....Steal a couple o'bucks to buy a new toy. Slip into the alley with the Runaway Boys....

I've been singing this line since day one I heard the song.
But ...huh..what toy does he mean?
A gun, cigarette, drugs, Playboy magazine, 6-pack, PS3.....
What do they mean?

Anyone got a clue?

A Rampant Rabbit ,I assume ?

Hmm, interesting question but what can you get at the age of 15, as the song says?? Maybe Setzer & Phantom are just refering to whatever they could afford with the money they could get.... dunno.

You're not meant to know, Patrick. It's not a specific reference to anything. They're scrappy 15-year-olds stealing money for literally anything they can blow it on. That's how desperate and angst-ridden they are.

Perhaps if Brian and Jim wrote as vividly as Tom Waits or Bob Dylan, I might have more of an idea what they were talking about. I certainly would enjoy the song a whole lot more.

Cheeky-billy

Hum....i though they were talking about the MONEY....
as in

....Steal a couple o'bucks, it's a brand new toy. Slip into the alley with the Runaway Boys....

Homer! Good to see ya, pal!

It's definitely "Steal a couple o' bucks, to buy a new toy..."

Of course, if they were really tough, they'd just steal the toy!

I'd be hard-pressed to remember all of Setzer's lyrics, as I'm much more captivated by the overall sound of most of his tunes. But that's one that been played live quite a bit over the years, so I'm certain of the lyrics.

When I worked on the radio and DJ'd weddings, people would say to me, "You must know every lyric to every song." I'd laugh and explain that I usually knew the first 20 seconds and last 20 seconds to every song and would spend the interim time answering calls, recording calls, taking requests, filling out forms, organizing ads, watching the clock countdown the remaining time on the song, dealing with intoxicated wedding guests, and a lot of other things besides listening to the actual songs.

In the words of John Fogerty

"There's a bathroom on the right."

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy-a-billy

guitarists call all things guitar related "new toys"... ehh.. then
again coulda been brass knuckles, switchblade or light sabers..

hmm.. hasbro hadnt thought of that yet cuz we were flickin matches
at each others starwars shirts when it first came out.

Hahahah, then everything makes sense now, Tavo.

Brian bought a new switchblade and then he had a brawl with a French guy, who luckily, retrieved Brian's new toy (the switchblade) and back in 2008, he had the balls to throw it to Brian!!!

See?? The end of the mystery was soon