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.
Blind faith, heartache
Mind games, mistakes
My sweet fireball
My sweet rigmarole
I want it all
I want it all
Old dogs, new tricks
Can you feel it?
Space age country girl
Stone cold miracle
I want it all
I want it all
And then suddenly it hit me
It's a year ago
Since I drank miniature whiskey
And we shared your Coke
Said, ain't it just like you to kiss me
And then hit the road?
Leave me listening to the Stones
Two-thousand light years from home
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
I want it all
I want it all
I want it all
I want it all
Mind games, mistakes
My sweet fireball
My sweet rigmarole
I want it all
I want it all
Old dogs, new tricks
Can you feel it?
Space age country girl
Stone cold miracle
I want it all
I want it all
And then suddenly it hit me
It's a year ago
Since I drank miniature whiskey
And we shared your Coke
Said, ain't it just like you to kiss me
And then hit the road?
Leave me listening to the Stones
Two-thousand light years from home
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
Shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop, shoo-wop
I want it all
I want it all
I want it all
I want it all
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by angelika
I Want It All Lyrics as written by Alex Turner
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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this song all about desire, don't they?
I think it's about long distance relationship: they can only see each other once in a while and every time it feels like they start from scratch and it is not a reassuring feeling. So he's saying, I want it all different because I'm tired of thinking (in the brief moments that they got together) you will soon leave. And it's hard to be carefree if the time is very limited and probably one is happy even with very little, and the other wants more instead, and he's in a sense a bit annoyed that they don't both want more.
Maybe I'm making it too personal, but (I'm guessing) it's about an unstable relationship and someone you dig who always leaves you hanging.
Clearly the protagonist strongly desires this woman, though I'm not really sure what the precise nature of the relationship between them is meant to be.
It also seems to me like Alex is trying to get across the idea that what the protagonist is asking for and wanting too much, and that he can't possibly get all that he wants. This struck me when I heard the line "Space age country girl"; it sounds like he wants something that can't exist because it's internally contradictory. For example, it could be that he wants her to be both dangerous, unpredictable, and out of reach on the one hand, and stable, dependable, and firmly his on the other. (This reminds me of the fantastic "Do I Wanna Know?", which seems to me to partly be expressing a worry that he might miss the chase if he ever actually gets the girl; he wants to have her, but when he has her he might just wish he could go back to wanting her again.) Then it seems like this is also supported by "Old dogs / New tricks", since the expression is that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but he still seems to want both the old dog and the new tricks anyway. And then obviously the repeated "I want it all" suggests that he's after far more than he could ever really get. I don't know if Alex actually intended any of that, but that's what it seemed like to me.
Incidentally, the line "Ain't it just like you to kiss me and then hit the road" immediately reminded me of the line "It seems like once again you've had to greet me with goodbye" from "505". I don't know if there was any intended connection there or what it would signify, but I found it interesting anyway :)