“Dropout Boogie” — The Black Keys Prove (Again) That Rock is Not Dead
Since 2001, the duo from Akron, Ohio remains cool as hell
“Rubber Factory” got me hooked on The Black Keys
It’s still one of my Top 10 “Alternative Albums” — along with “Welcome Interstate Managers” from Fountains of Wayne and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” from Wilco, “De Stigl” from The White Stripes, and “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” from Bright Eyes.
But that’s another essay.
In 2004, I picked up Rubber Factory on CD in State College, Pennsylvania. My daughters were only seven and three, sitting in the backseat of the Mazda MPV minivan.
I’m not sure what made me pick up the Black Keys at a record store on College Avenue, but man it’s been a love affair for almost two decades.
It took The Daughters a while to dig the bluesy sound, but not that long, especially since Nancy, my youngest, adores Creedence Clearwater Revival and all those incredible swamp riffs.
It’s no wonder that a big influence on Dan Auerbach, on guitar, and vocals, is Howlin’ Wolf.
Patrick Carney plays drums.
A comparable band is The White Stripes — another blues duo — but they are a totally different color.
The Black Keys are currently touring with Band of Horses, too, — and rolling through Philly here on July 30. My daughter, Nancy, now 21, and her college radio station program director, plans to go with me. Go here for tour tickets.
I asked her, “Any way you could interview these guys and get us backstage?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Last year during Covid, the Black Keys had a live concert on Spotify. There was a small charge, but it was so much fun — as much as one can have with a band on TV in your living room.
They performed at a barbecue roadhouse in Mississippi hill country — the Blue Front Café, the oldest active juke joint in America. It was short — and a promotion to their 2021 release, Delta Kream. Here’s “Crawling Kingsnake” from the concert.
My daughter Nancy was like, “Oh my God. They’re just like two dudes who just really like to play tunes. No pretension. No glamour. Just straight up blues-centered rock ’n’ roll.”
I played Dropout Boogie while my wife and I were making dinner. She was like, “This is really good.”
Dropout Boogie is their 12th studio recording
I usually dislike a band if I cannot listen to the whole album like a book or a novel. It’s bullshit that Chapter 1 is amazing, but then who cares about the rest of the book?
Ok, Golden Earring and 4 Non-Blondes — that was directed at you!
If This Band Doesn’t Make You Air Guitar, You Have a Problem, or You May Just Not like Muddy Water Blues.
“Wild Child”
The Black Keys throw us the meat right away. After ten seconds of foreplay, we get into it. It’s what we expect. Upbeat, bluesy, and danceable, in the way one would dance alone in a room, with the music loud.
It’s all over in under three minutes. Wow. Not even a Billy Joel 3.05!
In typical Blues fashion, we have a complicated “baby” who’s making us run through a turnstile. Or the song could be just teenagers who have “gone wild.”
The song is full of paradoxes —
“Twisted smile.”
“Your heart is in danger/ Come close now, let me tell you a lie.”
I hope he’s not a toxic male when he sings that she’s “gonna get his love today.”
Holding her at the end of everyday may be hyperbolic — like “Squeeze Box” from The Who — or he may be actually and seriously co-dependent.
But hey — don’t we love to be shown “wild child” ways? And when it’s done to a down and dirty bluesy way, that’s even better.
The official video satirizes teachers, which, as a teacher, I madly respect. The Black Keys are known for their video humor.
“We’re gonna reconnect to our blue collar roots. Then we’re out.”
“For the album.”
“For the album.”
Cue: Wild Child on cemetery stone in front of the school.
“It Ain’t Over”
The second song brings down the tempo. And they seem to be “breaking the bank for their new weed spot.” Wow. It is 2022. Do they have Good Morning Gummies?
Life seems like a “losin’ game” — paying for things like women, gaming, and well, weed. Is it over? Can we just blame someone else? Can dreams come true from time to time?
The song fades over forty seconds, making me feel it is over. But hey, man, it’s the Blues. If you’re upbeat, turn on “Dancing Queen.”
“For the Love of Money”
The third track is classic dirty blues — and what I love so much about The Black Keys. They connect us to the past. This connection is not only to the blues riffs of Robert Johnson and Eric Clapton at the Crossroads, but also thematically — selling our souls for “the love of money.”
It’s that old Faustian motif, again, friends.
“For the love of money/We would do most anything” “For the taste of honey/We would do it all again.”
The lyrics are the richest yet on the album. No pun. It’s such great social commentary. Plus add a driving beat of drums and riff, and it’s so good. It seems uplifting, but the song is rather damning of our mad pursuit of fame.
“If your soul’s for sale, just name your price?”
“Your Team is Looking Good”
This song could become an anthem for some sports teams. It’s about talking smack and getting hyped up about how good your team is. But is it supposed to be satirical? I think so. It’s about tribalism. And we know what happens when the tribe gets restless. Think Ukraine.
