I'm a modern guy I don't care much for the go-go
Or the retro image I see so often telling me to
Keep trying maybe you'll get here someday
Keep up the working, ok.
I close the book on them right there

I see myself change as the days change over.
I hear the songs and the words don't change.
I write them out of the book right there.

We've been had, you say it's over.
Sometimes I'm just happy I'm older.
We've been had I know it's over.
Somehow it got easy to laugh out loud.

See me age 19 with some dumb haircut from
1960 moving to New York City
Live with my friends there we're all taking the same steps seems foolish now .

We've been had you say it's over.
Sometimes I'm just happy I'm older.
We've been had I know it's over.
Somehow it got easy to laugh out loud.


Lyrics submitted by punchyk, edited by karritevoyager

We've Been Had Lyrics as written by Matthew Frederick Barrick James Hamilton Leithauser

Lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Hipgnosis Songs Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

We've Been Had song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

33 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +5
    General Comment

    This song makes me think of the expectations that we have of the world when we're leaving highschool and then college. We're basically programmed into believing that our lives will be mapped out perfectly, until we later get out there and are slapped a couple of times by the 'real world'. It kind of sucks and make you feel as though...I don't know..maybe you've been had. lol

    ophelia219on March 04, 2003   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    As said above, this song just represents all of life's letdowns. As we grow up we are all led to believe things that are simply UNTRUE.

    We are led to believe that if we dont do drugs we will all be millionaires. We are led to believe that if we meet a girl and buy her flowers and treat her well....you will be in love forever.

    television and our school systems have a mass produced way of teaching people. We soon find out that "We've been had" and that everyone has their own path. Life is not the cookie cutter shape that we were told it will be given a few simple choices.

    No, college doesnt make you successfull. No, she may not love you and in fact...she may cheat on you.

    Life is life, not an afterschool special. We have all been had and no song represents this fact better than this one.

    danny_Horneyon March 21, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    I agree with ophelia. But i wanted to add one thing. The whole part about laughing out loud makes me thing, that after being in the 'real word', "we've been had", but now -after it's all happened, we're able to recognize the pettiness of it all- - and just laugh. =)

    anna118kon March 16, 2003   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    it's actually about him and his friends moving to NYC and forming johhnathan fire*eater and them breaking up in 1998.

    "See me age 19 with some dumb haircut from 1960 moving to New York City live with my friends there we're all taking the same steps seems foolish now . "

    VELVENhavion January 24, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    on the 4th line it is "keep up the work kid, ok"

    opifexon August 07, 2002   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    i think this song is taking pot shots at the indie garage rock type bands that now popular, like the hives and the strokes and the white stripes and so on. the bands with the 'retro image' and 'dumb haircits from 1960'

    louderthanbombson April 01, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    To the right is an Ads by Google ad for a French Saturn cars website, and this car was aired on a Canadian Saturn commerical for the Ion.

    The internet is a crazy thing.

    Oh yeah, good song, too.

    Cleanupinaisle3on June 17, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    this song is my "my life is going to hell but at least the scenery is pretty" anthem. =P

    it's all about seeing things screwing up and going wrong, or at least going the way you least expect them to turn out, yet still just laughing it off. if you don't laugh, you'll cry, so roll with the punches. you make mistakes, you screw yourself over, but in the end, life goes on... if you look at things from the angle of life being a joke, then things don't always seem so bad.

    i love the playground merry-go-round music box ice cream truck opening bars.

    delialon July 23, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I think Danny put it perfectly. This is one of my favorite songs, and you can see that you either have to laugh it off, or go insane that you can never get what they make seem so easy. I'm in college now and learning that first hand.

    Aurora7on July 24, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Great song with Great lyrics

    punchykon May 10, 2002   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Album art
Magical
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Album art
Blue
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.