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.
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
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.
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Siamese Dream just proves how much of a musical genius Billy Corgan is. Mayonaise is my favourite song of all time. This song hits me harder than a ton of bricks. When I saw it live, it was the happiest day of my life. Full of passion, sadness, and utter genius. I miss the Pumpkins with all my heart. But soon I will forever have The Smashing Pumpkins etched upon this canvas that I call my body, but they will forever be etched upon my musical soul.
That last sentence was very poetic.
This is my favorite SP song. It's talking about young love that never bloomed. There were stolen kisses and secret glances and loving gestures, and both made each other very happy for a time, but the love never bloomed, it ended with hard feelings, and this song is expressing regret, and wishing it could have changed. Beautiful.
Although Billy admitted in Story-Tellers that the lyrics to Mayonaise were just "bullshit lyrics" to him when he wrote them, I think he manages to somehow subconsciously channel a feeling with this song. The music seems very wistful to me and the lyrics definately compliment that. To me, this song is the sound of adolescence. It captures the uncertainty, boredom, innocence, and dreariness of growing up. It echoes a line in Muzzle, "And I knew the emptiness of youth". That to me is what this song is all about. It's a young Billy trying to break free.
My personal fav. I believe this is widely considered the best Pumpkins song. Why it never was made a single I will never know, but I thought it was at least 10x better than Rocket.
Billy Corgan is often brilliant with his lyrics of describing feelings of emotion...in his case it's often (failure, disappointment, disillusion etc.)
I think these lyrics are autobiographical. The first couple of lines refer to his reputation as a famous musician (cool). the minute you start thinking of yourself as cool -- then you're doomed. Cool enough (famous musician) to almost be it -- again, cool (successful, confident etc.)...but actually, Doomed.
The public thinks of him as successful and cool. He's rumored to the straight and narrow...(public image successful musician)... while the harlots of his perils scream... (in reality, his failed relationships, all his faults ...scream their reality.
actually i should have said..."cool enough to not quite see it, doomed"<br /> so many people patting him on the back as a successful musician that he didn't see his own failings, that his real personal life wasn't very successful....in fact he was doomed.
Absolutely gorgeous song... the height of Billy's song and lyric writing
funny you say that cos billy siad the they are bullshit lyrics <br /> he just made em up at random <br /> to ryme and make little sense<br /> same with 1979 to begin with he says
This song always hits me right here oh-so perfectly. It's probably one of my favorite SP songs off of one of my favorite albums ever, and it's also on my lil' imaginary dream acoustic set list, for whenever I master the art of playing guitar and singing at the same time and finally hit the local coffeehouse :)
This song is simply the best!!!!!!! It is my favorite song EVER!
Agreed!
First off, I'd like to say this is one of my favorite songs ever, and some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. It's a wall of guitar noise, but it's gorgeous. How does that work?
Anyway, I think it's about trying drug addiction myself. "Pick your pockets full of sorrow, and run away with me tomorrow" sounds to me like something a dealer would tell a new user (though I've never used drugs and have never had any contact with a dealer). "And I fail, but when I can, I will" says to me "I can't kick it now, but as soon as I work up the courage, I will". The "Mother weep for years I'm missing" verse starts off as remorse about addiction, but at the end of it the narrator realizes he or she can't get over their addiction. I do think the song ends on a happy note, though... the narrator realizes the drug is making him something he isn't, that he just wants to be himself and not be controlled by the drug, and plans to kick his habit. I don't know, just a few thoughts, because as we all know Corgan's lyrics are ambiguous. And always amazing, too. I also think the song structure represents drug use. The quiet introduction is shooting up, the loud bit is the drug screwing with your mind, and so forth.
I read somewhere online that it is about his grandmother, who was Polish or German or something, and in whatever language it was, mayonnaise is spelled as mayonaise. If you havent heard the acoustic version of this song, go to the new smashing pumpkins audio archive website(if it is up) and listen to it in the earphoria section. it is just beautiful. i love this song.