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.
I am the only one
Searching for you
And if I get caught
Then the search is through
And the stories you hear, you know they never add up
I hear the natives fussing at the data chart
Be quiet, the weather's on the night news
Empty homes
Plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's wasted
So much style that it's wasted
So much style that it's wasted
Now, she's the only one
Who always inhales
Paris is stale
And it's war if we fail
And in the migrant hotels, they never sleep, they never will
Their souls are crumbling like a dirt clod, hold
Your cigarette cuts to the inside
Empty homes
Plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's leaving
It's pattern's torn and we're weaving
This battle's torn and we're weaving
Searching for you
And if I get caught
Then the search is through
And the stories you hear, you know they never add up
I hear the natives fussing at the data chart
Be quiet, the weather's on the night news
Empty homes
Plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's wasted
So much style that it's wasted
So much style that it's wasted
Now, she's the only one
Who always inhales
Paris is stale
And it's war if we fail
And in the migrant hotels, they never sleep, they never will
Their souls are crumbling like a dirt clod, hold
Your cigarette cuts to the inside
Empty homes
Plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's leaving
It's pattern's torn and we're weaving
This battle's torn and we're weaving
Lyrics submitted by summerbabe, edited by TinyDancer1
Frontwards Lyrics as written by Stephen Malkmus Scott Kannberg
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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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So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
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Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
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Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
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"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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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,
"It's about moving forward. Obviously." ;)
One of the great Pavement openers along with 'Grounded'.
Ripping on the middle class coming from someone who's from a fairly affluent family. come across as sarcastic I think,.
Their souls are crumblin' Like a dirt clod. Hold Your cigarette cupped to the inside.
This song is about trying to act cool to get girls to be interested in you. This approach to picking up girls has no mixed results. It always fails.
"Stolen rooms, or the alloy of chrome "... actual lyric is "stolen rims are they alloy or chrome".
Probably my favorite Pavement song... Like many of their early songs though, it's pretty hard to say what it is actually about. To me it appears to be a song about unrequited love...
i love how they can say this shit and not sound pretentious -'Well I've got style/ miles and miles/ so much style that it's wasting' is probably one of my favorite lyrics ever.
"Well I've got style- miles and miles, so much style that it's wasted."
yeah, my favorite thing ever. i don't know why this never made it onto one of the albums.
It made it onto the wonderful Watery Domestic EP, which is awesome on it own. Last EP with Gary 2 Sniff...
Anyways this song is about moving on, progressing past mistakes and negative emotions, and bad circumstances around you.
Start with the chorus: Empty homes, plastic combs, stolen rims are they alloy or chrome?
This is a snapshot of daily life, and one thats not very attractive. Using cheap plastic combs, empty abandoned houses, someone's rims got stolen.. were they alloy or chrome?
"Be quiet the weather's on the night news" Parents yelling at kids while they watch monotonous weather reports. Who hasn't experienced these things?
The rest of the lyrics echo this sentiment: migrant workers who slave away at cheap labor, souls are crumbling, in the way a dirt clod crumbles in a firm grasp, I like that simile btw ^_^. And the famous "I've got style" lines. SM says them as if its a burden, trying to have style, miles and miles... i take it almost as if he is tired of trying to have style; of trying to establish himself, and so the skills he does have are wasted.
The fabric (his life) is torn ( hard times) but theres the hope of weaving something beautiful regardless, we are all still weaving it out.
In the live version at Brixton Academy Sm says before they play: "Frontwords in the name of this song, it's about moving forward.... obviously" The live version is quite good as well.
I take SM's lyric about style in relation to the rest of the song as having multiple meanings- on one side he is kind of giving an f-u to rat-race middle america and some of its banal everyday bleakness- and on the other, through a hint of sarcasm, giving an f-u to anyone that actually believes a line like that about themselves. By the contrast of these meanings to the lyric's statement he spaces himself from either camp.
I much prefer the live version that's at the end of the second disc of the Slanted and Enchanted deluxe edition release, as opposed to the studio version. But great song either way. I also love the Los Campesinos! cover.