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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
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Performed by The White Stripes
Written by The White Stripes (Peppermint Stripe Music, BMI)
BMI # 5807809
Jack: "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:
"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.'
Release:
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