Lily Allen - LDN
London is slowly making Lily Allen go terribly insane. She writes, Dave analyses.
Riding through the city on my bike all day,
'Coz the filth took away my license.
It doesn't get me down and I feel OK,
'Coz the sights that I'm seeing are priceless!
Well the first thing we can establish is that Lily has lost her license at the hands of the police who she refers to as 'the filth' which is a common term for the Feds in London. She uses this as an attempt to establish herself as a mockney, so to distance herself from her relatively privileged upbringing in London's west end. It can only be assumed how she lost her license but it seems in spite of this she is still pretty bitter about it and the fact that her insurance premium when her license is returned will be trebled, although I don't see how the police could be to blame for this, as she is probably just annoyed that she was caught. However it's ok! She finding solace in the fact she's able to enjoy the sights of good ol' London town (and gets some much needed exercise).
There is no mention though of the fact that cycling through London would probably fill her lungs with unpleasant fumes and possibly damage her ability to sing. How can she sing whilst cycling anyway, she'd run out of breath and it would sound awful!
Everything seems to look as it should,
But, I wonder what goes on behind doors.
A fella looking dapper - and he's sitting with a slapper,
Then I see it's a pimp and his crack whore!
You might laugh - you might frown,
Walking round London town
You might? Well doesn't leave much room in between does it, coviering herself from being accused of lying. Wait one minute! She was (supposedly) riding her bike! So how can she be walking round London! She's a liar!!!! This reveals the startling revelation that she has dismounted from the bike and has now taken to foot. This is not covered at all by the song nor does it explain what has happened to her bike (although considering her track record with vehicles leaves the situation wide open).
This also details how her eyesight (or sanity depending on your view) is diminishing as she's starting to see things that aren't really there namely the fella' looking dappar (dappar?! who's used that word in recent memory) and a slapper, which is a bit harsh as she has only just set eyes on the lady and is probably better not to judge her morals from that.
Sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why
Would I wanna be anywhere else?
Sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why
Would I wanna be anywhere else?
When you look with your eyes,
Everything seems nice...
But, if you look twice,
You can see it's all lies!
Lily now discusses the nature of the weather which is sunny and nice, upping the tone of the song a bit, and then she says its all lies. So are we to assume it's not really sunny and she's just lying? I mean come on she's hardly a meteorologist. Then again this wouldn't be a surprising judging by her track record of being in trouble with the police and lying about the bike (was there ever a bike?)
There was a little old lady,
Who was walkin down the road,
She was struggling with bags from Tesco.
There were people from the city havin' lunch in the park,
I believe that is called 'al fresco'.
When a kid came along to offer a hand,
But before she had time to accept it,
Hits her over the head - doesn't care if she's dead,
'Cause he's got all her jewellery and wallet!
Well the scene becomes a bit macabre here as lily witnesses an assault and then fails to report it to the police or intervene with the robbery. Then again as she seems to have ill feelings with police maybe this comes as no surprise. Also we can see here where Lily is starting to struggle with where shes going with the rhyming as she has to include two pointless figures so she can rhyme 'al fresco' with Tesco. Either way it doesn't really work. However is there an easier supermarket name to rhyme with Sainsburys, Waitrose, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer? Why Tesco anyways! There are a lot of good deals on at Sainsburys at the moment and judging by her age and a lack of car she probably could use the extra money, not least considering her wallet and jewellry have just been stolen.
Here Lily is generalizing her experiences to being how city life is a bit downbeat as I too live in London and it's not as bad as this all the time. It's also a bit rich considering her Kensington upbringing. She's the one in trouble with the police at the end of the day and confesses to it. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
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