Marilyn Manson

Formation and the Spooky Kids (1989–1992)

In 1989, Brian Warner was a college student working towards a degree in journalism at Broward College, gaining experience by writing music articles for the South Florida lifestyle magazine 25th Parallel. It was in this capacity that he met several of the musicians to whom his own band would later be compared, including My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. That December, he met Scott Putesky, who proposed the two form a band, after reading some lyrics and poems written by Warner. Warner, guitarist Putesky and bassist Brian Tutunick recorded their first demo tape as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in 1990, taking on the stage names of Marilyn Manson, Daisy Berkowitz and Olivia Newton Bundy, respectively....

Musical style

Although the band's music has often been labeled as shock rock by mainstream media, Manson disputes the use of the label, preferring instead to identify his band's music as rock and roll. The band combined industrial, goth, shock rock and metal into a "creative bricolage". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the band "draws equally from schlock metal, progressive metal, new wave, goth rock, and industrial rock". AllMusic also described the band's music as "glam-influenced industrial metal".The Daily Texan wrote that the band "originally found success during the rise and popularity of nu metal", but "Manson distanced himself from that movement, preferring alternative metal anguish over cookie monster-sounding raps." According to...

Influences

Manson's earliest musical memory was listening to Kiss during a family road trip; he has since cited the band as a major influence. As a child, he would imitate Kiss's kabuki-like makeup and draw pictures of Gene Simmons and Peter Criss. The earliest incarnation of the band was conceived by Manson at a Fort Lauderdale nightclub called The Reunion Room in December 1989, where he was introduced to Big Black's Songs About Fucking by his future keyboardist, Stephen Bier. Daisy Berkowitz played in several punk rock outfits before co-founding the Spooky Kids, and was influenced by acts such as the New York Dolls and the Jim Carroll Band, whose "People Who Died" was covered regularly at live shows.

Impact and legacy

Marilyn Manson have been credited with creating some of the most recognizable and visually defining music videos of the MTV Generation, with some commentators suggesting that their music videos played a significant role in the band's commercial success. Their work frequently incorporates surrealist iconography and purposefully grotesque imagery, and their style has been emulated by other performers. Joseph Schafer of Stereogum said in 2015 that "perhaps no single artist has mastered the music video as a medium so well [as Marilyn Manson]." They have received numerous awards and accolades for their work. Three of their videos – "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "The Beautiful People" and "The Dope Show" – received a total of five MTV Video...

Disposable Teens

"Disposable Teens" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on November 7, 2000 as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Holy Wood (2000).

Background and composition

"Disposable Teens" is an industrial metal, gothic metal, glam rock and glam metal song, composed by John 5 and Twiggy Ramirez. The lyrics were written by the band's frontman Marilyn Manson. During pre-release interviews, Manson described it as a "signature Marilyn Manson song". Its bouncing guitar riff and staccato rhythm has roots in Gary Glitter's song "Rock and Roll, Pt. 2" and Kiss's song "I" from their Music from "The Elder" album. Its lyrical themes tackled the disenfranchisement of contemporary youth, "particularly those that have been [brought up] to feel like accidents", with the revolutionary idealism of their parent's generation. The influence of the Beatles was critical in this song. The chorus echoed the Liverpool quartet's...

Music video

The music video was directed by Samuel Bayer and premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on October 25, 2000. Manson asked Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM to help spread the word that the band was looking for 200 to 250 fans to dress in black and participate in the shoot. The clip was filmed in Los Angeles.

Cover songs

As early as the band's August 30, 2000 appearance at the Kerrang! Awards, Marilyn Manson expressed interest in covering Lennon's "Working Class Hero" due to its correlation with Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)'s thematic preoccupations. The cover was recorded in the interim leading up to the November 7, 2000 launch of the single. In describing Lennon's idealism and influence on him, Manson said that "some of Lennon's Communist sentiments in his music later in his life were very dangerous. I think he died because of it. I don't think his death was any sort of accident. Aside from that, I think he's one of my favorite songwriters of all time." Band members Manson, Ramirez, and John 5 later performed the song as part of a...

Get Your Gunn

"Get Your Gunn" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on June 9, 1994 as the band's debut single and is from their debut studio album, Portrait of an American Family (1994).

