Lyrics to
No Mean City

This version of No Mean City was released by Nazareth in 1979.

Our Decade Lyrics Nazareth profile has all of the No Mean City lyrics from 1979 and many more songs from the Nazareth discography that we have on file.

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

Stopped in fright at a traffic light
Red eyes staring me out
Strange feelings comin’ down tonight
Can’t quite figure it out
Fit your alibi before your crime
No need in serving no time
Case you scam, or you’ll get rammed
Stretched out on that line

Hangin’ out at a shooting site
Cold turkey calling a tune
All the answers coming late tonight
Try to look like you’re immune
In your eyes you can feel the heat
But the feelings outta touch
You’re working on just a holding on
You’re hurtin’ oh so much

Feel the city heartbeat, feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel the city heartbeat, can you feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel your own heartbeat
Can you feel your blood begin to heat?

Call off your dogs ’cause I am no fox
Turn off your white light
My alibi is rock tight
Your night stick, cheap trick is pullin’ me in
Your monkey suit, stage fright, black and white blue suit, law suit
Is wearin’, mighty thin

Feel the city heartbeat, feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel the city heartbeat, can you feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel your own heartbeat
Can you feel your blood begin to heat?

Borstal boy laughing at justice now he’s a star
And the perfume he wore lingers on the king’s road
Like a whore
Legs wrapped around a plastic stool
He’s making more in one day
Than you’ve had…….hot, hot dinners

Call out your legions, the savior is loose
Telling true stories you know that ain’t no use
Your empire is burning you can feel the smell
Your hot rod , space pod, tax relief, kill machine
Is looking mean
And should be working well

Feel the city heartbeat, feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel your own heartbeat
Can you feel the pulse in the streets
Can you feel your own heartbeat
Can you feel your blood begin to heat?

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Nazareth has released many songs over the years besides No Mean City. Nazareth released songs from 1971 to 1998 spanning across albums like Nazareth, Excercises, Razamanaz, Loud 'N' Proud, Rampant, Hair Of The Dog, Play 'N' The Game, Close Enough For Rock 'N' Roll, Expect No Mercy, No Mean City, Malice In Wonderland, The Fool Circle, 2XS, Sound Elixir, The Catch, Cinema, Snakes 'N' Ladders, No Jive, From The Vaults, Move Me, and Boogaloo. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Nazareth.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and No Mean City by Nazareth

When you decide to study the lyrics to No Mean City, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1979 song by Nazareth. Some of the lyrics to No Mean City have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Nazareth and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to No Mean City if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 No Mean City" means the words set to the music of No Mean City, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Nazareth. 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 No Mean City and the lyrics to No Mean City are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Nazareth who came here looking just for the lyrics to No Mean City, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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