Set You Free

Album: Thickfreakness (2002)
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Songfacts®:

  • Along with most of the album, this track was recorded the basement of drummer Patrick Carney's old house in Akron, Ohio.
  • This track is the lead single from The Black Keys second studio album. It's a straightforward plea to a love interest to leave her current man, who treats her wrong and probably cheats ("You don't know he's door-to-door"). The singer wants her to walk out the door so that he can set her free. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Paco - St. Paul, MN
  • This was used in the 2003 comedy School of Rock, starring Jack Black, and in the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.
  • After passing on several lucrative licensing deals for fear of looking like sell-outs, the duo eventually licensed this for a Nissan ad in an attempt to boost their fan base.

    "It's helped us immensely," Black Keys lead singer Dan Auerbach told NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. "Before 'Tighten Up' [from Brothers], we'd never had a real song regularly played on rock radio. We didn't have that support, and getting these songs in commercials was almost like having your song on the radio."

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