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"Shut Down" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian for the American rockbandthe Beach Boys. The primary melody is a twelve-bar blues. On March 4, 1963, it was released as the B-side of the single "Surfin' U.S.A.", three weeks ahead of the album of the same name on which both tracks appeared. Capitol Records released it again later that year on the album Little Deuce Coupe. The single peaked at number 23 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (number seven on the United Press International chart published in newspapers), and number 34 in the UK.
History
The song details a drag race between a Super-Stock 413 cu. in.-powered 1962 Dodge Dart and a fuel-injected 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray and is derived from a longer poem by Christian. The song is sung from the perspective of the driver of the Sting Ray who brags that he will "shut down" the 413. (In hot rod racing slang, to "shut down" someone means to beat that person in a race.) While the implication is that the Sting Ray will win the race, the song ends before the end of the race with the 413 still in the lead, with the Sting Ray closing the gap. Although the race is often interpreted as having an inconclusive outcome, the lyrics in the outro refrain do state, "Shut it off, shut it off/Buddy now I shut you down", clearly indicating that the narrator, in his Corvette Sting Ray, has in fact won the race, as he tells the Dodge 413's driver to "shut off" the car's engine and accept the fact that he has just been "shut down".
Cash Box described it as "powerful" and having "top rock-a-teen sounds."
