Steve’s Going to London Lyrics
Steve's goin' to London
Shawn's stuck in a suit
Tom sleeps on his best friend's lawn
Like every other afternoon
Steve's goin' to London
Dan peed in the pool
Tom fell for his best friend's mom
But what the hell you gonna do?
[Verse 1]
Hey-hey, look around, look around
Wouldn't it be nice for someone to miss ya?
Hey-hey, funny how all the things
That you used to like, now they depress ya
[Pre-Chorus]
While you try to find some meaning in your life before you're gone (Ooh)
There's a song that don't mean anything at all (Ooh)
And it sounds like
[Chorus]
Steve's goin' to London
Shawn's stuck in a suit
Tom sleeps on his best friend's lawn
Like every other afternoon
Steve's goin' to London (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Dan peed in the pool (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Tom fell for his best friend's mom
But what the hell you gonna
What the hell you gonna do?
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
[Verse 2]
Hey-hey, look around, look around
Wouldn't it be nice to see me on TV?
I'd dress to the nines with a smile
And you'd probably think that that was the real me
[Pre-Chorus]
While you try to find some meaning in your life before you die (Ooh)
Here's a bunch of random shit to waste your time (Ooh)
And it sounds like
[Chorus]
Steve's goin' to London (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Shawn's stuck in a suit (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Tom sleeps on his best friend's lawn
Like every other afternoon (Every other afternoon)
Steve's goin' to London (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Dan peed in the pool (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Tom fell for his best friend's mom
But what the hell you gonna
What the hell you gonna do?
What the hell you gonna do?
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey; do-do-do-do-do-do)
[Interlude]
You'll make this rather snappy, won't you?
Ah-ah-ah (Hey)
Ah-ah-ah
[Bridge]
I try hard to write a cool song
So I start with somethin' simple like tryin' to put my shoes on
Now somethin' kinda clicked 'cause you relate a bit
But no one's gonna care about a shoe song
I try hard to write a cool song
But I gotta make it matter, so maybe I'll throw the news on
Could I relate the shoes to 2022?
Or maybe an election down in Tucson?
I try throwin' something cool on
So I'm listenin' to Kendrick and playin' the swimming pool song
But why did I do that? 'Cause now I hate my track
I'm quite aware I'll never write a cool song
But who really needs a cool song?
There's so many better melodies, why do you need a new one?
So stop writin' a song about writin' a song
You're losin' their attention, buddy, move on
Steve's goin' to London (What the hell?)
Shawn's stuck in a suit
Tom sleeps on his best friend's lawn
Like every other afternoon (Every other afternoon)
Steve's goin' to London (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Dan peed in the pool (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
Tom fell for his best friend's mom
But what the hell you gonna
What the hell you gonna do?
[Post-Chorus]
What the hell you gonna do?
(Hey, hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey, hey)
What the hell you gonna do?
[Outro]
Steve's goin' to London (Oh-oh-oh-oh)
Steve's goin' to London (Oh-oh-oh-oh)
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London (Let's go, let's go)
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London (I know, I know, I know)
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London
Steve's goin' to London
About
“Steve’s Going to London” is the tenth track on The Maybe Man by AJR. On April 3, 2023, the band posted a Tweet that read, “Just made a song for [The Maybe Man] with 6th different tempo changes. Somehow works though,” which they later confirmed to be “Steve’s Going to London” on a livestream. On October 20, 2023, they posted a Tweet saying “Maybe we’ll let you leak this chorus yourselves… #stevesgoingtolondon” with images of sheet music for the chorus. It was released with “The Maybe Man” at midnight on November 10, 2023.
On November 14, 2023, a Zach Sang interview was released with the brothers, where Jack reveals that this song has no meaning.
I wrote to Ryan when we had one more song left to write….I said, “Ryan, we have to revisit [Steve’s Going to London] because we need a song about nothing on the album. We have too many songs about things; people are going to get fatigued.” - Jack Met
This is contrary to some fans' theories:
The song is about searching for meaning in life and wanting distraction from it, but searching for distractions doesn’t always help. - u/northernlake926 from Reddit
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
The song originally leaked as part of a series of technical difficulties for the “Breaking down the production of The DJ Is Crying For Help and Joe” livestream on November 22, 2022, giving fleet-footed fans the opportunity to take screenshots (1, 2, 3, 4) from Ryan’s recently opened files and folders, some which included unreleased and unannounced songs and projects. The song was originally “Steve’s Coming to London,” but a guessing game for The Maybe Man’s tracklist on September 8, 2023 hinted at name change to “Steve’s Going to London,” which was confirmed to be true just a few days later.
On October 20, 2023, AJR posted images of sheet music for the song’s chorus:
Over the course of the next few days, the band shared videos of fans covering this section to their Instagram Stories until its official release.
During TalkShopLive’s Q&A livestream for autographed CD copies of The Maybe Man on October 23, 2023, they revealed “Steve’s Going to London” as the song with six different tempo changes.
