Album: Boys and Girls in America
Year: 2006
“Chips Ahoy” was the first single from “Boys and Girls in America,” and like “The Swish” and “Banging Camp,” Craig Finn is trying to fit all of his words in and around Tad Kubler’s big-ass power chords.
The result is one of those Hold Steady songs that sounds like one of of the rockers from The River had that album been made by a Springsteen influenced not by 1960s frat-rock, but rather, The Clash.
So it’s guitar guitar guitar until Finn comes in.
She put $900 on the fifth horse in the sixth race
I think its name was Chips Ahoy!
At that point, the guitars crash louder, drummer Bobby Drake does a couple of rolls, and for a second, we’re all wondering what happens next.
Came in six lengths ahead,
We spent the whole next week getting high
At first I thought that shit hit on some tip
That she got from some other boy
We were overjoyedWhoa-uh-oooooh-ooh-ooh-ha-ho!
Whoa-uh-oooooh-ooh-ooh-ha-ho!
And so here’s the thing about “Chips Ahoy!” It’s so permeated by those “whoa-oooooh-ooh-ha-hos,” plus massive guitar chords and organ flourishes, you’d be completely excused if you used all of the upbeat joy they signify to ignore the plaintive chorus.
But then again, good luck ignoring this:
How am I supposed to know that you’re high
If you won’t let me touch you?
How am I supposed to know that you’re high
If you won’t even dance?
How am I supposed to know that you’re high
If you won’t let me touch you?
How am I supposed to know that you’re high
If you won’t even dance?
Later on in the song, Tad Kubler and Franz Nicolay have a horse race of their own, trading off solos like they’re Jon Lord & Ritchie Blackmore, but again, it just leads back to the unspoken question posed by the chorus, which is this: why am I even here?
Official Video for “Chips Ahoy!”
“Chips Ahoy!” performed live on Later With Jools Holland
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