its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
It's times like these when a neck looks for a knife
A wrist for a razor, a heart is longing for bullets
Tension is high under sea and over sky
Pressure drop, people are acting foolish
Ooh - but it's easy to see!
Ooh - we could dance and be free.
Ooh - to that 2-tone beat!
But it looks like it's gone...
Gangsters and clowns with a stereotyped sound
It's coming like a ghosst town - someone always knew it
Hatred and shame, a racialist game
Cycles of blame - someone sang me through it.
Who? well it's easy to see.
Ooh - we could dance to be free.
Ooh - to that 2-tone beat!
But it looks like it's gone...
I asked Jerry, he told Terry, Terry sang a song just for me,
Lynvall gave a message to me,
Rhoda screamed and then she asked me,
"Where have all the rude boys gone?"
A wrist for a razor, a heart is longing for bullets
Tension is high under sea and over sky
Pressure drop, people are acting foolish
Ooh - but it's easy to see!
Ooh - we could dance and be free.
Ooh - to that 2-tone beat!
But it looks like it's gone...
Gangsters and clowns with a stereotyped sound
It's coming like a ghosst town - someone always knew it
Hatred and shame, a racialist game
Cycles of blame - someone sang me through it.
Who? well it's easy to see.
Ooh - we could dance to be free.
Ooh - to that 2-tone beat!
But it looks like it's gone...
I asked Jerry, he told Terry, Terry sang a song just for me,
Lynvall gave a message to me,
Rhoda screamed and then she asked me,
"Where have all the rude boys gone?"
Lyrics submitted by knifefight
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
Siberian Kiss
Glassjaw
Glassjaw
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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."
There is a lot more going on in the song. If anyone remembers back to the 90's ska music was getting pretty popular in the United States. This is what was often referred to as the Third Wave of ska. Ska originated in Jamaica in the 60's and experienced a brief revival in England in the late 70's. This revival was also called 2 Tone, after the label responsible for the new found interest in the genre.
This song is full of ska references, but in general its about the disappearance of ska music and what the music meant to Mr. Leo. Ska has always been about unity, and it was upbeat and positive and uplifting and you could dance to it.
I'm probably missing a lot of the references but in the first verse Pressure Drop is the name of a Toots and Maytals song. Gangsters is the name of a song by the Specials, Clowns I think is referencing the English Beat cover of Tears of a Clown, Sterotyped Sound, stereotype is another song by the Specials so is Ghost Town. In the Chorus, Jerry is Jerry Dammers, organ player for the Specials and founder of 2 Tone records. Terry Hall and Lynval Golding of the Specials are also mentioned. As is Rhoda Dakar, who isn't a Special but recorded a song with them in 1982 called The Boiler.