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.
I used to live in New York City
Everything there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said twelve thirty
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can't keep myself from talking
At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say good morning and really mean it
To feel these changes happening in me
But not to notice till I feel it
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can't keep myself from talking
Cloudy waters cast no reflection
Images of beauty lie there stagnant
Vibrations bounce in no direction
And lie there shattered into fragments
Young girls are coming to the canyon
(Young girls are in the canyon)
And in the mornings I can see them walking
(In the mornings I can see them walking)
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
(Can no longer keep my blinds drawn)
And I can't keep myself from talking
Everything there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said twelve thirty
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can't keep myself from talking
At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say good morning and really mean it
To feel these changes happening in me
But not to notice till I feel it
Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the mornings I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can't keep myself from talking
Cloudy waters cast no reflection
Images of beauty lie there stagnant
Vibrations bounce in no direction
And lie there shattered into fragments
Young girls are coming to the canyon
(Young girls are in the canyon)
And in the mornings I can see them walking
(In the mornings I can see them walking)
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
(Can no longer keep my blinds drawn)
And I can't keep myself from talking
Lyrics submitted by magicnudiesuit
Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) Lyrics as written by John Edmund Andrew Phillips
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"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.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Beautiful song. Has a melancholy, bittersweet feel to it. Interesting vocal arrangement too. It sounds to me like the girls and guys switch up on lead and harmony at various points throughout the song, and not at neat, tidy points. It’s not like they switch verses or one does the verses while the other does the chorus. It’s scattered among phrases.
I wish I knew the meanings of all the lyrics. Knowing how many drugs John Phillips did, the song may not really be about anything more than his stream of consciousness. The part about cloudy waters and vibrations bouncing and shattering, I can’t figure out. Maybe I’m over thinking it.
I believe I read in one of the biographies of the group/members that it’s like two songs combined, with the verses being one song about one thing and the chorus being another song about something else. The title seems to follow that idea.
I do know that all four of them were living in New York City at some point and that John did live near a building that had a broken clock on a steeple. There are stereotypical comments on NYC and LA in the song, with NYC being “dark and dirty” and LA being a very happy place to be. Of course, the group struggled in NYC and found great success in LA. Had that been switched, the song may have been different, if it existed at all.
I also read that during one of John and Michelle’s many breaks from their marriage, John moved in with Denny in Denny’s house in Laurel Canyon (I think that’s the one.). Being big deals at the time and effectively single, they had a steady steam of groupies in and out of the house. That’s where the “young girls coming to the canyon” came from. John wrote very personal songs, pretty much airing his dirty laundry in many of them. Wouldn’t surprise me if he wrote this to part of the song to rub it in Michelle’s face that he wasn’t sitting around pining over her during the break but enjoying all that was offered him.
@smellykellyjay <br /> Trinity Church at the top of Wall Street had a clock that I used to see in the 1960s with its hands stuck at 12:30. The young girls coming into the Canyon then were the girls and women walking into work on wall street in the morning. Trinity was very blackened with soot like so much else at that time in Manhattan. This song pairs beautifully, historically with the group's move from NYC to L.A.