The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip

Album: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • Frontman Alex Turner told Pitchfork: "'The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip' was named after an event that actually happened. It was a news story that came out one day that I clicked on," he said. "It's remarkable. I mean, it's definitely the most surprising thing I saw that day. It flipped forward!"

    The event Turner clicked on was most likely Lee O'Donnell successfully accomplishing the world's first monster truck front flip at the 2017 Monster Jam World Finals.
  • The song opens with a reference to the slogan from an 1888 Kodak advertising campaign.

    You press the button, and we'll do the rest

    Photography was still a very involved process in the late 1880s, and Kodak's founder George Eastman wanted to make the process available to the masses. Turner repurposes this early example of opening up technology to the amateur market in order to describe how such ease of access potentially makes us less knowledgeable. He continues the message through the rest of the song.

    There are things that I just cannot explain to you
    And those that I hope I don't ever have to

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