Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant & Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
Cage The Elephant
This single off of Cage The Elephant’s debut album features three verses, each dealing with an encounter with an immoral character that is trying to make money by any means necessary.
Lead singer Matt Schultz says that he got the idea for this song when he asked one of his drug-dealing friends why...
[Verse 1]
I was walking down the street when out the corner of my eye
I saw a pretty little thing approaching me
She said, "I never seen a man, who looks so all alone
Oh, could you use a little company?
If you pay the right price, your evening will be nice
And you can go and send me on my way."
I said, "You're such a sweet young thing, why you do this to yourself?"
She looked at me and this is what she said:
[Chorus]
"Oh there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
Oh no, I can't slow down, I can't hold back
Though you know, I wish I could
Oh no there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"
[Verse 2]
Not even fifteen minutes later I'm still walking down the street
When I saw the shadow of a man creep out out of sight
And then he swept up from behind, he put a gun up to my head
He made it clear he wasn't looking for a fight
He said, "Give me all you've got, I want your money, not your life
But if you try to make a move, I won't think twice"
I told him, "You can have my cash, but first you know I gotta ask
What made you want to live this kind of life?"
[Chorus]
He said, "There ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
Oh no, I can't slow down, I can't hold back
Though you know, I wish I could
Oh no there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"
[Verse 3]
Well now a couple hours passed and I was sitting in my house
The day was winding down and coming to an end
And so I turned on the TV and flipped it over to the news
And what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend
I saw a preacher man in cuffs, he'd taken money from the church
He'd stuffed his bank account with righteous dollar bills
But even still I can't say much because I know we're all the same
Oh yes, we all seek out to satisfy those thrills
[Chorus]
You know there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
We got bills to pay, we got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
Oh no we can't slow down, we can't hold back
Though you know we wish we could
Oh no there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good
Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked was written by Daniel Tichenor & Matt Shultz & Brad Shultz & Lincoln Parish & Jared Champion.
Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked was produced by Ben Baptie & Jay Joyce.
Cage The Elephant released Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked on Mon Jun 16 2008.
Yes, this song was used during the intro sequence in the 2009 video game Borderlands:
“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” was certified 4x platinum by the RIAA on August 16, 2019.