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.
Half mile from the riverside
Square wood building hard and white
I’ll take water, I’ll take night
I will swim through snow and ice
Laid your story down on me
forced inside the good belief
Now I only dream my words
fly away like blackened birds
Oh I feel these lessons burn inside the person I’ve become
Edges curl and darken as I do what has been done
Cheek on floorboard, hand in fire
little sister dressed in white
Last day she was seen alive
walking to the riverside
We will never get to hide from it
no matter how we run
All things come to find us
and we’ll do what has been done
Have your holy, I’ll have mine
soil and birch and open sky
All our stories some day go
dust from air and earth from bone
Oh I hear the ancients calling
that we’ll know from where we’ve come
there on that horizon we will see what has been done
Square wood building hard and white
I’ll take water, I’ll take night
I will swim through snow and ice
Laid your story down on me
forced inside the good belief
Now I only dream my words
fly away like blackened birds
Oh I feel these lessons burn inside the person I’ve become
Edges curl and darken as I do what has been done
Cheek on floorboard, hand in fire
little sister dressed in white
Last day she was seen alive
walking to the riverside
We will never get to hide from it
no matter how we run
All things come to find us
and we’ll do what has been done
Have your holy, I’ll have mine
soil and birch and open sky
All our stories some day go
dust from air and earth from bone
Oh I hear the ancients calling
that we’ll know from where we’ve come
there on that horizon we will see what has been done
Lyrics submitted by cheesestorm
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