MUSIC
Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out"
June 28, 2005
The single has been on the airwaves for more than a year, and most of you still don't get it. Every girl thinks its all about some cute scrawny neo-hipster with tight jeans begging them to take them out on a night on the town. It's this happy upbeat song thats fun to dance around like an idiot to.. right? Wrong. Let me try to explain.

Did group's name, “Franz Ferdinand”, ring any bells? Like maybe it was slightly related to the Archduke of Austria? You know, the guy who was assassinated after pissing off the majority of Hungarian nationalists? It started the first World War, you know.

Well, the Archduke and his wife were gunned down in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 (see why I made this post, now?) by a member of a youth revolutionary group, Gavrilo Princip (who was believed to have been supported by the Serbian government via the Black Hand society). The first shot struck Sophie, the second hit the Archduke. The Archduke's death started a chain of events that would escalate into the outbreak of World War I. The bullet that killed him is now on display at a museum.

Now that you know that little tidbit of eary twentieth-century world history, go back and listen to the song again. I'll break down the lyrics for you while you listen. It's really simple:

Franz Ferdinand was seated next to his wife (”I'm just a shot away from you”), and this song is all about the few minutes between the first shot being fired and when he died. Remember, she took the first bullet. Her death left him empty as he sat there injured (”You leave me broken, shattered I lie”), and he wanted the assassin to just finish the job (”Come on, take me out!”). He did not want to live without her. He knew he wouldn't “be leaving [there] with [her]”. Moments after the shooting, he was heard begging his wife not to die, to hold on just a bit longer for the sake of the children. His final words were “It is nothing.”

There, not so goddamn happy anymore, is it?

Matias Delgadorodriguez

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