Low

Album: Kerosene Hat (1993)
Charted: 43 64
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • There have been plenty of songs about getting high, but not so many about getting low. In this song, David Lowery of Cracker tries to convince a girl to go down with him - not an easy sell.

    There are drug references all over this song - "junky cosmonaut," "A million poppies gonna make me sleep" - but especially in the chorus:

    I'll be with you, girl, like being low
    Hey, hey, hey like being stoned


    Lowery has never been clear on the meaning, but his record company did make him sign a letter saying that the lyric was "like being stone" in an effort to convince radio stations that the song was not about drugs.
  • This is the 1993 hit that put their album Kerosene Hat on the charts and Cracker on the world stage of alternative music. As can be glimpsed in the video, the album Kerosene Hat was recorded at a sound stage built in an old barn in Pioneertown, California. This is close to where lead singer David Lowery first met guitarist Johnny Hickman.
  • In our interview with Johnny Hickman, he explained how "Low" came together: "The song started with me coming up with that guitar riff just noodling around at a soundcheck in Portland one day, but it's really David's song. He wrote the title and lyrics after the fact, which are fantastic. David and Davey Faragher (bassist) started looking for chords to play around my guitar riff. A few days later David had the song completed."
  • The black-and-white video was directed by Carlos Grasso, who came up with the concept after interviewing David Lowery and deciding that the song was about a conflict between his masculine and feminine sides. To play this out, he filmed a raging Sandra Bernhard driving to a makeshift boxing ring, where she knocks out Lowery. Grasso was going through a split with his girlfriend at the time, which provided some inspiration.
  • While Lowery was born in San Antonio, Texas, his childhood spent moving around with his father, who was stationed in the US Air Force, eventually landed him in Redlands, California, where he attended school. He formed the band Camper Van Beethoven in Santa Cruz, where perhaps his most famous accomplishment was the song "Take the Skinheads Bowling," used as the theme song to Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine. Lowery has also worked as a record producer. Amongst the many bands he's produced for are Sparklehorse, Counting Crows, Lauren Hoffman, September 67, and Tea Leaf Green.
  • This song saw release in the UK as a compilation single, together with the tracks "I Ride My Bike," "Sunday Train," and "Whole Lotta Trouble."
  • This was used in the 2012 film The Perks of Being a Wallflower and included on the soundtrack.

Comments: 6

  • Cm from LouisianaIt seems that the title is an antithesis. "Getting low" would be the opposite of getting high, so maybe the singer is saying to the girl that they would be better off staying clean
  • Kaycee Arizona from ArkansasThis song is 100% about using drugs, from beginning to end. It’s about a heroin junkie proposing that the female to whom the lyrics are projected toward should “get low” with him.. which is another slang term for getting high on heroin.. or down as it’s sometimes referred to. As he says “take you down, let the river flow” is a reference for the rush of euphoria in your blood stream. He’s suggesting that being with this girl is comparable to using heroin. The lyrics “hey don’t you want to go down, like some junkie cosmonaut” is referring to the nod you get after injecting heroin. Anyone who has ever spent time in the Pacific Northwest and tried their world famous black tar knows that this song is self explanatory. They nailed it. This song sounds like heroin feels, sublime.
  • Mig from Bidbee, AzI remember hearing this great song on the radio many times in Phoenix, Az. back in 1997 and I remember the version they played was not edited like the album I have, or the version itunes sells. I remember hearing "Hey, don't you want to go down with me" on the radio. My CD version has the two words "with me" edited. I have tried to find out more about this on the internet, but have not had much luck. Has any ones else out there noticed this too? I would like to find the unedited version.
  • Elmer H from Westville, OkBack in 1993 I bought the CD "Kerosene Hat." This song "Low"was played a lot on area radio stations so I am surprised to learn that it only made it to #64 on some charts (Billboard?). It could be about drugs, but heard that some people thought it was about relationship "ups & downs." So I don't know. Could it be about both? I still love the technical skills displayed by the instrumentation & production-work. And I know for sure it is one funky-sounding dude & funky-sounding music I still love.
  • Bubblesk from Memphis, TnI agree, it sure seems like it's about drug-taking. Still, I love the song's melody & haunting instrumental backing. It's still played on alternative rock radio in N.E. Oklahoma/N.W. Arkansas. I wasn't alive when it came out in '93, but first heard it on alternative rock radio in my area, especially when I began college in 2011.
  • Mel from Boyds, MdThis song is definitely about doing drugs.
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