Your team looks good, but not as good as ours. Cue trade-offs with guitar and drum. Lots of hooks here.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust/ You beat everybody, but you won’t be us.”
And it’s all over at 3:05
“Good Love” (feat. Billy F. Gibbons)
Like a great DJ who knows how to bring people up and down with the vibe on the dance floor, The Black Keys know this quite well. Song order is essential on a great album. Think “Who’s Next” or “Zeppelin IV.”
They bring the tempo down. Slow things down. Sharpen some of the guitar notes to stand out over an easy flow sound.
But one thing is true: “Good love is hard to know.”
Luckily, after twenty-seven years, I know how good it can be. And if you didn’t know, Billy F. Gibbons is one of the ZZ Top dudes. No wonder the guitar sounds so pronounced and nuanced. And yes — he’s active and touring.
The Blues do not go gentle into that good night.
“How Long”
Okay — take the tempo even lower. It works well after “Good Love.” It works well both thematically — about love — and musically. I see myself sitting down, thinking these same thoughts. It’s the Blues, man.
We keep repeating wondering, “How long?’ How long must we wait? How long do we have? How long, man?
“See the beauty in the dying flowers.”
“Burn the Damn Thing Down”
Okay — turn it up. It’ll be a great three minutes, man. Trust me. You’ll repeat twice. Thrice?
That’s what I did on the first listen on CD. It’s a rollickn’ good, old country song. Keep on rollin’. Even a train-like theme. And I love train songs. And driving songs.
“Engine never rusted/ Cause we stay far down the line”
I could see so many country music artists covering this song.
The Blues and Country have interconnected roots, like my hop plants — The Comet hops mixes with the Centennial hops.
“If we make it to your town/ We’re gonna burn the damn thing down.”
Okay — the band will not literally make “smoke on the water” at some hotel in Switzerland — but the band will rock so hard it’ll be a symbolic “smokin’.”
Get it? Okay — I hit repeat three times while writing this. Will add to my “car drive mix” — “Radar Love,” “Highway Star,” and “Take It Easy.”
“Happiness”
The Keys bring it down again — with some blues riffs reminiscent of early Jimmy Page — and then increase the tempo with drums around the fifty second mark.
If we want happiness, we need to find the nerve to stop delaying the words we need to say. That’s so true. You’re gonna be the one you hate when you didn’t do what you could have. So true.
“Say the words you don’t want to say.”
Jefferson wrote “the pursuit of happiness,” but he didn’t give us a road map. It’s easy, of course, if you’re born on third base.
Basically, you may ruin what you had, but if what you had was bad, then what have you lost? Love this sentiment.
The groove increases like when John Entwistle of The Who would secretly increase his speakers to irritate Roger Daltrey. (Yeah, I’ve read three books on The Who this month).
“Baby I’m Coming Home”
The lyrics are uncomplicated, but I don’t expect “A Day in the Life” from The Beatles when I want to jam. It’s about the Blues.
Okay — the opening is true Southern riff. I’m thinking “Midnight Rider” from The Allman Brothers Band. Just heavier and bluesier. Let’s call it: reimagined for 2022.
In the blues, it all comes from a few sources any way — like Robert Johnson, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters.
Both songs, too, talk about being saved from the “road.”
“The streets are paved with broken dreams/ And fantasies that we’ve outgrown.”
Then at 1:53, the song choo-choos tighter than Thomas the Tank Engine — like a train-themed song, changing tempo, like a switch track.
Then at 2:28, it returns to that famous riff — the D chord suspended — or a D9 — and then the middle finger hammers the A string on the third fret. To see this watch Marty Schwartz. Should I stop writing and rush to my re-strung Fender?
Will Sadie, baby, save us from The Road? Let’s hope so. Will Gregg Allman sue? C’mon, man. It’s more of homage than theft. Blues musicians, after all, are all Midnight Riders.
Sadly, the group’s leader Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971.
“Didn’t I Love You”
The last song of this short album — rocking a full second over thirty-four minutes like an early Beatles record — doesn’t disappoint.
I love songs that seem to come together after a few false starts, and then builds. We have another love song. Another dude singin’ the blues, asking rhetorically over and over —
“But didn’t I love you? Didn’t I love you? Hey, didn’t I love you?”
Of course, Dan Auerbach admits jerkdom — “I didn’t always treat you right,” and he may “have even deceived her.”
But don’t all Blues musicians — even Janis Joplin — confess to being “complicated fools”?
He then appeals to the sexual aspect of the relationship:
“Didn’t I squeeze you, baby? Didn’t I hold you late at night? Didn’t I make you feel alright?”
Not the lyrics of “Sympathy for The Devil,” but this song has plenty of hooks, and has one cool fade out.
So What is Up with the Title?
Well, take the first song — “Wild Child” — have that child dropout of high school. What else happens? Well, this album happens. Full of good advice. And the Dirty Boogie. That term, btw, means — “a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm.” Think “boogie-woogie” music.
