Songfacts: "Lonely at the Top"

I wrote this song prior to co-forming the Disliked with former bandmates Ray Wojtowicz, Chris Vermin, Brianne Donnegan (all of whom were in the Яeversatiles with me), and Ryan Bower (formerly of The RUNS). I think at this point I was listening to a lot of The Misfits and watching too many zombie/cannibal movies. In fact, the way the music originally sounded was like Earth AD/Walk Among Us-era Misfits:  Fast, vaguely thrashy 3-chord verses, a longer bridge (sans vocals), and a 2-chord chorus riff with a punchy musical "count off" at the end.

That's not too far off from how the song ended up sounding, except the finished product was decidedly more mid-tempo, with more of a Ramones feel, and the third verse became lyrics for the bridge.


The Lyrics/References

Since I think we already covered the music above, we'll just go straight to lyrics.

The title, "Lonely at the Top", is obviously a joke/wordplay. For those of you who are confused, when someone says "It's lonely at the top", they're usually not referring to the food chain. Which is exactly what the song is talking about.

It's fiction, presented in a first person narrative (I'm not actually a cannibal), from the point of view of someone who eats other people. Actually, you can assume the narrator is another human being, but it's never actually stated, so you can really just use your imagination... maybe it's a zombie, or some entirely different kind of inhuman monster, we don't know. But since I'm the one delivering the lines, we'll assume it's a song about cannibalism.

(NOTE: Performing live, I sometimes introduce this one as being about "humanitarianism", then correct myself and say "I mean cannibalism, sorry, I always get those two mixed up". Because, you know, if a "vegetarian" is someone who eats vegetables...)

So anyway, if humans are at the top of the food chain, then someone (or something) who preys on humans must be above that, and presumably they'd be alone in this, hence "Lonely at the Top". The way it's stated is actually kind of cocky and snarky. And that's why it's funny. Because, really, if you're not accustomed to this type of subject matter, you'd probably be pretty disturbed a confession like this.

During the Disliked phase of this tune, the lyrics were tweaked a little to better suit Brianne's style, then changed back after we became DCD. If you wanna read the Brianne version, go here and look for the first one in red.


Other wordplay in the Dead City Dealers version:

"I like the livers of (the) alcoholics" - I was trying to make a joke about cirrhosis or something, like the liver would be marinated in booze. I'm not a doctor, so shut the fuck up.

"I eat the human waste" - This has been interpreted as me eating shit ("waste" = doo doo), which isn't too far off, really. I was using "human waste" figuratively... like humans are shit. Therefore it's okay for me to eat them, because I'm better than them. I mean... not me, the narrator. Shut up.

"You can see it all over my face" - Like, it's obvious by my expression, but I also have blood and guts all over me, so it's doubly obvious.

"I eat the breasts and thighs" - This line is comparing human parts to fried chicken.

"I want a piece of you" - This usually something you say to someone who's pissed you off, i.e. you want to kick their ass. In this case, it's to be taken literally, which is made clear by the next line, "I don't care who supplies."




POSTSCRIPT:
The opening of the song sounds like The Ramones' "Havana Affair". This wasn't intentional, but was pointed out to me later by Brianne.