Cheat

Produced by

Apr. 8, 19771 viewer6.5K views

Cheat Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I get violent when I'm fucked up
I get silent when I'm drugged up
Want excitement, don't get none, I go wild
I don't know what can be done about it
If you play the game you get nothin' out of it
Find out for yourself, try bein' a goody goody

[Chorus]
You better cheat, cheat, no reason to play fair
Cheat, cheat or don't get anywhere
Cheat, cheat if you can't win
Hey

[Verse 2]
Nobody knows what they are doin'
Beyond your control, Friday night's a ruin
You wanna survive, you better learn how to lie

[Chorus]
You better cheat, cheat, no reason to play fair
Cheat, cheat or don't get anywhere
Cheat, cheat if you can't win

[Verse 3]
Don't use the rules
They're not for you, they're for the fools
And you're a fool if you don't know that
So use the rule, you stupid fool

About

This song bio is unreviewed

A true lyrical outlier among The Clash’s overall body of work. Whereas the vast majority of songs are either third person descriptions of the oppressed or downtrodden, and occasionally the antagonist, or first person accounts of the working class or beaten down youth, this song presents the first person view of the “bad” guy, who strongly advocates misdeeds. Typically Strummer writes from the voice of reason, at times even to the point of moralizing, but certainly always with the intent of educating towards personal betterment, even on the rare occasion when the narrator is the one doing wrong,