Elevator goin' up
In the gleaming corridors of the fifty-first floor
The money can be made if you really want some more
Executive decision, a clinical precision
Jumping from the windows, filled with indecision
I get good advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice, party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
It's the pause that refreshes in the corridors of power
When top men need a top up long before the happy hour
Your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot
You won't need a launderette, you can take 'em to the vet!
I get my advice from the advertising world
"Treat me nice", says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
Koka Kola advertising and cocaine
Strolling down the Broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper, they're crazy
Yeah, suit your life, maybe so
In the White House, I know
All over Berlin, they do it for years
And in Manhattan
Coming through the door is a snub nose forty four
What the barrel can't snort it can spatter on the floor
Your eyeballs feel like pinballs
And your tongue feels like a fish
You're leapin' from the windows sayin'
"Don't get me none of this!"
Koke adds life, advertising world
"Treat me nice", says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
Hit the deck
In the gleaming corridors of the fifty-first floor
The money can be made if you really want some more
Executive decision, a clinical precision
Jumping from the windows, filled with indecision
I get good advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice, party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
It's the pause that refreshes in the corridors of power
When top men need a top up long before the happy hour
Your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot
You won't need a launderette, you can take 'em to the vet!
I get my advice from the advertising world
"Treat me nice", says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
Koka Kola advertising and cocaine
Strolling down the Broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper, they're crazy
Yeah, suit your life, maybe so
In the White House, I know
All over Berlin, they do it for years
And in Manhattan
Coming through the door is a snub nose forty four
What the barrel can't snort it can spatter on the floor
Your eyeballs feel like pinballs
And your tongue feels like a fish
You're leapin' from the windows sayin'
"Don't get me none of this!"
Koke adds life, advertising world
"Treat me nice", says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
Hit the deck
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To me, the core meaning of the song is an observation on being or becoming a career oriented person. I think the song describes the commitment required to being or becoming a high-power executive (or politician)...
ie. The money can be made if you really want some more
But often that commitment requires you to go against who you really are...
ie. Executive decision-a clinical precision
Jumping from the windows-filled with indecision
And that people lose themselves (their "life") in that world, and they resort to drugs to give them excitement or an escape from it...
ie. Coke adds life where there isn't any
I don't understand the last verse or the "freeze, man freeze" parts, the only thing I think is the subject of the song was sick of his whole work-drugs-work-drugs world and "went postal".
Now I work with scientists at a research facility. It no longer feels like I'm a handler in the venomous reptile house at the zoo.
...Not much more I can add.
- modern multinationals pushing products on consumers through advertising and hooking us like they're selling drugs
- the execs of these companies, the wall street yuppies, the world leaders, all actually being ON cocaine, feeding their own habit by fleecing everyone else
- the brilliant reference to Coca-Cola's history of actually using cocaine to hook customers to tie it all together.
The last line of the chorus ("freeze, man, freeze") and the last verse about the snub-nose .44 don't seem to fit at first, but they do make sense. The way I see it, he's saying you're getting robbed by coke-heads either way, whether one is coming through your door with a pistol, or you're paying for some product because advertising told you to. Every commercial you see is telling you to freeze and give up your money.
"So freeze!"-- referencing the numbing effect of coke.
You won't need a launderette, you can send them to the vet!" has to be one of the more underrated lines in the clash history