Insult and an Elbow

Album: Black Sheep (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The first track on Yonder Mountain String Band's Black Sheep album, "Insult and an Elbow" has lyrics composed by their lead singer, Ben Kaufmann. The song is based on his younger years when he did a lot of ill-advised smoking and drinking, but finds him ready to move on to a new phase in his life. The title came to him one day, and eventually he hashed out an autobiographical song around it where he sings about getting "stoned as rock and roll." As we've learned from many famous songs, getting "stoned" had many interpretations.
  • When we spoke with YMSB banjo player Dave Johnston, he explained that he has his own interpretation of this song. "I think it's about a guy who is trying to apply some real world escapism to his particular surroundings," he said. "For me, that feels like the theme - the guy wants to get as stoned as he imagines his rock n' roll idols get. He wants to be out of it, and not dealing with the real world."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lori McKenna

Lori McKennaSongwriter Interviews

Lori's songs have been recorded by Faith Hill and Sara Evans. She's performed on the CMAs and on Oprah. She also has five kids.

Michael Bolton

Michael BoltonSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.

Melanie

MelanieSongwriter Interviews

The singer-songwriter Melanie talks about her spiritual awakening at Woodstock, "Brand New Key," and why songwriting is an art, not a craft.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

Fire On The Stage

Fire On The StageSong Writing

When you have a song called "Fire," it's tempting to set one - these guys did.

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")Song Writing

Nick made some of the biggest videos on MTV, including "The Final Countdown," "Heaven" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)."