The song was written by the band's eponymous vocalist along with original guitarist and bassist Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein, respectively, and was produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. "Get Your Gunn" was inspired by the murder of abortion provider David Gunn by an anti-abortion activist, an event which angered Manson.

Background and release

OB-GYN, David Gunn was shot and killed in 1993 at an anti-abortion protest by Michael Frederick Griffin, a Christian fundamentalist. At his trial, Griffin claimed to have been manipulated into killing Gunn by John Burt, a pro-life leader and former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Gunn's death was, in the words of Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, "the first targeted killing of an abortion doctor in America". The murder inspired "Get Your Gunn", hence the spelling of the song's title. In 1999, Manson wrote in Rolling Stone that Gunn's death "was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being 'prolife.'"

Composition

"Get Your Gunn" is a gothic rock and hard rock song with a length of three minutes and eighteen seconds. The song's lyrics were written by the band's eponymous vocalist, while its music was written by Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein; the track was produced by Manson and Trent Reznor. The aforementioned murder is reflected in its lyrics "God damn your righteous hand/ I eat innocent meat/ The housewife I will beat/ The prolife I will kill". Alec Chillingworth of Metal Hammer found the song's "wacky, stomping hook" reminiscent of the music of Jack Off Jill.

Critical reception and controversy

Schafer of Stereogum ranked the song eighth on his list of "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs", saying that "While the remainder of Portrait Of An American Family comes across as undercooked, even for an early-'90s alt-metal album, 'Get Your Gunn' feels lean and vitriolic. Sadly, Manson seldom matched its aggression again." Schafer also praised Manson's "charming" vocal performance on the song. Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times named it one of his favorite Marilyn Manson songs alongside "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" (1997). Bloody Disgusting's Brad Miska opined that "In retrospect, its level of cheese is of legend, but in 1994 Portrait was some dark and weird shit (see 'Cake and Sodomy', 'My Monkey', 'Get Your Gun' [sic], etc.)." Gigwise...

Music video

The music video, directed by Rod Chong, features Manson performing in an abandoned house. It is one of four Marilyn Manson music videos where the band's frontman has eyebrows. The video was accepted by MTV. Although it was rarely aired by the network, it was shown on Headbangers Ball. Manson told The New York Times that MTV wanted to censor the use of the word "goddamn" in the track's chorus, commenting "They wanted the word 'God' bleeped, which is assbackward because 'damn' is the cussword." The clip focuses on Manson's eyes, and features imagery of light coming in through windows.

Long Hard Road Out of Hell

"Long Hard Road Out of Hell" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson and British trip hop band Sneaker Pimps. It was released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 motion picture Spawn.

"Long Hard Road Out of Hell" is an arena rock and gothic rock song written by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez and produced by Manson and Sean Beavan. Its lyrics are about self-loathing and its title is derived from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667).

Background and release

Marilyn Manson's eponymous vocalist told the Phoenix New Times that he wrote "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" "while on the road." He said that the song "changes someone's singing and writing at the same time, the rhythm of your vocal." Though it was not written for the film, the song was released on the soundtrack album for Spawn (1997), a film based on the comic book character of the same name; the soundtrack was curated by Happy Walters. Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn, told Billboard: "If any artist epitomizes my anti-hero Spawn, it's Marilyn Manson."

Composition and style

"Long Hard Road Out of Hell" was written by Marilyn Manson, Twiggy Ramirez, and produced by Manson with Sean Beavan. The track is an arena rock and gothic rock song with a length of four minutes and twenty-one seconds. The title of the song is a reference to John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), wherein Satan says: "long is the way/ And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light." The song's lyrics are about self-loathing.

Critical reception

In his review of Lest We Forget: The Best Of, The Chicago Maroon's Matt Zakosek wrote that "every time you're ready to write him off as the obligatory recording artist of the moment to piss off the religious right, Manson comes out of left field with a surprisingly heartfelt, poetic track like 'The Reflecting God' or 'Long Hard Road Out of Hell.'" Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times deemed it one of his favorite songs by the band, alongside "Get Your Gunn" (1994). Chillingworth of Metal Hammer ranked the song sixth on his list of "The 10 most underrated Marilyn Manson songs", saying "'Long Hard Road Out Of Hell' is more than your standard Manson banger. It served as a weird body of water in which Manson tested some of his tricks".

