Slipknot’s “Custer” Lyrics Meaning

A brief skit, rendered by Slipknot’s Clown Crahan seemingly in the name of harmonizing, is how the lyrics of “Custer” commence. But shortly thereafter we are met with a proper intro held down by lead vocalist Corey Taylor.

The Intro

Said intro leaves something to be desired in terms of understandability. But it does clearly conclude with the vocalist ‘advising listener aggression’.

In doing so Corey is imitating a radio announcer, i.e. intentionally miswording the commonly-used media phrase ‘viewer discretion is advised’ to rather point to this song being an intense one. And reportedly, this entire track is supposed to be based on the motif of the singer portraying such a role, i.e. a news announcer of what have you.

Verse 1

The first verse is replete with what may read on the surface as various, unrelated musings. For example, the passage commences with some sort of a gun-related mini-rant against the addressee, whom the vocalist proceeds to call “petty”.

Again, this being Slipknot and all, the lyrics are highly metaphorical. So it’s not particularly that easy to make out what the vocalist is getting at word-for-word. But apparently, this first half of the verse is meant to point to Corey’s character not only being confrontational but also an impatient one. And it has also been deemed that this is one of the parts of the song which references the titular General Custer.

General Custer

George A. Custer (1839-1876) is one of the more famous figures in American military history. In addition to being heavily involved in the Civil War, he was the general behind “Custer’s Last Stand”, also known as 1876’s Battle of Little Bighorn, which itself stands as a well heavily-referenced military campaign.

To make a long story short, during said battle, Custer and the US Army men under his command ended up getting their asses totally kicked by a group of Native Americans, who significantly outnumbered them.  What has been concluded is that Custer foolhardily rushed into that battle instead of utilizing wiser and more-effective strategy. 

So all of the above considered, that’s basically another way of saying that Custer is most famous due to that particular incident in which he, most simply put, led his men into being massacred. So to some, his character is one mostly associated with possessing a dangerously-high level of bravado and hastiness. 

Corey is behaving like General Custer?

What has been acceptably put forth by some analysts is that Corey Taylor, in this instance, is adopting Custer’s attitude, which would be one of the main reasons the song is named so.

That is to say that as this piece progresses, it becomes obvious that its storyline isn’t actually about General Custer. For instance, right after making those aforenoted theoretical references, the vocalist then goes on to note how “anything exceptional gets crushed by common people”. 

And that observation is more in tune with the intended message of this song, which was to celebrate Slipknot’s resiliency amidst serious personnel and related external challenges they were going through at the time.

More specifically the group’s original bassist, Paul Gray, died in 2010 at the age of 38. Then shortly thereafter, in 2013, another of Slipknot’s co-founders, the late Joey Jordison, proceeded to quit the band. 

So as inferred by Taylor in explaining the meaning behind this song, resultantly the sharks – i.e. haters and critics, having smelled blood – were circling around Slipknot. But the band’s reaction was to remain strong, “charging into” their own “last stand”, as he put it, i.e. grabbing mastery of their own professional fate rather than leaving it up to naysayers or circumstances.

Chorus

So it would apparently be to such individuals, i.e. those who prayed for Slipknot’s downfall, that the chorus is addressed to. This passage consists of the vocalist advising the addressee to “cut” and “f–k (him) up”. As freaky as Corey may be, we will not take those instructions as being literal, as in the singer actually inviting someone to harm him. Rather, it’s as if he’s sarcastically challenging the band’s aforementioned haters to come harder, because it ain’t as if they themselves are going to quit.

“Cut, cut, cut me up and f–k, f–k, f–k me up
Cut, cut, cut me up and f–k, f–k, f–k me up”

Post-Chorus

The post-chorus starts off with the vocalist’s assertion that “irreverence is (his) disease”. In context, that reads like another way of saying that he’s not privy to bowing down to anyone, that there’s no one who Corey respects so much that he would allow them to take his heart. 

And it is along such a sentimental basis that this passage continues and ultimately concludes, with the vocalist noting – as may be another reference to the Battle of Little Bighorn and how Custer’s forces were decimated therein – that “the last man standing gets no pity”. Also taking the line that comes before that into consideration, again, it’s as if Taylor is re-asserting that his mentality is such that he sees no benefit in capitulation.

Verse 2

The second verse, though being relatively-simple as compared to Slipknot’s usual lyricism, is still to some degree ambiguous and difficult to put into our own words. But it seems to serve the purpose of Corey letting the audience know that he – and by extension his compatriots – have always been fighters, i.e. making it big despite negative or unjust criticisms. Therefore, it isn’t as if what they were going through circa the dropping of Custer was actually going to break them.

The Long and Short of “Custer”

So we’ll conclude by agreeing with other analysts who have argued or implied that the reason this track is titled “Custer” is due to Corey Taylor likening himself to said historical character. General Custer proved to be headstrong to a bloody fault. And whereas, after all was said and done, his military intelligence and legacy has been criticized, there doesn’t seem to be any debate as to whether he was brave or not.

Likewise, being inflicted with his own ‘disease of irreverence’, Corey is letting the world know that he and the rest of Slipknot are so strong-willed that they are not going to fold – as some critics expected, or as haters even wanted – despite suffering from a couple of major setbacks. Or put alternatively they will continue to march into battle against the odds, just as Custer did.

The Team behind “Custer”

Writing credit for the song is granted to the entirety of Slipknot as a unit, with individual credit being given to Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root. And the entire band is also recognized as the co-producer of Custer, accomplishing said task alongside Greg Fidelman.

The label that put this song out, on 10 October 2014, is Roadrunner Records. And they did to allow Custer to serve as the third single from Slipknot’s album .5: The Gray Chapter, which was released in full shortly afterwards.