Artist: The Hives
Album: Veni Vidi Vicious
Track #: 2
Title: Die, All Right!
Hey! I've got a message and tonight I'm gonna send it
Yeah! I had a body men with knives wanted to lend it
Sold my body to the company so
I got the money now away I go
Thank you Mr. CEO
Hey! I got some money and tonight I'm gonna spend it
Yeah! They gave me paper and I went ahead and penned it
And I say thank you Mr. CEO.
I filled my pockets now I might as well - Die!
Cause I found the backdoor out of teenage hell - All right!
Filled my account cause I might in fact - Die!
Rely on science yeah to bring me back - All right!
I-I-I-I-I'm gonna die......
Heavy morals seem so light
But when it comes to cash I'm wanna die all right
Hey! I lost the money seems like I can't comprehend it
Yeah! I Got a hole in my head gotta gotta mend it
Too messed up to sit and settle down
Too messed up to even mess around
That's why you're smiling Mr. CEO
Chrous
I-I-I-I-I'm gonna die....... But not right now
Yeah why don't you do the same
I got the money now I can't complain
Except the tics won't go away
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no
And the way I feel tonight
Is gonna make me die all right
Chrous
I-I-I-I-I'm gonna die......
Heavy morals seem so light
But when it comes to cash I'm gonna die all right
Die, All Right! is the third single off of The Hives' album Veni Vidi Vicious after I Hate To Say I Told You So and Main Offender. They've been playing "Hate To Say I Told You So" non-stop on MTV2 so I decided I'd see if I could find anything else by them. I didn't actually see either of the two "newer" videos until I searched for "The Hives" on some P2P networks. The video is a far cry from the simple video for Hate To Say I Told You So and also quite different from the black and white special effects-filled Main Offender, which I am an not entirely fond of. The video starts out with a man plugging an extension cord into an outlet inside an aging stately manor. The gloomy mansion is decked out with expensive wood panelling, plush chairs with crafted from carved wood and leather, taxidermy adorning the walls, classical sculptures, a gilded dome ceiling, a chandelier, a gigantic crimson rug, and lots of candles. As usual the band has coordinating outfits and color coordinated instruments.
The garments for this video go well with the dark theme of the video and the aging set. The Hives rely on the ever-present 'Hives uniform' which consists of matching black suits with white shirts, ties and white shoes. But for this video there is a slight twist, their shirts and ties are replaced with a puffy white silk scarf and various necklaces (for example the lead singer sports a bejeweld broach on a red ribbon around his neck.)
Their instruments this time are are shades of dirty gold and white, even the typically bland silver microphone has a nice gold stand.
The Hives show off their characteristically great showmanship: jumping around, rocking out, falling on the floor to sing a quarter of the song, it all works together to create visual and lyrical entertainment that's hard to ignore. As far as the lyrics go, the semi-incoherent ramblings of this punk band work well to help establish a counter-culture image for them, signing about how the man (in the form of the record label) is trying to keep them down. Singing about 'the man' after they just inked a deal with Warner Brothers to bring their albums to the states seems a little hypocritical, but I can forgive them.
Instrumentation:
Written By: Randy Fitzsimmons
Runtime: 2:46
Recorded: Late 1999 at Pelle's studio, Sweden?
Producer: Pelle Almquist
Recording engineer: Pelle Almquist
This writeup (except for the lyrics, which are copyrighted and presented under fair use) is released under the GFDL, version 1.2 or any later version.