White Knuckle Ride

Album: Rock Dust Light Star (2010)
Charted: 39
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a limited edition single from British jazz funk/acid jazz band Jamiroquai's seventh album titled Rock Dust Light Star. The song was written by frontman Jay Kay, and it's the first single released by them on the Mercury Records label. It was a limited edition vinyl and download in the United Kingdom.
  • The song is described on Jamiroquai's website as "a hi-octane retrospective on Jay's career experiences - a cautionary tale equally applicable to anyone's life in these pressure cooker times."
  • The phrase "white-knuckle ride," originated from exciting but scary amusement park rides on which the travelers would grasp the rail before them so tightly that their knuckles would turn white. The expression is used figuratively to describe any nerve-racking experience.
  • Rock Dust Light Star was Jamiroquai's comeback album after a five-year absence, the last studio record being 2005's Dynamite. The group performed the song on the X-Factor (UK) with little fanfare from judges Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue, who refused to clap after the performance because of Jay Kay's recent comments to the press that they were "useless."

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