Handbags & Gladrags

The song contrasts a young woman’s concern with fashionable clothes and appearance against the effort her grandfather made to pay for them. The speaker asks what will remain when those outward signs of status are gone. The mood is teasing but also concerned: he seems to urge her to value something beyond looking stylish, while recalling that he too was once young and perhaps confident in his appearance.

“Handbags and gladrags” means fashionable accessories and clothes; here, they stand for material status and a carefully styled image. The phrase “had to sweat” suggests hard work and sacrifice, making the purchases seem costly in more than money. The opening pictures—a blind man trying to cross a road and a young girl trying to become a bride—show people struggling toward a goal, though the song leaves the comparison open. The old nursery-rhyme images of blackbirds in a pie add a playful, slightly nonsensical quality.

The speaker’s advice to throw the clothes away sounds dramatic, but it may not be a literal demand. He could be warning that others’ attention depends on appearance, or simply mocking the importance placed on fashion. The lyrics do not explain the girl’s motives or the full relationship between the speakers, so the tone can be heard as affectionate, judgmental, or both.