Run Sister Run

Album: Mangy Love (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This track is about politics of revolution and gender imbalances. McCombs explained to Uncut magazine: "I wanted to write a song for women, but I'm not a woman, and I wouldn't presume to understand what that's like. So I wrote it from the perspective of a man's misinterpretation of what a revolutionary woman is. Like, in protest organizations, it's like, 'Yeah, brothers and sisters, we're all fighting against the man, we're gonna smash the state, let's burn it down, right on, sister,' but there still are antiquated concepts, even in that world. There are still completely bankrupt, gender based ideas that men place on women. So it's like a parody of man-splaining, I tried to make it like that. Man-splaining to a revolutionary genius."
  • According to the press release, the song was inspired by arrested Occupy Wall Street protestor Cecily McMillan. The American activist was sentenced to three months in Rikers Island in 2014, after assaulting a police officer when the cops cleared protesters out of Lower Manhattan's Zucotti Park.
  • The song's music video was directed by Rachael Pony Cassells and stars activist and athlete Tracie Léost. In 2015, Léost went on a 115-kilometer run to raise awareness about the dozens of young women, many of them indigenous, who have disappeared on the Highway of Tears, a 450-mile stretch of road along the Trans-Canada Highway.

    "I was thinking of film and I was drawing a blank on images of strong women running in films," Cassells told Vogue. "All my immediate thoughts were of women being chased."

    Léost's run, in which passed by numerous memorials hung up to commemorate the missing women, was a way of reclaiming power. "Women running in public space is an act of defiance," the director added.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.