Night Running
By: Beck Hansen, Brad Shultz, Daniel Tichenor, Jared Champion, Matt Shultz, Matthan Minster, Natalie Belle Bergman
Original Performance: Cage The Elephant
Written by: Beck Hansen, Brad Shultz, Daniel Tichenor, Jared Champion, Matt Shultz, Matthan Minster, Natalie Belle Bergman
Versions:- Night Running (3:24)
Available on Social Cues.
CreditsDaniel Tichenor: Bass
Nick Bockrath: Celeste, Guitar (Electric), keyboards, Organ, Piano
Jared Champion: Drums
Brad Shultz: Guitar
Matt Shultz: Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Elliot Bergman: Horns
Matthan Minster: keyboards, Organ, Piano, Vibraphone
Kyle Davis: Percussion
John Hill: Producer, Synthesizer
Beck Hansen: Vocals
Lyrics:Night Running [Version (a)]:
We’re on a night run
Boy you better hold your tongue
Talking like you’re coming from kingdom come
Rhythm and reeling, the feeling
I’m riding the sound to the ceiling
Hey hey never got no money
But I'm running from the gun
My engine's flooded
Cold-blooded, no money
Drunk on something uh
Killing the moonlight with daylight
I got my x-ray eyes
And I’m feeling so fine
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
We’re running
All night running
We're running
Cold-blooded
All night running
We running
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
We running
Night running
All night running
We running
Cold-blooded
We’re all night running
We're running
We're on the nightshade
Tell me what we’re hiding from
Like someone could steal it
Are we waiting for some kind of feeling?
Or saving it up for the morning?
Undercover, the cloak and dagger
Is there a creature in the attic?
Are we for real yea, or just pretending?
Will it burn out by the morning?
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
We’re running
All night running
We're running
Cold-blooded
All night running
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
We're running
Night running
All night running
We're running
Cold-blooded
We’re all night running
We’re on a night run
No telling who we’re running from
In a world of secrets and demons
And people hiding from the sun
Sending my message to everyone losing control
Better not stop 'til I get home
Sentimental flowers don’t grow
Gotta live through tidal waves
And parishes and biblical floods
I got the gris-gris love
And the streets in my blood
I’m on the final run
Falling in and out of love
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
We’re running
All night running
We're running
Cold-blooded
All night running
Night running
All night running
We're running
Star-studded
Not far from it
Night running
All night running
We're running
Cold-blooded
We’re all night running
The Song:"Night Running" is a song on Cage The Elephant's 2019 album,
Social Cues. Beck features on the song.
According to Rolling Stone, the band was struggling to finish the song, and it had been "in limbo" for a few years. They sent it to Beck, and he returned it within 24 hours with "two swaggering rap verses." (The italicized parts above are Beck's sections.)
Beck's raps seem to be about escaping to the comfort of music ("riding the sound through the ceiling"), which is hardly a unique theme in his music.
The third verse seems to point this escape to New Orleans, a place in recent years Beck has really enjoyed visiting -- he performs, watches concerts, stays up all night. Gris-gris is a voodoo talisman from New Orleans, and parishes are counties in Louisiana. Surely the "world of secret of demons and people hiding from the sun" clues into the night party vibe of New Orleans as well. Beck's instagram poem for the song also makes a couple of references to New Orleans as well - the Preservation Hall and Astrodome. (See the notes below.)
Live:Played live 39 times:
July 16, 2019July 17, 2019July 19, 2019July 20, 2019July 21, 2019July 23, 2019July 26, 2019July 27, 2019July 28, 2019July 30, 2019...and
29 more.
Earliest known live version:
July 16, 2019Latest known live version:
April 16, 2023 Notes:Also don't know where to put this, or even what it is exactly, so I'll just put it here. On the day the song was released as a single, Beck posted the single cover on instagram with this poem as the caption. It has a few lines he raps in the song, which makes it feel like it's a different take but maybe he wrote it special for release day or something. *shrug*
between the haze of east LA
and the rain of pres hall
round gravestones and astrodomes
we've been night running
in a world of secrets and demons
and people hiding from the sun
galvanized steel and loose wheels
following that far away blue thunder
over and out into another deep dark summer