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.
She'll lie and steal and cheat
And beg you from her knees
Make you think she means it this time
She'll tear a hole in you, the one you can't repair
But I still love her, I don't really care
When we were young
Oh-oh, we did enough
When it got cold
Ooh-ooh, we bundled up
I can't be told
Ah-ah it can't be done
It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all
The opposite of love's indifference
So pay attention now
I'm standing on your porch screaming out
And I won't leave until you come downstairs
So keep your head up, keep your love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love
And I don't blame you, dear
For running like you did all these years
I would do the same, you best believe
And the highway signs say we're close
But I don't read those things anymore
I never trusted my own eyes
When we were young
Oh-oh, we did enough
When it got cold
Ooh-ooh, we bundled up
I can't be told
Ah-ah it can't be done
So keep your head up, keep your love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love
Head up, love
Head up, love
Head up, love
Head up, love
And beg you from her knees
Make you think she means it this time
She'll tear a hole in you, the one you can't repair
But I still love her, I don't really care
When we were young
Oh-oh, we did enough
When it got cold
Ooh-ooh, we bundled up
I can't be told
Ah-ah it can't be done
It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all
The opposite of love's indifference
So pay attention now
I'm standing on your porch screaming out
And I won't leave until you come downstairs
So keep your head up, keep your love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love
And I don't blame you, dear
For running like you did all these years
I would do the same, you best believe
And the highway signs say we're close
But I don't read those things anymore
I never trusted my own eyes
When we were young
Oh-oh, we did enough
When it got cold
Ooh-ooh, we bundled up
I can't be told
Ah-ah it can't be done
So keep your head up, keep your love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love
Head up, love
Head up, love
Head up, love
Head up, love
Lyrics submitted by acmctav, edited by blinxbcr, sharkstyle
Stubborn Love Lyrics as written by Wesley Schultz Jeremy Fraites
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"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"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"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 song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Head > Heels
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
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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.
This song caught me within seconds. My interpretation's quite personal to me (But really, when isn't an interpretation personal). For me, this song is about a girl who will never really let herself have what she wants. Whenever she gets too close she runs away and the speaker knows and understands this, he knows how dark inside her head must be and he loves her regardless of it. He knows that when she attacks him, she's really just trying to hurt herself. And then he goes on to say yes it hurts but i'd rather have this than nothing with someone else. Head up love is telling her to cheer up (obviously) head up, keep your love is reminding her to keep on loving, keep on feeling and not to forget there's good along with the bad.
very beautiful interpretation... kudos!
Couldn't have said it better myself..
I met someone who was like this, and I fell in love with him. It wasn’t until after he ran away from me that he confessed his love…I haven’t seen him in what will soon be a year, but I love him just as much as I did in the beginning. I love him, but it hurts :/
Love this interpretation...I have lived with this girl for 22 years, now. We raised two kids together... there is pleasure in pain... She's really perfect in every other way.. i will never fully hold her heart and she will never allow herself to be close enough to me to get hurt... Maybe after 23 years, she'll give in...<br />
This is such a beautiful song about loving someone despite their flaws, because let's face it! We all have flaws and true love involves acceptance. The singer here is saying they've made it through so much already that he can't be told that their relationship wont work, because he plans on trying his best to make it work through to the very end. He's telling his lover to keep her head up and don't give up on their relationship because they can make it through anything :)
I love the lines "It's better to feel pain than nothing at all. The opposite of love's indifference"
Reminds me of the saying "its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." and also at the end of Scarlet Letter when Hawthorne says that love and hate are almost the same thing, not opposites--that not caring is the opposite of both.
I think that it means that only if you truly love someone can you feel such pain or happiness. Once you stop caring then there's no more love.
@mermy96 Eli Wiesel “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”<br /> in U.S. News and World Report 27 October 1986
Swoon. I cannot stop listening to this song. These guys are going to be great. Keep a watch on em'. The next great thing, I'm telling ya.
I agree that this appears to be about a guy that has been routinely hurt by a woman. Based on the first line, "she'll lie and steal and cheat", I get the sense that she potentially has a drug/alcohol/gambling addiction. Hence the need to 'steal'.
He's not giving up on her. Thinks they are close to overcoming the issue/addiction (but doesn't trust what he thinks anymore).
Favorite Lumineers song. I realize this isn't what they meant by it, but this is what it has meant to me.
