Sugarcane Lyrics

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  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

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About

Genius Annotation

The song primarily revolves around themes of Derek Miller’s life in reference to the fact that his father was a sugarcane farmer.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Sleigh Bells say about "Sugarcane"?
Genius Answer

AK: ‘Sugarcane’ is lyrically probably one of my favorite songs.

DM: That’s a personal song. The first lyric is, “So so sleeping on the ground tonight/ I couldn’t breath so I had to move east.” I was born in Pahokee, Florida which is in south Florida in the middle of the state. And I was raised in Belglade where my dad was a sugarcane farmer. You have to burn the fields as part of the harvest, to shuck the cane. And it literally rains ashes from the sky. It sounds like a very nice, apocalyptic image. It’s not poetic, it’s insane. It’s crazy, it’s surreal. And I remember that at the age of four, and I had terrible asthma so I couldn’t breath. That’s why we ended up moving east to Jupiter, to the Ocean. The doctor said, “this kid needs clean air” and I’ve since grown out of it. It’s a really personal song…

AK: Sugarcane to me seems like a perfectly packaged pop song for us. It has a proper verse, a proper pre-chorus, a proper chorus. It’s funky.

DM: The little chimey opening guitar riff reminds of the first little guitar riff in ‘And Then He Kissed Me’ by the Crystals.

AK: Structurally, it’s more traditional than most of our songs.

DM: I was super into distorting acoustic guitars on this record, especially on the end of ‘Sugarcane’. That was sort of my jam.

Credits
Produced By
Release Date
October 4, 2013
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