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Dead End Street Lyrics
There's a crack up in the ceiling
And the kitchen sink is leaking
Out of work and got no money
A Sunday joint of bread and honey
What are we living for
Two-roomed apartment on the second floor
No money coming in
The rent collector's knocking, trying to get in
We are strictly second class
We don't understand
(Dead end)
Why we should be on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are living on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
On a cold and frosty morning
Wipe my eyes and stop me yawning
And my feet are nearly frozen
Boil the tea and put some toast on
What are we living for
Two-roomed apartment on the second floor
No chance to emigrate
I'm deep in debt and now it's much too late
We both want to work so hard
We can't get the chance
(Dead end)
People live on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are dying on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
(Dead end)
People live on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are dying on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Head to my feet (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
How's it feel (yeah)
How's it feel (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
And the kitchen sink is leaking
Out of work and got no money
A Sunday joint of bread and honey
Two-roomed apartment on the second floor
No money coming in
The rent collector's knocking, trying to get in
We don't understand
(Dead end)
Why we should be on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are living on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
Wipe my eyes and stop me yawning
And my feet are nearly frozen
Boil the tea and put some toast on
Two-roomed apartment on the second floor
No chance to emigrate
I'm deep in debt and now it's much too late
We can't get the chance
(Dead end)
People live on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are dying on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
People live on dead end street
(Dead end)
People are dying on dead end street
(Dead end)
Gonna die on dead end street
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Head to my feet (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
How's it feel (yeah)
How's it feel (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
Dead end street (yeah)
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Nobody seemed to really write and sing pop songs about British life the way it REALLY was in the 60's the way Ray Davies did. Perhaps that is why the Kinks didn't have the same sort of commercial success many of their contemporaries had, but hey, the subject matter in a Kinks song like this one was real and told it like it was.
Fast forward to the late 70's when Punk exploded and the bands then covered Kinks songs because the same issues were still relevant. (You didn't find The Jam covering Beatles songs, even if they were influenced by them... )
Brilliant stuff here. By the way, the BBC banned the video for this tune. Deemed too morbid!
Ray's nostalgic view of the London he recalled from his childhood. It is kind of depressing in a way. Regardless, its a great song.
yo. good song. kind of depressing.
Yeah only kinda depressing. Great song though true testament to Ray's genius.
lolabat...the jam may not have covered the beatles but they blatently copied them...Start is Taxman with different lyrics.
I like Bob Geldof's commentary about the song and '60s life: "We fondly imagine that it was all Austin Powers then. It wasn't. It was shit for most of us."
I realised the other day that this song is one of the very few 60s songs influenced by the Kitchen Sink vogue in the late 50s/early 60s. It began on the stage with Look Back In Anger, percolated to books like Room At The Top, Saturday Night Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life, then to movies, as all these books were successful films, and then belatedly to pop in the form of Dead End Street. Having spent the early 60s living at both ends of Kings Road, Chelsea, the heart of Swinging London, I was quite surprised later in life to find that most people's experience, as Sir Bob is quoted as saying, didn't find this era as much fun as I did.
Hardly nostalgic unless you were a masochist hehe
Conveys the image of life of less well off people vividly.
It always thought it was a pretty harsh attack on the rat-race, and the dificulty of getting out of the oppresive, endlessly cyclical period. Appropriate today for students with huge student debts looming over them when they leave University...
The idea of "Dead End" is pretty depressing - the idea that there's no future, no incentives to be drawn from life. Isn't this reminiscent of one of the biggest failings of Soviet Russia?
The Clash used this riff in "London Calling".
True, and probably where they got it from.
True, and probably where they got it from.