Supermassive Black Hole (song)

Muse song
Name	Supermassive Black Hole
Album/single	Black Holes and Revelations (3) » Black Holes and Revelations Tour Edition Bonus DVD (1, 4) Black Holes and Revelations KROQ Sampler (1) Black Holes and Revelations MY Videos Promo VCD (1) Supermassive Black Hole (1), DVD (1, 2) Starlight Vinyl, Download (2), iTunes EP (Remix) (3) Knights of Cydonia CD (2), iTunes EP (3) H.A.A.R.P. CD, DVD (4), iTunes Pre-Order (4, 19) Live at Rome Olympic Stadium CD (11), DVD (16) Drones World Tour (9) Simulation Theory Film Blu-Ray, Digital (7)
Length	3:29
Alternative titles	Supermassive
First live performance	13th May 2006
Latest live performance	15th October 2019
Recorded	New York Avatar/Electric Lady Studios - 2005
Writer/composer	Matthew Bellamy
Producer	Rich Costey, Paul Epworth (Phone Control Voltage mix)
Chart position	4 (GB), 8 (EU)

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Description

Dance-type beat with alternative guitar. Inspired by a Norwegian mix of funk & disco and bears some similarity to "Do Something" by Britney Spears. Described by the band as Prince-like and inspired by Franz Ferdinand. Heavy and funky. The band was influenced by Belgian bands such as Millionaire or Evil Superstars. It's pure disco and "maybe that song came from being in New York for a while" declared Matthew Bellamy.

According to Matthew Bellamy, the song it's about women, as he said back on 2006 in an interview: "‘Supermassive Black Hole’ is partially inspired by “a sinister presence at the centre of the galaxy alerting us the a ménage-a-trois involving R2D2 and The Queen when she was hot.” What on Earth is that about? “I’ll explain it, bear with me... it’s kind of comparing a woman to the centre of the galaxy, as this gigantic black hole that you powerlessly get sucked into. What I’m trying to say in a roundabout way is, that’s what women are like."

Bellamy: "It’s the most different to anything we’ve ever done. We’ve had some Belgian influences: Millionaire, dEUS, Evil Superstars, Soulwax etc. These groups were the first to mix R&B rhythms with alternative guitar. We’ve added a bit of Prince and Kanye West. The drumbeat isn’t rocky, with Rage Against The Machine riffs underneath. We’ve mixed a lot of things in this track, with a bit of electronica; it’s different, slow, quite funny..."

Also, Matt stated that the song makes him wanna dance: "When I hear certain pieces of music it conjures it out of me. 'Supermassive' made me want to sing in a silly high voice and dance around."

Additional information

Matt revealed at New York's Webster Hall that this song was heavily based off of The Groove, likening The Groove to an early version of Supermassive Black Hole. With this in mind, perhaps the band revisited The Groove during recording sessions and were able to create Supermassive Black Hole out of their changes. A similar case happened with Futurism and Hysteria.

The first single taken from Black Holes and Revelations. It was released online on June 12th, 2006 and on physical media on June 19th, 2006. The day after its UK radio premiere on May 8, 2006, it became available for download via 7digital.com for 79p for UK customers only.

The song was leaked on the 7th of May, 2006. It received its first play at the Radio One Big Weekend on May 13th 2006.

The song was added to Guitar Hero 3 on 8th May 2008 as part of a track pack also including Exo-Politics and Stockholm Syndrome. "Supermassive Black Hole" is on the OST for the movie "Twilight", and It is also used in the baseball scene therein; (watch). The song is also used in the movie "Vampires Suck" which parodies Twilight and other vampire movies. The song can be heard in a little under ten minutes into the movie. The author (Stephenie Meyer) is a big fan of Muse's,and she stated in the acknowledgements of her book "New Moon": "And finally, thank you to the talented musicians who inspire me, particularly the band Muse - there are emotions, scenes and plot threads in this novel which were born from Muse songs and would not exist without their genius.

At every end of the chorus, the words "into the Supermassive" can be heard. This is done with the use of vocoders. This vocal is provided by Dom Howard, and is the only time Dom's vocals are used during a song while playing live. In the chorus just after the guitar solo, after "dead" is sung, a very faint voice says "d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d". It can be heard only in the chorus after the solo and can be heard clearly using good audio equipment, or on the vocals-only track included on the Supermassive Black Hole DVD single.

According to Rich Costey, the solo was recorded in the very last minute during the mixing phase. Costey thought the instrumental jam was too long and monotone and needed some kind of a solo. As the gear has already left the studio, Wolstenholme only came up with a guitar he had laying around in the hotel room. The guitar was plugged directly into an effects processor and Bellamy played the solo backwards, resulting in the sound it has.

Live

Since Eden Project 2006-08-22, Bellamy has used his Kaoss Pad to imitate a DJ scratching sound during the intrumental part.

From Roseland Theater 3rd October 2006 to December 2006, a new riff was played before the instrumental part, where "Supermassive black hole" is repeated four times. From Halle Tony Garnier 11th December 2006, or possibly earlier in December, this riff has been replaced with the "Revolver" riff.

More here

Alternative versions

An alternative studio recording of Supermassive Black Hole is featured on the FIFA 07 soundtrack. In this version, the guitar part is more distorted in places.

A remix was created for the Starlight 7" vinyl, entitled "Supermassive Black Hole (Phone Control Voltage Remix)".

A live recording from Campo Pequeno, Lisbon, 26th October 2006 features as the B-side for the "Knights of Cydonia" single CD.

Covers

A metal band called 'Threshold' did a cover of Supermassive Black Hole (watch) and it was featured as a bonus track on their album "Dead Reckoning"

In late 2009, Billy Lunn of the British band The Subways, released an acoustic cover of the song via twitter.

Croation cello duo the 2Cellos released a cover of the song with accompanying video[watch], featuring Naya Rivera on vocals, in December 2012, which also appeared on the 2Cellos' studio album "In2ition".

Lyrics

Ooh baby, don't you know I suffer

Ooh baby, can't you hear me moan? You caught me under false pretences How long before you let me go

Ooh, you set my soul alight Ooh, you set my soul alight

Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the supermassive (Ooh, you set my soul alight) Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the... (Ooh, you set my soul...) Into the supermassive

I thought I was a fool for no one Ooh baby, I'm a fool for you You're the queen of the superficial How long before you tell the truth

Ooh, you set my soul alight Ooh, you set my soul alight

Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the supermassive (Ooh, you set my soul alight) Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the... (Ooh, you set my soul) Into the supermassive

Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole

Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the supermassive Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstar's sucked into the supermassive

Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstars sucked into the supermassive (Ooh, you set my soul alight) Glaciers melting in the dead of night And the superstars sucked into the (Ooh, you set my soul...) Into the supermassive

Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole Supermassive black hole

See also

• Supermassive Black Hole video
• Media use of Supermassive Black Hole

References

Go back to Black Holes and Revelations