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.
He's pleased to meet you underneath the horse
In the cathedral with the glass stained black
Singing sweet, high notes that echo back
To destroy their master
May be a long time 'til you get the call-up
But it's sure as fate and hard as your luck
No one'll know where you are
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
Standing in place
When the socket's not a shock enough
You little child, what makes you think you're tough?
When all the people you think you're above
They all know what's the matter
You're such a pinball, yeah, you know it's true
There's always something you go back running to
To follow the path of no resistance
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
Standing in place
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
All over the place
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
In the cathedral with the glass stained black
Singing sweet, high notes that echo back
To destroy their master
May be a long time 'til you get the call-up
But it's sure as fate and hard as your luck
No one'll know where you are
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
Standing in place
When the socket's not a shock enough
You little child, what makes you think you're tough?
When all the people you think you're above
They all know what's the matter
You're such a pinball, yeah, you know it's true
There's always something you go back running to
To follow the path of no resistance
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
Standing in place
It's just a brief smile
Crossing your face
I'm running speed trials
All over the place
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus
Speed Trials Lyrics as written by Steven Paul Smith
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
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
This song is about a person's inability to confront herself and really look at the scary, introspective things that need to be looked at and resolved. The song is about the frantic dellusion that self-security and happiness and completeness can be produced through changing around physical stances. The song is about the complicated drama produced by that frantic ignorance: the ignorance of not understanding that there is only and always RIGHT HERE AND NOW regardless of the story you tell yourself about how things got to where they are.
The song is about the freightened, desperate race of distracting oneself from his lonliness by running back to familiar grounds and never committing. The song is about running away instead of dealing with what needs to be dealt with.
He's pleased to meet you underneath the Horse; Horse=Heroin<br /> May be a long time until you get the call-up<br /> But it's sure as fate and hard as your luck;<br /> It's that anticipation and frustration when your waiting for your dealer to call you back<br /> No one'll know where you are<br /> It's just a brief smile crossing your face;<br /> It's when your sitting on the train, bus, walking to your connect, or whatever and that flicker of a smile crosses your face because you know in a moments time you'll be so fucking happy<br /> Running speed trials still standing in place;<br /> this part seems like a redundancy cause how can you run speed trials while standing in place, but he means you're running speed trials trying to see how fast you can cook it up, find a vein, and get it in.<br /> When the socket's not a shock enough<br /> You little child, what makes you think you're tough?;<br /> to me this part seems like self-deprecation but i could be wrong. <br /> When all the people you think you're above<br /> They all know what's the matter;<br /> it's feeling like you're above other people, non-junkies, people who's happiness depends on material objects, commodities, but then they all know what's wrong with you, they can see your pale skin, your tracks, your runny nose, your sweat, they know that you're a junkie and even if you feel like you're better than them; they feel like they're better than you.<br /> You're such a pinball, yeah, you know it's true<br /> There's always something you come back running to<br /> To follow the path of no resistance;<br /> he's bashing himself, saying that there's always sometyhing that he comes running back to (heroin) , instead of taking the harder route and growing and changing <br /> It's just a brief smile crossing your face<br /> Running speed trials standing in place<br /> It's just a brief smile crossing your face<br /> Running speed trials all over the place;<br /> To the people around you: it's just a brief smile crossing your face,<br /> running speed trials all over the place is shooting up in bathroom on the subway, in bathroom in a restaurant, in the park, in a taxi, you get the picture.
"running speed trials still standing in place" to me this line isn't about doing drugs. even though everyone who is an avid elliott smith fan, as i am, knows elliott had his fair share of dabbling with drugs. but come on... he is really intelligent and a more in depth character than just another junkie. but i believe this line refers to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, in which the Red Queen tells Alice, "[I]t takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." This never-ending evolutionary cycle describes many natural interactions between hosts and disease, or between predators and prey: As species that live at each other's expense coevolve, they are engaged in a constant evolutionary struggle for a survival advantage. They need "all the running they can do" because the landscape around them is constantly changing.
Its possible that Elliott made reference to the catherdral with stained black glass that was across the street from his house in Portland...I love the courus "Its just a brief, smile, crossing your face. Running speed trials standing in place." I can remember getting high, getting a fix and just giving a sigh of relief, like a brief smile as its said in the song...fortunatelly I've done my best to put those dark days behind me but it always amazes me how it seems like all his songs are chapters of my life..
"You little child what makes you think you're tough"
this song is obviously about drug use.
To me the song seems to be about himself. I kinda perked once I realized that he said THEY all know whats the matter instaid of we. I mean I know he could be talking about people the person he could be talking about knows but it seems like the harsh critisicm that someone reserves for themself.
It could be about drugs or it could be about the things a person does to get outside themselves for a while. Something destructive. I dunno.
First of all, I think it is only fair to acknowledge that many of his songs, particularly in Either/Or, were about drug use, and this one is no exception. (“It’s just a brief smile crossing your face” seems to refer to the brief thrill of a high.)
However, he was obviously very intelligent, and his lyrics addressed broader themes than just drugs, or can at very least be interpreted as such. Regardless of Elliott Smith’s intentions with the song, I find that this speaks quite poignantly to my own anxieties and fear of judgement. The very tempo of this song feels like a racing heart, implying panic; I see ‘speed trials’ as a way of describing the snap judgements people are constantly making about you, and how nerve-racking an awareness of that can be. Likewise, there are a couple of sections that feel like the self deprecation that can occur when one holds themself under the same critical eye they believe other people see them through. (“You little child...,” “You’re such a pinball...”) That’s just my take on it, though—it’s very possible that I’m just projecting my own internal insecurities onto this song.
beautiful. simply said.
i think songs are percepted by people mainly by their own (past) experiences. being a former crystal meth addict, the lines:
it's just a brief smile crossing your face running speed trials all over the place
mean that doing drugs just make you feel better briefly, then you're back to all of your problems...
im usually all over elliott songs trying to get the meaning. with this one i just like to listen