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Vlad The Impaler was written by Sergio Pizzorno and is the 8th track on West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It was released on 15 February 2010 as the fourth single off the album and peaked at #114 in the UK charts.

Background[]

Inititally considered to be the opening track of the album as well as the first single, Vlad The Impaler was released as a free download on the band's official website between 31 March and 3 April 2009.[1][2]

Named after Vlad III of Wallachia, the original inspiration for Dracula, the song has often been compared to the Beastie Boys or The Clash and was at one point referred to as "Apnoea's bigger brother."[1][3] Serge described the lyrics as "a call out to all our people, the ones who are tuned into our radio station."[4]

The line "Joker, see you on the other side" is a reference to actor Heath Ledger, who died shortly after the song was written.[5] During live performances, Tom will often substitute "Joker" for names of recently deceased celebrities, and occasionally living people.

About the decision to put it out as the fourth single off the album Serge said, "Out of the blue Radio One started playing Vlad. We were like - if they're going to put that on daytime radio, let's put it out. It's great because Vlad is the sort of thing which frightens record companies, so having it blasting out of the nation's radios in mid-afternoon is pretty fucking spectacular."[6]

Live[]

Vlad The Impaler was debuted at a session for BBC Radio 1 in April 2009. Since then it has always been a permanent part of the set, sometimes as an opener or the first song of the encore during the West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Tour. During the Velociraptor! Tour it was usually performed as the second song of the encore, between Switchblade Smiles and Fire. On a few occasions a snippet from The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up was added at the end of the song.

Noel Fielding has joined the band on stage numerous times during performances of Vlad The Impaler, including at the NME Awards 2010. During Jay Mehler's time as the band's touring guitarist, the intro guitar riff was heard via playback, but Tim Carter has played it live since replacing Mehler.

Video[]

Kasabian_-_Vlad_the_Impaler

Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler

The first official Vlad The Impaler video, starring Noel Fielding in the title role and directed by Richard Ayoade, was released together with the free download of the song in March 2009. A second video, a live performance recorded in Dublin in November 2009 and also featuring Fielding, was released in February 2010, coinciding with the single release. The entire Dublin gig was later released on a bonus DVD with the deluxe edition of Velociraptor!.

The first version of the video has been released on

Remixes[]

Zane Lowe Remix[]

Zane Lowe is a radio DJ, producer and TV presenter. The remix was released on

Quotes[]

"It blows the doors off! The timing is strange and the vocals are in and out because it's a rant. I wanted that Beastie Boys, Clash feel, giving Tom a song to sing where he can rant, because that's when he's at his most genius."
— Serge (NME, 17 January 2009)
"It was such a big song that I didn't know what to call it. It's about forgetting yourself, letting loose, having a grind. But as a title Let Loose just didn't cut it. It needed something or someone you could hang it on and Vlad the Impaler fitted perfectly. The original Dracula. A nasty, nasty piece of work. An absolute fucking psychopath who used to eat his dinner with his enemies' heads on spikes. When we played this to our label they didn't get it. The first time we played it live in Europe it was like that scene in Back To The Future when Michael J. Fox does Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode and the audience don't know what the fuck's hit 'em. But in the UK now it's way up there, one of the ones which drive people nuts."
— Serge (Q Magazine, December 2009)

Releases[]

Albums

Singles / EPs

Live Releases[]

Audio

Video

Lyrics[]

Face check I walk this beach
I'm frying in the heat
In the cauldron, stir me

Chomp down my diamond teeth I ain't got
The simple things in life have been lost
You have got to witness
This is your last retreat
My last repeat

All my friends are as sharp as razors
Cut you down if you touch the faders
High class girls hung in elevators
Now we have got the floor

Get loose, get loose

You can't miss me, I'm still alive
Snake skin shoes I'm pleading homicide
Come on and feel this, I'm still alive
Joker meet you on the other side

Banshee I hear you call
We need to raise the dead
We need to raise the people
Cut throat this blood runs thick, it is true
The simple things in life have been lost
You have got to witness
We are the last beatniks
The lost heretics

All my friends are as sharp as razors
Cut you down if you touch the faders
Listen up all you masqueraders
Now we have got the floor
Now we have got the floor

Get loose, get loose

You can't miss me, I'm still alive
Snake skin shoes I'm pleading homicide
Come on and feel this, I'm still alive
Joker meet you on the other side

References[]

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