Stabbed

Album: Glasvegas (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • Singer James Allan wrote this number about gang violence and the fear of being attacked in the East End of Glasgow, an area the band calls home. It name checks a local knife gang "The Baltic Fleeto."
  • The song's dramatic prose is set against the piano of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Allan revealed to The Sun August 15, 2008: "That was the first thing I wrote for the band. I had the lyrics and for some reason I tried to do the music for it a few times but never really got it right. Then I heard 'Moonlight Sonata.' Immediately I heard Beethoven, I saw a street near where I live. I could visualize Springfield Road, in Glasgow. I could see it when I wrote the words. Then, when I heard that music, I saw that same place, and right away I knew exactly that I needed to not sing, I needed to recite it as a poem.
    I think everybody just thought I was a loony because I said: 'I've got this idea. I'm going to get Beethoven and I'm going to speak on top of Beethoven' and I think the label and the band were just like, 'Has he lost the plot?' Rab (Allan, lead guitar) said, 'It sounds great, man!' but I think he was still thinking, 'He's really losing it'. It was a strange thing and I don't know if I'll ever do that again."
  • Allan told the Daily Record August 5, 2008: "It is trying to express common fears. I'm not telling anyone anything new."
  • This is likely to be a nod to The Shangri-Las' 1966 spoken-word single "Past, Present and Future," which was also based around "Moonlight Sonata."

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