Lyrics to
Second-Hand Car Spiv

This version of Second-Hand Car Spiv was released by The Kinks in 1974.

Our Decade Lyrics The Kinks profile has all of the Second-Hand Car Spiv lyrics from 1974 and many more songs from the The Kinks discography that we have on file.

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Spiv: I was born a slum gutter infantile,
Brute-force educated, delinquent juvenile.
I am a product of mass produced factory fodder,
Streets full of tenement blocks, rat infested filth and squalor.
I left school, went straight on the dole
And unemployment’s no enjoyment,
Welfare State owned my mind and my body and my soul.
So I worked my way up to be a second-hand car spiv,
But don’t judge me harshly because I’m just a slum kid.
I built up my business with a quick wit and fist,
So don’t double-cross me or my hoods will dissect you
With their black jacks and shiv.
Slum kids never get a break, they’ve got to fight their way up.
Wheel and deal, beg and steal,
Sweat blood to earn a buck.
I didn’t want to work on the factory floor,
I wasn’t content, I wanted more
Than to be a slave of a lathe,
Work all day and go home bored.
So a second- hand car spiv was what I became.
I built an empire because I used my brains.

He was a second-hand car spiv up from the slums,
So don’t judge him harshly because he’s just a slum kid.
Then he moved into property, stocks and shares,

Spiv: And into high finance and you’ve got to agree
That running a multi-million corporation
Sure beats selling cars second-hand.

Once he sold old worn out heaps to the punters on the street,

Spiv: Now I’m in control of the country as a whole,
And the world is at my feet.

The world is at his feet.

Spiv: Power, power, I’ve got power oozing out of me,
And when you think of all the things I’ve done
It says a lot for one
Who worked his way up from the streets.
Yes I’m a second-hand car spiv.
Do a deal, buy and sell,
It’s my trade, I know it well.
Make a sale, ring the bell
And let the suckers go to hell.
Bank the profits, count the change
Another sucker comes your way.
Life is a crooked game,
And slum kids never change.

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The Kinks has released many songs over the years besides Second-Hand Car Spiv. The Kinks released songs from 1964 to 1993 spanning across albums like Kinks, Kinda Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One, Muswell Hillbillies, Percy, Everybody's In Show-Biz, Preservation Act I, Preservation Act II, Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, Give The People What They Want, State Of Confusion, Word Of Mouth, Think Visual, UK Jive, and Phobia. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Kinks.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Second-Hand Car Spiv by The Kinks

The lyrics to Second-Hand Car Spiv are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Kinks used when the song was created in 1974. The lyrics to Second-Hand Car Spiv have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Kinks 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 Second-Hand Car Spiv by The Kinks. 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 Second-Hand Car Spiv" means the words set to the music of Second-Hand Car Spiv, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Kinks. 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 Second-Hand Car Spiv and the lyrics to Second-Hand Car Spiv are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Kinks who came here looking just for the lyrics to Second-Hand Car Spiv, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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