Black Boy Lane

Blackboy Lane is a street off West Green Road in Tottenham, North London. I here Doherty has lived in the area on and off over the last few years. To me it's clearly a reference to his drug addiction and the purchase off hard drugs. Blackboy Lane, BTW, is near a park so this would give credence to the geographical reference.

its think its about racism instead. He mentions that the man has a cage on his door. The outro also goes,

"buts true hearts and minds and melodies i said to cure a known melodies, and oh it wont be long ti the black boys have won, its where true hearts and minds and melodies oh be gone."

No i dont think this about racism at all, the outro bit goes 'it wont be long till the whole of black boy lane belongs to true hearts and minds and melodies oh...' so there is no mention of 'black boys' what so ever. For me this is one of Pete's darkest, he sounds totally haunted by this lane 'I ain't going back to BBL, There must be some other way!' he sounds really scared. The lyrics also miss the lines

'16 Track-suits coming up my lane, 16 Track-suits coming up my lane,

There's the men; the ones you must lay, In which you must lay down and die, ..... Oh as opposed to strutting all day, Strutting all night, Strutting on 'brown,' Strutting on 'white,'

which is clear references to taking drugs, and people coming up for drug money, maybe with guns and violence?

Its not about racism at all. It's about blackboy lane in N15. I know because Pete told me. Naggers your a muppet.

Blackboy lane... Crack cocaine...

Rhyming slang. It's just a drugs song, but Pete's also showing that he's worried about urban 'blockbuster' music taking over from proper rock music etc.

That's what I reckon anyway..

I'd hope it wouldn't be about racism! If so it wouldn't be making any kind of statement about it... it would just be racist.

I agree that it's about the ACTUAL Lane. Also in demo I have it says something like "but the bed...this is the bed that you must lay" rather than about men, but maybe that's a different version.

The the bit about the "fella I knew" I first thought could be about himself, how he's not really a person, because of the drugs... but I guess a more obvious meaning would be that this is a reference to the drug dealer.

i always took it as about prostitution? they wrote "dilly boys" so it's not totally implausible. it does sort of work: you don't wanna go back, there's gotta be another way, you need drugs desperately but you can't figure out how to get them, then some guy calls and says "are you dancing today?" ie, are you working. "the bed you have made is the bed in which you must lay" works too, both literally and metaphorically. it's definitely about doing something you don't want to do for drugs.

it's pretty bleak, anyway. the hopeful outro makes it even sadder.