Lyrics to
Setting Me Up

This version of Setting Me Up was released by Dire Straits in 1978.

Our About Dire Straits page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Setting Me Up from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Dire Straits that we have in our lyrics database.

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

You say I’m the greatest bound for glory
Well the word is out and I learned
I got the latest side of the story
You’re pulling out before you get burned

Well your hands are squeezing me down to the bone
I never saw you breaking no law
Stands to reason I’ve got to leave you alone
What you take me for

You’re setting me up to put me down
You’re making me out to be your clown
You’re just setting me up to put me down
You better give it up
Quit your messing around

You think I care about your reaction
You think I don’t understand
All you wanted was a piece of the action
Now you talk about another man

---

Dire Straits has released many songs over the years besides Setting Me Up. Dire Straits released songs from 1978 to 1991 spanning across albums like Dire Straits, Communique, Making Movies, Love Over Gold, ExtendedancEPlay, Brothers In Arms, and On Every Street. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Dire Straits.

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

About Lyrics and Setting Me Up by Dire Straits

The lyrics to Setting Me Up are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Dire Straits used when the song was created in 1978. The lyrics to Setting Me Up have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Dire Straits 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 Setting Me Up by Dire Straits. 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 Setting Me Up" means the words set to the music of Setting Me Up, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Dire Straits. 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 Setting Me Up and the lyrics to Setting Me Up are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Dire Straits who came here looking just for the lyrics to Setting Me Up, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Dire Straits

Visit our Dire Straits profile for more Dire Straits songs, lyrics & info!

)