The Story Behind: "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand

Take Me Out is a song by the Scottish indie/dance rock band Franz Ferdinand. The song was released as the second single from their self titled debut record Franz Ferdinand, which was released on the 9th February 2004.  

Backstory

The members of the band were in several different bands before the formation of the group. Singer Alex Kapranos met drummer Paul Thomson at a party, and later teamed up to write songs together. The same year, Kapranos gave a bass guitar (which was given to him by Mick Cooke of another Scottish band Belle and Sebastian) to his friend Bob Hardy, and taught him how to play bass. Kapranos later met guitarist Nick McCarthy, whom studied jazz bass in Germany and returned back to Scotland in 2001. 

The band got signed by the independent label Domino Records. The band wanted to release their first EP by themselves, but was later released by Domino Records in 2003 under the name Darts of Pleasure in 2003. The group later moved to Sweden with producer Tore Johansson to record their debut record in late 2003 and early 2004.   

The Lyrics

The lyrics of the song tell a story of the narrator checking out a girl at a party. The narrator uses the metaphore of a crosshair in the second line of the song, in which he refrences himself as the crosshair and the girl he is interested in as the target. But in the end, it is up to the girl to »pull the trigger of the gun«, and make or break the heart of the narrator of the song. In the chorus of the song, the narrator says the line »I say, don't you know?«, which is a vague way of saying: »Don't you know how I feel about you?«, to which to which the girl responds that she doesn't know what he is talking about.   

The lyrics of the song could also be refrencing the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, where his wife was murdered right before him. The line "take me out" could be refrencing the Archduke Ferdinand begging the assassins to kill him, as he doesn't want to live without his beloved wife.  

Reception/Music Video

Upon release, the song reached number three on both the Modern Rock Tracks chart and UK Singles Chart. It ranked number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number seven on the Canadian Singles Chart. The song also later appeared on several top lists from NME, Q and Rolling Stone magazine.  

The music video was directed by Jonas Odell. The video features the band in an animation filled with vintage figures in a Dadaist style, which is similar to the animated shorts from Monthy Python. Alex Kapranos said that the video shows clear influences of Dada, and the films Busby Berkeley, and old Soviet Union propaganda. Alex stated: »Basically it's a pop video and it should entertain you, but not just once – there're certain things you stare at in life that is just fascinating to look at like a fish tank or an open fire, they're actually quite simple things but there's something fascinating about them. And I think pop videos should be like that too. There should be something there that just makes you want to come back and look at it.”