How can you call a man a man
When you treat him like a dog?
And how can you call a man a man
When you kill him like a hog?
How can you call him an eternal soul
And grind him in the dirt?
And how can you say a fella's free
Chained down and tied to work?

She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play
She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play

How can you talk about equal rights
And jail the man that uses them?
How can you worship the rich man
That sees poor folks and refuses them?
How can you talk of freedom
And jail the man that talks it?
You kiss the man's ass that rides the road
And you jail the old boy that walks it

She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play
She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play

A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play

How can you like the United States
And kill us for unitin'?
How can you accuse us of being violent
When you start all the fightin'?
Every time we organize
You rich guys pull a fast one
Oh, we might lose many a fight
But we'll damn sure win the last one

She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play
She's upside down, she's broke apart
And getting worse every day
A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play

A working man's hand is the hardest card
In the whole damn deck to play


Lyrics submitted by rjbucs28

The Last One Lyrics as written by Tim Brennan Ken Casey

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

As One song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

12 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    No comments yet? So fucking gr8 song:) I like the dudes or whatever it is called in english:P dunno. Wtw..

    _MissVicious_on April 10, 2004   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
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in "There was a time you opened up every doorway you didn't mind if everything wasn't your way" then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else, "Don't pull away that goes against what you told me I look in your eyes I realize what you've sold me is love in a vacuum" so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it, "I think you've changed but you insist that that's not true" quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum", "You look so strange, so distant that you're hardly you Now I can see how you have been acting different You say it's me but I know that it isn't it's love in a vacuum" but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines "You will be lonely if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have, "Love in a vacuum and that's not enough love in a vacuum You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way You will be lonely if you leave me alone You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way it's just not enough" you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment, "You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way it's just not enough and just wait you will be lonely Love in a vacuum Love in a vacuum and that's not enough Love in a vacuum". 'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song. Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Album art
Jesse with the long hair....
Robert Earl Keen, Jr.
Classic love story true to his western tx roots. One of my favorites as a story, but I think there are alot of songs that are amazing not even listed on this site. I guess I should figure out how to add them, because I have about 8 REK cd's.
Album art
Siberian Kiss
Glassjaw
its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
Album art
The Spy
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Album art
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone). And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.