There is only one recurring theme in the song “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Motley Crue, and that recurring theme is repetition. Not only in the incessant repetition of that one word, but of things like names of strip clubs of which 6 different ones are mentioned in 3 different stanzas. A quick glance reveals that over 15% of this song’s lyrics are either the word “Girls” or the name of a strip club. This makes it relatively pointless to analyze as the message is fairly straight-forward and simplistic, but I’d like to ask you how insightful you would be if you needed a bottle of Jack every day just to feel right.

Friday night and I need a fight
My motorcycle and a switchblade knife
Handful of grease in my hair feels right
But what I need to make me tight are those

Initially our artist seems to be content with merely stabbing someone after riding his motorcycle to make his Friday night a satisfactory one. He goes on to indicate that a handful of grease in his hair feels right, although it is unclear if anyone else would agree with that statement. Perhaps someone disagreed but got stabbed and then run over by the artist on his motorcycle, which is a high price to pay for a disagreement involving hair, but was not completely unjustifiable given the degree of seriousness that accompanied men’s hair in the 80’s.

Girls, Girls, Girls
Long legs and burgundy lips
Girls,Girls, Girls
Dancin’ down on Sunset Strip
Girls, Girls, Girls
Red lips, fingertips

Although the artist has noted stabbings, motorcycle riding, and well greased hair are things they are amenable to, they here inform us that these pastimes still leave them feeling incomplete, leading to the chorus that tells us what finally makes them whole, which in case there is any confusion, happens to be girls. Of the 22 words in this chorus, 9 of them are the word “Girls”. This phenomenon is known as “Motley’s Law” which states that the makings of an 80’s hair band hit require no less than 41% of its chorus to be the same word. People like things they can remember.

The descriptions are short and the redundancies many as we thus ascertain that the desirable type of girls are the kind with long legs and mostly red body parts. Initially burgundy surfaces as the desired shade of red on the lips of the much noted girls. After the information that they dance on the Sunset Strip, the artist then seems to have realized that perhaps their demographic is unfamiliar with the term “Burgundy” so they simplify their lip color declaration and simply say that red lips are desirable instead of the aforementioned esoteric description of “burgundy” and also state that red fingertips are nice as well. Basically, this entire chorus could have been simplified to “Girls, red” and you would still come away with the same information.

Trick or treat-sweet to eat
On Halloween and New Year’s Eve
Yankee girls ya just can’t be beat
But they’re the best when they’re off their feet

Although Motley Crue hails from Los Angeles, California, their observance of popular American holidays appears to be obscure, as although trick or treating and eating sweets does correspond closely to Halloween, it typically has nothing to do with New Year’s Eve. At this stage we do receive much more insight into what the artist is after as they indicate Yankee girls are unbeatable. The term Yankee has a variety of meanings, sometimes applied to all citizens of the United States, and sometimes referring only to residents of America’s north eastern states. It is unclear whether they are using the broader or more narrow description, but either way, the artist prefers them off their feet. As such, we can only assume that they are after girls in wheelchairs indicating a strange inclination towards elderly, injured, or infirmed women. Herein lies a contradiction as this would severely inhibit a girl’s ability to dance on the Sunset Strip save for the occasional paraplegic night many local strip clubs featured at the time, but perhaps the artist has included this enigma to challenge their fans to seek the true meaning of their words.

Girls, Girls, Girls
At the Dollhouse in Ft. Lauderdale
Girls, Girls. Girls
Rocking in Atlanta at Tattletails
Girls, Girls, Girls
Raising Hell in the 7th Veil
Have you read the news
In the Soho Tribune
Ya know she did me
Well then she broke my heart

The Dollhouse, Tattletails, and the 7th Veil are all strip clubs in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, and Los Angeles, California respectively. Each of these locations features girls, girls, girls, one of which was apparently quite insensitive to the artist and broke the poor man’s heart. Perhaps he wasn’t aware that she was only pretending to like him during his lap dance, which in all fairness she probably failed to communicate effectively. She also may have been a woman of some repute as the incident seems to have been reported in a publication known as the Soho Tribune which I can find no record of.

I’m such a good good boy
I just need a new toy
I tell ya what, girl
Dance for me, I’ll keep you overemployed
Just tell me a story
You know the one I mean

You may have been under the impression that the lyrics of this song could not become more simple given the previous stanza, however, this one lowers the bar another notch. The artist begins with some braggadocio  indicating that he is good, and deserving of a new toy, perhaps as a reward for his good behavior. He seems to be an avid employer of dancing as he offers a solution to the problem of underemployment by promising to keep the dancer overemployed which is a novel concept, mostly because it isn’t a word. He also requests the re-telling of a familiar story which seems to be familiar to both of them. My guess is that the story may be Passage 1:19 from the Biblical Book of Luke  where the angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias:

• “And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.”

This would make sense as the story our artist wants to hear because altough the stripper before him has broken his heart, he finds solace in the hope that an Angel would perhaps bring to him glad tidings when she took the stage later that evening.

Crazy Horse, Paris, France
Forgot the names, remember romance
I got the photos, a menage a troi
Musta broke those Frenchies laws with those

Moving on, the Crazy Horse is another strip club, and the artists seem to have forgotten the names of the dancers there, likely because in France they aren’t all named “Savannah”. They do however, remember the romance that apparently occurred and this romance has been documented with photographic evidence. The artists seem to be ignorant of the French legal code however because nothing mentioned in this previous stanza would seem to be illegal under French law. It is possible that they are confusing French laws with Utah laws in which case most of the previous stanza would be illegal, but that’s why Utah is the “Beehive State” and not “The state you’ll get laid in” which I believe was aleady taken by New Hampshire anyway.

Girls, Girls, Girls
Body Shop and the Marble Arch
Girls, Girls, Girls Tropicana’s where I lost my heart
Girls, Girls, Girls

14 out of the 21 words in this stanza are either “Girls” or the names of strip clubs which for those you keeping track would be 2/3. This gives us the highest ratio of “Girls” and strip club names to total words of any stanza in this song. It’s like they gave up but needed one more verse in order for the song to be long enough to make it on the radioThe only time the words rhyme in this verse is when it is the same word. I suppose “Girls” does rhyme with “Girls” but if we accepted this as legitimate poetic structure then even Dave Matthews would be considered an artist.