Lyrics to
Wrong ’em Boyo

This version of Wrong ’Em Boyo was released by The Clash in 1979.

Our Decade Lyrics The Clash profile has all of the Wrong ’Em Boyo lyrics from 1979 and many more songs from the The Clash discography that we have on file.

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

Stagger Lee met Billy and they go down to gambling
Stagger Lee throwed seven
Billy said that he throwed eight
So Billy said, hey Stagger! I’m gonna make my big attack
I’m gonna have to leave my knife in your back

Why do you try to cheat?
And trample people under your feet
Don’t you know it is wrong?
To cheat the trying man
So you better stop, it is the wrong ’em boyo

You lie, steal, cheat and deceit
In such a small, small game
Don’t you know it is wrong

Billy Boy has been shot
And Stagger Lee’s come out on top
Don’t you know it is wrong
To cheat the trying man
To cheat Stagger man
You’d better stop
So you must start all over again-all over again
You got to play it, Billy, play, you got to play it, Billy, play
And you will find it is the right ’em boyo

But if you must lie and deceit
And trample people under your feet
Don’t you know it is wrong
It is the wrong ’em boyo

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The Clash has released many songs over the years besides Wrong ’Em Boyo. 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.

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About Lyrics and Wrong ’Em Boyo by The Clash

The lyrics for Wrong ’Em Boyo are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1979 song by The Clash. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Wrong ’Em Boyo have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Wrong ’Em Boyo - The Clash and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Wrong ’Em Boyo by The Clash in multiple ways. 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 Wrong ’Em Boyo" means the words set to the music of Wrong ’Em Boyo, 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 Wrong ’Em Boyo and the lyrics to Wrong ’Em Boyo 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 Wrong ’Em Boyo, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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