Don’t know why the original link didn’t work. You can also just search for the song on YouTube if you don’t know it. This one does have the lyrics.
Pure poetry:
“”Robert’s got a quick hand
He’ll look around the room
He won’t tell you his plan
He’s got a rolled cigarette hanging out his mouth
He’s a cowboy kid
Yeah, he found a six-shooter gun
In his dad’s closet hidden in a box of fun things
And I don’t even know what
But he’s coming for you, yeah, he’s coming for you
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
Daddy works a long day
He be coming home late, yeah, he’s coming home late
And he’s bringing me a surprise
Because dinner’s in the kitchen and it’s packed in ice
I’ve waited for a long time
Yeah, the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair’s on fire
You must have lost your wits, yeah
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet””
I’m just a hobbyist wannabee musician but I can tell you from the musician boards I frequent, songs like this are about two things. Notoriety and the cash it brings. Always has been, always will be.
As an 80s kid I grew up as a metalhead. Judas Priest, Dio, Motley Crue etc. Back then sex was the big thing. HBO and ‘Skinemax” were relatively new and sex was still taboo over the airwaves. Before that it was the drug stuff of the era. Before that Elvis was banned from places and edited on Sullavan due to his ‘hip movements.
In the 90s Iced T freaked the world out with “Cop Killer”
In 2008 Katy Perry kissed a girl and liked it.
You will notice that each and every one of these ‘events’ drew on the social taboo of the era to profit from.
It ‘shocks’ the sensibilities of parents that by now should have figured all this out. ‘We” had our era of sleaze rock and today, all that is passe. Now ‘Bullying’ is the buzz word and topic of vast ink and media attention. So poof! a bunch of songs the ‘artist’ will tell you, “deal with this veru sensitive issue...we are a mirror of society...we are change agents out to speak truth to our generation...blagh...blagh...blagh...”
It’s all about building hype and selling downloads. No more, no less.
Whatever. It’s a song. I like it. School shootings happened long before this song came out. Why don’t people just blame video games anymore? That was pretty convenient.
Unless, of course, you're worried about them missing out on the comforting social threads that are inevitably woven in the aftermath of a school shooting.
I’ve made a near lifelong habit of tuning out the lyrics, unless there’s something actually compelling or of merit contained in them.
This song hit the airwaves last year here, in the fall. The refrain is unavoidable but the subtext isn’t. The tension between the atmospheric alt-pop sound and singsong, almost childish vocals, with the startling threat of gunfire that just sort of pops out of the blue, is the reason for the pull it exerts, or exerted, since it’s been long played to death and has fallen out of rotation.
There is much cause for concern in modern society, and has been since the sixties at least, and popular music provides the soundtrack. The envelope is continually pushed, toward ever greater depravity.
As disturbing as you found this, there are far worse examples.
Here in Arizona, I'm being rehabilitated again. The radio stations here play WONDERFUL American music.
Still, for about 20 years, I only listened to Pagode and Samba (or classic rock.)
The song in question is a "before" snapshot of a murderer. Not something I need to waste moments of my life listing to. This on the other hand, is music that's a celebrated of love, life and lower urges.
I know, cultural misfit. But I love this stuff so here it is. My wife will always dance for me when I play it so there's no real negative feedback here - lol!
Some great pagode: Grupo Nosso Sentimento - Sonho De Amor - Dream of love
This is some romantic pagode: Doce Encontro - Alucinado - Crazy
Excellent pagode: Ja Virou Rotina
More great stuff from Nosso Sentimento: É tudo ou Nada - All or nothing
Another romantic one:Doce Encontro - Nada vai mudar - Nothing is going to change (heh)
An interesting perspective on class and race conflict in Brasil told through a love song: Bom Gosto Patricinha do Olho Azul - Patricia Blue Eyes
Gratutious sexy video Cia Do Pagode - Dança Do Strip Tease - The "unsafe for work" dance
Zack Efron and Taylor Swift did a safer cuter version and the beat is quite catchy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kCTPPwfpM
Paul is dead ping.
“This jingle writing man INTENDED the cognitive dissonance of joy and murder.”
This is happening a lot in our culture right now. One example that I can think of is an APP game I was playing on my phone. You blow things up by placing little explosive colorful icons. But the pictures you blow up are all innocent, happy things. Gingerbread men, candy canes, flowers, sunshine. I noticed it and thought exactly what you noticed about the song: there is a cognitive dissonance to blowing up sweet, happy, symbols. Why would they do that? I stopped playing and uninstalled the game.
Twisted. I think that’s a good word for the culture right now.
The bass player in this band has a first cousin who was in the library and witnessed and survived the Columbine massacre.
I don’t know why this song was written or what it meant to the writer. If the lyricist is to be believed, then his objective has been met. He claims to want you to discuss teen violence and culture.
There’s a lot of songs out there from the POV of the bad guy. But they’re still the bad guy, and it’s not pro the activity. Not everybody gets to write happy songs. And throwing in some cognitive dissonance between the sound of the song and the content of the lyrics makes it more interesting. Listen to the actual lyrics of Steely Dan, very happy music, very very dark lyrics.
I Don’t Like Mondays wasn’t an upbeat, happy song, it was serious exploration of the contents of a (real) killer’s head, so you can tell your son his argument doesn’t hold water.
Liberalism is CREATING these monsters, and I wish people would recognize that so we can start fixing it.
Unfortunately, where there is free speech, there will also be foolish speech.
For those of you who watch the television series “Homeland” there was an interesting point where the song “Pumped Up Kicks” intersected the action.
In the final episode of Season One (ran in December) Sergeant Brody (a Manchurian candidate type) had donned a suicide vest under his marine uniform and was leaving his house to go on a suicide mission to blow up the Vice President and other high ranking US officials.
As he was leaving, Brody stopped in his kitchen to say goodbye to his teenage daughter who was there listening to her ipod (or maybe it was an iphone). As she removed her ear buds, you could hear that the music she was listening to at that moment was “Pumped Up Kicks”.
The daughter, who knew that her father had been acting strangely, was worried about him and asked him to not go. But he did go and played his part in the terrorist mission. I’m sure that the choice of the music was deliberate by the writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_One_%28Homeland%29