Butterflies & Hurricanes (song)
| Muse song | |
|---|---|
| Name | Butterflies & Hurricanes |
| Album/single |
|
| Length | 5:01, 4:10 (Radio Edit) |
| Alternative titles | Butterflies [1] |
| First live performance | 7th July 2002 (interlude only), 3rd September 2003 (full) |
| Latest live performance | 22nd June 2013 (full), - (snippet) |
| Recorded | Air Studios, London, 2002/2003 |
| Writer/composer | Matthew Bellamy |
| Producer | John Cornfield, Paul Reeve |
| Chart position | 14 |
<flashmp3>http://www.musewiki.org/images/ButterfliesAndHurricanes.mp3%7Crightbg=0xDDEEFF%7Cleftbg=0xDDEEFF%7Cbg=0xFFFFFF</flashmp3>
| Song Nav | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackout | < | Butterflies & Hurricanes | > | The Small Print |
Description
Includes a romantic piano section. This romantic piano section takes influences from, among other composers, Sergei Rachmaninov. Sweeping arpeggios and dramatic chords are a staple of Rachmaninov's music.
Additional information:
Matthew Bellamy declared about that song: "It's about hope, about trying to find the strength to get through any given situation, I was trying to find a classical type of piano style that would be heavy and work with bass and drums. It had that sort of mechanical paradiddle thing all the way through, and then it breaks down into this kind of romantic, flowing weird bit in the middle".
In another interview matt said: "One of my favourite songs is 'Butterflies and Hurricanes' because it's accepting that things are all over but it's going fuckin' go for it!', d'yaknowworimean? there's a few tracks that are trying to find that strength, the raw energy that keeps you going through that jadedness as opposed to just resigning"[2]
Parts of the song existed at least as early as 2000.[3] Bellamy had suggested a song featuring the band and an orchestra over a "constant paradiddle" to Dom, but Butterflies & Hurricanes really took shape when Matt spent a few hours fiddling around on Steinway in a hotel they were staying in: "I was just alone in this piano room for hours and hours and hours... I found myself playing this paradiddle, that goes [imitates paradiddle] like that over and over again. And I started playing that on just two notes, constantly playing it, over and over again until I got to a point where extra notes were sort of finding their way in there, d'you know what I mean? And it ended up building up to the point where I was playing five-note chords with each hand and playing these massive chords on the piano and it was sounding really fucking heavy, d'you know what I mean? And a chord structure started to come out of that, and I was thinking, "This could be something"".
The single version features guitar rather than piano aside from the piano interlude, and excludes a voice saying "oh" at 1:21. The radio edit takes the single version and omits the piano interlude and vocal harmonies entirely. The single version features slightly heightened vocal harmonies compared to the album recording.
The song was used as the main theme for the BBC Sports Personality of The Year 2007, with the BBC Orchestra playing parts of the song as well and for a commercial on Austria's TV channel ORF 1. It has also been used as interludes between different articles and as closing credits on Ski Sunday.
Featured as the theme song for a racing game called Need For Speed: Most Wanted.
Live
It is played live like the single version (with guitar). Occasionally the band will perform an 'Extended' version of the song, whereby the heavy section just before the piano solo is played repeatedly, often including a mini-solo from Bellamy. It was performed on the Wembley DVD, and the sixteenth note hi-hat beat leading up to the piano section was moved onto the snare drum instead.
Covers
Butterflies & Hurricanes was covered by William Joseph on his 2004 album "Within". The cover is an instrumental, and at 3:43 long does not include the piano mid section.
Trivia
At 4:01 on the Absolution version of Butterflies & Hurricanes, If you listen closely, Matt can be heard getting off the piano stool he sat on to record the solo.
Lyrics
Change everything you are
And everything you were Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun Revenge will surely come Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best You've got to change the world And use this chance to be heard Your time is now
Change everything you are And everything you were Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun Revenge will surely come Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best You've got to change the world And use this chance to be heard Your time is now
Don’t let your self down And don’t let yourself go Your last chance has arrived
Best, you've got to be the best You've got to change the world And use this chance to be heard Your time is now
References
- ↑ Setlist Melbourne 2003
- ↑ Mark Beaumont. (2013-09-13). It's the end of the world as we know it. Retrieved from microcuts.net.
- ↑ Muse. (2000). [Making of Showbiz]. Retrieved from youtube.com.