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Living on a Thin Line Lyrics
All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old,
But there's no England now.
All the wars that were won and lost,
Somehow don't seem to matter very much anymore.
All the lies we were told,
All the lies of the people running round,
Their castles have burned.
I see change,
But inside we're the same as we ever were.
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Living this way, each day is a dream.
What am I, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Now another century nearly gone,
What are we gonna leave for the young?
What we couldn't do, what we wouldn't do,
It's a crime, but does it matter?
Does it matter much, does it matter much to you?
Does it ever really matter?
Yes, it really, really matters.
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Now another leader says:
"Break their hearts and break some heads".
Is there nothing we can say or do?
Blame the future on the past,
Always lost in bloody guts.
And when they're gone, it's me and you.
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line.
The song is about the fall of England from greatness in the mid 20th Century,
@BARDRICK I don't agree, they seem more worried about ensuring that future generations have a peaceful society and don't have to endure the wars that the English had throughout a lot of the 20th century.
@BARDRICK I don't agree, they seem more worried about ensuring that future generations have a peaceful society and don't have to endure the wars that the English had throughout a lot of the 20th century.
@sokorny That doesn't explain the sense of lamentation or the lines about no more England. It alludes to a sense of being lost. The lyrics ask people if traditional sources of meaning matter to them anymore; we assume the answer is "no" and the lyrics then ask us what is left to do.
@sokorny That doesn't explain the sense of lamentation or the lines about no more England. It alludes to a sense of being lost. The lyrics ask people if traditional sources of meaning matter to them anymore; we assume the answer is "no" and the lyrics then ask us what is left to do.
As for your "future generations," the lyrics allude to castles--the lives, lies, stories, meanings, and traditions passed down through generations. So the question seems to be, what are we passing down to the next generation? Nothing, is the answer (there's no England now.)...
As for your "future generations," the lyrics allude to castles--the lives, lies, stories, meanings, and traditions passed down through generations. So the question seems to be, what are we passing down to the next generation? Nothing, is the answer (there's no England now.)
I think this song uses the metaphor of war and castles to talk about the precariousness of life. We can surround us with goods and merits, spending time and efforts of our lives to achieve goals that, in the end, are just fruitless or can vanish as thin air.
Otherwise is also good to symbolize the value of human life: we rarely realise the luck of being alive, except when we risk to fall from the thin line!
Producers of the Soprano couldn't choose a better song! Gangsters' life can be risky and exciting for some aspects, but they follow a wrong path: when they are successful they can be rich and powerful, but they keep on been empty inside, no value nor consolation can fullfil that hole! The charachters of the series must really feel in this way the lyrics of the song!
It has nothing to do with living on a "thin line," as in paycheck to paycheck. The thin line is a moral one. Meaning, what good is it to exist as individuals if we have no sense of national or social or cultural identity? Without these traditional anchors, an individual is left floundering in life with nothing but a sense of meaninglessness. Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
@James03
@James03
Ohhhh yesssssssss.. Tradition or not, I just BEG FOR MORE, MORE, MORE.
Ohhhh yesssssssss.. Tradition or not, I just BEG FOR MORE, MORE, MORE.
SEXUALLY.
SEXUALLY.
I think most of you guys are overthinking this. To me, this song is very clearly about how short life is. Over the timeline of history, the length of our lives is just a “thin line”. The narrator is thinking about all the people who fought all these battles, conquered castles, etc. in England over the centuries. But they’re gone now and very little is remembered about them, and certainly for the vast majority of individuals who ever lived. So based on how short our lives are, living on this thin line, what are we supposed to do?
He doesn’t directly answer it, but I would say recognize the brevity of life, appreciate it, and live our lives to the fullest. Make each day count. And think about the kind of world we are leaving for our children, as he alludes to in the 2nd verse. Because we’re living on this thin line, there’s not very much we can do over the grand course of history, but we should still do what we can to help future generations have a better world.
Because inaction would be a crime, and it DOES matter what we do in our lives, even though we’re living on this very thin line. 😇
(Absolutely love this song, and also discovered it through the Sopranos lol, although I’ve loved the other Kinks songs I’ve heard.)
I think this song was on the sopranos?
Not sure, but it certainly is good!
Yup, this song was on The Sopranos. Used during the rolling credits at the end of an episode (Can't remember the episode though).
episode 'University'. good song, great idea to play in the scene in the stripbar, right after the murder of the stripper.
o jesus! so awesome in the stripclub. i just finished the sopranos the other day-i'm gonna miss it so bad. awesome song.
Could this song have anything to do with the Falklands war? Some of the lyrics could be directed at Thatcher. Any Kinks fan who knows when this song was first recorded? (Saw this on Sopranos, also)
@Coolgangster It's not a dig at Thatcher because she did nothing wrong. The lyrics appear to bemoan the loss of a uniquely English identity and sense of mission that could have reasserted our place in world history, as the Iron Lady attempted to do.
@Coolgangster It's not a dig at Thatcher because she did nothing wrong. The lyrics appear to bemoan the loss of a uniquely English identity and sense of mission that could have reasserted our place in world history, as the Iron Lady attempted to do.