It might look like there are typos, but that’s also how they are printed in the CD sleeve.
Anyway, I have a few Qs:
What is CFK? (Aside: Actually, I was using another site for the lyrics, but they really did have typos. This site says it’s Kane from Citizen Kane. OK. So, what does it all mean?? Is he saying he spends his entire life searching for lost innocence?)
What’s a traction magnet? A Google search revealed slot cars. ???
Who is the one that the singer bets me five I’m not alive if I don’t know his name? (Apparently, my very life depends on this, so help me out here…)
It is, indeed, Charles Foster Kane, and many of the lyrics from the song are taken from a song in the movie Citizen Kane, although set to very different music. There was some talk of legal action from the studio that now owns the film against the White Stripes, but I don’t know what came of it.
I thought the line was “attraction magnet,” in other words, he’s one of those “men want to be him, women want to be with him” types. No cite, just my interpretation from listening to the song.
That one just means that he’s so important that the only people who don’t know who he is are people who died before he became famous. Again, no cite, just my interpretation.
Who is this one?
Whose favorite son
Just by his actions
Has detraction-
Magnets on the run?
In other words, “Who is this guy that’s so great that all the naysayers (detraction-magnets) flee his presence?”
And all the song’s lyrics are from various points in Kane. For example, in the scene toward the end when the Kanes and a bunch of their friends are “camping” (with gazebos and chefs and such), there’s a strolling musician singing the “It can’t be love… for there is no true love…” bit.