KMAG YOYO

Album: KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories) (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The title is an archaic military acronym that means "kiss my ass, guys, you're on your own."

    Hayes wrote the song with Scott Davis and John Evans. They found the term when they were looking through an old military dictionary.
  • The song is a chorus-less narrative told from the perspective of a young man who finds himself in the army and goes though a hallucination when he is wounded in battle. The "KMAG YOYO" lyric appears just once in the song, during a passage where the soldier things he is flying into space. In our interview with Hayes Carll, he said, "I thought it was a pretty great title because it just sums up the whole thing."

    Carll adds that the acronym also fit the theme of the album, which is why it was used for the title. He says that for a while, the whole album concept was "somebody just checking out from society and moving out to the desert and saying, 'F--k it, I'm going on my own on this."
  • Hayes was never in the military, but his father served in the Navy. The song doesn't glamorize the military experience, but instead shows how easy it can be to find yourself in uniform and wondering how you got there. Carll has made it clear that he has great respect for military personnel - t concerts, he has dedicated the song to those who have served.

Comments: 1

  • David Lloyd-jones from Toronto, CanadaKMAG-YOYO? I feel that way sometimes, but I've managed to pull myself together every time so far.
    Pessimism and self-pity are cheap luxuries -- but they don't feel any better in the morning.
    Here's your political thought for the day, from a Canadian friend:
    Was great? Well, best yet, anyway.
    Is great? Not too damn bad.
    Going to be great? Gonna take work. A fat guy with an $85,000 hair-do seems like more talk than work.
see more comments

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.