Cage The Elephant - Shake Me Down

Description

“Shake Me Down” is the first single and fourth track on Cage the Elephant‘s second album Thank You, Happy Birthday. A music video for the single was released on January 11, 2011. Both the song and the video gained much critical acclaim, and earned a nomination for Best Rock Video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards

Composition

The song features Cage the Elephant percussionist Jared Champion playing on a set of toy drums. The guitar riff was borrowed from a song that bassist Daniel Tichenor’s father had written and the bass line was inspired by The Shins. The song is Matthew Shultz singing about life’s many depressing aspects in the verses, while the chorus is a short burst of optimism. The song features quiet verses broken by loud drum interludes.

Music video

In the music video, directed by Isaac Rentz, a middle-aged jogger relives vivid memories of his life through a surreal, nostalgic journey. At the end of the video, the man sees his deceased friends and family members, including his wife. The video then shows that the man was dreaming the entire time, and died in his sleep. As his wife cries by his side, the video fades with a blurred view of the man standing next to the shore at a beach. Singer Matthew Shultz is occasionally seen singing in a tent in the man’s childhood hideout, while the rest of the band plays through various cut scenes.

“Shake Me Down”