Raconteurs -- "The Switch and the Spur" (2008)

Any poor souls who trespass against us
Whether it be beast or man
Will suffer the bite or be stung dead on sight
By those who inhabit this land

This is a very odd song.

Actually, that's an understatement.  It's an extremely odd song – unless you think a song told from the point of view of a rattlesnake who has just delivered a lethal amount of venom into an escaped outlaw isn't odd. (If you don't, I'd say that you might be a little odd.)

Rattlesnakes ahead!

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a song with an odder subject.  System of a Down's Old School Hollywood – which is about the singer's experience playing in a celebrity baseball game in Los Angeles with Tony Danza and other B-listers – is pretty odd, but I don't think it comes close to a song featuring a rattlesnake gloating about adding another notch to its belt.

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I had never heard this song until earlier today, but I knew almost immediately that I'd be blogging about it. 

What sold me initially was the trumpet hook – think Latin-type fanfare. (Not salsa-dancing Latin, more bullfighter-ish . . . or spaghetti Western-ish.)  Once that little trumpet riff gets into your brain, you might as well introduce yourself and offer it a seat – it's going to be staying around for a while.

The song tells a Western-movie kind of story about a man who breaks out of jail and is making his escape across a burning desert on an Appaloosa horse. (You can almost hear the Sons of the Pioneers crooning, "Cool . . . clear . . . water" in the background.) 

The horse shies when they encounter a rattlesnake, and the man is thrown from the saddle – breaking his hand, but more significantly falling within range of the deadly rattler.  He remounts the horse after he is bitten, but he's a dead man riding:

The poison pumps through his veins
There's no stopping this
And now he's powerless
Still holding the reins

After delivering the lines quoted at the beginning of this entry, the snake throws down a verbal gauntlet on behalf of not only himself but also all of his deadly brethren – scorpions and the like – to any beast or man who is foolish enough to invade their turf: "You shall never return!"

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As you may know, the Raconteurs was formed by Jack White of the White Stripes and his pal, Brendan Benson.  I was completely unaware of the 2008 Raconteurs CD this song is from – Consolers of the Lonely – until I stumbled across it at the public library a couple of weeks ago:

By the time I had heard this song the second time, I was hooked.  I have sort of an addictive personality, and I'll probably listen to it over and over and over on the way to and from my refereeing assignment tonight.  (God help any of my kids who are stuck riding with me somewhere in the next few days.)

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Click here to learn more about the Stylophone, a $19.95 pocket synthesizer invented in 1967 that was sold mostly to kids but was also used by some serious musicians then and now – including the Raconteurs, who sponsored a contest inviting fans to send in videos of themselves playing Stylophones.  

There's a Youtube video of a dual-Stylophone performance of "The Switch and the Spur" by a fan that you've got to see.  Click here to view it.

A Stylophone

Click here to listen to "The Switch and the Spur" in its entirety (sans Stylophone).

Finally, click here for a video of a live performance of the song – it's very good, and the drummer (Patrick Keeler) is an absolute beast . . . but there's no trumpet!

Click on the link below if you'd like to order the song from Amazon: