Propaganda (song)
| Muse song | |
|---|---|
| Name | Propaganda |
| Album/single |
|
| Length | 3:00 (Album Version), 2:58 (Acoustic Version) |
| Alternative titles | Unknown |
| First live performance | 22nd February 2019 |
| Latest live performance | 15th October 2019 |
| Recorded | 2017/2018 |
| Writer/composer | Matthew Bellamy, Timbaland, Angel Lopez, Federico Vindver |
| Producer | Muse, Rich Costey, Timbaland, Angel Lopez, Federico Vindver |
| Chart position | Unknown |
| Song Nav | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure | < | Propaganda | > | Break It To Me |
| Album Nav | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drones (2015) | < | Simulation Theory (2018) | > | Will of the People (2022) |
Listen (Acoustic)
Description
4th track of the album, a Prince sounding song. A track very reminiscent to Timbaland's, Justin Timberlake's and 90s Michael Jackson's work.
Matt, due to his British accent has, as described by him, a "speech impediment" where when he puts a P and R together makes the phonetic sound of a 'PW'. Matt wanted to make a song in which he "exploited this to the maximum", thus, creating the 'Prop-prop-propaganda' loop.[1]
Matt wrote Propaganda when he was driving one day, and he had an idea which he recorded into his phone of himself saying 'Prop-prop-propaganda' that later was sampled and featured on the album.[1] “We had this sort of Prince thing going on. My voice is not a traditional rock voice, so with my falsetto I like to go down the Prince route. That is what that song is really. It’s influenced by hip-hop and funk. Jumps out as being influenced by the American beat — a slow, almost hip-hop type beat”.[2]
Muse and Timbaland worked at distance, Matt was in L.A. when Timbaland was in Atlanta, he sent the song wanting Timbaland to make it sound more 'contemporary', when Matt got the song back, it had so many layers and interesting loops and they liked them, later they decided to add more things to it.[1]
Matt made a mistake with the references, he meant those 'Dementor' things but got it mixed up with 'death eaters'.[3] Matt also explained that he rhymed 'floozy with woozy because it was a doozy'.[4]
Propaganda (Acoustic version)
The alternate reality version of the song makes some features more clear to hear, in the chorus there's the voice of a girl singing ah's and in the 'propaganda' loop a woman can be heard screaming.
You can see the official lyric video of this version here.
Composition
Written in D minor, Propaganda begins with a heavy guitar riff under a processed "pro-pro-propaganda" loop. The riffs are juxtaposed against almost acoustic verses, with sparse production and Bellamy singing in a gentle falsetto.
Densely-layered vocals build throughout the song as the hard-soft progression repeats. The bridge features a slide solo on an acoustic guitar.
Live
A short 30 second clip of the song was played to the studio audience at the taping of Taratata.
The full song was performed live for the first time at the first show of the Simulation Theory tour in Houston. It included Matt on an acoustic guitar, Dom on electronic pads and Chris on a Keyboard Bass
More info here.
Lyric Video
Access the lyric video page by clicking here
Lyrics
Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.
Floozy You got me trapped in a dark fantasy world Don't you know you make me woozy You have me wrapped around your little finger
Baby, don't you know you can't lose You make me offers that I can't refuse You keep telling pretty lies You toy with the truth Oh you're killing me with your Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.
Cold chick You ate my soul like a death eater I'm the ocean you're an oil slick Now I'm choking on your thought pollution
Baby don't you know you can't lose You make me offers that I can't refuse You keep telling pretty lies You toy with the truth Oh you’re killing me with your Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.
(Guitar solo)
You can't lose You make me offers that I can't refuse You keep telling pretty lies, babe Baby, don't you know you can't lose You make me offers that I can't refuse, yeah You contort me with your lies, baby Don't you know that you just can't lose You make me offers that I can't refuse, yeah You keep telling pretty lies You play with truth Oh you're killing me with your Propaganda
References
- ↑ a b c John Kennedy for Radio X. (2018). John Kennedy - Radio X in conversation with Muse. Retrieved 2018-07-12 from Youtube.
- ↑ Jacqui Swift. (2018). VIRTUAL REALITY Muse frontman Matt Bellamy on finding the good side of technology via virtual reality — as he admits band ‘partied a**es off’ after second album. Retrieved 2018-11-12 from The Sun.
- ↑ Matthew Bellamy. (2018-09-11). Twitter / Matt Bellamy: #pwopaganda. Twitter. Retrieved 2018-12-11 from twitter.com.
- ↑ Matthew Bellamy. (2018-09-11). Twitter /@staticmoanz: ok then explain why you rhymed floozy with woozy. Twitter. Retrieved 2018-12-11 from twitter.com.