Arctic Monkeys - From the Ritz to the Rubble
Last night these two bouncers
And one of em's alright
The other one's the scary one
His way or no way, totalitarian
He's got no time for you
Looking or breathing
How he dosen't want you to
So step out the queue
He makes examples of you
And there's nowt you can say
Behind they go through to the bit where you pay
And you realize then that it's finally the time
To walk back past ten thousand eyes in the line
And you can swap jumpers and make another move
Instilled in your brain you've got something to prove
To all the smirking faces and the boys in black
Why can't they be pleasant?
Why can't they have a laugh?
He's got his hand in your chest
He wants to give you a duff
Well secretly I think they want it all to kick off
They want, arms flying everywhere and
Bottles as well it's just
Something to talk about
A story to tell you
Well I'm so glad they turned us all away we'll put it down to fate
I thought a thousand million things that I could never think this morning
Got too deep, but how deep is too deep?
This town's a different town today
This town's a different town to what it was last night
You couldn't have done that on a Sunday
That girl's a different girl today
That girl's a different girl to her you kissed last night
You couldn't have done that on a Sunday
Well I'm so glad they turned us all away we'll put it down to fate
I thought a thousand million things that I could never think this morning
Got too deep, but how deep is too deep?
Last night what we talked about
It made so much sense
But now the haze has ascended
It don't make no sense anymore
“From the Ritz to the Rubble” is the twelfth song on Arctic Monkey’s first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Like many of the songs on the album, it follows a clubbing experience in Sheffield. In this song, Alex Turner gets turned away from a club and hooks up anyway. “The Ritz” is a live music venue in Manchester. Since the bouncers are aggressive, Alex may be describing his journey through the lines at The Ritz to the rubble when a bouncer decides to “give him a duff.”