Song Cover Image

Dead Man's Switch

Jack White
Dark Southern Gothic hard rock with industrial grit, 112 BPM, Gritty raspy male post grunge vocal in a strong mid register, weathered and aggressive with natural distortion and powerful higher cracked belts, No deep baritone, Mix hard sung vocals with aggressive rhythmic rap verses, delivered in the same gritty rock voice, tight and forceful, never trap or melodic rap, Driving distorted banjo adds sinister texture beneath dirty blues guitar and drop tuned riffs, Thick bass and hard hitting modern rock drums keep constant forward momentum, Verses alternate tense rapid fire rap with gritty sung lines, Pre choruses build pressure, Choruses explode into massive arena hard rock with crushing guitars, pounding drums and huge raspy vocals, Metallic percussion and mechanical impacts add industrial weight, Sparse dirty harmonica, Dark, dangerous, urgent and cinematic, No country twang, bluegrass feel, trap, EDM, autotune, talking or live audience
V6

[Intro] [Verse 1] There's an old transformer humming Half a mile beyond my place Power lines been shaking all night Rain keeps beating on the tin Radio spits through the static Something nobody wants to hear Everybody's got an answer Till the trouble gets too near I've been useful when they needed me Disposable when they did not Funny how they start respecting you When you're all that they got [Pre Chorus] They pulled every string they had Thinking one would make me bend There's just one thing they never figured I quit caring how this ends [Chorus] Go ahead and cut the wire Go ahead and kill the lights Lock the doors and pull the power I'll still be here tonight You can take what you came after You can throw me in the ditch Should've thought a little harder Before you hit the dead man's switch [Verse 2] I used to worry what it cost me Every time I held my ground Kept a tally of the damage Every time they came around Then somewhere between broke and tired I finally understood Fear only works on someone Who's still scared of losing good So keep leaning on the pressure Keep expecting me to crack A man gets hard to corner When he doesn't need a way back [Pre Chorus] They pulled every string they had Thinking one would make me bend There's just one thing they never figured I quit caring how this ends [Chorus] Go ahead and cut the wire Go ahead and kill the lights Lock the doors and pull the power I'll still be here tonight You can take what you came after You can throw me in the ditch Should've thought a little harder Before you hit the dead man's switch [Instrumental] [Bridge] That's the trouble with a man Who finally quits keeping score You can't threaten him with losing What he doesn't fear no more [Build] [Final Chorus: vocal only first two lines, full band enters on third line] Go ahead and cut the wire Go ahead and kill the lights Lock the doors and pull the power I'll still be here tonight You can take what you came after You can throw me in the ditch Should've thought a little harder Before you hit the dead man's switch [Outro] Yeah, you pulled every string Except the one That made me give a shit