You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language.
The Arcs is a new project from Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
He started the band with some of the musicians and producers he's worked with over the years.
For this episode,
Dan and his bandmates Richard Swift and Leon Michaels break down how they made the song Put a Flower in Your Pocket and how its title was inspired by a three-year-old girl.
This is a live performance.
The bass, the guitar, The keyboard and the drums, it's live.
There's no edits.
Second take.
You know, this thing just happened.
We didn't even have to think about it.
My name is Dan, and I played bass and sang on this song.
I'm Richard, and I play drums and some background vocals.
We produce a lot of records outside of arcs, but this was too easy.
Somebody has a riff, and we just kind of know instantly what to do.
And that's Russ.
Yeah, Russ Paul, our friend from Nashville.