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.
[we're recording, shut up]
Strontium-90
Removed from milk
Is as curious an entity
As bullshit writ on silk
Cancer's airborne now
Do you hear the sound?
I was hanging out the washing, man
As the rain came falling down
Now the grass lies snakes
Has crowds of iodine and fire
On Jezebel's luminescence
I swear you are my heart's desire
Bombproof the embassy
Give infanticide a cemetery
You looked so good on the late night news
With your curtain and your deed
Yeah, I love you like a violin
I'll hunt you like an amputee
But I ain't gonna lose my skin
I would love to see you again,
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
You wrote me a letter
And this is how it went:
It said, "We're just backing up the supply lines
The first division's crossin' the Nile
Through the rushes and up the side
And into the machine gun fire"
Yeah, you tell me that this is not a dream
I've become a steel spring
Uranium tips, night vision cruise missiles
Gonna cut the belly out of the sky
I rode an Abrams
And we stopped in Bethlehem
They made the answers here
But there weren't so many questions then
And there I shot a woman
In a headscarf with my gun
She said, "Does my bomb look big in this?
Am I the only one?"
I was in the blitz, you know
When my heart was young and true
I had a Caesarean, but it was not any use
Oh, calamity! Oh, the vanity!
You can't ride a thunderbolt
You can't claim an enemy
There ain't nothing here
Except a darkness, Lord
I ain't gonna fail no test
I gave my dowry to a finger on a switch
Turn me to a fine pink mist
But I ain't nothing but your stranger still
If I'm even anyone at all
But I ain't gonna lose my skin
I would love to see you again,
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
But that ain't gonna happen now
It's no use to pretend
No
How many people gonna lie?
How many people gonna die?
What's best for the West and the greed?
Kill 'em all? Let 'em breed?
Another bomb for every atom you injure
Meet the Devil with extended ring finger
Saying "thou shalt not kill"
But I'm damned if I don't
So I'm thinking I will
Yeah, Dan Pearl
They cut your head off on TV
But I am not a camera
A man is not an effigy
But still all this horror
Has made a trench out of my soul
I'm gonna have to fall in love with a blind girl
So she will not see the shame that I know
Oh, new scar
You have raised the bar
Goliath rides an oil drum raft
Through a cyclone in my ear drums
You don't want a tyrant, we're sure
You'd prefer civil war
And I am gonna lose my skin
And I ain't gonna see you again
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
Strontium-90
Removed from milk
Is as curious an entity
As bullshit writ on silk
Cancer's airborne now
Do you hear the sound?
I was hanging out the washing, man
As the rain came falling down
Now the grass lies snakes
Has crowds of iodine and fire
On Jezebel's luminescence
I swear you are my heart's desire
Bombproof the embassy
Give infanticide a cemetery
You looked so good on the late night news
With your curtain and your deed
Yeah, I love you like a violin
I'll hunt you like an amputee
But I ain't gonna lose my skin
I would love to see you again,
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
You wrote me a letter
And this is how it went:
It said, "We're just backing up the supply lines
The first division's crossin' the Nile
Through the rushes and up the side
And into the machine gun fire"
Yeah, you tell me that this is not a dream
I've become a steel spring
Uranium tips, night vision cruise missiles
Gonna cut the belly out of the sky
I rode an Abrams
And we stopped in Bethlehem
They made the answers here
But there weren't so many questions then
And there I shot a woman
In a headscarf with my gun
She said, "Does my bomb look big in this?
Am I the only one?"
I was in the blitz, you know
When my heart was young and true
I had a Caesarean, but it was not any use
Oh, calamity! Oh, the vanity!
You can't ride a thunderbolt
You can't claim an enemy
There ain't nothing here
Except a darkness, Lord
I ain't gonna fail no test
I gave my dowry to a finger on a switch
Turn me to a fine pink mist
But I ain't nothing but your stranger still
If I'm even anyone at all
But I ain't gonna lose my skin
I would love to see you again,
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
But that ain't gonna happen now
It's no use to pretend
No
How many people gonna lie?
How many people gonna die?
What's best for the West and the greed?
Kill 'em all? Let 'em breed?
Another bomb for every atom you injure
Meet the Devil with extended ring finger
Saying "thou shalt not kill"
But I'm damned if I don't
So I'm thinking I will
Yeah, Dan Pearl
They cut your head off on TV
But I am not a camera
A man is not an effigy
But still all this horror
Has made a trench out of my soul
I'm gonna have to fall in love with a blind girl
So she will not see the shame that I know
Oh, new scar
You have raised the bar
Goliath rides an oil drum raft
Through a cyclone in my ear drums
You don't want a tyrant, we're sure
You'd prefer civil war
And I am gonna lose my skin
And I ain't gonna see you again
Again...
I... I would love to see you again
I... I would love to see you again
Lyrics submitted by shrodes
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got this from wikipedia: "Australian rock band The Drones recorded "Jezebel" as the opening track of their third album, Gala Mill. A sprawling 7 minute song, it appears to cover topics from nuclear testing in Australia to the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl."
