.

Song Stories

“Little Black Submarines”

The Black Keys | 2011

Though the song may sound a little “Stairway to Heaven”-ish, this Akron, Ohio, duo has stolen from the best from the beginning, in particular old blues. Rolling Stone picked this song from El Camino as Number 18 in the 50 Best Singles list of 2011, partially on the strength of Dan Auerbach’s wailing guitar solo. “That was my jock-rock moment,” Auerbach said. “We actually did that song in two versions, an acoustic one and an electric one and spliced them together. I think that the electric half of that song is the closest representation of our live show than anything we’ve done before.”

prev
Song Stories Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus

Song Stories

“Jimbrowski”

Jungle Brothers | 1988

Jungle Brothers sampled, among other things, jazz, James Brown and house music. The New York crew's lyrics were equally diverse but never short on clever wordplay or a playful sense of humor, as exemplified by this song from 1988's Straight Out the Jungle. "The idea for that came at the end of a studio session, with Mike, me, Red Alert and a woman Red was dating at the time," says the group’s Afrika Baby Bam. "Red was flirting with her and kept saying 'Jimbrowski' the whole night. Mike and I wrote the rhymes on the way back from the subway."

More Song Stories entries »