Songfacts®:

• This Screamadelica album opener started out like a "slow, gospel kind of ballad, like a Curtis Mayfield-type thing," frontman Bobby Gillespie told NME. "We couldn't work out a way of giving it motion or a forward-thrust, so to speak. Then one day (guitarist) Andrew Innes had the idea to do the Bo Diddley-style/Who 'Magic Bus' guitar, very syncopated, and that gave it the forward motion and the rock 'n roll attitude."
• Gillespie on the simplicity of the lyrics (to NME): "I like country and soul and blues imagery, it's very simple and direct, and it's written in a language that anybody can understand. But it's hard to write that simple because people will always want to complicate things to show of that they can, you know, they think they can write better than they actually can. It's all about communicating and touching people."
• The lyrics "I was blind, now I can see, you made a believer out of me," were taken from the German rock band Can's 1969 song "Yoo Doo Right," from their debut album, Monster Movie.