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A devastating backstroke
All the way from France
With shiny, shiny cuff links
A shirtsleeve to enhance
The pin-striped men in mourning
Are coming for to dance
With pure Egyptian cotton
The kids don't stand a chance
You criticize the practice
By murdering their plants
Ignoring all the history
Denying them romance
The pin-striped men in mourning
Are coming for to dance
Forty million dollars
The kids don't stand a chance
I didn't like the business
But that was at first glance
Your pillow feels so soft now
But still you must advance
The pin-striped men in mourning
The partners in the dance
The paper's shot to pieces
The kids don't stand a chance
All the way from France
With shiny, shiny cuff links
A shirtsleeve to enhance
The pin-striped men in mourning
Are coming for to dance
With pure Egyptian cotton
The kids don't stand a chance
You criticize the practice
By murdering their plants
Ignoring all the history
Denying them romance
The pin-striped men in mourning
Are coming for to dance
Forty million dollars
The kids don't stand a chance
I didn't like the business
But that was at first glance
Your pillow feels so soft now
But still you must advance
The pin-striped men in mourning
The partners in the dance
The paper's shot to pieces
The kids don't stand a chance
Lyrics submitted by prayingmantis84
Track duration: 04:03
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The next verse talks about these "Pin-Striped Men a Mourning", which clearly means that these men who are living this lifestyle are suffering the nasty fate of wealth. Then VW begins with the bed metaphor, for the first time they mention the "bed" is when the lyrics read that these men are dancing in pure egyptian cotton. Havnt you heard of "making the bed that you lie in"? They have created this great future for themselves, and their kids are just going to fall right into this same fate.
Then, I think the next verse is describing the "kids" initially feeling towards their parents lifestyle. They are criticizing all their wrong doings, and they do so by "murdering the plants" to me this reads more like "murdering the PLANS" or acting out, not respecting property, and just being a teenager. They are ignoring their family's legacy, their families history, and the expectations of their parents, for this life has denied them romance, love, emotion exc.
But then, oh no, the pin stripped men come back, and even though they are living sorry lives and are in mourning of love or whatever, they have 40 million dollars, so i guess the kids don't stand a chance. The kids are way to hypnotized with the glamour of the rich to worry about whats important in life.
The next verse is interesting to me because it is in past tense, and seems like it is from the "kids" perspective. The kid says that he didn't like the business of his forefathers, but that was before I felt how comfortable their bed was. Now the pillow is soft, because his head has molded to it ( he has obviously been a part of this life for a while now), and he is justifying himself giving into their lifestyle. Now the last verse says the paper has been shot to pieces, I'm guessing this is referring to him signing the contract to giving into this life, and shot to pieces is an idiom for shot to hell or going to hell. He has sold his soul to aristocracy.
The Kids Don't Stand A Chance.
The lot’s been there for as long as I can remember. Always a block away from my house, almost hidden by a wall of bushes. A getaway. I think my parents said it was there since they were teenagers. All the local kids would race to it after school to play baseball. We used chalk to mark the wall, it’s how we knew if we got a single, double, etc. More baseballs must’ve hit that wall than the local field, Fenway. For the older kids, they used a ladder hidden by vines to climb up onto the buildings. They’d use it for romantic dates, under the stars, looking out upon the city.
Then they came. Like a devastating backstroke, leaving businesses in their path, ignoring people, willing to squash people to climb the corporate ladder. Some France based restaurant franchise. Wanting to use the lot for the newest installment in the chain.
Businessmen came, classy, cuff links and Egyptian cotton shirtsleeves. They looked at the lot, everyday, arguing in French. We knew what was happening thanks to a translator. The men were angry, disappointed, almost mourning, because their business had flopped in France, and they were hoping to revive the chain by moving to America. They were dancing the terrible dance of business.
Us kids didn’t stand a chance.
We still went and played baseball, every afternoon, and the men watched us. They shouted stuff at us. We don’t know what they were saying, but we knew it wasn’t nice. I’m sure they were criticizing us for how we used the lot, as a baseball field.
The next day, we got there, and the bushes were gone. So were the vines, and the ladder. Ashes were all that remained. They burned the damn things. Trying to break our spirit. They ignored that it might mean something to us, they didn’t bother to learn about it, or the teenager’s romantic getaway part of it.
We didn’t see the business men for a week. But they came back, doing the dance of business and trade. They were offering the owner of the lot 40 million dollars for the lot.
We didn’t stand a chance.
I didn’t like the business to start off. But then I hated them with a passion. I wanted to just drift to sleep, hoping I’d wake up and it was just a dream. But I had to try something.
The business men came back one more time. Partners in the dance of business. I had started a petition to save the lot, but I ran into one of the business men, and he ripped it up.
We didn’t stand a chance.
By murdering their plants
I think many of the posts on here are mistakenly thinking of 'plants' as vegetation. 'Plants' could be referring to those buildings in the manufacturing / business world, supporting the theory of recruiters.
The devil put a dollar
Into the valley's hand
The embassys now hollow
The kids don't stand a chance
Can anyone confirm that?
The devil put a dollar
Into the valley's hand
The embassys now hollow
The kids don't stand a chance
Can anyone confirm that?
Then I went to see Janelle Monae and B.o.b and they sung this song on stage, then I was like "okay, the CAN'T originally be a Vampire Weekend song"
But it is. Wow.
I love them so much. Seeing them in a month :)
I am pretty sure the song is just about rich men. And how they women use them for their money.
Shiny cufflinks and egyptian cotton describes the quality of their expensive attire/suits (pin-striped suits).
And 40 million dollars is just a big amount of money.
"The Kids" actually refers to the men, and when they say "The Kids Don't Have a Chance" it means that the men don't have a chance to find real romance because women only use them for their money ("gold diggers").