Music video

MTV News reported in 1997 that the Sneaker Pimps would not be involved in the song's music video. Manson initially approached Jonathan Glazer to direct the video and asked him to watch David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) for inspiration. Glazer watched the film's opening credits, which feature images of a "road rushing beneath the camera" before falling asleep. As the film's opening credits had entered his mind, Glazer proposed that the video center on a man being chased down a dark, desolate road by an old car. Manson was unimpressed by this idea and decided not to use it; Glazer would use his rejected concept for his video for "Karma Police" (1997) by Radiohead. Upon seeing the "Karma Police" video for the first time, Manson was reportedly...

Lunchbox

"Lunchbox" is a song by the American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the second single from their debut studio album, Portrait of an American Family (1994).

A gothic rock and alternative metal song that features elements of death metal, industrial and punk rock, "Lunchbox" was written by the band's eponymous vocalist, Daisy Berkowitz, and Gidget Gein, and produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. According to Berkowitz, the track was written as the frontman's plea to be left alone; it was also inspired by a time when Manson defended himself from bullies with a Kiss lunchbox.

Background and release

According to Daisy Berkowitz, "Lunchbox" was written as "tacit plea—for the frontman to be left alone with his thoughts in the back of a swank tour bus." Its lyrics were inspired by Manson's use of a metal Kiss lunch box to defend himself against school bullies, an incident which prompted the school to ban all metal lunch boxes. The band performed the track during their audition for Sony Records' head of A&R Richard Griffin. Berkowitz recalled that Griffin "personally rejected us within minutes, saying he liked the show and the idea but 'didn't like the singer.'" Instead, the label signed Pearl Jam. "Lunchbox" became a "fan favorite" of the band's live sets; Manson said that during performances of the song, "I regularly set a metal...

Composition

"Lunchbox" is a gothic rock and alternative metal song, with a length of four minutes and thirty-two seconds. The track was written by the band's eponymous vocalist, Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein, and was produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. It combines a danceable industrial beat, death metal guitars and punk rock influences, while containing the lyrics "I got my lunchbox and I'm armed real well/I wanna grow up /wanna be a big rock-n-roll star/big time rock-n-roll star/so no one fucks with me."

Critical reception

Metal Hammer ranked the song 66 on their list of "The 100 best metal songs of the 90s", saying that "The seeds of Manson becoming Public Enemy Number One in the United States were being sown on his 1994 debut Portrait Of An American Family, and despite this not being the most terrifying song in his repertoire you just can’t deny the power of the chorus." Metal Hammer's readers voted the track the seventeenth greatest metal song of the 1990s. The Miami Herald's Howard Cohen said that Berkowitz's "musicianship, songwriting, and industrial guitar...gave early Marilyn Manson its musical credibility on songs like 'Lunchbox,' 'My Monkey,' 'Dope Hat,' and 'Cake and Sodomy.'" In Exclaim!, Monica S. Kuebler called the track one of the band's...

Music video

Directed by experimental filmmaker Richard Kern and based on a concept created by Manson and Kern, the song's music video stars Robert Pierce, who was six years old at the time, as a young Manson; Pierce also performed on tour with the band and on the band's song "My Monkey". In the clip, Pierce is bullied on his way to a roller rink as he carries his metal lunchbox. He then vows revenge and gives himself a Mohawk hairstyle, before growing up to become a rock star. The band is shown obstructing roller skaters, and a child puts makeup on Manson. At the end of the video, a Rambo lunchbox is destroyed with fire; metal Rambo lunchboxes were the last metal lunchboxes to be mass-produced. Shooting the video caused Manson to recall negative...

Rock Is Dead

"Rock Is Dead" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the third single from their third studio album, Mechanical Animals (1998).

It was written by the band's eponymous frontman, along with bassist Twiggy Ramirez and keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy, and was produced by Manson, Michael Beinhorn and Sean Beavan. A glam rock and industrial metal track with elements of electronic music and grunge, the song features electric and bass guitars, keyboards, and live drums in its instrumentation.

Background

After the release of Antichrist Superstar (1996), an album which sparked controversy among Christian fundamentalists, Marilyn Manson didn't want to resume playing the role of a bogeyman. He feared that this would cause him to be "consigned to the one-note rock theatricality" of Kiss and Alice Cooper. He desired to convince casual rock and pop fans who had previously dismissed him that he was "more than a cartoon." For his next album, Mechanical Animals (1998), he took inspiration from the glam rock music that David Bowie made in the 1970s, and adopted a wardrobe and hairstyle similar to Bowie's.

