Raise your glass,
We have incorporated.
Place your bets,
We're all so sick of waiting.
Queen takes Jack,
You got me this time,
But I'll get you back.
So pick a number.

To all the ones who tried the most;
Was I supposed to cheer your efforts?
Sorry that I chose so poorly.
Golly gee, am I the poster girl?

She's the kind of girl who looks for love in all the lonely places.
The kind who comes to poker, pockets stuffed with kings and aces.
She's the kind of girl who only asks you over when its raining,
Just to make you lie there catching water dripping from the ceiling.

Lift your hats
Off to the checkout girls with tattooed backs;
They'd make an angel's skin crawl.
If you ask them for assistance,
Theres an even chance
You'll get a number.

To all the girls at pearl, the surly boys who get to masticate them;
I've a prize for each and every one of you, so just be patient.
To all the ones that hated me the most; a toast.
You really had me going for a second, I was nervous.
Boy, am I the poster girl.

Shes the kind of girl who gets her slings and arrows from the dumpster.
The kind who tells you shes bipolar just to make you trust her.
Shes the kind of girl who leaves out condoms on the bedroom dresser,
Just to make you jealous of the men she fucked before you met her.

To all the ones that thought they knew me best; a test to prove your prowess.
Who was mine in '99? I want last names and current status.

To all the ones that hated me the most; a toast.
You really had me going for a second, I was nervous.
Boy am I the poster girl for some suburban sickness,
Better keep a healthy distance.
Now it's up to you,
Know what to do,
It's pretty dirty business.



Lyrics submitted by anna118k

Track duration: 03:37

"Dirty Business" as written by Amanda Palmer

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Dirty Business song meanings
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69 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:for everyone wondering what she's yelling, from The Virginia Companion (and it's actually Brian!!):

    "After several failed attempts on my part in the studio to shout anything random that sounded "good", it was Sean Slade who suggested that I shout "Mishima" in time with the music. This was of course a nod to Yukio Mishima, the acclaimed Japanese playwright and poet, who committed seppuku after giving a speech intended to start coup d'etat. However you may interject any historical figure or gibberish of your choice."

    And in the sheet music the lyrics there are marked as "!!! !!!" .... so I wouldn't read too much into that, ha.

    Also may be of interest from the Virginia Companion:

    "This one lives, thematically, with "Backstabber," though it was written a few years earlier. I was filled with a weird brand of vitriol for a few years there and, with no recent breakup providing a handy target, I turned to whatever else was making me angry.

    White Suburban Girl Guilt dies hard.

    At the time, there was a collection of checkout girls at Pearl Art & Craft Supplies on Massachusetts Avenue. I wanted them to like me."

    These words haven't given me any epiphanies yet.... anyone else?!
    Flag smittenereston May 06, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Story of my life..
    Flag Erika144on October 26, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:I think it's about how fame or money corrupts. at the beginning she's drinking and playing cards she loses and then tells the person to "pick a number" which could be the personalities she's mentions throughout the song. Then she toasts the ones who aren't up to the "poster girl"'s level, but were trying. Then she talks about the people that hated her, but then acts as if that was in the past and now that she's on their level she can laugh about it and about the ones who haven't made it. But at the end she stops being fake and points out that the people that are now in her class are truly the fucked up ones, and that the ones being made fun of were her true people. "... am I the poster girl for some suburban sickness better keep a healthy distance" she doesn't want her sickness, money's corruption, to effect the ones that she used to know, the real people
    Flag dizzybloomon November 07, 2009   Link
  • 0
    Memory:"She's the kind of girl who looks for love in all the lonely places...
    She's the kind of girl who only asked you over when its raining
    Just to make you lie there catching water dripping from the ceiling...
    The kind who tells you she's bipolar just to make you trust her
    ...
    am I the poster girl
    for some suburban sickness
    Better keep a healthy distance"

    These parts really remind me of the character Lise from the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. She's slightly crazy and full of childish anger and pain.. She's rather rich but bored with life, and wants to do things like start fires and commit violent acts.. all in fancy, of course. :D That's all I really want to say about this song.
    Flag lilymaidon November 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Who *was* hers in '99, anyone know? ^^ Just bugs me...
    Flag John Johnstonon September 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think it's about his badass manipulative chick that's kind of a 'poster girl' for all the wannabe's out there. I think that she's maybe mocking some people who may have tried to save her, 'to all the ones who tried the most', etc. I get a simultaneous mocking/warning vibe from this song, almost like it's a conversation back and forth between two friends where it sounds like teasing banter on the surface, but the non-skanky friend is like, 'seriously. she's cool, but she's crazy. stay away.' Either way, this has always been one of my favorite songs.
    Flag bentonselecton August 20, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I seem to have taken away something very different from this song. From the first listen, this song seemed to be about a manipulative woman, who fishes around for "lonely" guys, uses her genuine problems to make them feel sorry for her, uses them, and tosses them when she's done. This could very well be because I had just been dumped by somebody exactly like that when I first heard this song, though I didn't realize what her "game" had been until it was all over.

    If anything, I think this song highlights how art can, and should, mean different things to different people. I've had a hunch, given that several of their songs could have several interpretations, and they rarely seem to provide definitive meanings, that this has been the Dresden Dolls' intent with many, if not most, of their songs.
    Flag Debaser85on March 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"masticate" refers to chewing a girl up and spitting her out. Using her, more or less. I thought that was an obvious one.

    I think maybe the song is an over-arching reference to relationships and how cold and conniving people can be in them. Some people reduce it to a business transaction and play head games to get ahead of the competition. Just my interpretation. ;)
    Flag LadyGrey88on October 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think it's probably about the people she knew before she made it. The reference to "who was mine in 99" sounds like she's talking about the people/lovers she had before the dolls formed( I think that was 2000 or 2001).
    Flag MoTrubbleon July 28, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The screamed-out lines sound like "Take aim!" and "Make your mark!" as if the comments (about what kind of girl the song's narrator is) need to be direct and deadly to her self-image...but in the end her being the outcast "poster girl" got her somewhere, unlike the ones who hated her the most.
    Flag musicality43on July 27, 2008   Link

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