11-26-18
Sometimes a feeling has no direct source. Sometimes it’s the culmination of compounding effects.
This song is a time traveling device. Its words entangle and in a moment, I can hear it for the first time all over again. The next line some years have passed and I’m frolicking along a picturesque cliff side. No matter which time-period this song seems to take me, no matter which version there still is a magikal draw pulling in inexplicable ways.
Tash Sultana’s rendition is hers completely. There’s very little that feels original to MGMT aside from the lyrics. The transitions and the melody feel native to the new cover, something that rarely happens. There’s a power to it, almost like when Jimi Hendrix took All Along The Watchtower from Bob Dylan.
There’s a trance-like power inherit with this particular song, The music alone will take you on mystical journey, while at the same time bringing new life to lyrics that many have passed over as being nothing more than an ode to revelry youth.
Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
All along the Western front
People line up to receive
She got the power in her hand
To shock you like you won’t believe
Saw her in the Amazon
With the voltage running through her skin[Refain]
Standing there with nothing on
She gonna teach me how to swim[Chorus]
I said, “Ooh, girl!
Shock me like an electric eel”
Oh—o—oh, I said, “Oo, baby girl
Turn me on with your electric feel”
Oh—o—oh, I said, “Oo, baby girl
Shock me like an electric eel
Baby girl, hey, hey, yeah
Turn me on with your electric feel”[Verse 2]
All along the Eastern shore
Put your circuit in the sea
Oh, this is what the world is for
Making electricity
Oh, you can feel it in your mind
Oh you can do it all the time[Refain]
Standing there with nothing on
She gonna teach me how to swim[Chorus (Condensed)]
I said, “Ooh, girl!
Shock me like an electric eel
Baby girl, hey, hey, yeah
Turn me on with your electric feel”[Chorus (Extended)]
I said, “Ooh, girl!
Shock me like an electric eel
Oh—o—oh, I said, “Oo, baby girl
Turn me on with your electric feel”
Oh—o—oh, I said, “Oo, oo
Oo, oo, girl
Shock me like an electric eel”
I said, “Oo—oo—oo—oo—oo—oo—oo—oo—oo—oo
Baby girl, hey, hey, yeah
Why don’t you die
[?] feel [?][Ad-Libs]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Woah
Yeah, yeah, ye—e—eah
Woah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh
Mmm