Composition

"Rock Is Dead" is a glam rock and industrial metal song with a length of three minutes and nine seconds; it features elements of electronic music and grunge. The track was written by the band's eponymous frontman, Twiggy Ramirez, and Madonna Wayne Gacy, and was produced by Manson, Sean Beavan and Michael Beinhorn. Its instrumentation consists of electric and bass guitars, keyboards, and live drums.

Critical reception

Annalee Newitz of Salon said that the Mechanical Animals tracks "Rock Is Dead" and "Posthuman" are "Manson at his ironic, spiteful peak." Eddie Trunk wrote in his book Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Volume 2 that "Rock Is Dead" and another Mechanical Animals track, "Coma White", are some of his favorite songs in the band's catalog. Chad Childers of Loudwire called "Rock Is Dead" a "thrusting rock song." In Exclaim!, Liisa Ladouceur commented "Seems like if you're going to write angry industrial anthems, screaming 'Rock is Dead!' is far more palatable to the masses than 'I am the God of Fuck.' Go figure!" Sputnikmusic's Simon K. described 'Rock Is Dead" and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" as album...

Music video

The music video for the song consists of footage of the band performing onstage in costume, and was directed by Manson alongside American director Samuel Bayer. It features the vocalist in costume as his alter ego Omēga. Another version of the video contains the same performance footage coupled together with clips from The Matrix. The latter music video appeared as a bonus feature on both of the box set HD DVD releases The Complete Matrix Trilogy and The Ultimate Matrix Collection. Jonathan Barkan of Bloody Disgusting found the "rather plain" clip reminiscent of "pop metal videos of the 80's, where a band would be playing on the stage but there wasn't any audience. Same thing here, except it's a big more polished, a bit more vibrant, and...

The Beautiful People

"The Beautiful People" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the lead single from the band's second studio album, Antichrist Superstar, in September 1996.

Classified as industrial metal, the song was written by frontman Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez, and was produced by Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie and Manson.

Background

"The Beautiful People" was written in 1994, with lyrics by Marilyn Manson and music by Twiggy Ramirez. The original demo version was written in a hotel room while on tour, and recorded to four-track by Manson, Ramirez, and drummer Ginger Fish. Manson recalled to Kerrang! magazine in May 2005: "It was somewhere in the South, which is ironic. I remember playing the drum beat on the floor and then having my drummer duplicate that on the drum machine. It happened in one day pretty much."

Composition and lyrics

The song is preceded with a few seconds of backwards-guitar feedback and electronic noise. It includes a heavily distorted spoken sample by Tex Watson, declaring "[We would] swoop down on the town. . . [and] kill everyone that wasn't beautiful".

Versions and releases

In addition to the version on the Antichrist Superstar album and the version on the single (which differ only in the length of the introductory noise) a radio edit also exists, which removes the profanity. The phrase "hate every motherfucker" has been replaced by the alternate lyric "hate every other hater", and the word "shit" has been excised. This radio edit is the version used in the music video for "The Beautiful People".

Music video

Floria Sigismondi directed what has been described as "the creepiest of creepy videos" for "The Beautiful People". The clip, filmed in the then-abandoned Gooderham and Worts distillery in Toronto, Canada, depicts the band performing the song in a classroom-like area decorated with medical prostheses and laboratory equipment. Intercut with these performance clips are scenes of lead singer Marilyn Manson in a long gown-like costume and aviator goggles, wearing stilts and prosthetic makeup which make him appear bald and grotesquely tall; after being placed in this costume by similarly attired attendants, he appears to a cheering crowd through a window in a scene reminiscent of a rally, and later stands in the center of a circle while people...

The Dope Show

"The Dope Show" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released in September 1998 as the lead single from their third studio album Mechanical Animals.

The lyrics were written by Marilyn Manson and the music composed by Twiggy Ramirez.

Background

After the release of Antichrist Superstar (1996), an album which sparked controversy among Christian fundamentalists, Marilyn Manson did not want to resume playing the role of a bogeyman. He feared that this would cause him to be "consigned to the one-note rock theatricality" of Kiss and Alice Cooper. He desired to convince casual rock and pop fans who had previously dismissed him that he was "more than a cartoon". For his next album, Mechanical Animals (1998), he took inspiration from the glam rock music that David Bowie made in the 1970s, and adopted a wardrobe and hairstyle similar to Bowie's.

