I've got my eye on top shelf liquor,
With taste so smooth it
Hits you quicker.
But you've only got the well.

And I've got an eye for top tier women
With legs so long they go straight to heaven,
But this old bunch looks like hell.

But tonight I'll take what I can get.

I'd like to hear a great musician
With strange ideas and grand ambition,
But this guy, he's got trouble with chords.

And I'd like to leave this game a winner
Head held high, the luck of beginners
But this old losers crawling out on all fours.

But tonight I'll take what I can get.

Well this drink will do,
And girl you look all right,
And this band is playing like hell tonight.

These dice are loaded
And man I am too
I might be losing but I'm leaving soon.

With the prettiest girl
To enter this dump,
She drank all of the whiskey but she left me the rum
And tonight I'll take what I can get

I've got my sights on brand new beginnings
Brand new starts make saints of sinners
But I'm doomed to live in my past

Live nude girls says the sign out front,
But old dead dreams are dancing in front,
Of old dead dreamers with washed up luck,
Selling love for cash

Well tonight I'll take what I can get.

This old story gets stale and dry,
No matter how I try and try
To spin this fable
Fresh and new

You strung me along
Like a tease on prom night
Getting me loose but
Leaving me uptight
Please tell me that
Some of that love was true.

Tonight I'll take what I can get

Well this drink will do,
And girl you look all right,
And this band is playing like hell tonight.

These dice are loaded
And man I am too
I might be losing but I'm leaving soon.

With the prettiest girl
To enter this dump,
She drank all of the whiskey but she left me the rum
And tonight I'll take what I can get.


Lyrics submitted by JustNEmoKid

Tonight I'll Take What I Can Get song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

52 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    while i really like DC, but i REALLY hope that Chris is right in saying that all of their new songs don't sound like this- in a way i like it, but mostly it sounds like a country song. i don't mind a little bit of this but i don't think i would like very much. :-)

    gamsk8son October 13, 2002   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
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
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
When We Were Young
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.