Forty Dollars

I think your thoughts about this song are right on, musicgirl429.

According to interviews, Greg Dulli says that this song in particular was written as a character ("That's not me singing"). He wrote and recorded most of this album in New Orleans, being clean and sober for the first time in years. He said that, in New Orleans, there are codes for buying drugs. "40 dollars" and "love", he claims, are references to cocaine. It gives an interesting spin to "All you need is love" and "I got love for sale." I hate to be that guy that relates everything to drugs, but that's just what Greg Dulli has said.

...but then again, he has said a lot of things over the years.

I think this song is talking about how in society it seems like there's always a price tag on everything, and they're pointing out that it shouldn't be this way even know it is. In the beginning they're saying "buy me love for forty dollars" and "I got love for sale, come on get some before it gets stale"- I think this kind of poking fun at advertisements, and how they are always trying to get you to buy things before they go out of style and such. But then they say that "love is all you need, and all you need is love"- now I think this is how they truly feel, not how society feels. I guess they're just trying to say that it seems like the only thing in this world that you can get for free is love- which in the long run is the only thing that is important.

I'm just adding a little extension to what i wrote above because i thought this line was important. Okay, when he says "we go underground, cuz there's emptiness above"- i think he means how everything in the world seems so superficial and unfulfilled so he escapes it all by going underground with only the ones who truly love him.

I heard this was about a friend of Greg Dulli's who fell victim to a cocaine overdose. It ties in nicely with what negleketed was saying.

Also, I think it's TWO AM and not "two arm."

Well Dulli has been very candid about his drug use/abuse over the years & frankly I think his experiences in that realm have made his music all the more intriguing to me. This song is definitely about drugs & how low can you go.

I read in an interview with Greg that this was all just drug speak/code.

Greg Dulli in an AVclub interview

AVC: What is that song about? GD: It's a New Orleans thing. There's a couple dealers down there, and because of the undercover cops that run the nighttime bars, code words are used. "Love" is cocaine. "Love" costs $40. And "She loves you," "Love is all you need," that's all code.

GD embedded himself with drug dealers for a script and this song is the result. He carried a gun and saw a man killed. Interesting article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/greg-dulli-a-rock-survivor-404123.html

I like Beatles references in this song - "she loves you yeah-yeah-yeah", and "love is all you need, and all you need is love". I think that the song is reference to "The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love".

^Uh, the reference of 'all you need is love' is the Beatles song "All You Need is Love", where "She Loves You" is where the reference is 'she loves you / yeah yeah yeah'. Don't overthink it mate.