Lyrics to
Cheapskates

This version of Cheapskates was released by The Clash in 1978.

Visit the The Clash Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the Cheapskates lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by The Clash.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Clash or about the 1970s in general.

I have been a washer up
An’ he has been a scrubber up
An’ I seen him a picking up
Dog ends in the rain
An’ he has never read a book
Though I told him to take a look
He lifted his poolhall cue
For another game
But it ain’t no modern miracle
That we found the golden rule
What you can’t buy you gotta steal
An’ what you say can’t steal you better leave

I don’t like to hang about
In this lonely room
‘Cos london is for going out
And trying to hear a tune
But people come pouncing up to me
And say what are you doing here
You’re supposed to be a star
Not a cheapskate bleeding queer

Like a load of rats from a sinking ship
You slag us down to save your hip
But you don’t give me the benfit
Of your doubt
‘Cos I’ll bite it off and spit it out

We’re cheapskates anything’ll do
We’re cheapskates what are we supposed to do?
An’ we can rock
Hey hey let’s roll
An’ we can walk
An’ do the stroll

Just because we’re in a group
You think we’re stinking rich
‘N we all got model girls
Shedding every stitch
‘N You think the cocaine’s flowing
Like a river up our noses
‘N every sea will part for us
Like the red one did for Moses

Well I hope you make it one day
Just like you always said you would some day
And I’ll get out my money and make a bet
That I’ll be seein’ you down the launderette

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The Clash has released many songs over the years besides Cheapskates. The Clash released songs from 1977 to 1993 spanning across albums like The Clash, Give 'em Enough Rope, London Calling, Sandinista!, Combat Rock, Cut The Crap, and Super Black Market Clash. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Clash.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Cheapskates by The Clash

The lyrics to Cheapskates are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Clash used when the song was created in 1978. The lyrics to Cheapskates have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Clash and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Cheapskates by The Clash. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Cheapskates" means the words set to the music of Cheapskates, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Clash. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Cheapskates and the lyrics to Cheapskates are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Clash who came here looking just for the lyrics to Cheapskates, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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