I work in the music industry and it's just so hard sometimes to keep going. To me, the female subject of the song is what the industry is for me. It really does tear a hole in you that you can't repair, but you keep going because you're stubborn and you truly love what you do. I've been inspired by the lines "keep your head up, keep your love [of music]". Even in the hardest moments, I know that I still love what I do because it does hurt so much. I'm not indifferent to it yet.
When he says "I don't blame you for running like you did all these years," I feel that way towards other ppl who think it's crazy to pursue a dream that entails such hardships, and I would do the same if I didn't feel that I really belonged and deserved to be at the top. Every 6 months, every year, I get closer and closer to that destination. But it's still tough because I don't believe those things. I won't stop or give up until I get there. I guess seeing is believing in my case, no matter how many ppl tell me that I'm either still too far away or I'm so close.
I think that is actually a good interpretation. Makes more sense to "keep your head up" and "I can't be told.... can't be done" and about the road signs...
I was going through a rough time with a guy and I realized that for a few days while I was feeling down I had this song stuck in my head, and that I was kind of subconciously singing the lines "its better to feel pain than nothing at all" and "so keep your head up, my love" to myself over and over again. It was like God trying to save me from depression...and it worked. Amazing song...
yes, God works in myterious ways through our lives!
I absolutely adore this song. <3 "It's better to feel pain than nothing at all"
This song is about child abuse, and the lifelong damage and pain it causes, even extending to those who come to love the abused, like the author of this song.
"She'll lie and steal ...cheat, ....she means it this time"
Abused girls have trust issues that cause them to lie and cheat the very ones who honestly love them, then feel guilty and beg forgiveness...
"She'll tear a hole in you, the one you can't repair But I still love her, I don't really care"
He knows this and knows it’s not really her fault, he really loves her anyway…
"When we were young,... ...can't be done" He's remembering when their relationship was young, and though trust and physical love was difficult, they took it slow...and though all his friends said dump her, he kept on with her.
"It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all, The opposite of love's indifference"
But he can't live without her, and painful though the relationship was, it's better to be with fragile, broken her than to feel "love's indifference"
"So pay attention now, I'm standing on your porch screaming out And I won't leave until you come downstairs" This is the scene where he is at her doorstep in a city, walk-up apartment. When her destructive behaviour started made things go wrong, he tried desperately to get his girl...(to no avail)
"So keep your head up, keep your love..."
He’s saying: I know you we're abused, but don't sink down into this destructive behavior, keep your head up, have self respect, you're a good person. Despite your past, Keep your love (pure).
"And I don't blame ya dear For running like you did, all these years I would do the same, you best believe"
Now it seems to be years later…even from when he wrote the song. Apparently, her fear of loving him caused her to leave him. Again, he doesn't blame her for running away because of the feelings engendered from the memory of the abuse, he would have done the same.
And now she’s even running away from him, someone who loves her...
"And the highway signs say we're close, But I don't read those things anymore I never trusted my own eyes"
And now she lives only miles away...and the highway signs are a sad reminder for him, and even though the signs say they're close (both geophysically, and maybe emotionally) he's stop "looking", he closes his eyes, because it's just..too...painful…. So Keep Your Head up Love, I wish you well.
I agree with it being about child abuse. "When we were young, we did enough. When it got cold, we bundled up." To me this line is about surviving child abuse (the cold) and putting up the necessary defences to do so. Having the attitude, "I can't be told" is a direct result (for me) of bundling up.
Yes it works on so many levels...victims of abuse need, more than most, to just be held without any overt connection to sex. They crave the feeling of innocence and trust that was ruined by the predator...which in this song then seems to lead to all the problems "on the porch." I wish the Lumineers would make another video to this song, same style and director, but this time following the story of how his Stubborn Love won't die for his damaged girl.
i do agree about this my girlfriend has been sexually physicly and emotionally abused by her father and this kinda does sound like me and her only the end doesn't
I think this is about a guy who loves a girl even though she has flaws and keeps hurting him. I think people have tried to bring his attention to the fact that he's not getting much from it but he says "I can't be told, ah ah it can't be done." So no matter what people say, he's always going to love her. I think he sees that she is really hurting inside for some reason or another, and he tries to comfort her, thinks she needs him. ("Keep your head up, my love...") He sees what she is, but he doesn't really care.