly, old oak tree
I felt the blade of my much hated enemy stroke me so gently
I turned like the seasons, laughed with the rage of ten rabid hyenas
As they shackled me up
And chucked me like a ruck into the back of the truck
Now I gotta maintain, I'm three times a brother
And the one time son of a mother
To make sense out of senselessness
I gotta put it into terms that I can't understand
So my natural can grasp it
I spent the last several months in a cabinet
Hangin' from the wall like a set of wrenches
As a Tet offensive burned through the regiments of men
And then cemented the once green world I really thought I had
I'm talking mad
As I focus beyond to the void through the knothole
And noticed a long, black cloud rain down
A colossal amount of lethal Vegemite all over the rooftops
Then a rube dropped a lit camel light from his getaway plane
Flames annihilated the terrain
I was safe in the confines of brick
As the bonfire stripped the flesh of many men
And left a thick, rancid ash upstate New York style pile of snow
For six miles or so
Like a raven in the radio mast I saw the show unfold below
Now I'm meditating in a cloud of mosquitoes
Six breaths a minute 'til I found my aikido
In a gloomy Zen temple
Waiting for the General
Armed with a sharpened lead pencil
Lyrics submitted by annehella
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