Watch another Scottish singer, Rachel Sermanni cover Take Me Out, softly, differently, and very effectively, with an accordion, a horn section and a traditional fiddler to help her: Which doesn’t mean to say that you have to parrot Alex Kapranos. Let the music crash around you and be still.
Lose the contrast and you lose the power of the song. I asked the question about shouting because I’ve seen Take Me Out becoming a popular choice in international singing competitions and I’ve seen a few contestants misaligning themselves with the crash of the drums and guitar and starting to shout the words. Yes, sometimes he increases the volume, but, watch his face and you’ll see that his demeanour is unchanged. It reflects the contrasting possibilities of the phrase Take Me Out. Alex doesn’t shout. He doesn’t shout, does he? The power of the song lies in the contrast between the steadiness of Alex’s voice and the crashing music all around him. One question – as Alex sings, do you ever hear him shout? Watch his face: Most times you hold both meanings in your head at once. Each time Alex sings the phrase – and there are 7 times – you make your choice between love and death. Īs the song continues, you feel yourself swerving between the possible meanings of take me out. Suddenly, in a love song, take me out also means ‘kill me or destroy me,’ just as snipers ‘ take out‘ enemy soldiers. He sings: ‘ I’m just a cross hair‘ and you feel your brain turning somersaults. Just as you relax into the ‘right’ meaning, Alex throws you a surprise. This time, for this song, take me out must mean, as the Cambridge Dictionary has it: ‘ invite me somewhere to do something that you’ve planned and will pay for‘ in the sense of ‘ take me out on a romantic date.’ Forget library books, dustbins or bank loans. He starts his song with words of love: ‘So if you’re lonely/You know I’m here waiting for you.’ All meanings are possible until Alex Kapranos makes things clear.Īlex plays you, like a cat with a ball of wool. You wait patiently for the singer, Alex Kapranos, to provide a clue and a context for you to choose the right one.įranz Ferdinand are known for their surreal lyrics, so Take Me Out could be an unloved library book‘s monologue, or a dustbin feeling restless on collection day. It’s the closest most of us get to being Schrödinger’s cat.Īs soon as you know that the phrasal verb Take Me Out is the title of Franz Ferdinand’s song, your brain starts shuffling through all the possible meanings. If you want to feel your brain dancing, listen to Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out. The lyrics give you opposite meanings for the same phrase and your brain begins to swerve between them.
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