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.
Love I get so lost, sometimes
Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
When I want to run away
I drive off in my car
But whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are
All my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
The heat I see in your eyes
Love, I don't like to see so much pain
So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
And all my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
The heat I see in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
When I want to run away
I drive off in my car
But whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are
All my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
The heat I see in your eyes
Love, I don't like to see so much pain
So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
And all my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside
In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
The heat I see in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
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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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
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:
"I had all and then most of you"
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
"Some and now none of you"
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.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Cajun Girl
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
This song is about someone whom is confessing thier love for someone else. They want to run and hide, but no matter what, fate keeps pulling them back to where they are now. A very beautiful love song indeed. The set of lyrics that go "And all my instincts, they return..." and so on, he's realizing that his facade of denial is fading and that there's no turning back, which means that he has to say what he feels...and by looking in the person's eyes, they feel as if, they're whole again. This is definitely a nice song to identify with.
I can see how people will get the song confused with god and the love for a woman. But in fact you are all correct. Peter Gabriel loves to reference god and he is a strong advocate in Humanitarianism. In most of his concert, he has a african singing the course "Your Eyes". He is speaking about pure love for humans. I thinking he wanted to wield two to give a double meaning since they both represent the samething. When you look in to someones eyes, you can sometimes see yourself. He looks into that persons eyes and sees a resolution to the worlds problem. The lack of love for someone just being a human. Not even a thousand churches to open this door. He relates it to churches because Jesus Christ is the Messiah of Humanism and since his death, the establishment has exploited his teachings to impossible matters. I almost cried when I heard this song in concert. Cause it was the setting his was at, the advocation he was making that it was clear he wishes for world peace.
@TasChiBandGirl
every time now i hear this song, i cry...my mother recently died and this song has a new meaning to me. My mother actually liked Sledgehammer & this brought me back to my Peter Gabriel CD.
This song is an incredible explanation of how when people are in love, there's no way of escaping it, it's just daily bread to feel so desperately in love and needy to be with someone.
To me, this is about loving someone so deeply that it becomes spiritual. When you're that connected, that person can always pull you back from the brink of insanity ("All my instincts, they return") and the craziness of the fronts we have to put on ("And the grand facade so soon will burn"). To love someone that way is metaphysical--I think that's what the lyrics about the doors of a thousand churches refers to. The light, the heat, the completeness you have with them is something beyond this world, something only music can explain.
guys who said it was about rosanna arquette, you're absolutely right. Peter Gabriel said so himself. Actually it was a kind of response to what the band Toto did. Their keyboardist used to date ms Arquette, but she broke it off with him for Peter, So the band got together and penned the song "Rosanna" for her. Funnily enough, she wasn't overly impressed, and was only truely blown away when Peter Gabriel released "in your eyes" in response. Man, that key boardist at Toto, gotta feel for him, and Rosanne Arquette had got to be the hot stuff back then! two excellent songs in her name
I didn't know Peter dated Rosanna?<br /> <br /> Anyway, one of his many great songs.
@deluded <br /> I think thos story is not completely accurate. Rosanna Arquette dated Steve Porcaro at that time. David Paich wrote the song and kind of borrowed the name. But they emphasized, the song was not about Arquette, but about what they had experienced with women generally. And yes, PG dated R. Arquette at that time, one of the reasons that made his first marriage with Jill Moore crash.
@deluded thing song was written and recorded in 1985 and released in 1986 before he dated Rosanna Arquette. He wasn’t divorced from his wife Jill until 1987. While people split up and move on before divorces are finalized I doubt Rosanna had an effect one way or another on the end of his marriage. Jill had an affair with his producer David Lord. I suspect this is about the struggles his marriage was going through. Fighting for the marriage, fighting for survival, still in love with his wife but exhausted, hurt, and struggling. Reflecting on the love they have shared brings his back when he just wants to run away. It’s a love song with common theme: the struggle of marriage and how one partner make feel they are working harder than the other to keep things together.
dont think it actually has anything to do with christianity, although he mentions churches..what he means with 'seeing the doorway to a thousand churches' is probably that in his lovers eyes he feels the peace and protection of a thousand churches..dont we just love this guys music :)
when i first heard this song and actually listened to it, i definitely felt that it was about his relationship with God, indirectly. but I also think that maybe only Christians would notice that because they feel it too. But it can also be a very beautiful love song to others. And I think that's one reason it's written like that, so you can make it relate to what you want it to be.
@ilostmyfork <br /> <br /> Seems to me that it's about both. I feels it's a triangle, a man, a woman and God.
This song is about God. Only in God's eyes are we complete. I don't think there is any discussion to this. Love is God. Yes this song is the ultimate love song, and can be used to convey your feelings for someone. But God's love is the ultimate, and this is about the ultimate love, wanting to be divine. It is divine love.
I want to be that complete!
I agree. In his acoustic version, he squarely gave it away when he mentioned... you and you and you... when speaking of the light and heat in your eyes. This song is about love for humanity and the struggle we all face to help save each other along with the hope and belief that we will accomplish exactly that.... by 2012 of course :-)
I think there is a discussion to this... who are you to think that your interpretation is the only correct one. Interpret it as you feel... whatever the song means to you, thats what the song means. I personally feel this song is about self discovery and a man searching for something and finding that feeling in a significant other as well... not so much the Christian God but more so to do with just love... GOD is LOVE but I have a hard time swallowing the idea that its just about the Christian God and we are complete in HIS eyes... GOD doesnt have eyes. BAH! religious people really really need to open their minds, fundamentalists tick me off. He mentions a the word "churches" in the line and you think its about GOD... give me a break. its about self discovery and love and living in the moment... and guess what, this topic is OPEN for discussion.
He seems to me to be having some struggles with this love. He says he's tired of fighting for their survival. He's trying to pull away, but cannot because his love for her trumps everything else. For some reason he cannot completely be with her and it's hurting him, but he won't give up. There's pain, emptiness, fears the moments slipping away. But he loves her so much and he's too far gone. Vulnerable. In love. Without saying a word, ignoring his pride, he reaches out from the inside anyways and expresses his love to her
I must confess I've never made any research regarding Gabriel's interviews and so forth. My impressions are: 1) There's nothing about God for sure. 2) It's related to his first marriage, the conflict that generated his exit from Genesis (his band versus his wife, both asking for more time). The line "I get so tired of working so hard for our survival" is emblematic of the probable arguments which filled his head and led him to "drive off on his car" to blow off the steam. If his marriage's problems and final dissolution provoked him into so much suffering, they also provided inspiration for masterpieces as (this song included) washing of the water and blood of Eden. 3) It's one of the most sincere and down-to-earth love songs I know.
It's not about religion, so stop thinking so literally. In Chinese culture there are muses to the hell of (whatever) I.E. The hell were people are skinned alive..etc. In this reference Peter is using a metaphor. The doorway to the church of happiness, the church of pulsating breasts, church of lifelong bliss..get it?
Ever look in someone's eyes and see your future? That is the doorway to the church of fate. chao..