What do these lyrics mean?

I know this subject has been done to death. Probably even this very song, since it’s so old. However, I watched a YouTube video recently that stated that Maniac, from Flashdance, was originally a song about a serial killer that Michael Sembello changed a few words to fit the theme when he was asked for a song for the movie. So maybe we’ve got an explanation for the jacked up lyrics. I mean, really, a cold kinetic heat? At least that line sort of jibes with the visual of getting water splashed on you while you’re dancing in a steel mill.

However, I cannot parse:

It can cut you like a knife, if the gift becomes the fire
On a wire between will and what will be

Huh? Even Jay-Z’s “Thirty-eight revolve like the sun round the Earth” makes more pseudo sense if you’re talking about guns and bullets and, um, pre-Renaissance astrology. Plus, it’s rap. They only make sense about 75% of the time.

I think he was trying to be deep (in a disco song, no less) but what was he trying to be deep about? I dunno. Also, I’d love to know if I’m not the only one who listens to lyrics and think, huh? A lot of times I’ve misheard it but, just as many times, I heard it right, I just do not understand what the lyricist was trying to say.

The gift of talent that overtakes everything in a person’s life yet
the difference between succeeding or not can be razor thin.

Depending on how far you hoped to go and how close you got, “failure” can be devastating.

It is absolutely beautiful that you got this from that! My brain was absolutely stuck on ‘between will and what will be’ but you saw that that first ‘will’ was a noun.

It’s still a terrible lyric but now it makes sense,

Re Maniac

I’d heard it was originally intended for IIRC one of the Halloween films. When asked to work on Flashdance, the writer sent it in as a sample of his work. The director loved the song so much he insisted on a rewrite of the lyrics so it could be used in Flashdance.