Garbage

Released: May 22, 2012

Songwriter: Butch Vig Duke Erikson Shirley Manson Steve Marker

Producer: Garbage

[Verse 1]
I looked into the mirror
What did I see?
There was a big black beast
Looking back at me

You looked into my eyes
What did you see?
You saw a big black beast
Magnified in me

[Chorus]
Like a man on a wire
I set myself on fire
Destroyer of a dream
Trying to find a spark
Desperate for love
Like a man on a wire

[Verse 2]
I was like a volcano
Just waiting to explode
I have been resurrected, reborn
And I have been transformed

I was a green eyed monster
Could you tell I was afraid?
I sat myself down and shot my fear in the face

[Chorus]
Like a man on a wire
I set myself on fire
Destroyer of a dream
Trying to find a spark
Desperate for love
Like a man on a wire

[Bridge]
That's right
Yeah, I see you sitting around
With your wristwatch
And your white collared shirt
I see you hoping to watch me fail
You're hoping to watch me fail
I sat myself down and shot my fear in the face

[Chorus]
Like a man on a wire
I set myself on fire
Destroyer of a dream
Trying to find a spark
Desperate for love
Like a man on a wire
I set myself on fire
Destroyer of a dream
Trying to find a spark
Desperate for love
Like a man on a wire

Garbage is a Scottish-American Alternative rock band, formed April 8th 1994. Once producer Butch Vig decided to break out of the rock he had been producing ever since Nirvana’s Nevermind, he got together with his college/studio partners Duke Erikson and Steve Marker to write some demos that would basically be remixes in song form. Once someone commented that “it sounds like garbage”, Vig decided to embrace the name. Then they invited Scottish singer Shirley Manson after seeing her on MTV, and the band’s sound was completed with sly, dark and snarky lyrics delivered in a sultry way.

The band’s eponymous debut album was a surprise hit upon release in August 1995, selling more than 4 million copies worldwide. Follow-up Version 2.0 (1998) was equally successful, even receiving a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Then the band recorded “The World Is Not Enough” to the eponymous James Bond movie, and the record industry started to bring the band down.

Beautiful Garbage (2001) was barely promoted due to a release too close to the 9/11 attacks, and underperformed at the charts. Fourth album Bleed Like Me (2005) had a troubled production where bandmembers were frequently arguing, and eventually the album’s tour was cut short and Garbage disbanded for 2 years, only regrouped in 2007 to record new tracks for greatest hits compilation Absolute Garbage.

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