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.
Before she met me she took herself to wait five years
After I met her, her teacher said "Best wait five years."
I ask my neighbors, they said it's wise to wait five years.
I say "Fever."
I told a friend how I'm feeling and this made her sad
'Cause she fears that no man will ever desire her so bad.
How dare I feel this and do naught but sit on my hands.
I say "Fever."
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
That ended up.
That's all now.
These are the ones who talk.
Never a lick, needs her to kiss him.
The first five years go by and we are no longer here.
I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near.
I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear.
I say "Fever."
(Four years)
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
After I met her, her teacher said "Best wait five years."
I ask my neighbors, they said it's wise to wait five years.
I say "Fever."
I told a friend how I'm feeling and this made her sad
'Cause she fears that no man will ever desire her so bad.
How dare I feel this and do naught but sit on my hands.
I say "Fever."
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
That ended up.
That's all now.
These are the ones who talk.
Never a lick, needs her to kiss him.
The first five years go by and we are no longer here.
I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near.
I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear.
I say "Fever."
(Four years)
Hold my heart like a hot potato,
Push the clock for an hour later.
This is just code to decipher
Found my ploughman, chased the piper.
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Very simply, I believe this song is about a man who is in love with an underage girl. The clues are all there, but by his own admission he has purposely obscured them (because, let's be honest: the topic is controversial, to say the least).
Okay, first off, the very first sentence is a bit of a red herring in context. The notion that this girl "took herself to wait five years" refers to the fact that she had already promised herself not to have sex until after she had graduated high school. It doesn't have much of anything to do with the song's narrator, as it was something she decided before she ever met him.
Then we move on strictly to his point-of-view. He has fallen for a very young girl--13, I'm guessing, since it would take a 13-year-old five years to reach the age of consent. When the narrator says, "This is just code to decipher," what he's really saying is, there are clues to the girl's age in the song if you're paying attention, the first and most prominent being the five years that serves as the song's leitmotif. But there are other clues too.
One of the biggest ones is the reference to the Piper. The most famous in all of literature is the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and if you know the story, then you know that the Piper wound up leading all of the town's children away from town after the townspeople refused to pay him for ridding it of rats. This is a pretty solid metaphor for the idea that it would be easy for the narrator to lead this girl (who probably has a major crush on him) down the wrong path. Kids are easy to manipulate and that's the point there. So, when he says he chased the Piper, he means he chased off the temptation to take this girl before her time.
As for the Plowman, in The Canterbury Tales the Plowman was a symbol of great virtue. Thus, when the narrator "found his Plowman" he means that he found his virtue and resisted temptation. Thus, "Found my Plowman, chased the Piper" are really just two ways of saying the same thing.
Another clue is, "hold my heart like a hot potato." Hot Potato is, of course, a game famously played by children. Thus, this girl has the narrator's heart in her hands, but she is too young to know what to do with it.
Finally, the biggest clue comes in the form of one of the people advising him: her teacher. Who has teachers? Adults usually do not. This is a young girl still of school age.
His final realization about all of this is that, five years after the fact, when the girl finally reaches maturity, she is no longer interested in him: "The first five years go by and we are no longer here." Thus, he decides, "I blame myself for not taking steps to draw her near. I try to decide what to do now based on love not fear." He's saying he should've seized the opportunity while he had it, struck while the iron was hot, so to speak. Instead of being afraid of the consequences, next time he will make his move based on his heart, not his head.
Now, please keep in mind that this song is just a song. It deals with a difficult theme, and it's point is somewhat obscured, but it says nothing about Brent Knopf, okay? Just so that's clear.