What Went Down

Album: What Went Down (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title track of Foals' What Went Down album paints the picture of a man close to a dangerous brink. The song showcases a new, vitriolic sound for the group. Speaking to BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac about the song, singer Yannis Philippakis, said: "It is one of the most savage and animalistic songs we've ever done. When we play it in a room, it just feels predatory, it feels like we're on a hunt or something."

    "[Producer] James Ford really pushed me to get into a place with the vocal texture where it was just like berserk." Philippakis added: "Ford really pushed us and we couldn't be happier."
  • Philippakis spoke to XFM's Georgie Rogers about the track. During the interview, he compared it to "Inhaler" from the band's Holy Fire album, saying "What Went Down" was its "buddy." "We were craving more songs that had that physical, manic energy...Writing a song like 'Inhaler' broke that barrier that might have been there before where we were nervous or had reservations about certain types of heavy guitar stuff," he explained. "That's gone now... it's a product of the fact that we feel more confident, we feel more liberated. We feel like we can do anything but not in too cocky a way."
  • Philippakis told NME: "The recorded version is the first one we ever played. I re-recorded the vocals but the rest of it is raw. It's one of those moments you can have if you're lucky in the studio where things seem to materialize fully-formed. We wanted it to feel like the moment when a predatory animal goes in for the kill: there's a savagery to it."
  • Phillippakis told Q magazine that this exploration of primal urges is, "seeing humans at their worst, animistic, deceitful, violent."

Comments: 3

  • Millermm1975 from Seattle, WaI buried my heart in a hole in the ground with the lights and the roses and the cowards downtown

    ... A dear person, or idea died, most likely person. The lights and the roses reference I still haven't yet placed. The cowards downtown refers to the office (business and political), who were too cowardly to do the right things, too cowardly to stand up.

    They threw me a party there was no one around they try to call my girl but she could not be found

    ...

    I buried my guilt in a pit in the sound with the rust and the vultures and the trash downtown

    ... the Sound can denote cities next to large bodies of water. A pit could refer to a fire pit, like on a beach at night. Parks near saltwater Sounds tend to rust rather quickly. So, someone is in a city looking around at the geography, the iron decay, referring to those forementioned office workers as 'vultures'. They are sad, but more importantly very angry, but here they decide to stand up and shed their mantle of guilt, to pursue a meaning for the lose they have endured.

    So don't step to me, kid you'll never be found cause while you were sleeping I took over your town

    ... The youth of the area are rebelling, but they have lost all power. Their home is now occupied and controlled, by those that control them and now their fate.

    (chorus/hook) When I see a man, I see a liar 2x you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my eye you're the apple of my eye, of my eye I want ya

    ... Seeing someone as threat, untrustworthy, dangerous. In many languages of the world apple of my eye van mean other things - little man in my eye, pupil of my eye. The song most likely refers to targeting, like being made the focus of someone's eye.

    I fell for a girl with a port-wine stain I knew her initials but never her name

    ... A port-wine stain is a birthmark. Much like Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of USSR, in 1990-1991. USSR fell in '92 and became Russia. Could be related, or not. The Cold War between the US and Russia persists in the meddling of the wars, and support provided to Organizations. Russia has been suspected of supporting organizations, via circuitous funding circles, like ISIS.

    I tried and I tried and I was never the same so no longer for love and I'm forever changed

    ... I don't know for certain, but I can relate these type of feelings. As a soldier you expect your loyalty to purchase acts of good, acts of achievements, acts of honour. Sometimes one's loyalty is not rewarded with such things, and during that failing a love that once was is lost. Service of duty remains, but the love lost changes who you are. You are now not a sword of honour, but a tool of disgust and shame. You are a stranger trapped by duty, and then by repetative memory and nightmares.

    (chorus) When I see a man, I see a liar 2x you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my eye you're the apple of my eye, of my eye I want ya give up my money, give up my name, take it away I give it away, I give it away, I give it when I see a man, I see a liar 2x

    ... recruiting and volunteering references

    When I see a man, I see a liar 2x you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my eye you're the apple of my eye, of my eye I want ya give up my money, give up my name, take it away I give it away, I give it away, I give it I'm a sycophantic animal, I'm a sycophant... no, no I'm a sycophantic, all and all break through the chain, I break through the chain, I'll break it I give it away, I give it away, I give it when I see a man, I see a liar 2x you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my eye you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, I want ya give up my money, give up my name, take it away I give it away, I give it away, I give it see you again, I see you again, I see ya give it away, I give it away, I give it when I feel low, when I feel low, I feel it

    ... willing to join up, in slow revenge. willing to (insincerely) praise anyone who will get me where I need to go, to get close enough to you to exact my vengeance. Then, soon after I'll see you again my dear one. This inner-rage and vengeance are strongest when I feel all the guilt and shame of letting you be lost from me.

    When I see a man, I see a liar 2x you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my eye you're the apple of my eye, of my eye, I want ya
  • Aleeta from SeattleI'd like to add more perspective to my former comment.
    "He buried his heart in a hole in the ground with the lights and the roses and the cowards downtown"
    Washington D.C. No doubt
    Threw him a party but there was no one around, girl could not be found
    The ticker tape parade for the Vietnam vets was not supported or attended by many people. People booed.
    Girl left him months ago to march on Washington
    He buried his guilt in a pit in the sound
    With the rust and the vultures and the trash downtown
    This is Washington DC through wisened eyes
    Don't step to me kid you'll never be found
    While you were sleeping I took over your town
    He has been in Vietnam and now he's a politician and he is going to win this election because he is #1 in the polls..
    The last parts of the song are his disillusionment with truth, justice and the American way.
    He sees every man as a threat and a challenge, he can't see any good in them, and he is totally self-aware of how he has been shaped and molded by the political system and military installations of his life.
    I don't really understand much after this and I'm probably completely skewed in my vision.
    That's my interpretation.
  • Aleetajoy from SeattleI think what went down is about the slow disillusionment of a politician with Washington DC, and our hypocrisy and corruption. at first he still believes in the dream, later on he sees everything for what it is, and he just wants out of the whole ballgame.
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