Screenager (song)

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Muse song
Name Screenager
Album/single
Length 4:19
Alternative titles
  • Razor Blades »
  • Razor Blades and Glossy Magazines
  • Glossy Magaizines
  • Razor Optics
  • Host No Thrills
  • Post No Bills
First live performance 6th January 2000
Latest live performance 28th May 2002
Recorded Real World Studio Wiltshire, 2001
Writer/composer Matthew Bellamy
Producer John Leckie

<flashmp3>http://www.musewiki.org/images/Screenager.mp3%7Crightbg=0xDDEEFF%7Cleftbg=0xDDEEFF%7Cbg=0xFFFFFF</flashmp3>

Description

Played a lot in 2000 and in 2001 (sometimes on the piano), a rare quiet moment from Origin of Symmetry.

Features Spanish-esque guitar and soft vocals by Matt.

Matthew Bellamy definition of Screenager

"Screenager is a modern teenager being brought up by the screen who develops a distorted image of their body because of pictures in magazines and because technology is rejecting the physical bodies we live in. It's also a bit about people who cut themselves because I used to have friends who did it and I didn't know why. I tried to grasp that it's needing something quite brutal to remind you what your body's about"[1]

Additional information

It is about technology and how it separates people even further rather than bringing them closer together. Also, it is the track with the infamous bubble wrap, shopping bag and skeleton bone percussion sounds, inspired by Tom Waits.

Also about self harm.

Trivia

Bellamy's voice cuts out for a split second at 3:33.

During the 2001 tour, as seen on the Hullabaloo DVD, the song was preceded by Rachmaninov's prelude in C♯ minor, which was transposed down to C minor to match Screenager.

Lyrics

Who's so phony and always surrounded?
Stop your screaming - no one can hear
All the scars on your skin: 'Post no bills'

Who you were
Was so beautiful
Remember who
Who you were

Hide from the mirror - the cracks and the memories
Hide from your family - they won't know you now
For all the holes in our souls host no thrills

Who you were
Was so beautiful
Memories who -
Who you were

Extra verse

In early live performances, Bellamy sang an extra verse, and sang the first two verses together before the chorus:

Who's so phony and always surrounded?
Stop your screaming - no one can hear
All the scars on your skin: 'post no bills'

Hide from the mirror - the cracks and the memories
Hide from your family - they won't know you now
For all the holes in our souls host no thrills

Who you were
Was so beautiful
Remember who
Who you were

I always hoped that things could be beautiful
And I thought underneath you'd be called other names
All the holes in our souls host no thrills

Who you were
Was so beautiful
Remember who
Who you were

References

  1. Rock Sound - 2001


Go back to Origin of Symmetry