"In the Hebrew Scriptures: In the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament), Jezebel is a queen of ancient Israel, whose story is told in I and II Kings. She is introduced by the author as a Phoenician princess, the daughter of King Ithobaal I of Tyre, who marries King Ahab. She turns Ahab away from the God of the Israelites and of the Jews (being the inhabitants of Judah in this context) and towards the worship of her god, Baal. The two then allow temples of Baal to open in Israel. Jezebel uses her control over Ahab to subject Israel to tyranny. After she slaughters the prophets of the Lord, the prophet Elijah confronts her to charge her with abominations. She responds by threatening to kill him as well. After Ahab's death, Jezebel continues to rule through her son Ahaziah. When Ahaziah is killed in battle, she exercises control through her other son, Jehoram. Jehoram is killed by Jehu, who confronts Jezebel in Jezreel and urges her servants to kill her by throwing her out a window (defenestration). They comply, tossing her out the window and leaving her corpse in the street to be eaten by dogs; only her skull, feet, and hands remained, in fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy. Her daughter, Athaliah, is wed to King of Judah, Jehoram, similarly corrupting Judah."
Total amazing song, so many different ideas squeezed in there (nearly 8 minutes, but it still flies by). Some of this info comes from an interview Gareth did in Mess + Noise magazine, some I've interpreted myself. The Strontium 90, Iodine, milk, Jezebel (a cow, apparently) come from when nuclear testing was done in Woomera in outback South Australia. The fallout was carried to populated parts of Aust and "rained down", was absorbed into grass, eaten by cow and then affected a whole generation of kids. Gareth's home town of "Ether" a.k.a. Port Hedland, may have been one of the areas affected by this.
This next few verse switch to talking about war in the middle east. Uranium tips refer to the "depleted" uranium ammunition used by the US which is now suspected to be causing radiation sickness in their own troops. "Night vision, cruise missiles" refers to the footage ithat was seen almost nightly during the first gulf war.
Bethlehem is obviously a biblical reference. The "does my bomb look big in this" line I love, because it seems to reference 2 things, The use of suicide bombers/IEDs and also the westernisation of the middle east (i.e. the vanity of "does my bum look big in this)
Dan Pearl was a US journalist executed in the middle east (try youtube). The camera, effigy line I believe means: I am not a machine, I cannot view this image without emotion and a human cannot be treated as something to be destroyed in order to make a point, political or otherwise.
The next verse is about the "blood for oil" war. New Scar = G.W. Bush? Is Goliath (another biblical reference) the US, riding the middle eastern oil drum through their hurricane Katrina?
Tyrant: Saddam, now gone, but the Iraqis are left with a civil was.
Total amazing song, so many different ideas squeezed in there (nearly 8 minutes, but it still flies by). Some of this info comes from an interview Gareth did in Mess + Noise magazine, some I've interpreted myself. The Strontium 90, Iodine, milk, Jezebel (a cow, apparently) come from when nuclear testing was done in Woomera in outback South Australia. The fallout was carried to populated parts of Aust and "rained down", was absorbed into grass, eaten by cow and then affected a whole generation of kids. Gareth's home town of "Ether" a.k.a. Port Hedland, may have been one of the areas affected by this.
This next few verse switch to talking about war in the middle east. Uranium tips refer to the "depleted" uranium ammunition used by the US which is now suspected to be causing radiation sickness in their own troops. "Night vision, cruise missiles" refers to the footage ithat was seen almost nightly during the first gulf war.
Bethlehem is obviously a biblical reference. The "does my bomb look big in this" line I love, because it seems to reference 2 things, The use of suicide bombers/IEDs and also the westernisation of the middle east (i.e. the vanity of "does my bum look big in this)
Dan Pearl was a US journalist executed in the middle east (try youtube). The camera, effigy line I believe means: I am not a machine, I cannot view this image without emotion and a human cannot be treated as something to be destroyed in order to make a point, political or otherwise.
The next verse is about the "blood for oil" war. New Scar = G.W. Bush? Is Goliath (another biblical reference) the US, riding the middle eastern oil drum through their hurricane Katrina?
Tyrant: Saddam, now gone, but the Iraqis are left with a civil was.
does my bomb look big in this?!
am i the only one!!!!
radical song, very good, 2nd best on the album behind sixteen straws
This is a very tough song to understand in places... no doubt there's some lyrics wrong.
But it's very complex lyrically, radiation, war, Biblical references etc.
I think this is one of the best protest songs written in the last several years, just from the sheer apocalyptic horror and anger he expresses.
The lyrics listed here are actually not very close to the actual ones (not that I'm criticizing, it is hard to make in places). Here are some corrections (I don't have the CD booklet in front of me, but I remember a good deal of the words, and I'll check it when I get home):
"give it fan inside a cemetary" -> "give infanticide a cemetery" "hanging at the washing" -> "hanging out the washing" "I rode an eyebranch" -> "I rode an Abrams" (US Tank) "There shone a woman" -> "there I shot a woman" "Does my bum look big in this" -> "Does my bomb look big in this" "Devil with extended reach single" -> "Devil with extended ring finger"
"They'll cut your head off on TV" -> "Hey, Dan Pearl / They cut your head off on TV"
"Still all this horror... my soul" -> "Still all this horror / Has made a trench out of my soul"
"You don't want to tire it... simple war" -> "You don't want a tyrant we're sure / You'd prefer a civil war"
"Yeah, you tell me that this is not a dream I've become a steel spring"
I believe this is a reference to the Peter Weir film Gallipoli, in which the protagonist is a promising athlete - a sprinter - whose coach uses the following mantra:
What are your legs? Steel springs! What are they going to do? Hurl me down the track! How fast can you run? As fast as a leopard! How fast are you gonna run? Faster than a leopard!
The character later dies in the push from the beach trenches at Gallipoli, so this phrase from his sprinter's mantra seems likely to be a bleak allusion to the death of a westerner in a foreign land (Daniel Pearl).
End of the fucking world