”๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ง๐ฃ๐ฅ๐ข๐ข๐ ๐๐จ๐ฃ๐๐” 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 |
๐ข "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)
๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง ๐ข ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ญ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ฐ ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด. "๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฅ" ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ณ๐ช๐ง๐ง๐ด ๐ช๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐บ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ด. ๐ ๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ถ๐บ๐ด ๐ง๐ฆ๐ญ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ข “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.“
๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ญ?
๐ข “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 |
๐ข "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)
๐ข "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)
๐ข "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
