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.
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when
Our common goal was waiting for the world to end
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again
I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, every time, everyone, ooh, pulls away, ooh
From you
Got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage
Got real estate, I'm buying it all up in outer space
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again
I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, every time, everyone, ooh, pulls away, ooh
It's a mechanical bull, the number one
You'll take a ride from anyone
Everyone wants a ride, pulls away, ooh, from you
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Black sheep, come home
Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when
Our common goal was waiting for the world to end
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again
I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, every time, everyone, ooh, pulls away, ooh
From you
Got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage
Got real estate, I'm buying it all up in outer space
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again
I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, every time, everyone, ooh, pulls away, ooh
It's a mechanical bull, the number one
You'll take a ride from anyone
Everyone wants a ride, pulls away, ooh, from you
Lyrics submitted by dustybreeze, edited by aeroskies
Black Sheep Lyrics as written by James Shaw Emily Haines
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm in lesbians with this song
lol
I didn't realize that they had the internet back in 1988. O_o
Yes,the internet did exist back then and most pc's were extremely slow and very hard to use, the technology just wasn't anywhere near what it is today. With those awful dial up connections that run on your land line, so you can't use the phone when on the pc. Today there are places "out in the sticks" for example: South Carolina, that still only have AO-Hell with super slow, shitty dial up connections. Yup, no Comcast, Verizon, etc. <br /> <br /> And, unfortunately we had and (still do have) major illiteracy and lack of respect for the English language. <br /> <br /> What the hell does the statement: "I'm in lesbians with this song" even mean?
I am loving the timestamps on these comments
Just watched 'SP Vs. the World' with commentary and found out this is a real song. I didn't realize it the first time I saw the movie.
Anyway this song is awesome and makes me think a lot about an odd friendship I used to have with a girl. It's kinda like the girl is singing it to me when I listen.
I met her at a party through a mutual friend right at the time I was experiencing my first true heartbreak. I was pretty close to friendless and very depressed, anti-social. Well I guess she saw something in me and we became close friends. I thought she was cool but wasn't really into her in that way so being friends worked for us.
Years passed and we built a strong friendship, we would hangout, drink, smoke, and party all the time. Pretty self-destructive narcissistic behavior, but we never got intimate. Maybe there was some innocent flirting but for years we just remained friends. Then in '08 after 3 years of friendship I started looking at her as more than that, I wanted more. Well I relayed those feelings and it was too much for her, we tried to remain friends after that but things just fell apart.
My feelings stayed the same for a while and although I wanted to be her friend, I couldn't lie to her or myself. She would always say I shouldn't feel that way and that I was twisting things and had 'shape-shifted' into something else from what we agreed on as friends. The friendship pretty much just became me in pain watching her date goofballs and her telling me she couldn't take losing me. I decided I needed to stop talking to her, which resulted in like 4 of our other friends not talking to me either. Although our whole group of friends pretty much fell apart at that time (coincidence?).
Anyway it's been a year since we've seen each other, but we're gonna see each other this weekend at our friend's band's show. I'm bringing a date and she has a bf now but this is totally the soundtrack to that night.
Great story, the song really does go with it. Maybe you'll let us know how it went...
Metric makes for a damn good Clash at Demonhead.
Brie Larson makes for a damn good Clash at Demonhead
Brandon Routh makes for a damn good Todd :D
To ALL of you who didn't know... Envy Adams is actually BASED on Emily Haines... so Yeah, Brie Larson/Clash at Demonhead is kind of the fictional Version of Emily Haines/Metric, LOL.
pretty sure a lot of it is metaphor. i'd say it's about a complicated friendship.. one of them has pretty low self esteem and the other is there to kind of pick up the pieces and show them somebody cares. chorus explains it.
'send you my love on a wire, lift you up every time everyone pulls away from you'
think of it like the friend is trying to make a romantic move on somebody, but they get shot down, the person pulls away, and you have to 'lift up' thier spirits.
at the same time your friend has so much pride that they never admit to any of this kind of situation.
'Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again'
and just continues to try and look cool
'got balls of steel, got an automobile..'
I think, as it was mentioned, that the song is about two friends (or two people who were in love) that had a common goal of defying the system and being rebellious ("waiting for the world to end"). Maybe it started when they were growing up.
But then one of them starts to change, gets a job ("got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage "), slowly climbs up the latter, and before they know it he is the one who bends and makes the rules they once went against ("now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend, you crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again").
I think the chorus, in essence, is that the writer of the song still loves this person and will lift them up no matter what happens. He is successful, climbed the latter, and now has control of everything ("mechanical bull, the number one") and yet he is used by everyone around him ("you'll take a ride from everyone, everyone wants a ride, pulls away from you"). The writer is still there to pick him up, to love him anyway. They both started out as black sheep, wanting to go against the system, and even when one of them climbed to the top he still finds himself isolated and used by everyone else. (Hence the title, Black Sheep.)
her vocals are such a change of pace- i found myself liking it a lot more than the original version haha awkward...
scott pilgrim ftw.
I'm pretty sure the line is:
"You crack the whip, shape-shift, and trick the past again"
Yes it is Gun!
i think this song is about a relationship the start the middle and the end. They met through a friend, clicked and started going out
"Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when Our common goal was waiting for the world to end"
but then it seems like one of them wanted more from life
"Got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage Got real estate, I'm buying it all up in outerspace"
the person breaks up with them but still loves them
"I'll send you my love on a wire Lift you up, everytime, everyone, ooo, pulls a way"
They could possibly still be friends but she's saying he's a bit of a manipulator though and she probably broke with him because of that too
"Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again"
I think...this song is about two outsiders (hence the title: black sheep)
Both of them had a common goal, they met through a friend (like at a party?) and then they went out. One of them is manipulative and the other is ambitious. They want to some day "rule" the world, but are building up from something small. Working their way up.
It seems to me that they were both one of a kind, and that they were supporting dreams yet were kind of like rivals. Except they were in love with each other.
Like...one of them is in love with the other, and if they were to be together...no one could stop them. ♥
i'm liking what miss kokeshi wrote. putting the title into the interpretation, very nice!
honestly i thought it was "got walls of steel", like an impenetrable wall so that no one would get in, which sorta fits with the rest as someone who scrimps and saves because the world hasn't been very kind to his/her bank account. and like all black sheep (myself included), i feel we tend to make ourselves out to be the victim more than we ought, bending the truth and changing our pasts to make ourselves seem more tragic.