its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
Ain't shady, baby, I'm hot like the prodigal son
Pick a petal, eenie meenie miney moe
And, flower, you're the chosen one
Well, your left hand's free
And your right's in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh, no (oh)
I tackle, we tussle and, oh my days, we're rolling
My right hand's gripped on his Colt single-action army, oh no
Well, your left hand's free
And your right's in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh, no (oh)
N-E-O, O-M-G, gee whiz
Girl, you're the one for me
Though your man's bigger than I am
Oh my days, he disagrees, oh, no (oh, speak easy)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh), oh no
Ain't shady, baby, I'm hot like the prodigal son
Pick a petal, eenie meenie miney moe
And, flower, you're the chosen one
Well, your left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh) oh, no
Pick a petal, eenie meenie miney moe
And, flower, you're the chosen one
Well, your left hand's free
And your right's in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh, no (oh)
I tackle, we tussle and, oh my days, we're rolling
My right hand's gripped on his Colt single-action army, oh no
Well, your left hand's free
And your right's in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh, no (oh)
N-E-O, O-M-G, gee whiz
Girl, you're the one for me
Though your man's bigger than I am
Oh my days, he disagrees, oh, no (oh, speak easy)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh), oh no
Ain't shady, baby, I'm hot like the prodigal son
Pick a petal, eenie meenie miney moe
And, flower, you're the chosen one
Well, your left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh)
Well, my left hand's free (oh) oh, no
Lyrics submitted by jellyfishs, edited by jivves, Scuba101
Left Hand Free Lyrics as written by Joe Newman Augustus Unger Hamilton
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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When you marry someone, you wear your ring on your ring finger of your left hand. I thinks it's about a boy who really likes a girl. The girl has a boyfriend, who's not so good to her (Watch his right hand slip) (and is cheating on her?)
Anyway. The boy still has a chance because her left hand's free (no ring)
Can it be something like this? What do you guys think? :)
@blaadje - yes, I think you are correct - <br /> If you look at the remaining lyrics, your theory is consistent.
I can't help but think, is this to do with masterbation?
"Pick a battle eenie meenie miney moe" - possibly selecting a video
"Well you’re left hand’s free, And your right’s in grip" - hhmmm
"Though your man’s bigger than I am" - talking about the males phallus being large than his own
Just some food for thought..
Definitely agree with you on this one<br /> <br /> "A right hand grip on his Colt single-action army"<br /> <br /> Gotta love Alt-J for their consistently original song-meanings!
Also, if you watch the video clip, it's highly suggestive of this as well<br /> <br />
@tongyijordan lol a funny interpretation to say the least, but it kind of falls apart when you see the second part of the verse "right hand's in grip with another left hand." Probably the girl's hand... I think the bar fight is the better interpretation, especially with the interview to confirm.
When they came to Salt Lake a few weeks back they did an interview with a local radio station. The radio hosts suggested the interpretation that most people on here had suggested. I think it was Joe Newman that answered but he said that song is actually about a 40's speakeasy and a bar fight between two guys over a dame.
I think there are a few changes to be made to the lyrics:
Reprise: ...Pick a petal eenie meenie miney moe And Flower you're the chosen one
“Pick a petal” seems to refer to removing petals from a flower one-by-one to decide whether a chosen person does or doesn’t love you: “she loves me, she loves me not”. He refers to the woman/girl as a flower and this is related.
Verse 1: I tackle, we tussle And oh my days we're rolling My right hand's gripped on his Colt single-action army
It is a brawl scene from western times that ends in a old fashioned duel. The Colt SAA revolver is commonly associated with cowboys and the Wild West.
Thus, as I do see the similarities and direct references to masturbation, I do think that there is more to this song...
During the last chorus: "Well YOUR left hand's free Well MY left hand's free"
Left hand...Marriage...Maybe... You decide!
*Reference: rock.genius.com
@Scuba101 - I agree. And your thoughts are aligned with the first response above.
