Hang Me Up To Dry

Album: Robbers & Cowards (2007)
Charted: 57
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, laundry that has been hung on a clothesline is used as a metaphor for getting caught in a one-sided relationship. The girl keeps leading him on just to disappoint him, which is "hanging him out to dry." The clicking at the end of the song simulates the clothesline. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France
  • Bassist Matt Maust told Spin magazine about the reason for the band's name: "I had the name six or seven years before the band started - so probably since 1997. I was traveling in Eastern Europe with my brother. There's this big park in Budapest where they dumped all these statues that had been removed after Communism fell. Now it's just a place where people can go and have picnics. There's a playground there. So being in that environment just made the phrase 'Cold War Kids' pop into my head. I may have heard it before. I'm a cold war kid, too - I was born in 1979. Originally, I used the name for a website I had where I posted art and poems. Then when I started playing music with the guys, they thought it would be a good name for the band, too."

Comments: 2

  • Patrick from Overland Park, Ksthis is just a cool song. The reverb bass line is awesome
  • Hunter from Flint, Miabsolutely amazing song. enough said.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.