Steady, as She Goes
by The Raconteurs
- 123
- BPM
- C# minor
- Key
- 12A
- Camelot
- 53
- Danceability
- 2
- Acousticness
"Steady, As She Goes" was the first song Jack White and Brendan Benson ever wrote together. They lived three blocks apart in Detroit, and White often stopped by Benson's house. One day Benson played him a slow reggae demo with all the instruments done and only one verse, which began "Find yourself a girl and settle down". White started writing from that line. He told Uncut it asks a question: is settling down a new life, or giving up?
The Raconteurs released it as their debut single from Broken Boy Soldiers. It went to radio on March 20, 2006, and to retail on April 24. A limited seven-inch had come out earlier as a double A-side with "Store Bought Bones". In the United States it reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It peaked at number four in both the UK and Denmark. It was nominated for a 2007 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Jim Jarmusch directed the first video, of the band playing, which premiered on MTV Two on March 10, 2006. The Malloys directed the second, in which Paul Reubens plays a cheating pit boss in a soapbox race.
Steady, as She Goes runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in C# minor, Camelot 12A, which shares its notes with E major and mixes cleanly with F# minor and Ab minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.