This week's cash for last week's grass your crew collates
While you sit in the van and wait
Gassed and trashed and smashed, young cads roasting away
On a sunny summer day or, okay, an August night anyway

And you're living on air, while on the 25th floor up there
They'd fan a million bucks before your face
Marie's passed out in a chair with her once fussed-over hair
All mussed into an? I've just been fucked shape

Just an hour before, she crashed, all cashed
She said, I'm done with looking back, and you look your age
Which is thirty-seven, by the way, and not twenty-eight

And fucking let them stare because at this point I don't care
I have been your bride stripped bare since ?98
And our silver-screen affair, it weighs less to me than air
It's a gas now, it's a laugh, just how far several mil can take it

This week's fast as last week's flash of interstate
When you starved and never ate
This week's splashed a sick, gold cast across your face
As you roam on silk, ripped tippy-toe alone through Silver lake

Splayed astride a snow-white mare, on a non-stop all-night tear
What a ghastly sight you smear in every face
In that fat, fur-trimmed affair that your lawyer lets you wear
You'll destroy your chance to ever get repeatedly engaged


Lyrics submitted by smileforthecamera, edited by darianb1031

You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man Lyrics as written by Will Robinson Sheff

Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group

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You Can't Hold The Hand Of A Rock And Roll Man song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    Well, the first part is definitely a drug reference. The term "crew" is used in the vernacular hip-hop culture to mean "gang" or something close. The first stanza of this song would be addressed to a drug dealer. It refers to collecting money from marijuana that had been fronted to customers the prior week. Now, the word "collate" has a few different meanings. Mostly, it refers to clerical work, but you could also use it loosely to mean "put in order" or "recruit" if I understand correctly. So the drug dealer's crew is either collecting the money or recruiting new members. The drug dealer would remain in the vehicle and delegate tasks to subordinates.

    The second stanza continues this idea. "Cads" means people behaving dishonourably, as people in the drug scene often do. The idea of summer represents being carefree and not having true responsibility. And the concept of night is pretty self-explanatory in this context.

    I also agree that one of the lyrics should read "This week's fast is last week's flash of interstate" to fit a double meaning with the following line, and that the "snow-white mare" is a reference to cocaine. I'm not sure if the entire song is a portrayal of the hollywood lifestyle, but the middle certainly is. The person who is the main object of the song certainly lives that kind of lifestyle, but the drug references seem...separate somehow.

    I dunno, this is all just my oppinion, but I've been around that lifestyle before, and I'm almost 100% sure that I have the drug stuff right.

    mike

    mksnowboarderon February 10, 2009   Link

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