So you've been to school for a year or two
You think you know it all
In daddy's car, thinkin` you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl

Play ethnicity jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five grand stereo
Bragging that you know

How the brothers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear,
Your piss and shit won't save you here

Brace yourself, my dear.....
Brace yourself, my dear.....
It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough kid but it's life

Holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly sneech,
You suck like a leech

You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
But your boss gets richer off you

You'll work harder,
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers 'til you starve

Then you head's skewered on a stake
Now you can go,where people are one
Now you can go,where they get things done

Brace yourself, my dear.....
Brace yourself, my dear.....

It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where people dress in black
Holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll conform or crack

Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot..........
Holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what your told
Holiday in Cambodia
Where the slum's got so much soul


Lyrics submitted by xEarthx

Holiday in Cambodia Lyrics as written by Jello Biafra Bruce Slesinger

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Holiday In Cambodia song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

3 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    This version of Holiday In Cambodia is way better than dead kennedy's version of this song.....Awesome song....You should hear it

    xEarthxon June 09, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Not better than DK, not by a long shot...

    gofuckyourselfon May 13, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Earth Crisis, what a shit band.

    They changed "niggers" to "brothers". Give me a fucking break.

    subverton May 13, 2007   Link

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

Album art
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
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.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Mountain Song
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."
Album art
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Album art
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it. “I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.