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.
Ah
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no way he'll be here tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton or waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Now the daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no warrant to name us
The ones love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Daughters and the sons
Young, of young, young, young, young
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no way he'll be here tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton or waitin' to be forgotten
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Now the daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no warrant to name us
The ones love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Wait on the sons of no one, bastards of young
Daughters and the sons
Young, of young, young, young, young
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours, take it, it's yours
Take it, it's yours
Lyrics submitted by punkynoisething, edited by lhooq27, oski2005, Xeinix, paul839025
Bastards Of Young Lyrics as written by Paul Westerberg
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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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.
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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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.
At first I thought this was about orphaned children, but on further consideration, it seems more a post-punk anthem about orphans of a generation. "It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten" really parallels to the Replacements attitude of almost boasting about being semi-dropouts and fuck-ups. The sing-a-long beer-in-hand chorus really reenforces that impression that it's okay to be a generation without a future or purpose. Written before the term "Generation X" caught on, I always thought the line was "ya got no wars to name us", as there were no wars from Vietnam to Desert Storm.
"Young...take it, it's yours..." is a sort of punk reiterance, updated for 1985, "it" being the future, whereas, in 1977, the cry was "no future". Or maybe Westerberg was saying "we're not using it, you can have it".
Under pressure from their label, they reluctantly made a video for Bastards of Young - an unedited shot of a speaker playing the song. Perfect negation for the new video age they so despised.
This song is also one of the many examples of Westerberg's songwriting techniques of making sure the intro and outros of his songs were jarring or at least interesting from the rest of the song, in order for the listener to take notice. I'm constantly amazed how this is done time and again without sounding tacked on in the slightest.
I have always thought the line was "Got no war to name us"
It seems like generations are often defined, or at least strongly associated, by the wars they have fought, which is a pretty interesting concept if you ask me.
And yes, I do agree with the previous posts. This song seems to be about generational displacement and/or generational existentialism (what am I doing here? sort of thing). Being a college student myself, the lyrics are more than just a little ominous, especially the first stanza.
I always thought it was "got no war to maim us" for the longest time (what can I say, I am a veteran). a song meant for shouting along with until hoarseness sets in.
trivia: he slips in a "sons of norway" for a "sons of no one" one time sons-of-norway is kinda-sorta big in mpls. it's a group along the lines of shriners and elks and what-not that were so popular to the generation of the 50's. in the 80's they degenerated to the point that they mainly sold insurance (and like the shriners and the elks gained no new members while watching all of their current members die off). The had a huge building in the twin cities and they allowed local bands to rent their space on friday and saturday nights for concerts. i'm sure the mats played at least once at the sons of norway during '81.
The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest And visit their graves on holidays at best The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
^^^^^^^^^
That line used to annoy the SHIT outve some girl I used to be friends with. Love this song.
"Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function"
...having custody of a child allows the guardian to claim a deduction on their income taxes. Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but that line never made any sense to me until a friend explained it.
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
i almost can't fucking believe two lines can sum up the past few years of my life. i need a "bastards of young" support group.
Amazing song, I was just a kid when this came out but when ever I hear people talk about or play the greatest songs of the 80's it's amazing to me that this song never comes up.If it's not the greatest,it definitely is one of the greatest songs to come out of the 80's.The beginning of this song just kills every time,the guitar and then Paul screaming,just fucking awesome.
Possibly one of the greatest bands to ever be. This song rocks along with the rest of the album (Tim).
I was real big into this band in high school, they are truely great. Yet, when I went off to school their cds just sort-of got mixed up in my collection and forgotten about. I heard this song out at the bar the other night - God, how good it is.