Sometihing to Do [Live in Hamburg, Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Germany - 1984/12/09]

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a stark picture of a town suffocating under a "grey sky over a black town," where boredom and depression are palpable. The narrator, feeling "crazy with boredom," desperately seeks an escape, extending an invitation to a "little girl" to "come with me." This plea is underscored by the repetitive, almost desperate chorus: "Is there something to do?" The question hangs heavy, a refrain of existential ennui in a place seemingly devoid of stimulation or hope. The central tension lies in the shared, suffocating boredom and the yearning for connection or distraction. The narrator observes the "pretty dress is oil stained" and the "leather boots on," suggesting a life of hard work and little reward, a cycle that breeds a deep-seated weariness. This weariness is mirrored in the narrator's own admission of "can't stand another drink," highlighting a desperate, perhaps unhealthy, attempt to numb the pervasive sense of pointlessness. The most striking element is the narrator's evolving desire to literally embody the other person's experience as a means of escape. Initially, the narrator wants the "little girl" to come along, but by the end, the plea transforms into a wish to "put your leather boots on" and "put your pretty dress on." This suggests a profound empathy born from shared misery, a desire to shed one's own skin and inhabit another's, even if that other's life is also marked by struggle, in the hope of finding a different kind of something to do. This lyrical construction is effective because it moves beyond simple complaint to a more complex portrayal of shared human desperation. The repetition of the chorus amplifies the feeling of being trapped, while the shift in the narrator's perspective in the later verses offers a poignant, if bleak, vision of connection through mutual escape. The raw, observational details ground the abstract feeling of depression in tangible images, making the yearning for any kind of activity, even one that involves stepping into someone else's worn-out shoes, feel intensely real.