Hrishikesh Hirway started the podcast Song Exploder to explore how songs are made, and this week he had a big guest -- Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys to discuss the making of "Put A Flower In Your Pocket" by his side project, The Arcs.
Auerbach was joined by drummer and backup vocalist Richard Swift and keyboardist Leon Michaels to explain how the song came together so effortlessly.
The group explained that Russ Paul, a Nashville session musician, started it all off with the choppy, twangy guitar part that opens the song following the keyboard intro. Everything else really built around it seamlessly.
"This is a live performance. The bass, the guitar, the keyboard and the drums, it's live, there's no edits - second take. This thing just happened we didn't have to think about it," Auerbach said of the recording process. "That's part of the thing we love about recording, is the flaws. That's why we like to capture the live performance because it's the human element that makes it feel special and alive. If sh-- is played to a click and perfectly in tune nine times out of 10 I'm not going to be interested."
It sounds like Auerbach is really clicking with The Arcs songwriters and enjoying the process despite its beginnings as a project of passion composed by a group of friends.
As for the name of "Put A Flower In Your Pocket," that was inspired by Michaels' daughter, who uttered the name of the song while out picking flowers in their backyard. Of course, when Michaels shared it with Auerbach, his first instinct was to turn this innocent girl's line into a drug dealer's anthem, referring to the flower as a dime bag.
In the episode, The Arcs also break down how the all female mariachi band came to affect the song and why the band can't seem to stop using a spring reverb slap in their recordings. Listen to the podcast below.
