Stay In Your Grave

Album: Ohio Players (2024)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Stay In Your Grave" is an eerie three-minute rock 'n' roll song featuring a turn from Alice Cooper. This collaboration brings the garage rock duo together with the iconic shock rocker, resulting in a haunting and energetic track.
  • With a storyline that could make Edgar Allan Poe lean in, "Stay in Your Grave" spins a yarn about a mysterious cabbie - the sort who appears in foggy alleys and seems a bit too comfortable with eerie destinations. As it turns out, he's none other than the Devil himself, and the lyrics, full of ominous turns, offer a wink at Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" with a touch of T.S. Eliot's existential musings.
  • Now, it just so happens that Alice Cooper has been a golf buddies with Patrick Carney of The Black Keys for years, thanks to Carney's neighbor, Cooper's longtime agent. So when Auerbach suggested that Cooper take a stab at the Devilish role, Carney casually brought it up on the green. Cooper showed up in the studio the very next day.

    Carney's bandmate Dan Auerbach recalled to Uncut magazine: "He came in full regalia too, he had all the makeup on... and nailed it instantly, he knew exactly what to do. It was perfect – perfectly gruesome!"
  • The song appears on the "Trophy Edition" of The Black Keys' Ohio Players album, an expanded release featuring four bonus tracks.
  • The Black Keys released "Stay In Your Grave" as a single on October 25, 2024, just in time for Halloween.
  • The music video, a spooky concoction by Corey Bost and Ali Gome, cuts between live Black Keys footage and classic horror film clips.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

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.