Music video

"The Dope Show"'s single release was accompanied by a surrealistic music video directed by Paul Hunter, which premiered on August 20, 1998. In scenes reminiscent of The Man Who Fell to Earth, Manson appears — red-haired, with his entire body, including prosthetic rubber breasts, covered in white latex paint — as an androgynous extraterrestrial wandering around the Hollywood Hills. He is captured, studied in a laboratory, and eventually transported by limousine to a stage where he and the other members of the band — the fictional band Omega and the Mechanical Animals — perform the song in concert before hysterical fans who end up rioting and crossing the security barriers. Actor Billy Zane makes a cameo appearance in the limo sequence, as a...

Critical reception

Barry Walters of The Village Voice commented "The Dope Show is the first Manson single as memorable as its video. Over a skipping Gary Glitter beat, the pied piper of gloom celebrates the Clinton-era narcotics of oral stimulation and headrushing authority. Its sing-along chorus lends the social study a levity the Reznor period denied, and the bite-sized lyrics—bon mots like "Cops and queers make good-looking models"—help the medicine go down. Despite the guitars pumping the hook in the proven grunge tradition, this bouncy sugar pill is radical for Manson not only because it's pop, but also because it's something few '90s rockers have attempted: it's sexy." He went on to conclude, "This born sophist once merely dared to deconstruct...

The Fight Song

"The Fight Song" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released in 2001 as the second single from their fourth full-length studio album, Holy Wood .

Composition

"The Fight Song" is a hard rock and industrial metal song with glam rock influences. It was written by the band's eponymous vocalist and John 5 and produced by Manson and Dave Sardy. In "The Fight Song", Manson sings "I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist"; Steven Wells of NME said that in the song, Manson avoided the clichés used by other antitheist artists. Both Wells of NME and Joseph Schafer of Stereogum found the track's instrumentation similar to the guitar riff from Blur's "Song 2" (1997). Wells also felt that "The Fight Song" resembles the music of The Sweet, particularly "Little Willy" (1972).

Critical reception

Schafer of Stereogum ranked it tenth on his list of "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs", commenting: "In retrospect [Holy Wood] comes off as Manson's attempt at a Back in Black, a must-have disc of all singles, but unfortunately most of its tunes are too similar to one another (and too underwhelming compared to their predecessors). 'The Fight Song' is the shiniest apple from that tree, due in large part to the Blur-esque verse riff, which gives things an open, jangly feel unique in his discography, one that serves as a potent counterpoint to the Mack Truck chorus." NME's Wells wrote that the song "is glam pop so cheesy that it makes Daphne & Celeste sound like Radiohead. And how cool is that? Fucking cool, actually....OK, gloves off,...

Music video

The music video for this song, directed by W.I.Z. at Verdugo Hills High School football field, depicts the band members performing the song at a violent game of high school football between two fictional teams, "Holy Wood" (composed of jocks in white football attire) and "Death Valley" (composed of goths and social outcasts in black football attire). The video also features a few subliminal messages; at approximately 2:12, the video briefly replaces the scuffling football players with people fighting with police riot squads, and a Death Valley cheerleader is briefly seen throughout the video repeatedly hacking at a wooden pillar with an axe. Near the end of the video, it begins to rain, and a Death Valley player throws the football at the...

The Nobodies

"The Nobodies" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It is the third and final single from their fourth studio album, Holy Wood , released in 2000.

The song addresses Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The song's title is from a quote by John Lennon's murderer, Mark David Chapman, who once lamented that he "felt like a nobody."

Music video

The music video for "The Nobodies" was directed by Paul Fedor. It premiered on MTV in June 2001. Technical presentation of the video uses shaking camera techniques, varying perspective shots, closeups, and fast scene shot changes.

This Is the New Shit

"This Is the New Shit" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson, written by Marilyn Manson, John 5 and Tim Sköld, produced by Manson and Sköld. It is the second track on and second single from the band's fifth studio album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, following "mOBSCENE", and had the most success.

