♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐆𝐄♦️

Today we celebrate the 🔺𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘🔺 of “𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐆𝐄”, a single off the album “Black market music”. It was released on September 25th 2000 and reached no. 19 in the UK Singles Chart. “Slave to the wage” was available in two different versions: The one with the radio edit includes “Leni” and “Bubblegun”, the album version also features a remix of the song and the Big Star cover “Holocaust”.

🎥 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗚𝗘 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢
🎵 http://bit.ly/2VhCxjy 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

The lyrics are inspired by the necessity of having a drudging nine to five job in the modern world, it's a story about not working oneself in an early grave. Brian said that it's “a song about chasing your dreams” and compared it to Robert Frost's poem, "The road not taken” (see quotes below). In an interview with Sunday Mail he mentioned that it's also kind of an “American Beauty“ thing. “You can find yourself like the character Kevin Spacey plays, in a mid-life crisis and realising 20 years of his existence has been for nothing, for materialism and no soul."
“Slave to the wage“ samples the intro of "Texas Never Whispers" by the band Pavement. The line “Sick and tired of Maggie's farm“ is a reference to the Bob Dylan song “Maggie's farm“.

📜 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘁 – 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻
http://bit.ly/2FiZnQ5

The video is aesthetically inspired by the movie “Gattaca". The story that is told in the clip is based on a summer job Brian once had, which was shredding documents in a bank. “We used that as a metaphor for the drudgery of having a nine-to-five in the modern world”, he explained. The video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh, who had already worked on “Nancy Boy” and “Bruise Pristine” with Placebo before. You can read more about the shooting in the quotes below.
The song was produced by Paul Corkett and Placebo and recorded at Olympic Studios and Townhouse Studios in London. Brian has some painful memories to the recording of the track's vocals: ”It was the day that I found out that Scott Piering, the legendary plugger and our friend, had died and I was thinking about him that morning”.

Photo credit: Morten Holm

🎥 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗚𝗘 – 𝗥𝗢𝗖𝗞 𝗔𝗠 𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯
🎵 https://bit.ly/3masmJE 🎵

“Slave to the wage“ was performed live 350 confirmed times. It was first brought on stage on July 20th 2000 in Oxford, UK. This concert started the “Black market music” world tour. The song stayed on the setlist when Placebo were touring with their next album “Sleeping with ghosts” in 2003/2004 and was also played during the short “Once more with feeling” tour in 2005. Then it wasn't performed again until 2012. There were some renditions of the song in 2013 and a beautiful acoustic version was recorded at the “MTV Unplugged” show in London in 2015. After that “Slave to the wage” was a regular part of the “20 years” anniversary tour in 2016/2017. Last time the fans could hear it live was at a festival in Switzerland on July 13th 2018.


📌 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗚𝗘” 📌 
“It's about following your dreams and not getting stuck in the nine to five machinery. It's about promoting individuality.“
(Hip Online, February 1st, 2001)

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗚𝗘” 📌 
📢 ”The day I recorded the vocals to that track was the day that I found out that Scott Piering, the legendary plugger and our friend, had died and I was thinking about him that morning. There was a cloud that was hanging over us that day.
I strangely felt his presence.”
(Melody Maker, October 20th 2000)

📢 “It's a song about chasing your dreams. It's kinda like the Robert Frost poem, "The road less traveled". [sic!] It's basically saying, promoting individuality and saying that you don't have to follow society's rules in order to become a personal success. It often involves a bit of risk taking and courage. But we're certainly living proof of the fact that these decisions that we made when we were very young, we're living proof embodied that the road less traveled can be incredibly fruitful, if you stay true to yourself, if you have the desire to be an individual, if you have the desire and the courage to chase your dreams. If you want to work at a bank, and that gives you a hard-on, then go work for a bank. Or, if you want to be an artist and that gives you a hard-on, be an artist. Don't feel that you have to work at a bank. And if you're prepared to make sacrifices and take risks, if you're lucky, if your karma is good, then these things will payoff in the end. Which I think it's a positive message really.“
(Vox Online, 2001)

📢 "The song tells you to be an individual, believe in yourself and have the courage to chase your dreams. If you do, the rewards at the end are tenfold versus doing what your parents tell you to do. Get a good job, get married, have 2.4 children, 1.2 goldfish, 3.6 cars ... To a lot of people, that's the epitome of personal success. Which is why so many people get through a mid-life crisis. People reach a point in their lives and go, "Is this it?"
(Alternative Press, August 2001)

Photo credit: Stephen Sweet

🎥 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗚𝗘 – 𝗠𝗧𝗩 𝗨𝗡𝗣𝗟𝗨𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗗 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟱
🎵  https://bit.ly/3yX1hx5 🎵 

📌 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗕𝗢 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 📌
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙈𝙤𝙡𝙠𝙤: ”This video was inspired by two things. The content was inspired by the only summer job I ever had, which was working in a bank, shredding documents. We used that as a metaphor for the drudgery of having a nine-to-five in the modern world. And the second, aesthetically it was by a film ‘Gattaca’ starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. It was the film where they met and first fell in love.
Another video with Howard Greenhalgh, who did ‘Nancy Boy’ and ‘Bruise Pristine’.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙣 𝙊𝙡𝙨𝙙𝙖𝙡: ”It’s filmed at the University of East London, on a sunny day.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙃𝙚𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙩: ”Kind of a weird building. Modernist architecture and stuff like that.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”I remember there was an airstrip at the halls of residence. Very weird. How do they expect the student to get any sleep whatsoever?”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: ”There was quite a lot of extras on this one.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”There’s another Howard Greenhalgh gratuitous panty shot coming up, which managed to slip by censors. There seems to be a gratuitous panty shot in every video.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙣: ”A bit of postproduction on this one.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”It’s amazing car, it’s from an eastern bloc country, before the Wall came down. A Czechoslovakian or Bulgarian car which they used to drive the politicians around it.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: ”There’s a cool shot where you have wings and you stand in front of the bus.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”Closest I’ll ever been to an angel.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙣: ”You grew those after ‘Pure morning’.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”And naturally the clothes have to come off.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚: ”It’s probably Howard’s most postproduction-heavy video so far, apart from ‘Nancy Boy’.”
𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣: ”It’s a good time to mention that Howard used to be an Olympic gymnast.”
𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙣: ”That’s true.”

Photo credit: Scarlet Page

📜 𝗟𝗬𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦
Run away from all your boredom
Run away from all your whoredom
And wave your worries
And cares goodbye

All it takes is one decision
A lot of guts
A little vision
To wave your worries
And cares goodbye

Sick and tired of Maggie's farm
She's a bitch with broken arms
Your worries and cares
Goodbye

It's a maze for rats to try
And it's a race for rats to die

Run away (x8)

Post by Silke