"Playgirl" is a stripper who plays men for money. She's a small town girl who wants to get out of it by dancing. She doesn't like what she's doing but fakes it by snorting coke. She dances for men when she could "be alone". And she's young but lives a hard lifestyle that most young girls don't ("why are you sleeping in Tomorrow's world")
The "northern lights catch you coming down" refers her coming down off of cocaine and she smokes ciggarettes to keep her buzz up ("choking on cigarettes to get you along").
She is like a "foreign coin on a telephone box" because she is trying to fit an image that isn't her (like using a foreign quarter in a payphone---you think it'll work but it doesn't)
Her life is "a question mark on a calendar" because she's fallen into the lifestyle and will never get out of her small town. It also symbolizes that she's no longer planning her future and instead lives day-by-day to feed her drug addiction.
"An empty seat on the alpha line" refers to her place in "civilian" society that she left behind to become a working girl.
"A sorting code, an account number" is what drives her through life in order to fuel her chemical needs.
The song suggests that money is never easy and that you'll always fall into the stripper lifestyle, no matter how "good" you are or how many dreams you have...you'll throw them away in the end.
"Playgirl" is a stripper who plays men for money. She's a small town girl who wants to get out of it by dancing. She doesn't like what she's doing but fakes it by snorting coke. She dances for men when she could "be alone". And she's young but lives a hard lifestyle that most young girls don't ("why are you sleeping in Tomorrow's world")
The "northern lights catch you coming down" refers her coming down off of cocaine and she smokes ciggarettes to keep her buzz up ("choking on cigarettes to get you along").
She is like a "foreign coin on a telephone box" because she is trying to fit an image that isn't her (like using a foreign quarter in a payphone---you think it'll work but it doesn't)
Her life is "a question mark on a calendar" because she's fallen into the lifestyle and will never get out of her small town. It also symbolizes that she's no longer planning her future and instead lives day-by-day to feed her drug addiction.
"An empty seat on the alpha line" refers to her place in "civilian" society that she left behind to become a working girl.
"A sorting code, an account number" is what drives her through life in order to fuel her chemical needs.
The song suggests that money is never easy and that you'll always fall into the stripper lifestyle, no matter how "good" you are or how many dreams you have...you'll throw them away in the end.