🟣▪️𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐊: 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐯𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐▪️🟣

As we did once with 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚-𝐑𝐞𝐝, let’s today reflect, together with you, on the reason why 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐊 has been included into the most of the Never Let Me Go concert setlists so far.
Except for the fact that 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 has never understood a doubtful pleasure of experiencing the show through a small phone screen, he just finds it distracting and upsetting to not see any vivid and passionate feedback from the fans. Looking from the stage, the view of the crowd standing still to not shake their phones while recording feels definitely not the same as people dancing, clapping, screaming and singing along!

Special K video shoot, 24 May 2001 

𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐊 
http://bit.ly/37QAFk6 

Obviously, if you start recording, you hardly ever sing ‘param pam pam parararam’ loudly into your own phone as it might ruin the video… But luckily, most fans still choose to join ‘𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂’ as Brian names the best of the concert experience possible.
Indeed, with 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐊, the audience ALWAYS participates especially enthusiastically.
And who could have doubted, Placebo need maximum interaction with the audience now, they need it MORE THAN EVER!🙌💗

🟣Back to the song itself now. Let’s remind ourselves the initial meaning and vibe of 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐊, melodic, punky, fuzz-drenched track about the beginning of a love affair which ends up with "weeping wounds that never heal."


𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐮 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧: Let's go back to Special K. already, there are plenty of people who don't know what it corresponds to exactly.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: Well, Special K it's a slang name for a drug, ketamine. I took it once 10 years ago, and they gave it in the 1950s to astronauts to create the feeling of anti-gravity, and that's how it really feels.
𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐮 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧:
Now it's an elephant anesthetic after all.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: Yeah. (laughs). And I don't recommend it. Once was really enough. But the song is also a theme that runs through a few songs on the album that compares drugs to love. And on Special K, it compares the ups, the ups on an illegal substance and the feeling that you get when you fall in love, when you have a crush. They are quite similar. But the moral of the story is that what goes up must come down.
𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐮 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧: The descent is sometimes hard.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐨: Absolutely, yeah, very tough.
(𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 𝐿𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑣', 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 10𝑡ℎ, 2000)

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It's a nickname for a drug given to a newborn babies to prevent thrombosis," says Molko of the song's title. "It's also used to tranquilize horses, and in the 1950s, it was given to astronauts to create the feeling of anti-gravity. And that's the song's metaphor. What goes up must come down. The same is true of drugs and love. Religion, drugs and love are what most people are addicted to in the world."
(𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑀𝑎𝑦 2001)

Special K video shoot, 24 May 2001 

🟣Back then already, Brian kept the lyrics wide open for interpretations.
What is still relevant, in my opinion, is a theme of no escaping the gravity in today’s crazy world. Being blind of chasing senseless goals as power and profit, should in the end bring a person (regime/society/humanity – you name it) down...


🟣However, I’d like to finish my post with a couple of quotes to make you smile😃
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I think people know that the song “Special K” refers to the name given to ketamine on the street. It has nothing to do with Corn Flakes! Some of our fans were actually waving boxes of Special K cereal at recent gigs. It was rather funny. And in our recording studio, we had a mascot, a box of Special K. I had put it there one morning, on a desk. And it stayed until the end of the recording.
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭: Thanks to Special K, youth keep the line!
(Laugh)
(𝑇𝑉 𝑁𝑅𝐽 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒 2000)


𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝟖𝟎'𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑲, 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒐?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Special K is "punk Blondie"! It's Blondie with more saturation. We're big Blondie fans.
(𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘, 2000)

Post by Olga