Background

The first track written for The Golden Age of the Grotesque, "This Is the New Shit" was inspired by Manson's fascination with the rhythms and beats of hip hop music and how "it brings out something that so many people like". He created the song's instrumentation before writing its lyrics: "It was worth trying to focus on making the beats first, and really making beats that had their own hooks to them, and then making riffs." To create the song's riff, he played a guitar into a Neve console. Manson told Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times that after creating the song's beat, "Then I wanted to address the simple absurdity of saying 'This Is the New Shit'--it's the most bitter, sardonic stab at fucking anyone who would listen to the song...

Critical reception

Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times called "This Is the New Shit" a "great track" and one of his favorite Marilyn Manson songs, alongside "Little Horn" from 1996's Antichrist Superstar. Exclaim!'s Liisa Ladouceur said that the track is "ripping" and one of the band's best. Rolling Stone's Barry Walters said that the track "sounds a whole lot like the old shit....What's surprising is that there's still so much life in what Manson is rehashing." He deemed the song and "Mobscene" "simultaneously fresh and putrid." Joseph Schafer of Stereogum found "This Is the New Shit" "anthemic" but did not include it on his list of "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs", as Manson "was at his best when trying to both look and sound like an evil David Bowie."

In popular culture

This song was featured in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled "Suckers". It was also included on the soundtrack for the film, The Matrix Reloaded, and used in the film, Hatchet. It was used in a series 8 episode of Waterloo Road, and several trailers for BioWare's 2009 RPG Dragon Age: Origins.

Music video

The music video was recorded in the Cinquantenaire, under the arcade and by the huge glass of Gédéon Bordiau.

Tourniquet

"Tourniquet" is song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the second single from their second studio album Antichrist Superstar (1996).

It was written by frontman Marilyn Manson, co-founder Daisy Berkowitz and longtime bassist and guitarist Twiggy Ramirez. Like many other songs from Antichrist Superstar, the industrial rock and gothic rock song's lyrics are based on a dream Manson had.

Background and release

Marilyn Manson was in a poor mental state when recording vocals for "Tourniquet," resulting in one of his most emotional performances on the album. Channeling his angst, and using what energy he had left, producers Trent Reznor and Dave Ogilvie thought he sounded too theatrical. This caused him to binge on "liquor, pills and drugs." To make matters worse, Reznor had driven by his house next morning, only to find his girlfriend, Missi, had overdosed. "She was shivering, but her skin was stippled with sweat, which had soaked into the sheets around her," he wrote. Scared for her life, he rushed Missi to the hospital, where a doctor explained she was three months pregnant. If she decided to have an abortion, which she did she would have to...

Composition and lyrics

"Tourniquet" is an industrial rock and gothic rock song with a length of four minutes and thirty seconds. A somber song, it has a tempo of 90 beats per minute. It can also be used double-time at 180 beats per minute, is high energy and is somewhat danceable with a time signature of 4 beats per bar. A "harsh, sexy track" with an "almost ballad-like quality," the song is an example of the band's "rough-around-the-edges" early work, and is seen as foreshadowing the, then emerging, nu-metal scene. Diamond Rowe of American nu metal band Tetrarch even categorized the song as such, when picking the nine best guitar solos in the genre. The song was written by Manson with the band's bassist Twiggy Ramirez, and its then-guitarist Daisy Berkowitz,...

Music video

The video for "Tourniquet" was directed by Floria Sigismondi, who also directed the video for "The Beautiful People". Sigismondi says that directing the video got her to gain confidence in herself and her "offbeat ideas". In order to gain inspiration for the video, she went through a period of sleep deprivation, and was elated to see her ideas for the video "manifest into physical form." Sigismondi discussed the video's impact with Claire Lobenfeld of Fact, saying "It was shocking to see that so many people responded to that [video's] imagery like they did. I'm sure there was a lot of different things at work there – the song, the lyrics, [Manson's] image – coupled with the video, but I do believe that in a way we all have the same rooted...

Critical reception

"Tourniquet" received generally mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave two reviews for AllMusic. First, he reviewed the English single and said "The Tourniquet Prosthetic Dance Mix" is a "pretty good" reworking of the song, but concluded the single gets monotonous due to both B-sides being the same remix of "Tourniquet", but with different lengths. When reviewing the greatest hits album Lest We Forget: The Best Of (2004), he stated "Not every [Marilyn Manson] single had a great hook -- 'Tourniquet' is a moody dirge, indicative of what awaits a listener on the album tracks". Axl Rosenberg of MetalSucks called "Tourniquet" and "Lunchbox" some of "Manson's best early material".