---
title: "Why, How, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"

meaning: "If you got a why you got a how: woke bedrock rust, derivative writer, gods and flags for purpose: build don't question, computer needs your best, afterlife assured."

year: 2020
release: "Masks and Monsters"
releaseType: "album"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

credits: "Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations."

spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/13zzM1QEnrvJ7kRwUGNIFw"
apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/why-how-yeah-yeah/1526427944?i=1526428038"

themes: ["culture war", "work", "myth", "Masks and Monsters", "irony", "loneliness"]

isrc: QZK6P2060461
isrcSource: soundexchange

lyrics: |
  If you got a why
  Then you've got a how
  Yeah yeah

  All living in a time
  Where everyone's so fucking woke
  We've got nothing left to stand on

  All we built and all that we dreamed
  The bedrock
  Oh, the rusty steel
  Never really real
  Yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  All I write is derivative
  Yeah yeah
  I'm dying in a fight
  Where everyone thinks God's on their side
  No he ain't

  How I live makes me lonely
  At least we got this in common
  Really only way, right?

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  I'll write myths to make it worth it
  We'll believe in gods and flags
  With some purpose
  We'll be happy
  More desire, better rags

  Won't you take a fucking shower
  Won't you show some damn respect
  Won't you give your life to progress
  My computer needs your best

  Better to build than to question
  What we're even building for
  See, this work will give you freedom
  Afterlife is all by assured

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah
  Yeah yeah yeah

  Yeah

draft: false
---

Track sixteen on [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/). **Luke solo**, North Park lockdown, **August 2020**. [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/why-how-yeah-yeah/1526427944?i=1526428038) titles it **Why, How, Yeah, Yeah**; the LP tracklist adds a third *yeah*, same song.

The hook is hustle gospel, TED-talk logic as a chant: *if you got a why then you've got a how*. Underneath it everything is hollow. Verse one collapses ideology and infrastructure together (*everyone's so fucking woke / we've got nothing left to stand on*, *the bedrock / oh, the rusty steel / never really real*), and the *yeah yeah yeah* stacks like nervous filler. Verse two is self-own and holy war at once: the songwriter admits the bit (*all I write is derivative*) before flattening the culture war into mutual delusion (*everyone thinks God's on their side / no he ain't*).

The back half turns satirical. The bridge manufactures meaning (*we'll believe in gods and flags / with some purpose*), then a boss-voice barks hygiene and dignity into exploitation: *won't you give your life to progress / my computer needs your best*, lockdown WFH bleeding through. The final sermon is startup eschatology, *this work will give you freedom / afterlife is all by assured* (the typo *by* preserved from DistroKid), before eight bars of *yeah yeah yeah* and a single *yeah*.

Penultimate before [*Mystery Machine*](/songs/mystery-machine/) and [*Derrida Makes a Différance*](/songs/derrida-makes-a-differance/), bridging the cartoon LP to its philosophy closer. Same anti-certainty thread as Derrida, same capitalism roast as [*Coca Cola*](/songs/coca-cola/) and [*Shaggy's Anthem*](/songs/shaggys-anthem/). After [*I Am a Slave to the Yeast*](/songs/i-am-a-slave-to-the-yeast/)'s domestic captivity, this is cultural captivity.

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