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 Michael Caine)
He's walking where I'm afraid I don't know
I see the firemen jumping from the windows
There's panic and I hear somebody scream
(aaaah)
He picks up useless paper
And puts it in my pocket
I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers clean
I can't remember tell me what's his name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
The sun is laughing its another broken morning
I see a shadow and call out to try and warn him
He didn't seem to hear
Just turned away
The quiet fellow follows and points his fingers
Straight at you
He had to sacrifice his pride yes throw it all away
(I am Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
His days are numbered he walks round and round in circles
There is no place he can ever call his own
He seems to jump at the sound of the phone
Staring out the window there's nothing he can now do
All he wanted was to remain sane
He can't remember his own name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
He's walking where I'm afraid I don't know
I see the firemen jumping from the windows
There's panic and I hear somebody scream
(aaaah)
He picks up useless paper
And puts it in my pocket
I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers clean
I can't remember tell me what's his name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
The sun is laughing its another broken morning
I see a shadow and call out to try and warn him
He didn't seem to hear
Just turned away
The quiet fellow follows and points his fingers
Straight at you
He had to sacrifice his pride yes throw it all away
(I am Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
His days are numbered he walks round and round in circles
There is no place he can ever call his own
He seems to jump at the sound of the phone
Staring out the window there's nothing he can now do
All he wanted was to remain sane
He can't remember his own name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
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"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"
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"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"
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Plastic Bag
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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.
In THE IPCRESS FILE, Michael Caine plays an army sergeant who becomes a spy in order to work off a black-marketeering background. Through the film, his loyalty is torn between two department heads, he accidentally kills a CIA agent, and he becomes brainwashed to become a mind-controlled sleeper agent, meant to kill one of the department heads upon hearing a trigger word. So his loyalties are complicated, to say the least.
"Michael Caine" the song concerns informers within the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a hot subject at the time--a major news story was about Sean O'Callaghan, an informer who foiled an IRA bomb plot to injure Princess Diana at a Duran Duran concert. As I see it, the song's "He" is the informer. By the second verse he has done his doublecross ("sacrifice his pride"), and by the third verse is a paranoid wreck living under an assumed name. And Michael Caine is used as a representation of the informer's questionable, distrustful nature.
I'm sure I read ages ago that it's actually about an IRA supergrass living under a new identity.
Doolally. What an excellent word.
I thought it was about a man that worked in the detective agency, and he had a certain disability or made a crime, and they were watching a secret recorded video of him running through places, and at phone booths and such (in the video) and they were chasing him and they caught him. He used "Michael Caine" as his name because he didn't remember it, (because of disability I think) and so they caught him and were talking to him in a cell room or something. That's why he "seems to jump at the sound of the phone" and the rest. They were sad about it because I think he was a good agent/or whatever and they wanted a picture and a conversation before they had to kill him.
why no comments?the best madness song by far in my opinion.
YES BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
To me it sounds obviously like they (a fan) are meeting Michael Caine and singing about how they met him, and he gave them autographs, photos, etc. He is stuck in a signing, trying to stay sane around mad fans, scared by them all. Forgets his name as he signs it so often, its second nature.
I don't think it's anything to do with Michael Caine really. It sounds to me like the story of a man who's losing his mind, possibly to senile dementia, and the author is trying to spend some time with him and maybe get a photograph before the guy is completely doolally.
That song reminds me that Mike has left the piano playing on its own.