‘Warpaint’ Song-By-Song Commentary by Chris Robinson

‘Warpaint’
Song-By-Song Commentary
by Chris Robinson

 
Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution:
“It's a little bit cheeky that one.  The whole idea is the paranoid utopian blues.  We know it's bad, we know they've laid the trance on thick, but for those of us who can see through it we should run through the gates of the city and find ourselves in this place we want to live.  I think that's the best sort of banner for the record to start under.  If people are wondering if this is a rock & roll record, this is a good example of where our hearts and minds are.”

Walk Believer Walk:
“The other thing was to be in a real roots-oriented place.  That's one of the themes of this record.  The blues have always been such a main wellspring of inspiration, and this is a ferocious kind of blue songs.  That lexicon is being lost.  There's still so much life in the blues for us.  ‘Walk Believer Walk’ is a song with a lot of venom in it for the non-believers.”

Oh Josephine:
“It's probably the song I'm most proud of on this album.  The last verse sums up a lot [‘It's too late to play it safe/So let's let it all ride’].  That's our attitude.  There's no reason for anybody here to ever hold back.  We're doing this full bore, and it's gonna be open.  I always thought our best writing was our ballads.  People want to identify the Black Crowes as this guitar band–which we are–but I think ‘Oh Josephine’ is the quintessential Black Crowes song, and the coda at the end says, ‘We know who we are.’  It's one of those songs you can put on at 5:30 in the morning and decide whether you're going to keep going or put it down for the night.”

Evergreen:
“This is an example of a one-take tune on the album.  Luther's solo is one seamless piece.  When the Black Crowes play this kind of rock music, it's something unique and cryptic, and the riff that Rich came up helps you stay on the ride.”

We Who See The Deep:
“That one's for the freaks (laughs).  This song was born from another acoustic-y version and I asked Rich to kinda turn it up and Steve just came up with that groove.  It's pretty much just freak-funk.”

Locust Street:
“’Locust Street’ is a song for everyone's who's lost.  Don't forget in this squeaky clean world that sometimes you lose, and there can be songs about losers and where that can take us.  Everybody goes through these things.  There's a ‘Locust Street’ in every town in America, at least east of the Mississippi.”

Movin' On Down The Line:
“This is the spot on the record and our career that has a piece of our whole story.  Every sort of musical theme we've touched on rears its pretty little head in that song.  That was the first song we recorded and it set the tempo for the whole session.”

Wounded Bird:
“Rich came up with that riff and it all fell out from that.  It's a song about loss but with the realization that nothing can really kill you.  This life is an experience and we can't hide from any of it.  It's kind of harsh but it definitely represents letting go.  It's the only Taoist rock song on the album.”

God's Got It:
“Let's not get too hung up about Easter, man.  We haven't really done a cover on a record in a while, and I just always loved this song.  I don't think half the guys in the band had heard it.  I played it for everybody and they all jumped up and started doing it.  It was also another way to get into our roots.”

There's Gold In Them Hills:
“It takes an old gold rush character and makes it into California and the music business.  Or anybody who's left their home to follow their muse and seek out what their life might be amongst the trials and tribulations.  I don't think I could write this song at 25.  I just have a different perspective on where we've been and where we're going.”

Whoa Mule:
“It's hand-in-hand with the roots part of our goals on Warpaint.  It sums up a lot of different kinds of music.  There's an Appalachian part to it, and a certain English aesthetic, which, of course, makes it very Southern in the way a lot of European folk music came into America and manifested itself.  The idea of the lyric is ‘We're dirty but we're dreaming.’  It's definitely one of the most optimistic songs we've ever written.”

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