(Brian Molko, Rock Sound, April 2003)
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| Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke |
The song was written and recorded in only two days (see quotes below). It is about couples who are breaking up and the anger that take hold of them at this time, but also the desire that arises from this injury.
The story of โThe bitter endโ is based on the novel โ1984โ by George Orwell, and there are severel references to this book in the lyrics. You can read everything about them here:
๐ https://bit.ly/3IOTAh8
The music video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh and shows the band playing in the dish of the Lovell telescope, one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. It also displays infra-red snippets of a couple chasing each other. Finally they catch each other up and kiss. According to Greenhalgh the video tells the story about two people who found love and this love blows up their world.
๐ฌ ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐ โ ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ข๐ต http://bit.ly/2YsP0yn ๐ต
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video, edit by Silke |
๐ ๐๐ข๐ช๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ก ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ข ๐
๐ข โOne of my favourites was 'The bitter end' because I couldn't believe we were able to film it. We thought: let's make the end of the world, the end of the world according to the script, so let's make a video about two people who found love, and this blows up the world, but before that, the band needs to play somewhere. Let's put them on a satellite dish. When we arrived at the filming location, we were not allowed to film the group inside the plate. It was very dangerous so they only allowed us to film it from different angles. And we shot everything inside the telescope. And we filmed it outside. And then, in the studio, we overlaid the band's footage on a satellite dish. And we filmed around the saucer, flying in a helicopter. I couldn't believe they would let us do this. It was a telescope. "Wow!" We thought that we would not be allowed to fly in a helicopter, to shoot a satellite dish from the inside. We thought we could only remove the plate from the side. It's incredible. I also liked shooting with an infrared camera, because it was part of the story - the story of lost souls, they meet, and everything falls apart. We had special installations, lightning struck everywhere in the frame. And I think in this video Stefan looked like a "God of Rock" with his bass. I think that all the shots with them were good. I think, that it was one of their most comprehensible tracks. It was like a song with a good chorus. It brought them a lot of success. I remember how I came to the record company. The guys and I were there to talk about filming 'The bitter end'. And the first question Brian asked me was, "What do you think of this track?" He had never asked me that before. And I think he really, really liked this track. Maybe I could be wrong that he doubted the song, but I got the impression that he really liked the track and they wanted to know what I thought of it. I liked the track. I'll tell you one thing: I have Placebo records in my car and I need to be very careful when I play their music. Speeding is something that happens all the time when I listen to them. Damn it, I'm speeding.โ
(Placebo Story Project, 2016)
๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐
At live concerts โThe bitter endโ is a well-established part of the setlist. Since its release in 2003 until 2018 there was not one single year where it wasn't brought on stage at least once. It's no surprise that โThe bitter endโ is in the top 3 of the songs that were played live most often. Up to now there are 685 confirmed performances of it, the first one dates back to March 5th 2003 and took place at British TV show CD:UK. Last time it was played live at Sion sous les รจtoiles festival 2018 in Switzerland on July 13th 2018.
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| Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke |
๐ข "It was written and recorded very quickly. As we had spent a lot of time playing with the technology and synths, we wanted to do something lively, exuberant, punk. The idea had started from two guitar chords found by Stefan and bang! Two days later, it was finished."
(Les Inrockuptibles Nยฐ382, March-April 2003)
๐ข "It's about a relationship. Two people fighting, they both want to be the stronger one. A classic Fuck-you song."
(DNAsix, March 2003)
๐ข "[...] The backing vocal that comes in at the very, very end which starts out with a line that says "every time we're intersected/it feels love like suicide" and then the last line is "to miss your eyes and lips" and in between I don't know what I am saying. [laughs all around] Live, it changes every night and I like that aspect. For me it is a kick back to The Pixies. I remember reading how Frank Black just considered this lyrics and singing just another instrument. He wasn't really concerned with the significance of what he was saying."
(The Sentimentalist - Issue XII, 2003)
Post by Silke
