Mess Around by Cage the Elephant Song Info
“Mess Around” was the first released song from Cage the Elephant’s album "Tell Me I’m Pretty". The song is about a girl who is incredibly charming and intense, and she knows it and will use that to play with men. Matt Shultz told Consequence Of Sound that it was an attempt to blend a Jay Reatard riff with Outkast’s energy and the “stylistic color” of The Byrds and Creedence Clearwater Revival. In an interview with iHeartRadio, Cage addressed (but mostly avoided) the meaning of “Mess Around.” "It’s not about what you would think it’s about. We’ll put it that way. There are some clues in the lyrics. It was one of the last songs that we recorded, and it almost didn’t make the record. Just seeing other people’s responses to the song, it felt like a no-brainer to us [to make it the first single]." The official music video for “Mess Around” was released prior to the official release of "Tell Me I’m Pretty", on October 29, 2015. The video contains silent film footage from French filmmaker Georges Méliès. The two silent films featured in the video are entitled "The Impossible Voyage" and "A Trip to the Moon". The two share the influence of esteemed author Jules Verne, and a theme of unlikely, pataphysical adventures. Cage the Elephant creatively and jokingly matches up their lyrics to be portrayed by particular scenes in the silent films.
