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.
Bright the shine in my horn exiled and forlorn, a damp night in Berlin - yes
Soaked in alcohol I walk up to a doll and say "how you look good"
Rejections follow me around like a dagger in my back, I tell you man it hurts
I've come here to express myself 'cause I'm tired of these chains
I am tired of the strains, walking 'cross the plains, take me in your arms
Fire red, the stage I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
To make them dance as fairies, oh, to make them sing along
So close to fever pitch and oh so close to happiness
I'm tempted by their flesh oh I am tempted by their stare, I don't think you dare
'cause I am such a communist and I'm breaking down inside
though the world is open wide drowning in it's tide take me in your arms
Fire red, the ground I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
Fire red, the ground I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
Soaked in alcohol I walk up to a doll and say "how you look good"
Rejections follow me around like a dagger in my back, I tell you man it hurts
I've come here to express myself 'cause I'm tired of these chains
I am tired of the strains, walking 'cross the plains, take me in your arms
Fire red, the stage I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
To make them dance as fairies, oh, to make them sing along
So close to fever pitch and oh so close to happiness
I'm tempted by their flesh oh I am tempted by their stare, I don't think you dare
'cause I am such a communist and I'm breaking down inside
though the world is open wide drowning in it's tide take me in your arms
Fire red, the ground I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
Fire red, the ground I tread
Elevate me, celebrate me
Extroverted but full of fear
The Soviet trumpeter
Lyrics submitted by cheesestorm
Soviet Trumpeter Lyrics as written by Kare Vestrheim Anne Bergheim
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Light Up The Sky
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"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.
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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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.
No Surprises
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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.
Post WWI and Russian Revolution, large numbers of countrymen left what became USSR. This song represents one musician of that group, who is in the video apparently living homeless in a Central European city, very possibly Germany. He is rejected by the local prostitutes, perhaps after asking them for some company in return for a song. His life is recounted in memory, aiding the cause, but in a bittersweet way.
The audience is pigs and dogs in official USSR uniform. How did he arrive in exile? Something happened. The paths were many, for example some forts and ships around Leningrad (then Petrograd). They were attacked by Soviet forces after they protested circa 1921. All died soon afterwards in labor camps, except many who made their way over the ice into Finland, nearby, in exile.
Those very same sailors and soldiers units were responsible for the 1918 revolution in Petrograd.
Anyway, he waters down his memories in alcohol. Some how a spirit comforts him. He is unrepentant as a communist and only if things had been different in leadership. Older, maybe in the early 1930's before Hitler, he is feeling aged. After waking up at the doorstep, he feels refreshed. The spirit protected him.
That is what I see.
Post WWI and Russian Revolution, large numbers of countrymen left what became USSR. This song represents one musician of that group, who is in the video apparently living homeless in a Central European city, very possibly Germany. He is rejected by the local prostitutes, perhaps after asking them for some company in return for a song. His life is recounted in memory, aiding the cause, but in a bittersweet way.
The audience is pigs and dogs in official USSR uniform. How did he arrive in exile? Something happened. The paths were many, for example some forts and ships around Leningrad (then Petrograd). They were attacked by Soviet forces after they protested circa 1921. All died soon afterwards in labor camps, except many who made their way over the ice into Finland, nearby, in exile.
Those very same sailors and soldiers units were responsible for the 1918 revolution in Petrograd.
Anyway, he waters down his memories in alcohol. Some how a spirit comforts him. He is unrepentant as a communist and only if things had been different in leadership. Older, maybe in the early 1930's before Hitler, he is feeling aged. After waking up at the doorstep, he feels refreshed. The spirit protected him.
That is what I see.
@ChutneySemloh The song is the story of German jazz trumpeter Eddie Rosner, who fled Nazi Germany to Poland. He subsequently left Poland for the USSR after the Nazi-Soviet partition.<br /> <br /> He had success there until after the war, when Jews and foreigners in general were censored under Stalin. He wasn't allowed to return to his native Germany until he was near death in the early 70s.