Yeah Yeah Yeahs – "Heads Will Roll" (2009)

Off, off, off with your head

Dance, dance, dance ’til you’re dead

The classic power trios of the sixties and seventies – bands like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the James Gang, Grand Funk Railroad, and ZZ Top – consisted of a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer.  (I wonder why it’s not “drummist”?)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a trio, but not a power trio in the classic sense.  They have a drummer (Brian Chase), and a guitarist/keyboardist (Nick Zinner), but no bass player.  The third member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Karen Orzolek, who goes by “Karen O”) is credited as the groups’s singer and art director.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Speaking of credits, the group’s It’s Blitz! album credits 28 other people as having contributed to the finished product.  

There’s a trumpet player, a saxophone player, a cellist, a pianist, another guitarist, and a backup singer.  

There are five photographers and art directors listed in the credits.

And there are 14 people given credits for engineering, mastering, mixing, and production.

*     *     *     *     *

“Heads Will Roll” was the second single from the aforementioned It’s Blitz! album, which was released in 2009.

The “It’s Blitz!” album cover

The song's lyrics seem to reference the Queen of Hearts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who loved to say “Off with their heads!”

Here’s the music video, which features a dancing werewolf and ends with Karen O being decapitated but continuing to sing:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: