What does Hungry Like the Wolf mean?

Duran Duran: Hungry Like the Wolf Meaning

Album cover for Hungry Like the Wolf album cover

Song Released: 1982


Hungry Like the Wolf Lyrics

Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged...
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage

Don't tread on me

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 9th 2013 !⃝

    This song is about a man "going down" or performing oral sex on a woman. He's hungry like the wolf for going down on her which is also "eating her out" (slang). "My mouth is alive", "running inside", "juices like wine" etc. and you can hear the woman's moans which sound more ecstatic than like she's being hunted or stalked. "Centered on sound" is listening for her response, although some lyrics say it's "scent and a sound" which would also apply. "You feel my heat (warm mouth and breath) I'm just a moment behind" (it's a nice allusion to him chasing her but in reality 'a moment BEHIND' he is down there pleasuring her.) Also if she is on all fours and he is going at her from the rear then it is similar to a wolf right on her tail, trying to catch and 'eat' her.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    Surfer_Coyote
    click a star to vote
    Nov 18th 2008 !⃝

    The song is about lust. It is clearly likening a man out on the town looking for action with a wolf on the prowl. He sees the object of his lust, and the animal instincts take over.

  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 11th 2020 !⃝

    Just an FYI. Most of you people are dumb but with sick imaginations. John Taylor has been clear that the song is about NOTHING. It's just some metaphors and cliches strung together to sound "sexy."

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 4th 2020 !⃝

    Cunilingus. This act seems to be the close match to how the lyric unfolds, with a sort of “orgasm is achieved” ending.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 17th 2018 !⃝

    He's sick with some sort of disease and hallucinating. That's why he's sweating so much in the music video.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 19th 2016 !⃝

    A song about being possessed by our animalistic nature. A person who sees himself as a ''lone wolf'' type that has been hungry for a long time to just find and be with a woman to ''love''. This person seems to believe that he had the spirit of a wolf nature in him, before being ''lost then found'' like a first death to experience the ''metapychosis'' transformation of spirit for the human soul in the exchange. This song might have been inspired by the movie ''Wolfen'' that politically ran with the wolf who was a political Indian Runner that did not forget it's old sacred grounds that lost it's love there and want's it back.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 14th 2012 !⃝

    i think the lyrics were written so that they would rhyme.
    there is no meaning, just a sequence of random and unrelated words thrown together.
    people in th 80s would buy any nonsenical thing put in front of them as this song (and others by duran duran) proves!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 1st 2011 !⃝

    The song's about partying, having sex, etc etc. The band was very risque back then, after all

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 20th 2011 !⃝

    This song is surprisingly a metaphor for the Holocaust which compares the Nazi's ravenous hunt for Jews with a wolf hunting his prey. This explains the somewhat violent imagery in what many consider to be a song about lust. "burn to the ground"

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 25th 2011 !⃝

    I can garuntee that the song refers to looking, or rather, hunting after someone. but who or why? Parts of the song (Woman you want me?) obviously refer to sex. but Every time I get to the "burn to the ground Lyric" My mental image changes to an action scene chase with free running and large explosions. I guess it must be one exciting woman.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 7th 2008 !⃝

    The song is about predatory rape, and in this sense it is effectively a thinly veiled confession. It is a little known fact that Le Bon spent much of his early childhood being suckled by male wolves (Steiger, 1985). Doubtless, this contributed largely to Le Bon's choice of poetic; the symbolic representation of his secret. This interpretation is based on a factual body of information recently proven by clinical tests by L'Oréal, Paris. The computer simulations of which are avaibable from L'Oréal's website: www.loreal.com

    Hunter and Johnson, Faculty of Fashion-Music Science, University of Nebraska.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 28th 2006 !⃝

    Hole did a cover on this song. Thought i´d just add that.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 27th 2006 !⃝

    My idea...Sex...

    Thats what I think the lyrics say, at least the undertones.

    Could possibly be the meaning for "reflex" too...

  14. Duran Fan
    click a star to vote
    Jun 22nd 2005 !⃝

    The singer is searching for his love. The 15th most watched video of all time.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

More Duran Duran songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Taking Over Me anonymous
All The Good Girls Go To Hell anonymous
Wingriddenangel anonymous
I Spoke to The Devil in Miami anonymous
This Woman's Work anonymous
Action! Not Words anonymous
Everybody Loves Me, Baby anonymous
Fall in to Sleep anonymous
Lemon Boy anonymous
Drama Club anonymous
Gravity anonymous
Our First Time anonymous
Nymphetamine anonymous
Liquid Smooth anonymous
Teddy Bear anonymous

(We won't give out your email)