Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
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
Chorus: 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
Chorus:..
From Wikipedia:
- Soon after Mark Foster formed Foster the People in 2009, he wrote and recorded “Pumped Up Kicks” in five hours while working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics in Los Angeles. On the day of recording, Foster debated between songwriting in the studio and going to the beach. He explained: “I really didn’t have anything to do that day. I was standing there in the studio, and this thought came in my mind like, ‘I’m going to write a song,’… and then I was like, ‘I don’t feel like writing. I don’t want to write a song.’ I was a block away from the beach, and it was a beautiful day. I kind of just wanted to just be lazy and go hang out at the beach or whatever. But I just forced myself to write a song… By that time the next day, the song was finished.” Reflecting on the lack of inspiration he felt when writing the song, Foster said, “I’ve heard a lot of other artists talk about this as well, like, ‘I’m not inspired right now. I’ve got writer’s block. I’m just not really feeling anything.’ And I’ve felt that way, too, just not being inspired and wanting to wait for inspiration to come before I wrote. But I wasn’t inspired when I wrote ‘Pumped Up Kicks,’ and that’s what came out. So… it just solidified the notion that perspiration is more powerful than inspiration.” Thinking that he was just recording a demo, he played all of the instruments on the song, and using the software Logic Pro, he arranged and edited the song himself. The demo is ultimately the version of the song that Foster released.
- “I like to write about real-life topics, and I like to write about different walks of life. For me, that song was really an observation about something that’s happening in the youth culture these days. I guess I wanted to reveal that internal dialogue of a kid who doesn’t have anywhere to turn, and I think the song has kind of done its job. I think people are talking about it, and it’s become a point of conversation, which I think is a really healthy thing.” (Mark Foster)
- Foster said, “It’s a ‘fuck you’ song to the hipsters in a way—but it’s a song the hipsters are going to want to dance to.” Jeffery Berg of Frontier Psychiatrist said, “I was so engrossed with the cheery melody of its chorus that it took me a few listens to discover that the lyrics suggest dark, Columbine revenge.”
(Source: youtube.com)
