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.
Welcome to the pleasure dome ,now take a seat the crowd is watching you
Just rats in this experiment
Now learn the maze but don't tear yourself in two
Don't let it pull you down
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness, we seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
You can touch but never taste the answers
Like the way that I want you
Today I killed my ego,if hell is real
Dear god please tie my noose
And then he pulled me down
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness we seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness, we fly away
Don't set your mind to one side
Don't set your mind to one side
Just rats in this experiment
Now learn the maze but don't tear yourself in two
Don't let it pull you down
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness, we seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
You can touch but never taste the answers
Like the way that I want you
Today I killed my ego,if hell is real
Dear god please tie my noose
And then he pulled me down
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness we seek the perfect view
We reach another turn then fall out of time
In organized chaos
Evolution 169
And one by one we crawl,and two by two
Into the mouth of madness, we fly away
Don't set your mind to one side
Don't set your mind to one side
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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I don't think the last lines mean don't take a side, I think it means keep an open mind, don't become a fanatical follower of a certain view.
OK are you guys ready? So this song is about the Dopaminergic system in our brain, used to be called the "pleasure center" - hence the line "Welcome to the pleasure dome". I'm pretty sure he didn't know about it and yet he depicted reality as it is. It is the system used to motivate us to eat, have sex, and a bunch of other stuff(all addictions sprout from this sytem).
This system acts in a way that it controls our behavior, therefore making us run like "rats in this experiment", guided towards what will cause us pleasure. This system can easily get fucked up, and not to mention the fact that every single person being driven by his animal pleasure urges, is acting like an addict completely oblivious to how fanatic he gets about things, and going through life in an addict-like self deception and denial to the enviornment.
So the set your mind to one side, might mean one ideaology, because once you embrace it you can easily go into denial about it's logical plausability, or it might also mean a certain drug or certain behavior.
This system is there to rob us of free-will so that we survive(how much is eating really supposed to be a choice?). The only problem is that human kind has found infinite ways to short-circuit it. Hey even South Park made an episode on it (Freemium Isn't Free) If you want to learn more: dopamineproject.org
According to my delusioned mind, this lyrics is about this cruel experiment we usually call "life" and all the things we have been indoctrinated that we have to do during it's span.
But most of all, i think it's about how stupid it is.
"And one by one we crawl, and two by two Into the mouth of madness, we seek the perfect view "
What do you reckon the number 169 represents in the title?
I think the "169" refers to a college class number, like "Math 101", instead it's "Evolution 169". Maybe?
i think while he was writing he need it to rhyme so he just used 169 i guess lol.
K... it was buggin me so I did some quick research, and your all pretty much right, its about human evolution, and anthropoly... 169 actually was a course number or something, check this out if you want. anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/coop2.htm
This is such an amazing song. Exterus nailed it, except I'd add that the last line is pretty much saying believe in nothing, don't take a side.
About the 169 thing....I always thought it was supposed to be like a bible passage (like Evolution 16:9). There are a lot of biblical references here. "and two by two into the mouth of madness" is a reference to Jesus telling his disciples to preach the gospel two by two, for example. I think he's criticizing blind belief in general here. A lot of people blindly just believe evolution is true because they hear it from authority figures (scientists). He's telling us 'don't set your mind to one side' and admit that you don't really know.
Nah.... I think it's about stem-cell research. Evolution 169 represents this subject.