Instrumental — 10/10
Vocals — 10/10
Lyrics — 10/10
Overall Rating — 10/10
I love this song so much; in a way it almost has elements of humour in it. It’s Alex Turner writing a fine story and making it into a song. The music video for this track is also funny, with Alex Turner miming along to the track in his red jumper. It’s probably their most iconic video. Many people joke saying that they spent all their budgets for videos on ‘Crying Lighting’ so this had to make do, it’s probably true.
I have a great memory of hearing this song live at Middlesbrough’s Riverside stadium. It was their opening track in the set, and we were taken back that they had come on as we were at the front of the queue in the bar and were eager to rush to get a good view of them.
Turner calmly opens the song as he tells the story of seeing a look-alike for an old lover of his, and he ruined his chances by asking if he could call her the name of the former partner. He is on a night out going from pub to pub, the first verse is in the ‘Battleship’. The same series of events happens in the ‘Rusty Hook’, where he asks if he can call a girl the name of an ex. Verse three sees the writer in the ‘Parrots Beak’ where the girl says, “No you can’t call me her name”. Notice how all the pubs so far are pirate related, with the clever connection of Turner searching for his lost treasure.
Following on from that last quoted line, we reach the bridge, where the writer is beginning to question if this girl he is looking for even ever existed. Synth keys are playing in this section, which coincides with the suspense created in the story. After the final chorus, there is an instrumental which leads to one of my favourite verses in any Arctic Monkeys song. It’s almost the happy ending the writer wanted, it was the closest thing the writer could find to his ex, which was her sister. And she said, “Yes, you can call me anything you want”.
My favourite line is:
“I thought I saw you in the parrot’s beak, messing with the smoke alarm”.
