Stone the Crow
by Down

Album: NOLA (1995)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Down is the New Orleans based band fronted by Phil Anselmo, best known as the frontman in Pantera. "Stone the Crow" is their most popular song; it was written by Anselmo and guitarist Pepper Keenan.
  • Is there a deep, philosophical meaning to this song, which finds Anselmo singing about how he's never stoned a crow and living a life of "handwritten pain?" The lyrics certain go to a dark place, but in our interview with Anselmo, he said: "That came out of nothing, really. Even when we recorded the record, I really didn't have any set set of lyrics, so a lot of them are just bulls--t, really, that just fit the song."

    "I guess over the years, they've become something," he added. "They've become whatever they are. I still think when people sing that song live with us out in the audience, I don't even think they know what the f--k they're saying, but they know the pattern to it, and they know the notes, so f--k it, it's good enough."

Comments: 2

  • Ron from NyEven though it's just a fluke that you happen to come up with those lyrics I believe there's more to it than that because there's a lot of people that understand what that phrase means as we all know crows are scavengers so basically what you're saying is you never kicked anybody while they were down and that's why people respect that
  • Mark from NhWhile the expression “stone the crow” is used to express surprise or shock (similar to “I’ll be damned!” or “Holy mackerel!”), in this song it more likely refers to the fact that crows feed off of carcasses, so if one were dying they would throw stones at a crow who was attempting to pick away at them as they lay dying. In this sense, “stone the crow” means “refuse to die”. Therefore “not stoning the crow” means “accepting that you are going to die” and “shouldn’t stone the crow” means “should give up on life”.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

James Bond Theme Songs

James Bond Theme SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know the 007 theme songs?

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino EditionMusic Quiz

Whether he's splitting ears or burning Nazis, Quentin Tarantino uses memorable music in his films. See if you can match the song to the scene.

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"They're Playing My Song

Shears does very little promotion, which has kept him secluded from the spotlight. What changed when Cyndi Lauper had a hit with his song? Not much, really.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.