Beat the Devil's Tattoo

In 2010, the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club put out an album called “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo.”  Robert Been wrote the title song after reading Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Devil in the Belfry.’  “You would have sworn that there was a regiment of double-bass drummers all beating the devil's tattoo up in the belfry of the steeple of Vondervotteimittiss.”  Been found the line so interesting that the band ended up shaping the album almost like one continuous Edgar Allen Poe poem, and named the entire album after that one small excerpt.  

 

From the moment I first heard “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” a couple summers ago, it’s been one of those songs that I never get tired of.  Something about it makes you want to stop what you’re doing to turn it up and listen to the words.  The easiest way to describe this song, for lack of a more professional word, is badass.   It may be just a personal fixation, but I listen to this song obsessively, and get more and more out of it every time.

When you hear the word “tattoo” most of us probably think of the whole skin-inking thing, but the word “tattoo” can also be used as a verb for tapping or “beating” out a rhythm, sometimes anxiously.  The word has evolved a lot over time, but the term was originally used to describe the drumbeat that called soldiers back from the battlefield. 

When I was first introduced to this song, I was told the song was “obviously about heroin.”  This confused me for a little while, since I had a slightly different interpretation in my mind.  However, I’ve learned over time that whenever the word “needle” is used in rock music, people instantly correlate the entire song to heroin use.  To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what this song was written to mean so it may actually be about a drug addiction.  It’s one of those songs that’s so full of symbolism and wordplay that everyone probably has a different understanding of what it represents.

To me, this song is about how hard we, as humans, fight against the demons we all have within ourselves, but more so focuses on accepting them.  Embracing the parts of ourselves that we might hate.  The final part of the last verse says “You cannot fight it, all the world denies it… Open up your eyelids and let your demons run.”  The overall tone of the song is filled with restlessness, desperation, and vulnerability.  It seems as though the song is about someone who has spent all his life fighting battles within himself, but is finally letting go.

 “Everyone is king when there’s no one left to pawn.”   A metaphor is used to illustrate an 'every man for himself' mentality.   In a game of chess, pawns are the disposable pieces that are usually sacrificed in protection of the more powerful pieces.  But once all the pawns are gone, so is the king’s sense of security.  

You have forsaken

All the love you've taken
Sleeping on a razor
There's nowhere left to fall
Your body's aching
Every bone is breaking
Nothing seems to shake it
It just keeps holdin' on


Your soul is able
Death is all you cradle
Sleepin' on the nails
There's nowhere left to fall
You have admired
Every man desires
Everyone is king
When there's no one left to pawn


There is no peace here
War is never cheap dear
Love will never meet here
It just gets sold for parts
You cannot fight it
All the world denies it
Open up your eyelids
Let your demons run


I thread the needle through
You beat the devil's tattoo

I bled the needle through

You beat the devil’s tattoo