I got it bad
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should
The cold is biting
Through each and every nerve and fibre
My broken spirit is frozen to the core
I don't want to be here no more

Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?

You must be joking
You don't know a thing about it
You've got no problem
I'd stay right there if I were you
I got it harder
You couldn't dream how hard I got it
Stay out of my shoes
If you know what's good for you
The heat is stifling
Burning me up from the inside
The sweat is coming through each and every pore
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more

Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?

I got it bad
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should


Lyrics submitted by sage_morphine, edited by eucalypt

Wouldn't It Be Good Lyrics as written by Nik Kershaw

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Wouldn't It Be Good song meanings
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7 Comments

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  • +10
    General Comment

    It's purely about "the grass" being "greener" on the other side. How we imagine things would be better "if only..." instead of loving what we have and who we already are.

    I always loved this song and the video from the eighties. Now, I hear something that I didn't at a younger age.

    It's a two-sided dialogue. One party is telling how they are struggling and unhappy: restless.

    The other party is the chorus: Those who think it would "be good" to be the first party.

    The former tries to explain their eror, but the chorus remains unchanged each time. I imagine a celebrity and their fans. Artists make their work look easy, and fans imagine that it truly would be all "good" if they could live their imagined perceptions of a celebrity's life.

    The video was always eerie and omenous to me, and now I see a bit more... The character constantly reflects and carries the experiences of others right within his person. It's not something he can control, and yet it is what drives him. Others wish they could be in his place, though he tells them that it's not all that they imagine it to be. He lives, like an alien, among others and eventually must return to from wherever he came, possibly as only energy when he finds a device that can take him home.

    It's a pretty somber theme to me.

    -Phase

    warmPhaseon July 06, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Adore this song...

    mirandajuneon August 12, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    When I first heard the song, I was a kid. I thought about WWI, how there were the Germans facing the British in the trenches, and how each side felt.

    "I got it bad You don't know how bad I got it"

    and

    "You must be joking You don't know a thing about it"

    Both sides have an idealised image of life on the other side. My childhood interpretation doesn't fit with the video, but it still means something to me.

    NotTheTruthon February 15, 2019   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    The video has more than a passing resemblance to The Man in the White Suit

    penwakenyorimoyasushion December 02, 2016   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    On first considering the lyrics recently, without remembering the video, is that it’s about mental illness, namely depression.

    sidwayneon October 15, 2019   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I\'ll be out in left field with this.\n\nAs a person who is autistic / Asperger\'s, these lyrics resonate hard with me. \n\nThe whole feeling of being an alien in the midst of people who you can talk to, but you either can\'t understand or those who can\'t understand you.\n\nTrying to \'fit in\' in an alien landscape.

    silicon212on March 18, 2022   Link
  • -1
    General Comment

    this song reminds me of the breakfast club

    koolestlozerevaon August 07, 2007   Link

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