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.
This is my renaissance
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you
This is my second chance
This is my one romance
This is the cutting line
On which I stand to show you
It happened fast in a flash, just this evening
As I hit the gas, horn blast, brakes were screaming
As the car crashed, broken glass, broke my dreaming
I hit the dash, so fast my ears are ringing
My sister’s on the right side just slightly leaning
I grabbed her hand hard until she started breathing
My brother’s in the back, jaw cracked from the beating
The breath in my chest has slipped and I’m sinking
Blinking through diamond spider webs of cracked glass
I’m trying to remember all the words you said in the past
Through the ash, siren screams and red beams
I hear you sing softly to me
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
This is my broken heart
This is my bleeding start
This is the way I’ve come to know you
This is my winding road
This is my way back home
This is the narrow door you know that I will walk through
I got a letter today of why she went away
She said, “It’s better this way, you knew I never could stay.”
Half empty closets and frames, all that’s left to my name
As she left in the rain and left my heart on a chain
Three years I’ve built this two-face tower for hours on a lease
You gave me one yellow flower that said rest in peace
In pieces I’ve broken open to think too much or just enough
Alone to trust midst the rubble and the dust
Humbled, it took this much to break down and understand
Spent my life this far on castles made of sand
Tossed in the breakers in the palm of your hand
Now I can finally stand
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the one
I heard it in the song
And I can be the one
I heard it in the song
This is my renaissance
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you
This is my second chance
This is my one romance
This is the cutting line
On which I stand to show you
It happened fast in a flash, just this evening
As I hit the gas, horn blast, brakes were screaming
As the car crashed, broken glass, broke my dreaming
I hit the dash, so fast my ears are ringing
My sister’s on the right side just slightly leaning
I grabbed her hand hard until she started breathing
My brother’s in the back, jaw cracked from the beating
The breath in my chest has slipped and I’m sinking
Blinking through diamond spider webs of cracked glass
I’m trying to remember all the words you said in the past
Through the ash, siren screams and red beams
I hear you sing softly to me
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
This is my broken heart
This is my bleeding start
This is the way I’ve come to know you
This is my winding road
This is my way back home
This is the narrow door you know that I will walk through
I got a letter today of why she went away
She said, “It’s better this way, you knew I never could stay.”
Half empty closets and frames, all that’s left to my name
As she left in the rain and left my heart on a chain
Three years I’ve built this two-face tower for hours on a lease
You gave me one yellow flower that said rest in peace
In pieces I’ve broken open to think too much or just enough
Alone to trust midst the rubble and the dust
Humbled, it took this much to break down and understand
Spent my life this far on castles made of sand
Tossed in the breakers in the palm of your hand
Now I can finally stand
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the wall when you fall down
Find me on the rocks when you break down
I heard it in the song when you call out
But I got to say now it’s got to change
I can be the one
I heard it in the song
And I can be the one
I heard it in the song
This is my renaissance
This is my one response
This is the way I say I love you
Lyrics submitted by MCWillinger
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I think the song is about the attachments of this world. The first stanza addresses the attachment of family. Kearney brings ruthless clarity to the possibility of losing one's family in one cataclismic moment. The middle stanza addresses the attachment of a significant other. The picture is one of a man's half-empty home harmoniously reflecting his half-empty heart. It is during these painful junctures of absence, or potential absence, that one begins to introspect and realize lifes fleeting disposition. Kearney appears to be expanding upon that moment of loss and the response that follows: renaissance. He is saying that when everything falls apart the only thing you can attach yourself to is God (and furthermore because of his "castle made of sand" allusion one would have to assume Jesus as the ethereal being being spoken of here). The message he seems to be giving is that, although everything else can dissapear, leaving you utterly alone, Jesus will never do that. The chorus that follows expounds on this as Kearney speaks as he believes God would: "I can be the wall when you fall down... etc." Kearney is purporting that God is the only solid thing a person can trust, and that it often will take a heart-wrenching removal before that person comes to that realization to the fullest measure, finally suspending themselves within the loving, ever-present being of God.