Ambling Alp

This was the first single from Brooklyn-based experimental rock outfit Yeasayer's second album, Odd Blood. Bassist Ira Wolf Tuton told MTV News: "That song probably existed between the three of us longer than any other song on the album, so just psychologically, it made sense for us to release it first and try to get it out of the way."

The song's title refers to the nickname of a 1930s Italian boxer Primo Carnera, who won the 1933 heavyweight championship but was accused of being a Mafia-sponsored "false champion." The lyrics reference various opponents of American prizefighter Joe Louis, including Carnera. Keyboardist/vocalist Chris Keating told About.com why he chose this subject to write about: "I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it, that was, in some ways, about Joe Louis. Max Schmeling was a German boxer who was fighting for Germany in the '30s, and so as a result became a champion of Hitler. Joe Louis defeated him in 1938, and that became this moment of legend in boxing mythology, that this black guy was able to beat this Nazi boxer, thereby demoralizing the Nazi regime."

Guitarist Anand Wilder explained to Drowned In Sound: "'Ambling Alp' was an instrumental track that Ira composed, he'd just purchased an electro-harmonica pedal, and we got these really cool flute sounding tones out of that make the riff, and then Chris wrote the song around it. At first it was all [makes disturbing wordless sound approximating the melody], and I think he was reading the Malcolm X autobiography, which mentioned Joe Lewis fighting Primo Carnera, also known as the Ambling Alp, and he shaped the verses around that story."