All in All (This One Last Wild Waltz) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by thirdshore 

Cover art for All in All (This One Last Wild Waltz) lyrics by Dexys Midnight Runners

Believe this song is about a school teacher that impressed Rowland. When he says "lower down" he means in a lower school class. At that time, the teacher was impressive, but as he got older, the teacher was less and less important to him. Probably the man was a disappointment also, as the jab about not smiling seems a little vindictive...

@thirdshore I had a completely different theory about this song. I thought it was from the viewpoint of a hooker who was dancing with her man / handler and finding that he owned her but had no tenderness for her. But now you mention it being about a teacher, I think maybe it might have been a music teacher. "All in all I'd say things have turned out good" that line being about his success as a pop star, then he says: "You still don't smile at me But then I never thought you would. You don't waste time on praise, when you...

@pinkyandrexa Music teacher... Perfect! Guess we'll never know...