The Strokes’ “Last Nite” Lyrics Meaning

“Last Nite” can be classified as sort of a youth song of romantic angst. That is to say that the vocalist’s issues with his girlfriend not only cause him to emotionally spaz but also like develop an adverse feeling for the world around him.

By the looks of things, he doesn’t understand why his honeybun would be complaining about ‘feeling left out’. It would also seem that she regularly complains of such, as doing so makes him exclaim that he “don’t care no more” and even feign as if he’s leaving her.

But alas, just a few minutes out on the town causes the vocalist to realize that being devoid of his sweetheart is depressing. Still he goes wandering, presumably in the name of cooling off. And it is there that he basically comes to the conclusion that at the heart of this problem is that no one ‘understands’. This includes everyone, “girlfriends”, “grandsons” and even aliens from outer space.  Indeed even the vocalist admits that he “ain’t never gonna understand” himself.

So that then begs the question of what it is exactly he and the others aren’t understanding? And going back to the first sentence of this post, it seems what he is actually saying is that ‘no one understands matters of the heart’. And you know how people often say that true love is an emotion that can’t be explained? Well that also appears to be what The Strokes are putting forth, albeit in an artistic day.

Conclusion

We can conclude by assuming that the vocalist’s relationship with his girlfriend will continue as is. In other words, she will proceed to be cheesed off due to whatever it is she’s personally feeling angsty about, and he will keep frustratingly trying to figure out what it is exactly she’s riffing about.

Facts about “Last Nite”

This song came to us via The Strokes’ early goings, i.e. their debut album “Is This It”. And this track was issued as the second single from that project on 5 November 2001. The song came out by courtesy of RCA Records, BMG and Rough Trade Records.

This track was written by Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas. And its producer is one of the band’s regular collaborators, Gordon Raphael. In fact “Last Nite”, as well as the rest of “This Is It”, was recorded in Raphael’s own basement studio.

“Last Nite” is considered by many to be the first notable hit in The Strokes’ discography. For instance, it managed to top the UK Indie Chart. It also broke the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart proper. Furthermore, it peaked at number 5 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay listing stateside. But more importantly, unlike their debut single, “Hard to Explain” (2001), this song was also a commercial success. It was certified platinum in both the United Kingdom and the band’s native United States.

Even though this is the song that put The Strokes on the map, as admitted by Julian Casablancas in a 2020 interview he eventually grew weary of performing it time after time.

Featured on the B-side of “Last Nite” is the song “When It Started”.

This song was heavily inspired by a 1977 track by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers entitled “American Girl”. And said tune is acknowledged as being interpolated into “Last Nite”.

This track’s music video was directed by the son of Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola, whose name is Roman Coppola. And as the story goes The Strokes weren’t down to shoot a video at first but gave in so long as a basic, live format was used.

The music video to this track received in acknowledgment in the official clip to “Under Cover of Darkness”, a song the band would drop in 2011.