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.
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our lips
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our hips
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our eyes
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our thighs
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
And I would have to pinch her
Just to see if she was real
Just to watch the smile fade away
And see the pain she'd feel
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel her joy
Feel it deep within
Wanted to feel her joy
Penetrate my skin
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our lips
Wanted to feel the joy
Flow between our hips
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our eyes
Wanted to feel the joy
Pass between our thighs
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
And I would have to pinch her
Just to see if she was real
Just to watch the smile fade away
And see the pain she'd feel
Happiest girl I ever knew
Happiest girl I ever knew
Wanted to feel her joy
Feel it deep within
Wanted to feel her joy
Penetrate my skin
Happiest girl I ever knew
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
Why do you smile the smile you do?
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Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
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Thursday
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.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
This song is about sex with some BDSM thrown in for good measure.
(Martin was into BDSM practices/theories, as shown by songs such as Master & Servant, Corrupt, Strangelove, etc.
I get the feeling that the girl is simply happy and young and the protagonist is older and jaded with life. He wants what she has. The happiness that eludes him. So the very thing that has drawn him to her, her innocent joy, has become suspect. So he begins to cause her pain to see if her happiness is real--Having lost all faith in anything so pure, he doubts her and suspects her happiness isn\'t real--but masking the pain that, in truth, he tries to hide or tries to take from others. He\'s projecting himself on to her. He hates himself and in the end, hates her.
To me, this song is about lost love. Think of that girl you'll see at the airport that's absolutely breathtaking, but ultimately you'll never see again. The song chronicles a man who is absolutely infatuated with someone, ("wanted to feel the joy pass between our eyes") to the point of wanting them carnally ("wanted to feel the joy pass between our thighs"). In the end however, the speaker knows that the girl is ultimately out of reach and so beautiful that he'll never be able to be with her ("and I would have to pinch her just to see if she was real"). A very beautiful, dark, and rather sad song.
This song makes me think of the people that smile even when they want to cry.. I always imagined the lyrics as a guy and a girl.. Soomething heinous happened to her, he doesn't know it.. He thinks she is wonderful, but does not know what her problem is.. She should be the happiest girl, but something happened along the way.
This song has struck me as being about putting on a facade--the "happy" is so thick that it seems to be entirely fake. Like the other reviewers, I agree that something heinous has happened to this woman, and the protagonist thinks he can see through the mask covering it up, but can't even get close enough to attempt to.
I love this song. It's kind of creepy, but I love it. It sounds like to me, an older man lusting after a younger girl, and she's very joyful all the time and he wants to know more about her..to see if she's really just faking it..and is actually very unhappy.