Blackout Song

Album: Five Crooked Lines (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This almost didn't get onto the Crooked Lines album. Lead singer Scott Anderson explained to About.com: "I think there were maybe six or seven iterations of that. We tried so hard to get the vibe of that song down and recorded. We tried a million different tempos. We took it apart and tried to put it back together. I credit [producer] Dave Cobb for finding that really nice drunken, trashy, bendy [laughs] vibe, which was just absolutely perfect."

    "I really feared... but I thought 'we gotta try it.' We kicked the s--t out of this song. Sometimes you just gotta let it go. If it's not gonna work for the band, it's not gonna work. With Dave I think the tempo got slower, the chorus got drunk, pretty much. It was also his suggestion to keep saying 'f--k everything' at the end of the song [laughs]. I'm really happy that song found a place. I credit Dave for that."
  • Anderson explained the song's meaning: "I think it's about having too much fun with your friends," he said. "That's what it's about. Again it's pretty simple. It's about having that much fun being surrounded by all your friends and even if there's a sh---y song that comes on the jukebox - it's fine, just sing along to it anyways. Who cares? It's you in your moment with your friends. And hopefully you remember it - but maybe you won't."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

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.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.