Mostly the house wins, but when it doesn’t, something else inevitably goes wrong. Movies will tell you that. Songs too! On The Hold Steady’s Chips Ahoy, it’s love that hits the rocks. A choppy upstroke on a grimy-sounding electric guitar is a good start to a great rock song and when it’s followed by a densely packed rock ’n’ roll fable, ingredients are ready to mix.
Chips Ahoy is the name of a racehorse. The song is about a $900 gamble gone right, taken on Chips by a girl who can predict the future. The bet is good, Chips wins by six lengths, the money rolls in, the party consequent upon the win is highly fuelled, the kids spend a week getting trashed… and then comes the crash.
The girl is unpredictable; the boy is at a loss. He doesn’t know what to do, the girl won’t let him talk to her, she won’t dance and it all shows that money doesn’t change everything.
Chips Ahoy is a pulsating rocker, written by songwriter/vocalist Craig Finn. There’s no doubt that Springsteen is a big influence on Finn, and for me The Hold Steady’s album Boys and Girls in America might have just been a new-millennium answer to Born to Run. While Stuck Between Stations (off the same album) more obviously travels Springsteen’s road, Chips Ahoy is full of rock convention: high-jinks adventure, massive power chords, swirling Hammond organ, damp bass and drums and full of tension and release. It’s for playing loud. Rock on!
I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. You’ll read it here on a Sunday. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.
Listen to Chips Ahoy on Spotify here and Apple Music here.
Top image: Rawpixel/Currency collage.
Sign up to Currency’s weekly newsletters to receive your own bulletin of weekday news and weekend treats. Register here.
