Crackerman by Stone Temple Pilots

Album: Core (1992)

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Songfacts®:

A "crackerman" is a drug dealer, and on this song, Scott Weiland sings about seeking out this dealer and killing him. The song reflects the paranoia that can result from certain drugs.
Core was the first Stone Temple Pilots album. They chose the title because they felt it got to the core of their essential musical elements.
The line, "I'm thinkin' about a boy, his name was Sue," is a reference to the Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue."
The album was produced by Brendan O'Brien, famous for his work in Pearl Jam. According to Weiland, he had a different idea for the production - something along the lines of the Ministry song "Jesus Built My Hotrod." When Weiland performed the song with his group the Wildabouts in the '10s, they performed it more in the arrangement he originally envisioned.

Comments: 5

Lisa Kay from Des Moines, Ia"A Boy Named Sue" is a country song, written by Shel Silverstein and popularly sung by Johnny Cash. Years later Silverstein wrote a follow-up named "The Father of a Boy Named Sue" in which he tells the old man's point of view of the story.....Yeah I lef' home when the kid was three and it sure felt good to be fancy free

Tho I knew it wasn't quite the fatherly thing to do

But that kid kept screamin' and throwin' up and pissin' in his pants til I had enough

So just for revenge I went and named him Sue

Yeah it was Gatlinberg in mid July I was gettin' drunk but gettin' by

Gettin' old and goin' from bad to worse

When thru the door with an awful scream comes the ugliest queen I've ever seen

He says my name is Sue how do you do then he hits me with his purse.....
Ido from Haifa, Israelif you look deeply into bouth "boy named sue" and "crackerman" lyrics, you can clearly recognize
element of "Oedipus complex" in wich the boy want to "kill" his father but because the father is stronger then him he has to become him (like him). I think bouth songs talk about a man's struggle to become a man and to create gender identity
Ido from Haifa, Israelif you look deeply into bouth "boy named sue" and "crackerman" lyrics, you can clearly recognize
element of "Oedipus complex" in wich the boy want to "kill" his father but because the father is stronger then him he has to become him (like him). I think bouth songs talk about a man's struggle to become a man and to create gender identity
George from Jackson, Nja boy named sue is a johny cash song that was recorded the first time he ever read it live at a prison. one of june carters friends wrote it. a man names his son sue and the father leaves him and his mother. Sue becomes tough because he was always picked on and when Sue confronted his father, his father explained that he had to leave and the only way to make his son tough was to name him sue. EVERYONE LOVES THIS SONG THAT HEARS, DOWNLOAD IT!
Adrian Martin from Brookings, SdReally?? That's insane! I wonder if that line about the man named Sue being a woman too ties into that at all. The dual gender identity pops up again in "Lounge Fly" and Scott Weiland certainly does show off his feminine side. Who knows??

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