The band’s multi-instrumentalist and producer, Rostam Batmanglij, wrote “Young Lion” about a real-life June 2009 encounter that lyricist Ezra Koenig had “with an older rasta at Dunkin Donuts”, a random stranger who stopped him while he was walking to the Brooklyn studio during the final weeks of recording "Contra" and said to him: “You take your time, young lion.” There is an infamous 1967 photo shoot of Jim Morrison of this name.

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