'Flip Flop' by Zach Top – Lyrics & Meaning

Zach Top is back with a new album and his hallmark throwback sound, one that still rings clear with his myriad influences but, this time around, occasionally finds him flirting with something a little left-field.

There are a handful of songs on Ain't In It For My Health that are tinged in tropi-country, the artist dipping a toe into the beachy proclivities upon which legends like Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney built their careers. That's not to say Top is headed straight for some 'Cheeseburger in Paradise', but an album offering like 'Flip Flop' could be indicative of new waters for the young Neo-Traditionalist.

Even if not, the breezy tune makes for a charming, tongue-in-cheek ditty, a perfect number to take us through this final summer stretch.

'Flip Flop' dives right in to the coastal vibes, the song undeniably tropical with its bright, tinny percussion, easy strums and warbling steel. The composition may be a relaxed fit, but it's never lazy, the song just another extension of Top's sharp musicianship.

"I bought me one of those one-way tickets
Landed in the sand
Salty rim and a blue umbrella
She came struttin' up all tall and tan
Straight out of Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
Might as well a had nothin' on
Woke up a week later in a hard condition
My money and my honey and my heart was gone"

'Flip Flop' finds Top in need of a getaway. When he finally does get his escape, though, he ends up trapped by lust and left to wander the beaches with a broken heart.

The start of the song sees the star touching down in warmer climates, drink in hand and cares washing away with the lapping waves. That peace is soon disrupted by a "tall and tan" woman who looks like she just stepped off of a swimsuit photoshoot. He finds himself under her spell in no time at all.

That fades within a week, however, the woman having taken his money, stolen his heart and left him high and dry.

"Now I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again
She tore me apart walked barefoot on my heart
Left me layin' there in the sand
I'll find another place with waves and shade
And a girl that knows how to treat a man
But I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again"

In the aftermath of all of that, Top claims he couldn't care less about the situation. In his words, he explains, "Now I don't give a flip – flop / If I ever see that beach again", the phrasing a tongue-in-cheek way of saying "good riddance" to the woman who broke his heart.

He doesn't know where she went, or why she left, and he can't seem to muster up the effort to care. Or so he says.

In his parting verse before the chorus, he adds one little caveat to his kiss-off tune, singing, "Yeah I really hate her for the minute / But if I saw her again I’d be right back in it..."

Let's be honest. The heart wants what it wants, but for now, the artist is sticking to his guns.

"Yeah I don't give a flip-flop
If I ever see that beach again"

I bought me one of those one-way tickets
Landed in the sand
Salty rim and a blue umbrella
She came struttin' up all tall and tan
Straight out of Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
Might as well a had nothin' on
Woke up a week later in a hard condition
My money and my honey and my heart was gone

Now I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again
She tore me apart walked barefoot on my heart
Left me layin' there in the sand
I'll find another place with waves and shade
And a girl that knows how to treat a man
But I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again

I don't know where that girl got off to
And it ain't no use to ask
I'm just glad I didn't get her name
Tattooed across my ... Back

Now I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again
She tore me apart walked barefoot on my heart
Left me layin' there in the sand
I'll find another place with waves and shade
And a girl that knows how to treat a man
But I don't give a flip--flop
If I ever see that beach again

Yeah I really hate her for the minute
But if I saw her again I’d be right back in it ... But for now

I don't give a flip-flop
If I ever see that beach again
She tore me apart walked barefoot on my heart
Left me layin' there in the sand
I'll find another place with waves and shade
And a girl that knows how to treat a man
But I don't give a flip-flop
If I ever see that beach again
Yeah I don't give a flip-flop
If I ever see that beach again

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