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.
Fell into
A sea of grass
And disappeared among
The shady blades...
Children all
Ran over me
Screaming tag!
You are the one!
He trips her as
Her sandals fail
She says stop!
I'm a girl...
Whose fingernails are made
Of mother's pearl...
Yellow buttercup
Helicopters
Orange buttercat
Chasing after
The crazy bee
Mad about somebody...
Me and my girlfriend
Don't wear no shoes
Her nose is painted pepper
Sunlight...
She loves me
I mean it's serious
As serious can be...
She sings a song and
I listen to what it says:
If you want a friend
Feed any animal...
There was so much space
I cut me a piece
With some fine wine
It brought peace to my mind
In the summertime...
And it rolled
Summer.... oh...
Oh.... the summertime rolls
A sea of grass
And disappeared among
The shady blades...
Children all
Ran over me
Screaming tag!
You are the one!
He trips her as
Her sandals fail
She says stop!
I'm a girl...
Whose fingernails are made
Of mother's pearl...
Yellow buttercup
Helicopters
Orange buttercat
Chasing after
The crazy bee
Mad about somebody...
Me and my girlfriend
Don't wear no shoes
Her nose is painted pepper
Sunlight...
She loves me
I mean it's serious
As serious can be...
She sings a song and
I listen to what it says:
If you want a friend
Feed any animal...
There was so much space
I cut me a piece
With some fine wine
It brought peace to my mind
In the summertime...
And it rolled
Summer.... oh...
Oh.... the summertime rolls
Lyrics submitted by iheartnitz
Summertime Rolls Lyrics as written by Perry Farrell Eric Adam Avery
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
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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.
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
her nose is painted pepper sunlight..to me that means she has freckles..i like that line, tho i could be wrong..
I must say, it's great representation of the effects of MDMA, from the lyrics to just the sound of it. Tsk, tsk, Jane's Addiction! :-)
I listened to Jane’s Addiction in college, where in 1989 I heard this song for the first time and it blew my mind. I put this album in my top 5 all time. This song is the most intense on that record, so sublime and amazing — it comes at you in escalating waves of melody and images and power…just unreal. <br /> As to the “song meaning” and the purpose of this website — to interpret the meaning: This is way out there but this is one interpretation some others have agreed with me on. I think the song does quick cuts or flashbacks between two parallels. One is clearly a young man in love w/ his girlfriend, who’s nose is “painted pepper sunlight” (best-ever way to say freckles). The other one is the young man having been drafted to serve in a War. Bear with me on this…and try to keep an open mind. If you cut out the lyrics that obviously relate to his girlfriend, there are a few mysteries raised w/ lyrics that remain. <br /> For example, the opening paragraph, we all assume “fell into a sea of grass and disappeared among the shady blades” is another reference to playing, summer, etc, but it may be about a guy sent to Vietnam — he “fell into it” he did not choose it. “Sea of Grass” with shady blades so high that you can disappear among them? Easily could be said to be referring to the thick jungle in Vietnam. <br /> “The Children all ran over me screaming tag — you are the one!” Not exactly about a one-on-one loving experience w/ his girl. This could be said to be the Vietnamese children who did not know what to make of the soldiers, playing with them, maybe literally “tag” but maybe figuratively — since neither the Vietnamese children nor the American soldiers wanted to be in that pickle, pushing blame to each other regarding who started it.<br /> Then the lyrics change to the soldier hearkening back to his girl and their love, tripping, sandals, etc, mother’s pearl.<br /> Then, it switches back to Vietnam with “Yellow buttercup” (Asian children — try not to think racist in thinking of “yellow” as an Asian reference) seeing an American "helicopter", it shooting at them, suddenly they are bleeding, red blood mixes with yellow, forming Orange (orange buttercat) and the “yellow butterCUP” is now an orange “butterCAT” (cats have claws and teeth to fight). The war is making the "yellow" Asian children orange and butter cups into angry cats, now the orange buttercats are “chasing after” the flying entity that caused their pain for no reason —what is first called the helicopter is now called simply “the crazy bee mad about somebody” — which the children don’t understand. “Oh no” is how that ends. <br /> You may think this is out there, but how can you fit these “non-girlfriend” passages into the song when they have such imagery? And ending w/ "oh no".<br /> After the pain and reality of what the war is doing, the lyrics settle in permanently on the comforting images of the soldier’s love with his beautiful girlfriend. It even possibly references a return not only back to the relationship w/ her, but how they are walking naked — which could be a reference to the Adam & Eve story in the garden before they knew they were naked. The song then in effect ends up drawing the distinction between innocence/love/euphoria/eternal-life and knowledge/pain/conflict/awareness/mortality.<br /> Sorry, I know that is way out there and if Perry Farrell saw this he would laugh me out of the room. Maybe it’s just a song about a guy in love w/ his girl in the summertime. I am not a Vietnam vet or religious guy, just like to over analyze things, feel free to call me crazy.<br />
about love in the summertime. and perhaps ecstasy. another great song about my friends and i...
The song was written and preformed perfectly. Just one of those get it right the first time songs. Maybe memories of a perfect moment in a relationship.
I really really love this song. It's just about being in love in the summer and how much better it is.
This song is so awesome, I think its so cool how he has included all the kind of mundane things going on around him, like kids playing tag and the helicopters but writes about them in a way that makes it obvious that they are not really important to his current state of mind.
I am now 33 years old. I started to listen to Jane's around 1991(13 years ago). They are by far in my top 5 favorite bands of all time. To this day this song almost HURTS in my chest because it's so incredible. No matter what I feel like, if I listen to this, I'm transported to another place........
i was young, i was madly in love, it was summer of 1988. this song always takes me back to that time. i just love simging along to this song!
The title of this song, and the lyrics, remind me distinctly of Ecstacy. The slang for X around here (North Carolina) is "Rolls"...and the best ones come in the Summer. The lyrics kind of represent a feeling you'd get from X...so this is either a weird coincidence, or my fucked up interpretation. And even though I'd never listen to Jane's Addiction while rolling (usually listen to DieselBoy)...great song for memories.
i have always thought about perry and some chick ,, tripping in the park, just have a nice summer time day