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.
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.
@EarthToGreg - Dude, you were on some epic 'shrooms when you wrote this. I'm one-uping it just for the ridiculous, psychedelic creativity.
@EarthToGreg - Dude, you were on some epic 'shrooms when you wrote this. I'm one-uping it just for the ridiculous, psychedelic creativity.