The lovely thing about Neil's lyrics is that they often tell a story and at the same time have a deep, underlying meaning. Specifically here, Neil is singing about a night he spent in Amsterdam while on tour with Split Enz. He said in an interview that it was kind of a fun place to go because you could get all the weed you wanted and not have to worry about laws that seem rather useless here.
In terms of the meaning of the song, Neil toys with the idea of freedom and whether it's really all that great. Sure you can do whatever you want, but it's that much easier for people to take advantage of you, and when you really see what you can do–"every temptation up in lights" – it seems that much easier and more accepted to do it.
The lovely thing about Neil's lyrics is that they often tell a story and at the same time have a deep, underlying meaning. Specifically here, Neil is singing about a night he spent in Amsterdam while on tour with Split Enz. He said in an interview that it was kind of a fun place to go because you could get all the weed you wanted and not have to worry about laws that seem rather useless here.
In terms of the meaning of the song, Neil toys with the idea of freedom and whether it's really all that great. Sure you can do whatever you want, but it's that much easier for people to take advantage of you, and when you really see what you can do–"every temptation up in lights" – it seems that much easier and more accepted to do it.