🟪 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 🟪

💔“…𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏…”💔

🟪One of the most heartbreaking moments on the album, 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 has already become – surprisingly or not – an obvious festival hit.
Alongside three other singles from 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨, it’s been included into the setlists of almost all concerts so far. Although, I suppose, it sounded a bit differently in the atmosphere of the very first intimate shows and in front of the huge crowds at the festival stages.

Above, I’m sharing a video from 𝐓𝐖 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 in 𝐖𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐮𝐦 where Placebo played last Saturday, on June 25th (watch it to the very end💥

🟪When explaining where the lyrics, full of genuine grief and despair, come from, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 mostly goes two directions. He speaks of someone who lost their loved ones to murder, particularly, to police brutality keeping in mind events which led to the Black Lives Matter movement. Another, more personal meaning, is connected to David Bowie’s passing which left Brian enormously devastated back in the day and definitely still influences him.
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𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒌𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I don’t write songs dedicated to other people, but if I did, this song would be dedicated to someone who had their true love killed. It was inspired by the murders of black people by the police in the United States, something we were already aware of several years before the death of George Floyd.
Then the song became more abstract for me, based more upon my current relationship with David Bowie: his spirit, his influence on me as a person and his constant guidance.
(𝑅𝑢𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑛.362, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 2022)
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𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬: […] 𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒌𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒘. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎! 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Well, I think from two places: first David Bowie's passing which obviously had a major major impact on me. It was at that point that I actually began to reflect on how much I had been influenced as a human being by David. There's a lot about David which taught me to be a better human. To me Happy Birthday In The Sky...I have to kind of in order to get inside a song I kind of I create a narrative that's, that's my own, and I create characters, and what I did in this one is that I tried to put myself in the shoes of somebody who lost a loved one to police brutality. So it was a mixture of Bowie's passing and what was happening in the news.
(𝐵𝐵𝐶 6 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜, 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠 𝐻𝑎𝑤𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑠, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 15𝑡ℎ, 2022)
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David Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of final studio album Blackstar, certainly left its mark on the members of Placebo. The aching Happy Birthday In The Sky, while not exclusively about that particular loss, pays tribute to those whose birthdays we continue to mark even after they have passed, as 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 does with his late hero. “It communicates that kind of heartbreak,” he explains. “That sense of loss. That sense of desperation. It’s as if a part of your body and soul has been ripped from you unfairly. And you pine – and you pine.”
(𝐾𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 23, 2022)
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Photo credit: Scarlet Page

🟪However, let me delicately guess that there might be much more personal background to the lyrics, especially remembering the self-explanatory line from Chemtrails, “My friends and relatives are gone / And I need a little time”.
We will never know whose passing was (also) breakiing Brian’s heart when he wrote Happy Birthday In The Sky, who he remembers of every time while performing the song on stage… And there’s no need to search for those answers🙏
It’s just an absolutely natural human thing… Too many of us can think of those to whom we wish a happy birthday in the sky every single year… and will probably do that to the end of our lives…💔
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𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑰𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒌𝒚 is a beautiful celebration of the ghosts that accompany us. “It’s a line I use for people who have passed away. I wish them a happy birthday in heaven. 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅. And if we had managed to convey some of that sense of tragedy, the more the better, it means 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆.”
(𝑉𝑖𝑛𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑡 𝐴𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑜, #12 𝑀𝑎𝑦-𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒 2022)
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🟪Previously, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 often admitted that it was extremely exhausting for him to communicate such difficult emotions to the audience. In the recent interviews, it was exactly 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 that made him start honestly talking about it again. Being immensely attached to the song himself, he needs to bring the wholeness of powerful feeling to the listeners.

Photo credit: Jokko & Rob Walbers 

“𝑨𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕? 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔.”
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📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Happy Birthday In The Sky for me, is one of the more heartbreaking moments on the album. Happy Birthday In The Sky is a phrase that I've been using, you know, for quite some time. When I say, happy birthday to people who aren't with us anymore, you know, like David Bowie, for example, and it communicates the kind of heartbreak that we're really, really good at communicating, I think, you know, that that sense of loss, that sense of desperation. It's as if a part of your body and your soul has been ripped from you unfairly. And you pine and you pine and you wait.
I have a certain amount of drama training, you know, from Goldsmiths College, which is sort of the method, you know, so that it tells you to act from the inside out. So you start with really, really personal things and you externalise them. That’s how I manage to kind of communicate this emotion. I think truthfully and honestly to an audience, by somewhat inhabiting that feeling by putting myself in that position when it's performed and feeling the heartbreak. Concerts that come across as mechanical are ones where I find myself unable to do that, to inhabit the emotion within the song. I do that a lot during performance and put I put myself in the shoes of the narrator emotionally, which can be really draining and I think a lot of people don't understand why I wouldn't want to go to an after show party or I wouldn't want to go to a discotheque after the show when all I want is some food and to collapse, because I've basically given everything I can emotionally and there's nothing left. I'm just an empty shell. You kind of inhabit these difficult emotions 12, 13, 15, 20 times a night.
What I am thinking is that this is kind of so visceral and so intense emotionally that it's really going to communicate something very powerful to the listener. And that's basically all I'm interested in. At what cost? Who cares. As long as the song really, really moves people, then whatever sacrifices you have to make in order to get there are fine with me or that you will continue to make in the future. It's not such a bad thing to inhabit these emotions, you're very, very much alive and in the moment while you're doing them.
(𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑐𝑠 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 25𝑡ℎ, 2022)
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Photo credit: Scarlet Page

Video by ofenziva
Post by Olga