Regardless of personal belief or religion, the music video for “Shake Me Down” by Cage the Elephant paints a gripping and emotional story of a man that dies in his sleep and experiences vivid images from his past. The man’s death is not revealed until the end of the video after the viewer has witnessed the intense flashbacks and the journey through the man’s childhood fort which leaves the video begging for personal interpretation. By analyzing the vivid flashbacks, experiences with his wife, father, mother and younger version of himself, and the symbolic image of all of his loved ones lighting lanterns and releasing them to heaven, it is apparent that the true meaning of this video is based on this man’s soul’s journey and struggle to transcend from earth to heaven. 

The video begins with a man waking up next to his wife and running into the woods to find a fort that he built and spent his time in as a child. He is returning to a place of comfort as he goes through the terrifying experience of death, and leaving his house is a sign that the man’s soul is leaving his body as it lies lifeless in the bed, and also that his soul is starting its journey towards the afterlife. When he is in the fort, the dying man is flooded with images and memories from his past as he touches and looks at different objects in the fort with each object sparking a different memory and time in his life. As he crawls further in the fort and stumbles across new objects from his past, the flashbacks and memories start to come from later points in the man’s life. The closer he gets to the end of the fort, the closer he gets to the end of his memories which represents that his soul is slowly approaching heaven,

While reminiscing on his life, the man sees a young version of his wife which can be interpreted that this is the age when he fell in love with him. Falling in love with his wife is one of the most important and life- changing events he has experienced, and this shows that his soul is remembering the deepest parts of the man’s life as it gets closer to heaven. He also sees his father an elderly version of himself sitting on a throne with tattered clothing, but a makeshift crown sits upon his head as he smears war paint on his face. This shows that his father was the king and warrior of his household growing up, and a significant section of his life that his soul needs to reflect on during its journey to heaven.

Suddenly a flash of light shines down across the man’s face, and then he finds himself in the kitchen of his childhood home watching himself play with his mother as a small boy. The flash of light symbolizes the bright light people claim to see when they are pronounced dead and have a spiritual or heavenly experience. The lyrics, “I’ll keep my eyes fixed on the sun” (Cage The Elephant,) are repeated throughout the song, and this supports that the man’s soul is fixed upon heaven as it makes its journey from his body to the afterlife. In most of the flashbacks, they are shown through the perspective of old home videos, but when the man sees himself playing with his mother as a child, it is a very vivid image, and at times he is even shown in the room with them. It seems as though the farther the man crawls through this journey to the afterlife, the fonder and more vivid his memories become. With the memories becoming more vivid, it shows that the man’s soul is reaching the deepest parts of the man’s life and coming closer to the end of its path to heaven.

As he reaches the exit of the fort, the man is blinded by a brilliant light and he seems to struggle against an unknown force. His soul is struggling to decide whether it wants to commit to entering heaven, or if it wants to hold on to earthly objects like the people the man loves and the memories they shared. After finally reaching the end of his journey through the fort, the man finds himself in an open field with all the people he valued and loved line up in front of him. This represents that his soul is saying its final goodbye to all the people he valued most. His wife emerges from the crowd of people and embraces him, and then everyone in the field lights a floating lantern and releases it towards the heavens. The camera follows the lanterns up to the sky for a while, and then pans back down to the ground to show that there is no one left in the field. The lantern he lights represents his soul, and all the other lanterns represent the parts of his soul that were made up by the experiences he shared with his loved ones. After its short journey, the man’s soul has finally found its way to heaven, and all of his fondest memories and the things he valued in the people he loved followed him there. 

“Shake Me Down” by Cage The Elephant is a great song, and the music video is truly beautiful and tugs at your heart strings. The symbolic meaning of the vivid flashbacks, and the beautiful scene in the field with the floating lanterns show the deep meaning of the song and the video. After dying in his sleep, the main character of the video reminisces on the fondest moments of his life as his soul transcends from his body to heaven. It is an amazing story, and shows that death is not always terrifying; the soul’s journey towards heaven can be a beautiful and comforting experience.
