Analysis Of The Song “Ain’T No Rest For The Wicked” By Cage The Elephant
Cage the Elephant made a huge success when releasing their song “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” in 2008. The band is an American Indie Rock band from Kentucky, formed in 2006. This song focuses on the social issues that exist because of how flawed the system is. How money fuels impurity and how easy it is to get lost on the street of wickedness.
“Ain’t no rest for the wicked” describes the main character (narrator) that encounters a prostitute, a robber and a priest (who commits fraud within the church). It’s about how everyone has a demon of his or her own and they don’t go away “until we close our eyes for good”. Throughout the song, the narrator explains the different situations these “criminals” are in and it seems like he’s telling us a story of a day in his life. He gives us concrete details, giving the listener a vivid impression. The imagery of this song is for an example “when I saw the shadow of a man creep out of sight”. This paints a picture in the listeners head of the setting around the main character, which in this case is a man lurking in the shadows and slowly coming towards you.
Personification is also mentioned, “He stuffed his bank account with righteous dollar bills”. This is personification because righteous describes human trait, but in the lyrics/song, it is used to show that the money has religious connections, such as belonging to the church. Power struggle plays out in almost every novel, poem, movie, song, whatever. Money is the power struggle in this case. Marxism is a literary theory that easily is seen in this song. It shows that money plays a big role in people’s lives and their actions, which is proved when both the prostitute and robber are asked why they would do this to themselves. Their answer is simple, “there ain’t no rest for the wicked”. It plays the idea for the listener that people are forced to do this because of the flaws in society. Once you get started in this life, there is nowhere to go but forward.
The lyrics describe America today. A capitalist country with huge flaws and the evil that comes with it. That it forces everyone against each other so we have to compete instead of working with one another. Capitalism can bring out the worst in people, making them do so-called wicked things to survive. But some may do wicked things just for the thrill of it, just because they can. The main character is trying to explain that when you look deeper into the problem, it can somehow become justifiable. It isn’t entirely their fault. Because of capitalism, they have fallen between the cracks in society their only way of surviving is to perpetrating different crimes. Since prostitution, robbery and fraud are the crimes committed, the characters ensure the narrator that the only way of surviving is by doing this.
“Money doesn’t grow on trees”, meaning that they have no other choice because they got “bills to pay, mouths to feed”. The chorus also mentions “they can’t slow down, can’t go back, though I know I wish I could”, meaning that some people are so caught up in this life they don’t have anywhere else to go. They wish they could stop, but this is the only way they will survive. That money is power is seen very clearly in today's society. Everything we do is for money. We study just to get a great job and earn a lot of money. So when people or are given unfortunate childhoods or events that lead them into poverty or just the lower class. Since us humans are designed to do whatever to survive, it shows very clearly that there aren’t a lot of options to choose from. They are saying that things that seem terrible on the surface, like selling drugs and prostitution, is really unjustifiable. The individual people are not the only ones to blame, but America's capitalistic way is. The narrator might be saying that America would be better off in a more socialistic society.
This song gives three truths of life. People do whatever it takes when they are in desperate situations. People may do wicked things out of selflessness. People can also be wicked just for the thrill of it. Everyone has their reasons, good or bad when committing these “crimes”. The song however never gives an indication of the reasons justify the wicked. That is for us to decide depending on our beliefs.
