I Think I Smell A Rat

Lyrics

Information

oh I think I smell a rat oh I think I smell a rat all you little kids seem to think you know just where it's at oh I think I smell a rat walking down the street carrying a baseball bat oh I think I smell a rat oh I think I smell a rat oh I think I smell a rat all you little kids seem to think you know just where it's at oh I think I smell a rat using your mother and father for a welcome mat oh I think I smell a rat hey

Performed by The White Stripes Written by The White Stripes (Peppermint Stripe Music, BMI) BMI # 5807809 Releases White Blood Cells Quotes Jack White: "There's these punk kids who break windows and stuff like that - you know, make fun of me when I walk into the gas station. It's like, I've lived here my whole life, and he's 8 years old and talking to me like that. They'll bust your window, and then you go take them to their parents and their parents take their side. They get away with murder." Jack White: "I love that song, [I Think I Smell A Rat]. We wrote that the day before we left for Memphis. The phrase 'I think I smell a rat'--there was one day when I was home by myself and I played one chord on the piano, and I just kept saying that over and over, 'I think I smell a rat.' And I could never think of anything else to go with it. I loved it because I had this whole thing imagined--that it would go into this swinging finger-snapping thing after that--but I never finished writing it. We had this [other] song called [That's Where It's At] that we didn't put on the first album. [The lyric] was, "All you people know/Just where it's at now/walking down the street with a baseball bat now." It's about the kids in the neighborhood. We weren't going to use that song anymore, and I played that chord, and 'I smell a rat' popped out again. Meg played it with me and I started singing the lyrics from that other song about the kids in the neighborhood again, and we said, 'This is perfect.'" Notes [That's Where It's At] was incorporated into this song. During the Fall of 2003 Jack would incorporate these lines into some of his songs, but mostly into 'I Think I Smell A Rat': "tattoos, body piercings, video games, standing perfectly still"