Songfacts®:

• Norah Jones asks the question, "If we're all free, then why does it seem we can't just be," on this politically minded track. She explained: "I was really affected by the news and everything that's been going on in the world and in this country over the last couple years. It's been really volatile and crazy. I was listening to the Les McCann song 'Compared to What' a lot and was very much influenced by how grooving and amazing it is but also how it's very political and it's just from the gut."
• Norah Jones wrote the politically charged track with Peter Remm, who is the keyboardist for the American rock band The Candles. "There's this thing in the air and it's not just one issue - it's many issues," she commented to Billboard magazine. "I was moved by it when I was writing 'Flipside.' It's messed up - or it seems so messed up right now, at least. It doesn't make for an easy sleep."
• Jones addresses the subject of gun control during the song:
  
  Put the guns away, or we're all gonna lose
  
  "It's a scary and sad situation," she frowned to The Mail On Sunday's Event magazine. "The problem is that there is no fast, quick change. It's not like somebody will come in and take away everybody's guns."
  
  Asked whether she has ever owned a gun, Jones replied: "No, not me, but I'm from Texas. I think my grandpa had guns, and my mum probably has them somewhere locked away. I don't think she has them loaded and under her bed."
• This might be the most danceable Norah Jones track. She says she was dancing when she wrote it.
• The Sam Kuhn-directed video lines up with the song's socially conscious message as we see Jones watching a series of clips that pay homage to American protests:
  
  "I was really inspired by the news and the stuff that's been going on in the world and in this country the last couple years," Jones said. "It's been really volatile and crazy, and I was listening to that Les McCann song 'Compared to What' and very much influenced by how just grooving and amazing it is but it's also very political and it's just from the gut."