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.
Why don't you ever want to play?
I'm tired of this piece of string
You sleep as much as I do now
And you don't eat much of anything
I don't know who you're talking to
I made a search through every room
But all I found was dust that moved
In shadows of the afternoon
And listen, about those bitter songs you sing?
They're not helping anything
They won't make you strong
So, we should open up the house
Invite the tabby two doors down
You could ask your sister
If she doesn't bring her basset hound
Ask the things you shouldn't miss:
Tape-hiss and the Modern Man
The Cold War and card catalogues
To come and join us if they can
For girly drinks and parlor games
We'll pass around the easy lie
Of absolutely no regrets
And later maybe you could try
To let your losses dangle off
The sharp edge of a century
And talk about the weather, or
How the weather used to be
And I'll cater with all the birds that I can kill
Let their tiny feathers fill disappointment
Lie down; lick the sorrow from your skin
Scratch the terror and begin
To believe you're strong
All you ever want to do is drink and watch TV
And frankly that thing doesn't really interest me
I swear I'm going to bite you hard
And taste your tinny blood
If you don't stop the self-defeating lies
You've been repeating since the day you brought me home
I know you're strong
I'm tired of this piece of string
You sleep as much as I do now
And you don't eat much of anything
I don't know who you're talking to
I made a search through every room
But all I found was dust that moved
In shadows of the afternoon
And listen, about those bitter songs you sing?
They're not helping anything
They won't make you strong
So, we should open up the house
Invite the tabby two doors down
You could ask your sister
If she doesn't bring her basset hound
Ask the things you shouldn't miss:
Tape-hiss and the Modern Man
The Cold War and card catalogues
To come and join us if they can
For girly drinks and parlor games
We'll pass around the easy lie
Of absolutely no regrets
And later maybe you could try
To let your losses dangle off
The sharp edge of a century
And talk about the weather, or
How the weather used to be
And I'll cater with all the birds that I can kill
Let their tiny feathers fill disappointment
Lie down; lick the sorrow from your skin
Scratch the terror and begin
To believe you're strong
All you ever want to do is drink and watch TV
And frankly that thing doesn't really interest me
I swear I'm going to bite you hard
And taste your tinny blood
If you don't stop the self-defeating lies
You've been repeating since the day you brought me home
I know you're strong
Lyrics submitted by lakeoffire23
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This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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I think we all really need a cat named virtue, who will bend over backwards to try to get us out of our depressive ruts. sometimes it worries me though, what exactly does it mean to be strong to a cat?
The cat's name is Virtute, not Virtue.
This song is hard for me, cos I feel like the owner of the cat, but I love what I'm hearing from the cat. This cat's voice in a song makes more sense to me than the people that try talking to me. But I also don't want to give up this wallowing. I sleep a lot, I barely eat...but then I remember The 'thans' Aside: "I'm unconsoled, I'm lonely, I am so much better than I used to be."
I love this cat named Virtue and I want him to keep talking to me, but I can't just 180 my life, deny how I feel and my inclinations. But maybe, just maybe he can inch me there, one degree at a time.
What other band can just write a song from a cat's perspective and make it one of the deepest songs I've ver heard. And how clever the "And I'll cater with all the birds that I can kill. Let their tiny feathers fill disappointment. Lie down; lick the sorrow from your skin. Scratch the terror and begin to believe you're strong." line is amazing. This is one of the best songs on Reconstruction Site. But Reconstruction Site to me doesn't even compare to Left And Leaving or Fallow. But it's catching up fast.
I always believed the cat's owner to be going through a bad breakup. A good friend of mine broke up with his fiancee and was distraught. He was depressed and lost all motivation, just like how the cat in the song describes. It was his dog and this song that pulled him through. This song always reminded me of him. I have so much respect for the Weakerthans-- Like The Smell of Ran said, who else can write a song from a cat's perspective and have it be so meaningful and moving!
Unum Cum Virtute Multorum. That's the motto of Winnipeg and probably the derivation of the cat's name. Just throwing that out there.
@jc88150225 Not likely. Virtute is Latin for "Power". The cat is trying to give the owner willpower.
@jc88150225 Valor, actually.
@jc88150225
Why does it matter what the word means? John K Samson is from Winnipeg, and factually, the motto of the city is as such. What does "not likely" even mean? You find it less than plausible that a person from a city, involved in the politics of a city, and having written at least one song specifically about said city would use a word from the motto about the city to name a cat? You discredited me for mentioning a fact and there might be a possible correlation. It would be quite a coincidence if it both were a random Latin noun chosen by John for this cat and also happened to be part of his city's motto. You then made a conjecture implying the cat was a metaphor somehow for the narrator in the song's lack of willpower, which actually makes no sense but let's go with it. If he was going to choose a random Latin noun to assign to his metaphoric cat, he wouldn't have used this particular declension, the exact declension in the motto. If he were going to name the cat after the Latin word, he probably would have used the base word Virtus, which probably would be a better name for a cat anyway. To assume he intentionally chose the word and declined it in the ablative case would be more than curious. On top of all this, I never actually said anything was true I was merely pointing out a fact and a probability. I even qualified the statement twice, as even if it were true it isn't that big of a deal, just something of which I took note. If you have a follow-up, I will listen but you should think things through before you type them. What you should have said was nothing.
Powerful song,
It isn't about immediately changing your life for the better, but to remember to live because "you're strong."
Listen to it after a breakup, after you are down in your luck, and feeling sad for it will give you hope.
The Weakerthans. Top 10 Fav. bands of all time. Any album, any song, anytime!
I swear I'm going to bite you hard and taste your tinny blood if you don't stop the self-defeating lies you've been repeating since the day you brought me home.
This is still a longstanding joke with my parents and I since we saw The Weakerthans in concert. I love them. And Virtute means strength...the Weakerthans shirt says "The Weakerthans" and "Unum Cum Virtute Multorum"--One with The Strenghth Of Many
What a brilliant observation - our pets are usually more aware of our emotional state of mind than almost anyone else. They suffer and benefit directly from our happiness or unhappiness while we remain mostly oblivious to how our moods must be affecting them - or even what kind of long term mood we might be in.
I've listened to this song about a hundred times now and always come away wondering what my pets could be telling me, and how I could be less self-absorbed in my misery, be the strong person they know and love me to be and just start seizing life and enjoying it a lot more often because, you know, it's not very long.
This song has a double meaning for every line, almost. The song represents what Samson imagines what his cat would say to him, and simultaneously it's really him telling himself what he already knows: He's become weak-hearted, possibly depressed, and complacent with things he really doesn't enjoy (such as t.v., drinking, staying by himself and alone) instead of living his life as he know he should or wants to. Hence the cat being named "Virtue", or what he knows is right, yet not paying enough attention to his own sense of virtue, as echoed in the very first line, "Why don't you ever want to play?". I won't go line by line, but suffice to say the meaning is there if you look well enough. Truly an inspiring song. By the way, the song doesn't have to apply to any "emo" character, but just anyone who has lost reason to believe in themselves and knows they need to change.
And to clarify, the cat's name is Virtute, but a play on virtue.
The cat's name is Virtute, not Virtue.
@CasstheMagician for what it's worth, 'virtute' really means strength - it's in the official motto of Winnipeg, 'Unum Cum Virtute Multorum' (One with the Strength of Many).
@CasstheMagician It actually is Latin for power. Like willpower. The cat is giving him willpower.
@CasstheMagician Well actually it's Valor. Which is bravery/willpower