Something to Do (Live) [Birmingham, April 1986]

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a stark picture of a town suffocating under a "grey sky over a black town." The dominant feeling is a crushing boredom, a sense of going "crazy with boredom" that permeates the atmosphere. The repeated question, "Is there something to do?" acts as a desperate plea, a refrain echoing the emptiness and lack of stimulation. It's a question posed not just to another person, but to the very existence of the place itself. The central tension arises from this shared ennui and the narrator's attempt to break free, or at least find a companion in the stagnation. The narrator directly addresses someone, a "little girl" and later a "you," inviting them to escape the oppressive environment. This invitation is tinged with a shared understanding of the town's malaise, as the narrator observes the other person's "leather boots on" and "oil stained" dress, suggesting a life of hard work yielding little reward, contributing to the pervasive sense of futility. The most striking craft element is the narrator's evolving identification with the other person. Initially, the narrator observes the "leather boots." Then, they express a desire to "put your leather boots on," and finally, to "put your pretty dress on." This isn't just empathy; it's a profound desire to inhabit the other's experience, perhaps to understand the source of their weariness or to find a shared escape by literally stepping into their shoes and clothes. It suggests a blurring of identities born from mutual despair. What makes these lyrics resonate is their raw portrayal of a specific kind of desolation. The repetition of the central question amplifies the feeling of being trapped, while the narrator's final gestures of wanting to wear the other person's clothes underscore a deep, almost desperate, yearning for connection or escape in the face of overwhelming apathy. It's a powerful depiction of shared, suffocating boredom and the human impulse to find any way out, even if it's just by imagining another's reality.