Ain't No Rest For The Wicked Cage The Elephant

Ain't No Rest For the Wicked Album: Cage the Elephant (2008)
by Cage the Elephant

"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" is the third single. It was released as a CD single on June 16, 2008 by Relentless Records and became the first Top 40 hit for the band in the UK.

Cage the Elephant come from the town of Bowling Green in Kentucky, which is best known for manufacturing Chevrolet Corvettes. The Alternative Rock group was formed in 2005 by front man Matt Shultz and his guitarist brother Brad. They were joined by their friends Daniel Titchenor (bass), Lincoln Parish (guitar) and Jared Champion (drums).

According to their MySpace site the band's name comes from Indian Hindu philosophy where the elephant is the symbol of strength and goodness. They explained: "It's strong and it's honest and it's loyal. And our name kind of stands for people, the whole of society, the people we all are by nature – it seems like people want to cage the elephant. It seems like they want to cage all the good in the world. It's not just the government or the media, it's everywhere. But you turn on the news and hear 'today 26 people got gunned down, and one guy got his head chopped off, and here's a picture of it. It's like there's no hope, and somebody's caged the elephant. But you can't do that."

This sing-along rhythm and blues anthem was a Top 40 hit for the band in the UK in 2008.

Lincoln Parish first got into slide guitar when the band wrote this tune. He explained to Orange Amps that the song "was a bouncy thing that kind of suited slide. I played in regular tuning on that but I also play in open tuning. I first put the slide on my little finger but then found I could do a lot more by putting it on my ring finger."
When Shultz penned this song, he was working a construction job and he wrote some of the lyrics in a wall on some drywall while he originally wrote the chorus on a paper plate. He recalled to Spinner UK in a 2011 interview: "When I was working construction I got in trouble for going to the side and writing lyrics so I had to get creative and do it real sneakily like writing on the drywall and on paper plates and stuff. And at the end of the day, I'd go back and write down everything I'd written."

Ain't No Rest For the Wicked can be heard on the car radio during the beginning of the January 25, 2016 pilot episode of Fox's Lucifer when the title character is stopped by the cop. It plays again at the end of the episode, when Lucifer leaves his bar and visits his therapist girlfriend.

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
Written by: Matt Shultz, Lincoln Parish, Brad Shultz, Jared Champion, Daniel Tichenor
Album: Cage The Elephant
Released: 2008

He was a-
Ya know it
He was a-

I was walking down the street
When out the corner of my eye
I saw a pretty little thing approaching me
She said, I've never seen a man
Who looks so all alone
Uh, could you use a little company?

If you pay the right price
Your evening will be nice
And you can go and send me on my way
I said, "You're such a sweet young thing
Why'd you do this to yourself?"
She looked at me and this is what she said

"Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
I know I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know
I wish I could
Oh, no there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"

Not even 15 minutes later
I'm still walking down the street
When I saw the shadow of a man creep out of sight
And then he swept up from behind
He put a gun up to my head
He made it clear he wasn't looking for a fight

He said, "Give me all you've got
I want your money not your life
But if you try to make a move, I won't think twice"
I told him, "You can have my cash
But first you know I got to ask
What made you want to live this kind of life?"

He said, "There ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
I know I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know, I wish I could
Oh no there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"
Yeah

You know it
He was a-
You know it
He was a-

Well, now a couple hours passed
And I was sitting at my house
The day was winding down and coming to an end
And so I turned on the TV
And flipped it over to the news
And what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend

I saw a preacher man in cuffs
He'd taken money from the church
He'd stuffed his bank account with righteous dollar bills
But even still I can't say much
Because I know we're all the same
Oh yes, we all seek out to satisfy those thrills

You know there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
We got bills to pay
We got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
I know we can't slow down
We can't hold back, though you know, we wish we could
Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good