Garbage Top 10

Often bands are missing a key element and go looking for it in another band.

Drummer Butch Vig, multi-instrumentalist Duke Erikson and guitarist/bassist Steve Marker first saw the Scottish-born Angelfish singer Shirley Manson on MTV’s “120 Minutes.” They hooked up with her when Angelfish toured the States.

Manson went through what was termed an “introductory recording session” or audition and joined the band.

Upon hearing the playback of one of Vig’s loops of samples, a band member commented, “that sounds like garbage.” Wouldn’t you know, the name stuck.

#10. Special

“Ultimately (the song) is about those feelings of betrayal you have for people when you set your sights too high and expect too much and how that can lead to disappointment in the end,” offered Manson.

“Special” was on Garbage’s sophomore album “Version 2.0” (1998).

#9. Vow

Vig said the song was inspired by a newspaper article about a woman who had got revenge on an abusive husband. “We thought it would be cool to get a bit of retribution in there.”

“‘Vow’ is about having feelings (of vengeance),” commented Manson. “You have to face your feelings of revenge and work out why you feel that way. It’s about that conundrum when you’re really angry but in reality you’re in a pitiful state. Angry, twisted, but deep down, vulnerable.”

#8. Why Do You Love Me

“It’s about the fundamental insecurity in all human beings that they are unlovable,” Mason stated in an NME interview. “Feeling unlovable drives us into marriage, monogamy, jealousy and possessiveness. I feel that at the base of everyone there’s a belief that we’re truly lovable. But we often question it, which is why we seek out exclusive relationships.”

#7. Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)

“We were in different headspaces every time we recorded, which is why every song is different,” Manson explained, “”Silence Is Golden” is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever recorded and “Cherry Lips” the poppiest. They’re juxtaposed right next to each other (tracks 5 and 7 on the band’s third album “Beautiful Garbage”).

#6. Queer

“(The song) is not, as you might think, to do with being gay, but tolerance,” stated Manson. “You think you are normal and the rest of the world is freaky, but we’re all equally to blame.”

“”The song isn’t about sex at all, it’s about the loss of innocence,” added multi-instrumentalist Duke Erikson. “There’s been enough exposure to gay issues in the mainstream media that people are finally ready to deal with it.”

#5. When I Grow Up

Guitarist Steve Marker stated the band’s songs often “have a dark lyric disguised by a happy pop melody. We like that sort of contradiction and juxtaposition.”

Manson noted the song is about “that delirious state of wishing and hoping and dreaming for things, not giving up.”

#4. Push It

“(There’s) the schizophrenia that exists when you try to reconcile your desires and demons with the need to fit in,” Manson offered. “It’s a song of reassurance.”

The track contains a line. used with permission, from the Beach Boys ’64 hit “”Don’t Worry Baby.”

#3. I Think I’m Paranoid

In ’01 Helios Music Corp. filed a copyright-infringement suit alleging that a portion of the lyrics in “I Think I’m Paranoid” were lifted from the ’67 American Breed hit “Bend Me, Shape Me,” The New York publishing firm sought credit for the song, profits and halting “any further sale, distribution or exploitation” of the song.” Garbage considered the legal action a “nuisance suit.”

#2. Only Happy When It Rains

“Only Happy When It Rains” was “about wanting love but knowing life will always get in the way… yet not being obliterated by that,” commented Mason. “It’s a song for people that know what it is like to live on the dark side of life. It’s about devotion but a different kind—a devotion to the truth and to freedom… and to hell with the consequences.”

The song’s title referenced The Jesus and Mary Chain song “Happy When It Rains.”