@Scuba101 - I agree. And your thoughts are aligned with the first response above.
Freedom running through your blood into the future, doing, with now and remembering the dawn of neverending times. Timing more though your eyes then.. telling a time to make it again.
A "left hand man" is someone who a woman is cheating with. The woman in the song is holding her boyfriend's hand with her right hand. Her left hand is free to hold the singer's hand. Her boyfriend notices and reaches for his gun, so the singer is gone.
Everyone seems to be thinking of this song as relating to masturbation, and I understand how you could think that (Well, your left hand's free And your right's in a grip)
but, you are forgetting what the next lines are saying (With another left hand Watch his right hand slip Towards his gun, oh, no)
The visual image this gives is two men shaking/holding hands (which is a sign of trust.) Your right hand in his left hand. Your left hand is free (representing how you trust this person, you are free of doubt) yet his right hand is slipping towards a gun (which could be anything that could ruin someone's trust.)
@toriiibelle If two men are shaking hands, wouldn't they be shaking each other's right hands? If not that would be an incredibly awkward and uncomfortable handshake. Holding hands would work though.
They wrote this song in about twenty minutes because critics felt their first album didn't do well enough. So they put catchy lyrics to a riff that the guitarist was playing jokingly. Boom, hit song. Consider that while you ponder the meaning to the lyrics.
Warning I will try and keep this a g rated as possible or at least pg-13. But my interpretation of this song is somewhat graphic and differs from other peoples interpretations.
This song is about being in a MMF three-way "encounter", with left hand free referring to not being married and in a open/swinger type relationship.
1st Verse: Hey, shady baby, I'm hot like the prodigal son Pick a petal eenie meenie miney moe And, flower, you're the chosen one
He calls her shady baby because she can get a little dirty in sexual sense and willing to do things good girls don't. I think his reference to being a prodigal son, shows that he has been with her before and left. The rest of the verse says that he randomly chose to be with her that night and further insinuates that this a temporary thing.
Chorus: Well, your left hand's free And your right's in a grip With another left hand Watch his right hand slip Towards his gun, oh, no
As others have stated you wear wedding rings on the left hand. So the constant reference to being left hand free is saying none of them are in a committed relationship. The right hand is being used to grab genitalia. Most people are right handed and therefor are more likely to grab things with it. "And your right's in a grip" She is probably griping the singers genitalia while the other guy watches. Which is why it says his right hand slips towards his gun. Gun being a euphemism for his penis. In other word the other guy is beginning to masturbate.
Second verse: I tackle weeds just so the moon buggers nibble A right hand grip on his Colt single-action army, oh no
The singer mumbles this verse and is hard to understand but i think it should say:
I tackle, we tussle And oh my days, we're rolling My right hand's gripped on his Colt single-action army
If we go with this interpretation, then the song is saying that the two men start getting "hot and heavy" with the singer grabbing the other guy's "Colt single-action army". Which is another reference to a gun/penis. The fact that it's "single action" is a reference to the fact that unlike women once men orgasm they pretty much done for a while. Which further shows what the gun references are referring to.
Third verse: N-E-O, O-M-G, gee whiz Girl you're the one for me Though your man's bigger than I am All my days he disagrees, oh, no (Speak easy)
not sure what N-E-O, O-M-G is supposed to mean. Girl your the one for me is straight forward. The last two lines is the two men comparing the size of their penises with them thinking the other man is bigger.
The event described in this song occurs in a saloon between 1851 and 1914. No one openly wore a brace of Colt Single-Action Army cap-and-ball revolvers much after that. It became illegal most everywhere in the US to do so around that time.
What's the song about?
Our young buck walks into the saloon, picks the prettiest girl and lays his game on her. The girl's old man is sitting next to her and defends her honor. The two fight. Her old man is doubly armed, may even be the local law man. A simple attempt to make conversation now has the scent of death attached to it, the fight can't end without one of them shooting the other. NEO, OMG is geek for "Oh you new thing to my eyes, OH MY!"