Hang Fire

In the sweet old country where I come from
Nobody ever works
Yeah nothing gets done
We hang fire, we hang fire

You know marrying money is a full time job
I don't need the aggravation
I'm a lazy slob
I hang fire, I hang fire
Hang fire, put it on the wire

We've got nothing to eat
We got nowhere to work
Nothing to drink
We just lost our shirts
I'm on the dole
We ain't for hire
Say what the hell
Say what the hell, hang fire
Hang fire, hang fire, put it on the wire
Doo doo doo

Take a thousand dollars go have some fun
Put it all on at a hundred to one
Hang fire, hang fire, put it on the wire.




- Released April 1982

- The song is a bleak look at English society at the time, where labor unrest was common and high taxes prevented growth. The lyrics parody the English economy, lamenting an unemployed working class Englishman who would rather bet on the horses than try to marry into the upper class- the only way to get ahead in English society.

- "hang fire" - The term has been adapted as a form of early 20th-Century slang to describe an occurrence of incontinence.

- Keith Richards was asked about the track in a 1981 Rolling Stone magazine interview where he admits the track relates to England and the "ugly politicians" who had caused the country to decline when the "money got tight."