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.
Mother I can hear your foot-fall now
Soft disturbance in the dead-fall how
It proceeds you like a black smoke pall
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you delivered me from danger then
Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
Swore to save me from the world of men
Still the wanting comes in waves
In waves
And waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And I want this night
And I want this night
Oh
How I made you
I wrought you, I pulled you
From war I labored you
From cancer I cradled you
And now
This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Remember when I found you
The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion
Anointed with lotions
And now
This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Mother hear this proposition right
Grant me freedom to enjoy this night
And I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves
And waves
And waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life
And if I grant you this favor to hand you
Your life for the evening
I will retake by morning
And so
Consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid
Repaid
Repaid
Soft disturbance in the dead-fall how
It proceeds you like a black smoke pall
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you delivered me from danger then
Pulled my cradle from the reedy glen
Swore to save me from the world of men
Still the wanting comes in waves
In waves
And waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And the wanting comes in waves
And I want this night
And I want this night
Oh
How I made you
I wrought you, I pulled you
From war I labored you
From cancer I cradled you
And now
This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Remember when I found you
The miseries that hounded you
And I gave you motion
Anointed with lotions
And now
This is how I am repaid
This is how I am repaid
Mother hear this proposition right
Grant me freedom to enjoy this night
And I'll return to you at break of light
For the wanting comes in waves
And waves
And waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
Still the wanting comes in waves
And you owe me life
And you owe me life
And if I grant you this favor to hand you
Your life for the evening
I will retake by morning
And so
Consider it your debt repaid
Consider it your debt repaid
Repaid
Repaid
Lyrics submitted by lazzyhorse
Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I didn't think Colin would ever arrange a sexier female vocalist than Laura Veirs on Yankee Bayonette. He did it with Shara Worden and this insane song.
William/The Faun is truly in love with Margaret, as evidenced by the fact that he gives his life to the river for his love. And what's a story without a tragic hero, and the title of the album can't possibly refer to the dangers of unsafe sex.
The Queen (as any mother would) wanted to shield William from the "hazards of love." William makes the deal under the pretense of wanting a good fuck, while the "Wanting" to which he actually refers is his yearning to spend time with his child and love (even as he realizes he is not of the human world and will eventually have to part with them).
BUT by the time he returns, his lover will have been taken by the Rake (who actually acts on the sexual impulse William feigns), thus giving a new, more urgent purpose to his night out.
This makes a lot of sense! Good one!
I agree!
William has been spending time with Margaret, and the Queen finds out and isn't happy about it. It seems that she has been scorned by the world of men, and when she finds William as a child, abandoned in a river, she swears to love him as her own, but never submit him to what she sees as a horrible, unloving race. So when William, whose wanted to connect with one of his own kind, begs for just one last night to spend with the first woman he's known and come to love, he says "you owe me life" or, you've kept me to yourself your whole life, and I've never had a chance to really live, you owe me this one chance. So because she really does love him, she allows him this once, but then he'll never again be allowed to mingle with men.
AAH! AAAH! [Decemberist Spazz]
"How it precedes you like a black smoke, oh"
I could be wrong (I've misplaced my CD case recently), but it seems to me this line is: "How it precedes you like a black smoke pall"
A pall is "anything that covers, shrouds, or overspreads, esp. with darkness or gloom." That certainly fits with the context of these first couple of stanzas, and after listening to it several times, I'm pretty sure I hear "pall."
I think the talk about "waves" in this song is foreshadowing to their demise later in the story.
@ab1897 My thoughts exactly - although I didn't get that until about my tenth time through the album.
I can't believe how metal I feel when this gets me headbangin'.
I think this about his forest queen and her son making a bargain about his wanting to go out into the real world i'm not a big stage dork, but this song sounds beautiful.
One thing - William, while the Forest Queen has given hom the form of a fawn during the day, is a man, or at least was born human. He says: "You delivered me from danger then" (i.e. when he was sent adrift like baby Moses),
and so when he says "Swore to save me from the world of men"
he means she gave him an escape from the cruel world by taking him as her son rather than letting him die on the river, not that she protected him (her natural son) from the human world. The fact that he's her adopted son that she's gone out of her way to save is what motivates her anger at how her love was "repaid".
Her voice is so haunting with the guitar behind it - I love it!