(Brian Molko, XFM, September 2004)
Today we celebrate the 17th ๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ of “๐ง๐ช๐๐ก๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ”, it was released on October 18th 2004 and reached no. 18 in the UK Singles Chart.
The song was produced and mixed by Phil Vinall who also worked on some other of Placebo's early chart successes like “Pure morning” or “Nancy Boy”.
๐น ๐ง๐ช๐๐ก๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ – ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ข
๐ต http://bit.ly/2Gw5Rsl ๐ต
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| Screenshot from the video, edit by Silke |
It's interesting how the song came into being: Campion helped Brian with the lyrics of ”Every you Every me” when Brian had a writer's block. Whenever they worked on EYEM together Campion played a specific guitar riff and sang the line ”There are twenty years to go.” Brian once said that he had always thought it would be an amazing AC Acoustic song but Paul never wrote more than the mentioned part of the music and text.
Since they were such good mates ”Molks” often played this riff when he picked up a guitar. “We all grew to fall in love with that record and always said that one day we were gonna flesh this out into, you know, a proper song”, he explained in an interview.
In the beginning of 2004 the band seriously started thinking about it and around July the work was finished and they'd actually recorded the track.
๐น ๐ง๐ช๐๐ก๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ – ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐จ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ
๐ต https://bit.ly/3lOAJJ5 ๐ต
According to Brian ”Twenty years” is ”pure epic melancholy, a reflection on the passage of time and mortality. But it's not necessarily a sad song."
Obviously he was very proud of the track because in an interview which took place one day after the single release he said that it’s "possibly our best work so far! Y’know it’s really, really cool in that way…"
The live history of the “Twenty years“ started on September 29th 2004 at MTV Designerama show in Berlin, Germany. The song was part of the setlist until 2009, then reappeared on stage during the “Loud like love“ tour in 2013. From that point on it was played live every year without pause. The last performance was at Sion Sous Les รtoiles festival in Switzerland on July 13th 2018. Up to now this was also the last Placebo concert that took place.
When played live the song often has an extra middle eight section added on, complete with heavy experimental guitar. Since 2009 live shows feature an arrangement of the song that was first performed during the Angkor Wat concert in Cambodia.
๐น ๐ง๐ช๐๐ก๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ – ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฐ
๐ต https://bit.ly/3lMB674 ๐ต
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video, edit by me |
๐ข ”In hindsight, I think 'Twenty years' is perhaps one of our greatest tracks. It's our closest track to 'With or without you' by U2, the ultimate song.”
(Les Inrockuptibles, November 2004)
๐ข “It’s kind of… I’d say it’s a meditation on the passing of time, and it’s about recognizing the value of the present and the kind of the riches that you have in front of you, the gifts that you have in front of you, the love that surrounds you today. Like ‘don’t go home and listen to the Stryper record, you know, because it’s kind of a waste of time.’ (laugh) Enjoy what you have in front of you.”
(MTV Supersonic, 2004)
๐น ๐ง๐ช๐๐ก๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ – ๐๐๐ก๐๐+ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฏ
๐ต https://bit.ly/3AwQGtG ๐ต
๐ข "One of my best friends in the world is Paul Campion who was the singer of AC Acoustics and who helped me out on the lyrics when I had writers block for 'Every you Every' me on the second album. And whenever we’d sound check he’d always be playing this little guitar riff and singing the line ‘There are twenty years to go”. I always thought it would be an amazing AC Acoustic song but he never wrote it, and since he was such a good friend of mine, often when I’d pick up a guitar, to remind myself of him I’d play that riff and we all grew to fall in love with that record and always said that one day we were gonna flesh this out in to, you know, a proper song. It wasn’t until about six months ago that we actually started thinking about doing that, and three months ago since we actually did it… and it’s possibly our best work so far! [laughs] Y’know it’s really, really cool in that way…"
(Session at AOL, October 19th 2004)
Post by Silke
