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 came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
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More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
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:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
This is one of my favorite songs. It's a great anthem for the hippie generation.
The song is a story of a character who met someone inspirational (the guy in the band) and followed him and joined the hippie movement. The next stanza seems like a conversation between her and the man. She wants to be part of the "movement" (for lack of a better term). The final stanza speaks of how Woodstock was a culmination for their entire movemtn. Everyone was happy. Happy peace lovers.
The chorus is pretty self explanatory: we're made of the same stuff as stars and gold, billion year old carbon. "And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden" probably means something different for everyone.
Joni wrote this song in one night, she wanted to go to woodstock but had her first tv interview the next morning and was unsure if she would be able to get out of there intime to appear on tv. verry dissapointed she had to watch the media and watch what she felt was one of the biggest events of her generation take place with her absence. crosby stills nash and young took a helicopter into woodstock and they made it out the next day and made it on time to the tv interview, joni said when she saw that they made it and she could have gone, her heart broke right there, she missed out and wrote this song out of her disapointment.
I lived through the worst years of the Cold War. I remember those ...bombers / Riding shotgun in the sky and waited. Songs like this turned our perceptions round, there was always hope. Hey! we got away with it! We still gotta get back to the garden, but many of us are genuinely trying. Like Joni, I never made it to Woodstock. I was in short trousers and England at the time, but songs like this take me there any time I want.
RETURN TO WHO MADE US<br /> <br /> The lyrics in Joni Mitchell's song Woodstock seem to refer to Eden...“We are stardust, we are golden and we have to get back to the garden.” <br /> Here Joni Mitchell appears to introduce a cryptic reference to Eden when she sings "...And we've got to get back to the Garden..."<br /> <br /> Eden is a reference to sacred space written of in Genesis chapter two and a reference to the Garden that was originally "Eden.<br /> <br /> "Eden" existed only when God's presence was there but it was no longer "Eden" after Adam and Eve introduced sin or disobedience into the world (Genesis 3).<br /> <br /> N'est pas?<br />
hippyatheart has it exactly
I'm surprised there hasn't been more comments on this song.
I didn't see a war. I didn't live through anything terrible. The thought of terrorism doesn't scare me one bit. But this song still gives me hope. For a sheltered girl such as myself, it sort of gave me a fantasy, a dream of something bigger than myself. The hippie movement pretty much accounts for everything that I have never been allowed to do/allowed to experience/allowed to imagine. But this song liberated me in that I wanted to branch out, realizing how incredibly limited modern society is.
I mean lets face it, there are no movements like the hippie movements anymore! There are no congregations like Woodstock. There is no campaign for loving your neighbour, or banding together for the commong purpose of peace. (At least not to a grand extent.) There is the internet, the rare protest, and mostly just disgrunted people doing nothing to turn this planet's state around. I would be a hypocrite to say that I myself have broken away from the pack and done something inspirational that would merit this song.
Bottom line: This song brings back a time when people stood up for a belief with all their heart and soul, even if their faith lay only in love + music + maybe a few drugs along the way. Faith in anything is something the present day hugely lacks.
@britbach <br /> You posted this 12 years ago. I looked up these words to be inspired today myself.(I grew up in the 60s-70s) I didn't go to Woodstock. (One of my few regrets in my life... I could have) But I went to something more important. The March on Washington. We didn't think it made a difference in ending the Vietnam War, but apparently it did. When documents were revealed about the end of the war, the demonstrators and lowering public support for the war did play a huge factor. That demonstration, which had about 1 million in attendance in Washington DC also made it into my children's history books in this century.<br /> Since your comment/post, in 2007, protests are not "rare" anymore! The largest protest of the planet happened at the first Woman's March in 2016. It was world wide! Los Angeles had 700K in attendance. Since then there are many demonstrations each year. They DO make a difference. People have FINALLY stood up for their beliefs again.
@britbach I love what she wrote and find these words very inspirational. On this Earth there is good and evil, their is no denying that, there is hate and love. We are all stardust and come in billion pieces of dust together to bring love and peace to the universe. I do believe what Joni is saying is that we are caught up in the universe between good and we via and we need to get back to the innocence of the Garden of Eden. Back to our roots and our souls return to the stardust when our bodies die and we are the moon, stars and sun. Humankind make up the universe in the image of God. I love what came from her heart. We are all small here compared to the grand scheme of things but together we bring love and peace to the universe.
I wish I was at Woodstock.
@audioslave48195 I don't really want to go back to my childhood... But if I had a time capsule, I WOULD go back and catch that ride to Woodstock that I declined so many years ago.
nobody believes they can change the world anymore.
@chelseamorning In 12 years the biggest demonstration will happen on this Planet: The First Woman's March. And it will be world wide.
I believe this song speaks to how small we are on the face of this Earth, yet at the same time we are powerful. We are of the earth and yet we seem to be more valuable than it.
Getting back to the garden reminds me of trips to the grocery store. Every time I see how far removed the eating experience is from nature, I am saddened. We do not live in harmony with nature anymore.
I also see getting back to the garden as the innocence that is said to be in the garden of eden, similar to that of a child.
it's about a confused hippie generation foolish enough to think they can find the garden of eden somewhere on Earth --or recreate it-- but they are caught in the devil's game<br /> <br /> ...it's sad that she missed out on this once in a lifetime moment, but what these "child(ren) of God" were actually searching for they would never find in their lifetime
I find this song very interesting. Its naive hope that if enough of us join together "in song and celebration," we actually can turn the bombers into butterflies and "get ourselves back to the garden." I love the view of human beings as "golden" and "stardust." Instead of being burdened with Original Sin, we carry within us "billion year old carbon." As the Desiderata says, "You are a child of the universe," and as such "have a right to be here" and, I think, a right to be happy.
@ Cleverwitch, We not only carry within us "billion year old carbon". We ARE "billion year old carbon" Carl Sagan told me so :)