I Want to Drag You Around
| "I Want to Drag You Around" | ||||
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Pop Rock | ||||
| Length | 3:24 | |||
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| Blondie singles chronology | ||||
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"I Want to Drag You Around" is the third single from the band
Background and release
The song was first announced in May 2013 during a UK newspaper interview where singer
It was written by Matt Barus, frontman of Christchurch band The Dukes, who supported Blondie on a small 2010 New Zealand tour, and Barus has named his wife Lauren Mitchell as a contributor to the song, although Mitchell is uncredited in the album booklet. Chris Stein, guitarist for Blondie, asked if Barus wrote songs for other artists. Barus responded that he didn't, but he'd have a go. He described the process as: "I said sure, thinking 'yeah, cool, lots of people say nice things to you in the music industry'. But I went off and wrote a couple of songs and emailed them to him anyway, really rough demo versions, and I didn't hear from him for about a year. And then he started emailing back saying, 'we're starting to record some new tracks, and we're interested in using one of your songs'." Barus also wrote a second song entitled “Hollow Man” which he preferred, but learned that Blondie were already working on “Drag You Around”.[4]
Describing the album to GQ in May 2014, Stein, who also produced the song along with Jeff Saltzman, commented:
"A guy called Matt Barus wrote this one, from a New Zealand band called The Dukes. They opened for us in New Zealand and I thought they were a great combination of modern worldbeat sounds and what they do as a band is really interesting. We kept in touch and they sent this demo of a song and we kept developing it. It's not that they thought the song was perfect for Blondie, just one we would like as people. And we did. They sent an acoustic demo and it took us a while to come up with an arrangement. The sitar is played by a guy Matt knew in high school, they used to be in a band together and hadn't seen each other in years."[5]
The song was released to UK radio on April 3, 2014, and was featured as a free download with purchase of the iTunes edition of Ghosts of Download. On April 23, 2014, a lyric video was made available on YouTube. The video features additional artwork by J. H. Williams III who did the artwork and design for the Ghosts of Download album, and animation by Jay Holmes. Some early promotional CDs advertising the single announced it as having a May 19, 2014, release, a week after the release of "Ghosts of Download", although no public launch for the single occurred.[6]
Composition
The song is a gentle pop-rock song including synthesizers and some oriental instruments such as sitars. It includes percussion complementing the synthesizer melody. It was produced by
Reception
Popmatters.com reviewed the song in May 2014: "World music is a fitting descriptor for much of the album. “I Want to Drag You Around” is a dreamy low-key, but still danceable, reggae-inspired track that sounds like a summer day on the beach with drink in hand."
References
- ^ "Blondie singles out a Christchurch song". Stuff. 7 June 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Ghosts Of Download/track listing and previews on Pandora". Deborah-harry.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Blondie performs at El Paso's Plaza Theatre Tuesday". El Paso Times.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Blondie gone-die - Brilliant!". Stuff. 4 August 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Chris Stein talks Blondie's new album Ghosts of Download - GQ.COM (UK)". GQ. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Paul Miller - Photos from Paul Miller's post - Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2 October 2014.