”𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗨𝗣𝗜𝗗” is the opening track on Placebo's fourth studio album “Sleeping with ghosts” (2003). It was an unexpected and risky way to start the record with an instrumental track, but the band wanted to surprise the fans. Brian: "First you get this sonic slap on the face and you're waiting for the vocals to start and they don't. So it sets up this feeling of intrigue” (dormusiccom, May 2003). The listener doesn't know where the album is going and has to delve into the music to figure it out.
Ex-drummer Steve Hewitt stated in an interview with Rock Sound that “Bulletproof Cupid” was "the closest thing to metal we’ve ever done". In Brian's opinion the song was their response to the relationship that developed in the studio between them and producer Jim Abbiss. "It was a reaction to that Jim had done to our songs – we needed to reassert our identity” (Rock Sound, April 2003).
The difficulty with “Bulletproof Cupid” was actually to decide where on the record to put the song. But the musicians came to the conclusion that it only worked at the beginning. If they had put it elsewhere, it would have interrupted the album flow. Brian said he found it interesting that as listener you wait for the lyrics to set in all along the track. “It's a matter of intrigue. You are disoriented and you know that you will have to listen to at least five or six songs to understand the record" (Guitar Part, April 2003).
“Bulletproof Cupid” wasn't planned to be an instrumental song in the first place but Brian revealed that for some reason everything he wrote for it sounded like Napalm Death. So it was easier to keep the track without a text. Considering the song title I wonder what Brian's lyrics attempts were like because in classical mythology Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love and attraction.
Like the album also the shows of the “Sleeping with ghosts” tour (2003/2004) were opened with “Bulletproof Cupid”. Brian had said beforehand that the song gives a hint to what the concerts will be like. The shared live version was recorded at Rock am Ring in Germany on June 7th 2003. It was one of 88 performances of the song.
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| Placebo at The Wiltern Theatre (Los Angeles, USA) on November 26th 2003. Credit unknown |
📢 "It's a musical slap. I want to wake up the audience. I tried to write lyrics on this track, but I couldn't. It didn't come out, it didn't sound natural. So it was easier to keep this track as an instrumental. Then the difficulty has been to choose where to integrate this track. It could only work at the beginning. If we had put it elsewhere, it would have interrupted the album flow. But what I find interesting as an auditor is that on the one hand you take a slap and in addition, you wait for the lyrics all along the track. But they don't come. It's a matter of intrigue. You are disoriented and you know that you will have to listen to at least five or six songs to understand the record. This concept is interesting."
(Guitar Part, April 2003)
𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢 𝘊𝘋 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴. "𝘉𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥" 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴. 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰.
📢 “Well, yeah, I tried to and whenever I would sing over it, the song was so fast it ended up sounding like silly metal singing. Napalm Death or something like that.“
𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭?
📢 “Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I felt that after we recorded it and we were sequencing the record, the only place that we could put it was the beginning, because it would interrupt the flow. So we took that decision afterwords and realized that it was quite fortuitous, because when the listener puts the album on for the first time, they are expecting the vocals to come. A minute into the song, tehy are saying to themselves, 'well, they have to start now' and they don't. So the listener is dragged in.“
(The Sentamentalist, 2003)
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| Placebo at Astoria London on March 10th 2003. Credit unknown |
📢 "A reaction to that Jim had done to our songs – we needed to reassert our identity but all the lyrics I tried to write sounded like Napalm Death. Also a hint to what the live shows will be like."
(Rock Sound, April 2003)
📢 "It pulls people into the record, first you get this sonic slap on the face and they're waiting for the vocals to start and they don't. So it sets up this feeling of intrigue. Musically it's completely different and the listener doesn't know where the album's going. You have to delve into it to figure it out."
(dormusiccom, May 2003)
📢 "It was our response to the relationship that developed in the studio between us and our producer Jim Abbiss. First of all, this time we wanted to work with someone who grew up in the culture of British dance music. It wasn't supposed to be some American rock producer. We believe that rock must move forward, take on futuristic features and adopt elements of contemporary, culturally important genres such as electronics and hip hop. Jim Abbiss has worked with such artists as DJ Shadow, Sneaker Pimps, U.N.K.L.E., Bjork, and Massive Attack. And that's partly why we decided on his person. He had a bit of freedom, and we wanted someone to give us a hard kick in the ass. We expected Jim to keep us motivated at every stage of creating new songs."
((Non)Security Zone, May 2003)
Post by Silke
