Lyrics to
Slum Kids

This version of Slum Kids was released by The Kinks in 1974.

Our About The Kinks page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Slum Kids from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Kinks that we have in our lyrics database.

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

We’re just slum kids, and we know it,
And we never stood a chance.
We were dragged up from the gutter,
From the wrong side of the tracks.

So how dare you criticize,
When you don’t know what it’s like
To be dragged up from the gutter,
From the wrong side of the tracks.

Why do rich kids get all the breaks,
While the poor slum kids have to work, sweat, struggle and slave?
Why, Lord, there’s so much injustice in this world?
Slum kids never stand a chance.

Look at all the slum kids all around you,
Oh, they never stood a chance.
We were dragged up from the gutter,
From the wrong side of the tracks.

Why do rich kids get all the breaks,
While the poor slum kids have to work, sweat, struggle and slave?
Why, Lord, there’s so much injustice in this world?
Slum kids never stand a chance.

Look at all the slum kids all around you,
Oh, they never stood a chance.
We were dragged up from the gutter,
From the wrong side of the tracks.

So how dare you criticize,
When you don’t know what it’s like
To be dragged up from the gutter,
From the wrong side of the tracks.

---

Want more lyrics and songs by The Kinks?

The Kinks has released many songs over the years besides Slum Kids. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Slum Kids by The Kinks

The lyrics to Slum Kids are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Kinks used when the song was created in 1974. The lyrics to Slum Kids 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 Slum Kids 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 Slum Kids" means the words set to the music of Slum Kids, 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 Slum Kids and the lyrics to Slum Kids 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 Slum Kids, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by The Kinks

Visit our The Kinks profile for more The Kinks songs, lyrics & info!

)