Bleed Like Me (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Bleed Like Me


Artist = Garbage
from Album = Bleed Like Me
Released = May 9, 2005 (US)
Format = 12", Digital download
Recorded = 2003 - 2004
Smart Studios,
Madison, Wisconsin
Genre = Alternative
Length = 3:32
Label = Geffen
Writer = Garbage
Producer = Garbage
Reviews =
Last single = "Why Do You Love Me" (2005)
This single = "Bleed Like Me" (2005)
Next single = "Sex Is Not the Enemy" (2005)

"Bleed Like Me" was a single released from Garbage's fourth album "Bleed Like Me" in the summer of 2005 in United States. It was released as joint-second single from the album; around the same time the United Kingdom received a parallel release for "Sex Is Not The Enemy" and "Run Baby Run" was released in the Europe and Australia.

Hoping to build on the Billboard Hot 100 success of previous single, "Why Do You Love Me", the album's title track failed to make an impact in the States; it stalled in the top 30 of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. In early autumn of the same year, remixes of "Bleed Like Me" reached the top 10 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

ong

"Bleed Like Me was written in 2004 at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/music_specials/s1388222.htm| title=Triple-J Butch Vig interview|publisher="ABC.net.au"|accessdate=2007-07-03] Inspired by the movie "Thirteen", singer Shirley Manson overcame writer's block and wrote the lyrics to the track; one of the first songs the band wrote after reforming from a temporary three-month split in October 2003.

Name checking a number of her childhood friends; as well as J.T. LeRoy in the lyrics, Shirley recalled, "It’s about a search for empathy. We can forget so easily that people are the same regardless of their sexuality, religion, colour or moral values. Regardless of the differences between people – their colour, creed, sexuality or how they behave and express themselves – essentially we are exactly the same. It’s about how when you are dealing with other people you have to remember that they are all carrying with them their own baggage." [""Bleed Like Me: track by track", "NME" April 9, 2005 issue" (Retrieved - 2007-07-03)] Manson also referenced Gloria Gaynor's empowerment anthem "I Will Survive" (The first time a Garbage song directly referenced another musical composition).

On May 25, Garbage confirmed a list of fourteen songs being worked on for the record, including "Sex Is Not The Enemy", cite web | url=http://garbage2.com/news03_04.htm | title=News Archive 2003-2004 | publisher=Garbage2.com | accessdate=2007-06-21] and on December 14 confirmed that the song would be included on the finished album "Bleed Like Me".

On March 28, 2005, Garbage performed the track on Canal+ "Album de la semaine" before debuting the song live on stage at the Paris Olympia the following day. On March 28, Garbage performed single "Why Do You Love Me" on "Top of the Pops", "Napster Live" and "", they also performed "Bleed Like Me". ["Queen Helen" 2005 issue" (Retrieved - 2007-07-03)]

ingle release

On April 10 Garbage drummer Butch Vig confirmed to fans in Los Angeles that "Bleed Like Me" would be the second U.S. single taken from "Bleed Like Me"; [cite web|url=http://www.garbage-discography.co.uk/news_0403_0515_2005.php| title=3 Different Singles Planned|publisher="Garbage-Discography.co.uk"|accessdate=2007-07-03] and on May 9, "Bleed Like Me" was released to Modern Rock and Triple-A radio stations cite web | url=http://garbage.proboards60.com/index.cgi?board=talk&action=display&thread=1114458236 | title="The Second Single" Chart Thread: BLM, SINTE, RBR. |publisher="GarbageProboards60.com" |accessdate=2007-07-03] and debuted on the Modern Rock Tracks at #39 the following week.

On May 8, the promo video for "Bleed Like Me" was added by Fuse, [cite web|url=http://www.videostatic.com/vs/2005/week19/index.html| title=Music Video News: May 8, 2005 - May 14, 2005|publisher="Videostatic.com"|accessdate=2007-07-03] and the following week by MTVU and VH1. [cite web|url=http://www.videostatic.com/vs/2005/week20/index.html| title=Music Video News: May 15, 2005 - May 21, 2005|publisher="Videostatic.com"|accessdate=2007-07-03] On May 12, Garbage perform "Bleed Like Me" on the "Late Show with David Letterman". [cite web | url=http://www.garbage.com/news/news.php?uid=262 | title=GARBAGE to appear on Late Show with David Letterman on May 12! | publisher=Garbage.com | accessdate=2007-06-25] and complete their North American club tour on May 14 in Baltimore.

Garbage returned to North America to tour the "Bleed Like Me" single. On July 28 the band perform "Bleed Like Me" on "The Tonight Show". [cite web | url=http://www.garbage.com/news/news.php?uid=287 | title=Garbage to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! | publisher=Garbage.com | accessdate=2007-06-25] Remixes of "Bleed Like Me" by Eric Kupper debuts on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and on September 18 reaches the top 10, peaking at #6.

