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.
Keep your eyes wide open, babe
If you decide to take the long walk
My city screams of danger
And you're on borrowed time
It comes from a jealous clock
And you're a permanent stranger
So the last of the wild frontier kings
Is held for further questioning
When nothing's left but death and taxes
The matter of the real fact is
You go through life as someone's doormat
Cause you don't get no sportin' chance
There ain't much distance 'tween a pat on the back
And a kick in the pants
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Now do you talk the talk?
Yes I do!
I do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Lemme see ya do it one time...
Some self-made guy gets it in the ass
At the local mini-mall
Looks more like a warning than an example
And late at night
They said he used to sleep the sleep of the just
I sleep the sleep of the just after
They said the wild boys go head to head
And like the good book says be quick or dead!
So ante up or let 'em go
Cause I'm filing charges on your soul
It's just a joke and you're the punchline
Yeah, the streets are a million laughs
And if I must, well in, God I trust
Everybody else gotta pay cash
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you talk the talk?
Let me hear ya!
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Now purely off the record, man
Yeah, I figured I was gonna go down
And get a little breakfast
At the local Taco Truck
Yeah, my guise could use some refinement
But I'm on a self improvement kick these days
So what the fuck?
Hey man, there was a line behind me
A line behind me
Yeah they always try to nail ya
Mom, God, Pie the whole routine
Well here's a little trick that'll never fail ya
In your time of need
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Yeah, can you talk the talk, baby?
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Lemme see you walk the walk!
Walk it!
Are ya, are ya, are ya ready boots?
Start walkin'
Scuse me, but I'm new in town
I was wonderin' if I could get directions to your place?
There goes the neighborhood
If you decide to take the long walk
My city screams of danger
And you're on borrowed time
It comes from a jealous clock
And you're a permanent stranger
So the last of the wild frontier kings
Is held for further questioning
When nothing's left but death and taxes
The matter of the real fact is
You go through life as someone's doormat
Cause you don't get no sportin' chance
There ain't much distance 'tween a pat on the back
And a kick in the pants
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Now do you talk the talk?
Yes I do!
I do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Lemme see ya do it one time...
Some self-made guy gets it in the ass
At the local mini-mall
Looks more like a warning than an example
And late at night
They said he used to sleep the sleep of the just
I sleep the sleep of the just after
They said the wild boys go head to head
And like the good book says be quick or dead!
So ante up or let 'em go
Cause I'm filing charges on your soul
It's just a joke and you're the punchline
Yeah, the streets are a million laughs
And if I must, well in, God I trust
Everybody else gotta pay cash
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you talk the talk?
Let me hear ya!
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Now purely off the record, man
Yeah, I figured I was gonna go down
And get a little breakfast
At the local Taco Truck
Yeah, my guise could use some refinement
But I'm on a self improvement kick these days
So what the fuck?
Hey man, there was a line behind me
A line behind me
Yeah they always try to nail ya
Mom, God, Pie the whole routine
Well here's a little trick that'll never fail ya
In your time of need
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Yeah, can you talk the talk, baby?
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Lemme see you walk the walk!
Walk it!
Are ya, are ya, are ya ready boots?
Start walkin'
Scuse me, but I'm new in town
I was wonderin' if I could get directions to your place?
There goes the neighborhood
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
The Dogtown Shuffle Lyrics as written by David Lee Roth Steve John Hunter
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
The moniker "Dogtown" is associated with late 1970s-mid 1980s skateboarding culture of Southern California, (i.e. in Los Angeles.)
David Lee Roth's Van Halen (i.e. Van Halen's music from 1978-1984, pre-Sammy Hagar,) emerged from the same Southern California youth culture as "Dogtown," (albeit a few miles away in Pasadena, CA,)
Early Van Halen's sense of aggressive fun, wanderlust, and technical virtuosity were all characteristics embraced and embodied by Dogtown. More than any other rock band of the time, Van Halen came to be associated with that formative period of skateboarding.
"The Dogtown Shuffle" was written by then-former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in 1990. In the song's lyrics, Roth looks back on what compelled kids around his age to become part of "Dogtown." His conclusion is the opposite of what he described in "Just Like Paradise."
In the "Dogtown Shuffle" Roth describes LA as a dangerous city that treats the lyrics' protagonists (kids from Dogtown) as nuisances or worse -- and protagonists who want to escape boredom, seek challenges to prove themselves, and back up their talk by "walking the walk," so to speak.
Roth describes how the Dogtown youth culture was shaped by homelessness, drugs, and parents who treated their children as ne'er-do-wells -- parents for whom there's not too much difference between "a pat on the back" and kicking them out on the street.
Roth, of course, saw "the Dogtown Shuffle" relatively up-close. Although he was playing in a band, many of these people were his age, his friends, or just slightly younger... And his music was the soundtrack to their lifestyle.