Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out his mouth he's a cowboy kid
Yeah found a six shooter gun
In his dad's closet, oh in a box of fun things
I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Daddy works a long day
He be coming home late, and he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet


Lyrics submitted by evenabird, edited by kitty17moo, indierox, Paymaan, MycroftJr, bobbywasabi123, smartboiii420, haylo740, tobyoakes

Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics as written by Mark Derek Foster

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Pumped Up Kicks song meanings
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    General Comment

    Here are a few interview snippets:

    KROQ: But the lyrics about a kid with a 6-shooter gun walking into school is surprisingly dark territory especially for a pop song. Is this an issue you feel close to? FOSTER: I kind of wrote the song to bring awareness to the issue. That sort of thing keeps happening more and more in our country; it’s kind of turning into an epidemic. To me the epidemic isn’t gun violence; the epidemic is lack of family, lack of love, and isolation kids who don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to talk to and that’s what makes them snap. When a 13 or 14-year-old kid brings a gun to school and does something, sure, you blame them for making that choice... But at the end of the day, he or she is still just a kid and there’s a lot of other things that led up that moment that should have changed.

    One of your hits, "Pumped Up Kicks," is all over The Current right now, which is one of our big radio stations here in Minnesota. The subject of the song, a loner child who is contemplating shooting other kids, is a unique and daring choice. What’s with that?

    I write in character a lot. So, I decided to write in character and really try to psychologically get inside the head of the kid that would be going through strategies about doing something like that. And really break down what his thought processes were like, and what his world was like. I wanted to convey the isolation the lack of love.

    APYS: On the subject of Pumped Up Kicks, it’s been described by a lot of people as a ‘summer anthem’ but yet its lyrics are quite dark, what was the inspiration behind the song?

    Mark: Well I mean I write in character a lot, and that song was written through the eyes of a teenage kid who was isolated and outcast, and I really wanted to kind of get into the psychology of his head. In the States over the last ten years kids are going on these killing sprees and it’s becoming more and more common, and I really wanted to dive in and figure out why: what’s happening to our society to cause this, why is our life deteriorating the way it is, what’s the problem socially? And so I told the story through his eyes.

    wheckson July 21, 2011   Link

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