| The White Stripes – Icky Thump Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Essentially, this song is a post-apocalyptic sequel to “Helter Skelter” that takes place in the aftermath of the prophesied race war that Charles Manson felt “Helter Skelter” was foretelling. To properly understand this song you must interpret both the lyrical and musical aspects. This starts with the title of the song itself, “icky Thump”, which is British term of exasperation for “Oh, God”. Whereas the song “Helter Skelter” is based off another British term used to describe a type of children’s slide found at English carnivals, “Icky Thump” is based on a more modern type of kid’s toy: a video game. The video game can be heard speaking throughout song via the electric Clavioline keyboard riffs that appear after each verse/chorus cycle. The opening sequence of the song lays out the ‘stakes’ of the main character’s adventures to come, essentially serving the same function as an opening cutscene to a video game. Taking “Icky Thump” to also represent the main character of the story, the opening riff explains the backstory: We are living in a post-apocalyptic world brought on by the race war predicted in “Helter Skelter”. Icky Thump himself is a product of that war: a punk-ass teenage male, half American and half Mexican. Having grown up entirely in the post-war United States. Icky Thump has never seen what he believes to be his true mother land: Mexico. Icky Thump decides to return to Mexico to try and discover his true roots. The first verse is a pretty straightforward interpretation of how the first part of that journey goes: he rides a wagon across the border, falls off the wagon while getting drunk, and wakes up in the bed of a Mexican prostitute. She offers to give him the hornswoggling of his life for a mere 10 pesos. To the young virgin Icky, this sounds like a heckuva deal, since his girlfriend back in America won’t even blow him, let alone hornswoggle him for what amounts to $.50 in US dollars. Icky gets down, and we hear his signature guitar riff come in for the first time. As expected, it’s a straight forward rock riff, infused with all the vigor and ferocity expected from the young punk’s first sexual experience. After he pops and passes out for the evening, the next thing we hear is the video game’s narrator ringing in the new morning to explain that the hero’s journey is not yet over. the princess is in another castle. In the second verse, Icky Thump wakes up to take stock of what happened the night before. He looks over at the bed to discover that prostitute he spent the night with is hideously deformed uggo, with a crusty white eye, a bent yellow snaggle tooth, and a huge matted muff of red hair. He can feel his throat swelling up from all the nasty border town cooch he had lapped up the night before like kid discovering Jolt Cola for the first time. Instead of singing around the collar, he looks down to find a scabbing red ring around the head of his dick. Flakes of sticky red-and-white powder come crumbling out the backside of his trousers, and he looks back at the bed to find the passed out hooker holding the crook end of a candy cane. He reaches for his coat to get the fuck out of there, but he realizes he’s handcuffed to the bed As the verse ends, he is taunted by a chiding chorus of “La-la-la-la-la-la’s”. Hornswoggled is right. Not so innocent anymore. We hear Icky’s signature riff again, but this time the first few measures are followed up by a more mature and intricate riff of octaves ascending and descending the neck of the guitar. There’s a lesson to be learned here and maybe Icky’s eyes are slowly opening up to a truth he was once blind to. This time, the third verse interrupts the Clavioline lines, cutting it short before it can get in the “last word” of its admonishing, parental notes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Icky thinks, “He knows he fucked up, he doesn’t need to be lectured about it.” He’s a man now after all. The third verse is Icky reflecting on his journey and cursing himself for ever leaving home. If he’s half American and half Mexican, why did he automatically assume that his real roots were in Mexico, rather than America? Like most American teenagers, he felt he was different, and he assumed that the root of that difference was the fact that he was half Mexican, rather than full-blooded American. He’s realizing that perhaps he was wrong though. After all, If he’s a product of the race war, than the land of the race war has been his true mother land from the start. He is a true-blooded American, because all Americans came from somewhere else. Icky decides to get the fuck back across the border where he came from and starts bashing at the handcuffs with a stone. At this point, he has reached the final boss of the game. We hear his riff come in again for a third time; the keyboard fights against him. Icky is able to punch in the correct sequence of guitar notes, unlocking the code and defeating the final boss at minute 3:40. Icky’s riff plays loud and free and fades out as he disappears back across the border. |
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| Jimmie's Chicken Shack – 30 Days Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I think this song is about a couple giving it another shot together. Perhaps even, they have put a 30 day 'trial' period to see if they can reconcile their relationship. In the first verse, the author tries to walk himself through the possible things he might have to change to make make this relationship to work. "If I don't kid myself, if I don't care about a thing, would I be light enough to fly?" If he can prevent himself from dwelling on the couple's past (cheating? fighting? treachery?) and remove the doubts he's had, then, will that be enough to make it successful? I think the 30 days as a 'trial' period is reinforced in the lyrics "When the race ends"....He's not sure how this trial period will turn out. Will it be safe and sound? Will they be stronger than ever, due to the trials they've had to face ("If we've lost our way, would we trade it now, for the way we found the ground?"). SECOND INTERPRETATION: The second verse could be about him getting caught 'whacking' it', as one commenter suggested. This verse could possibly be about a fight over sex that the couple had the night before, which resulted in lots of crying, and thus, staining 'streams' of tears all over the sheets. The male protagonist of the song naturally did not get laid that night. During the night, he is having an erotic dream where he receives the inspiration for this song while getting a bj from his gal in bed next to him He is woken up from this dream while jettisoning his nocturnal emissions and lays down a deluge of semen on the sheets over the previous night's tears ("laying rivers where once were streams."). Also, "She lights the stars in the sky" could be the female's own euphemism for pulling the proverbial "Dutch Oven" on her man. As she farts and he tries to escape the sheets, the smell burns his eyes and he realizes that he is at fault for everything in the song, because an "angels can see them clear in foul weather." As his eyes burns, he realizes he must be at fault and no angel, and therefore must undertake the changes needed over the next 30 days to be honest with himself and save the relationship. |
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