Garbage turned down a commissioned remix of "Bleed Like Me" by Ralphi Rosario; [cite web | url=http://www.ralphirosario.com/siteindex-2.htm | title=A MESSAGE FROM RALPHI - September 2005 | publisher=RalphiRosario.com | accessdate=2007-07-03] by August 28 this mix had leaked online.

"Bleed Like Me" ended up being the final single release from "Bleed Like Me" in North America when Garbage disbanded on a self imposed hiatus following the completion of their Australian tour, cite web|url=http://www.garbage.com/news/news.php?uid=336| title="New Best Of Album"|publisher="Garbage.com"|accessdate=2007-07-02] despite rumours of a North American release for both "Sex Is Not The Enemy" [cite web | url=http://www.lickthepavement.com/news.html | title=Garbage news | publisher=LickThePavement.com | accessdate=2007-07-03] and "It's All Over But The Crying". [cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1510121/20050922/garbage.jhtml | title="Shirley Manson On Garbage Hiatus: 'I'm Burnt, I'm Done, I'm Toast'"|publisher="MTV.com"|accessdate=2007-05-26] On May 22, 2007 it was officially confirmed that "Bleed Like Me" was to be included on the band's greatest hits album "Absolute Garbage".

Music video

accessdate=2008-03-03]

The video begins with Manson, as a nurse, reading medical records onto a dictation machine. She is then accompanied by Erikson, Marker and Vig, as doctors, as they view patients on their rounds. Manson is then seen preparing a ward for use - opening curtains, preparing beds and medicine. Manson breaks into a file storage, where she reads her own medical file (placed in front of director Sophie Muller's file), and later speaks to her therapist, but she is startled by a raven. In the hospital's educational room, Manson stands at a lectern, which she pushes away to perform under disco lights. The video ends with Erikson, Marker and Vig watching Manson through a two-way mirror: she is their patient. Manson finishes her dictation and ejects the cassette from the machine.

Using Nurse Ratched from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as a starting point, Manson's character was created from a mix of 1950s European nurse in costume, and evoking Helmut Newton's "strong yet vulnerable" photography subjects in her make-up. Manson herself wanted the video "to have a Hitchcockian feel" referencing his films "The Birds" and "Psycho", choosing graphic colours to enable to the video to "be as powerful as the song. I thought it was a brilliant concept".

The video for "Bleed Like Me" was included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD "Absolute Garbage".cite web|url=http://www.garbage.com/news/news.php?uid=336| title="New Best Of Album"|publisher="Garbage.com"|accessdate=2008-03-03]

Credits & Personnel

Production
*Recorded & produced by Garbage
*Recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin
*Engineer: Billy Bush
*Mixed by Butch Vig at Smart Studios
*Mastered: Emily Lazar (The Lodge, NYC)
*Mastering assistant: Sarah Register (The Lodge)

Additional musicians
*Matt Walker - drums

(On "Bleed Like Me", Butch Vig is also credited with bass guitar)

Publishing
*Written by Garbage 2005 Deadarm Music / Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP) and Vibecrusher Music / Irving Music, Inc (BMI). Administered by Rondor Music.

Other personnel
*Art direction: Big Active
*Design & montage: Mat Maitland at Big Active

Other credits
*Shirley Manson appears courtesy of Radioactive Records.

Quotes

Shirley Manson: "Well "Bleed Like Me" I think we’re very proud of that song. It came together really great."

Butch Vig: "Musically it’s very simple, it’s basically this little hypnotic riff on the acoustic guitar and it builds a little bit, but the song never gets too big musically. It stays pretty simple. Really it’s all about her vocals. She said ‘I want to sound like a girls choir’ and we’re like ‘Cool, let’s just do it now’. She went in singing ‘You should see my scars’ and it just floored me. Still when I hear that the hairs on the back of my neck go up. It’s really an amazing moment on the record."

Shirley Manson: "It’s about a search for empathy. We can forget so easily that people are the same regardless of their sexuality, religion, colour or moral values. Regardless of the differences between people – their colour, creed, sexuality or how they behave and express themselves – essentially we are exactly the same. It’s about how when you are dealing with other people you have to remember that they are all carrying with them their own baggage."

Comprehensive charts

References

External links

* [http://www.garbage.com/ Garbage official website]
* [http://www.garbage.com/exclusives/video.php/ "Bleed Like Me" promo video]
* [http://www.garbage.com/discog/?v=so&a=1&id=44/ "Bleed Like Me" lyrics]