This song was sort of inspired by a young woman I interacted with who seemed to be oscillating between a decision to go out into the world and grow or a decision to stay put and settle for life the way it was. I don't know what sort of responsibility it makes me feel, or who I am to put my two cents into someone else's life, but I always feel claustrophobic when I think about a person stagnating. Anyway, some of the lines form the song: I was walking in a parking lot of a grocery store and a young man almost walked directly into me because he was staring into the abyss of his phone. I stepped out of the way to dodge him and it startled him. He was very neat and hipster-looking, and I thought to myself, "He's just too cool for school." That morphed into "too hip for heaven." Heaven rhymes with eleven, and that made me think of the film This is Spinal Tap, which is largely a parody about the bizarre, overly masculine but identity terrified world of hair metal and the macho jerks that mindlessly flaunt themselves. That seems to go hand in hand with a lifestyle of loud - loud music, loud talking, loud thoughts, loud loud loud. The noise tends to overshadow anything real. So there it is.
I remember when the best you thought that
you could do was marry soon;
you never even knew if you'd like kids.
And I will keep your secret
You should leave - don't believe them.
They never paid attention like you did.
They were always heavy with the noise
Theirs go to eleven
Theirs go to eleven and they're willing to bet it.
The petty choir boys are too hip for heaven,
Too hip for heaven - you just wouldn't get it.
Better figure it out before your mother gets back
From the pawn and the dealer at the laundromat.
There's not a lot of time to think twice out there.
Don't you even dare look backwards.
You were staying in the old hotel
and both your sisters shared the same bed.
You don't mind sleeping on the floor.
And these little nightmares that they scream about
Don't amount to much,
Considering the ones outside the door.
They were always heavy with the noise
Theirs go to eleven
Theirs go to eleven and they're willing to bet it.
The petty choir boys are too hip for heaven,
Too hip for heaven - you just wouldn't get it.
Better figure it out before your mother gets back
From the pawn and the dealer at the laundromat.
If you're gonna try to find the good life out there,
Don't you even dare look backwards.
And while you wait around here
dreaming of the day your luck will change,
the world moves on around you.
No one comes looking for you.
The simple minded notion that you are lost and broken is so strange.
They never listen.
They were always heavy with the noise
Theirs go to eleven
Theirs go to eleven and they're willing to bet it.
The petty choir boys are too hip for heaven,
Too hip for heaven - you just wouldn't get it.
Better figure it out before your mother gets back
From the pawn and the dealer at the laundromat.
Just let all of the mad words hang in the air.
Don't you even dare look backwards.
by Ryan David Orr - 2020