My Sunday Song – “Joker & The Thief” by Wolfmother

For My Sunday Song #473, we are going to discuss the song “Joker & The Thief” by the band Wolfmother. The song is from their debut album, ‘Wolfmother’, which was released on October 31, 2005. The sixth single was “Joker & The Thief” and it was released on October 28, 2006, almost a year after the release of the album and was one of the highest charting singles from the album. The singles was certified Gold in both Australia and the UK selling over 400,000 copies. Not too bad.

The song was written by Wolfmother, but a majority I am sure was by lead singer and guitarist, Andrew Stockdale. He state he was shopping in a store and heard AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck” and got the idea to do a rock anthem. From there, he has admittedly stole the characters The Joker and The Thief from Bob Dylan’s song “All Along the Watchtower”. The Joker and The Thief are a representation of rebellion as well as duality. The song references the dark & the light, there is good & evil, sweet & sour…always one contradicting the other. The Joker is always looking for the good, the light, searching for life’s desires while the Thief is a sign for corruption and loss of innocence.

There was one article where someone said the that the Joker was a man searching for love while the Thief was the woman that would steal his heart. He was going through life searching for the sweet in all the sour. He wasn’t going to go home with any woman, but the one that had his heart. He would search all day, flying around and sees her in a field of clover. He wonders what would happen if he took her away. You can make any song mean whatever you want it to mean, I liked this interpretation simply because it was sweet in all the sour interpretations I had read.

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The Debut: Wolfmother – ‘Wolfmother’

Welcome back to the second episode of “The Debut”.  For this round, we talk about another retro rock band out of Australia called Wolfmother.  The name alone would have made me listen to this album, but it is certainly the music that has kept me coming back again and again.

Like Jet, Wolfmother is not the most original band out there.  The band has been accused of ripping off some of the great metal bands of the 60’s & 70’s, most especially Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even a little Jimi Hendrix.  If you were into those bands, than this album is something for you.  If you need a comparison to some more recent bands, I can hear a little White Stripes as well, but mostly for me it is Sabbath with Plant vocal stylings.

They also stick to themes you would have expected from that era as well.  You get mystical unicorns, vagabonds, pyramids, witches and so much more.  To hear this heavy, distorted and screaming guitars and listen to the Zeppelinesque song stylings at the time were like nothing else on the radio.  It took me back to a good place and I have never stopped loving this album.  I enjoy it just as much today as a did upon its release in the States back in 2006.

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