Sex Type Thing

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"Sex Type Thing" is the debut single released in 1993 by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots from their debut studio album, Core. "Sex Type Thing" also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. The song spawned a music video which received moderate rotation on MTV (at the height of the early 1990s grunge music scene). The single peaked at number 23 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.

Video Sex Type Thing

Lyrics and composition

Scott Weiland wrote the lyrics after a girl he was dating was raped by three high school football players after a party. Weiland has stated the song is an anti-rape statement, not a song simply about sex, saying:

This song is really not about sex at all. It's about control, violence and abuse of power.

According to guitarist Dean DeLeo, the song "In the Light" by Led Zeppelin had a direct influence on the main riff in "Sex Type Thing". In an October 1997 interview in Seconds magazine, Glenn Danzig mentions the similarity of the main riff to the Danzig song "Snakes of Christ".

Maps Sex Type Thing

Live performances

Over the years, "Sex Type Thing" became the band's traditional closer at live shows. During some performances from 1999 until STP's 2002 break-up, the band would extend the song's ending into a jam session where Weiland would strip naked in front of the audience and then wrap his lower body in an American flag.

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Music video

During the grunge explosion of the 1990s, the music video for "Sex Type Thing" is usually denoted as the single factor that drove Stone Temple Pilots into the scene. The video was in medium-heavy rotation on MTV during the time, and helped make STP a contender in the grunge era. The video itself hosts a very dark motif, showing the band performing in a dungeon chamber, with singer Scott Weiland having bleached his hair blond, interspersed between clips of a dancer swinging on a chain and a woman surrounded by a ring of fire. This video is rather distinctive because it is the first to showcase Scott Weiland's trademark "dance". The set was used again for Sunny Day Real Estate's "In Circles" music video in 1994.

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Controversy

Upon the success of "Sex Type Thing", controversies regarding the song's lyrics emerged while STP was on tour opening for Megadeth. Weiland found himself in the position of defending "Sex Type Thing" to individuals who took the first-person approach he used in the song ("I am a man, a man/I'll give ya something that ya won't forget/I said ya shouldn't have worn that dress") literally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland expressed his frustration with the song's reception by saying "It was, 'All right, the "Cop Killer" controversy's dead, let's try to find something else'...I never thought that people would ever seriously think that I was an advocate of date rape."

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Charts

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Track listing

CD Single #1

1. "Sex Type Thing" - 3:38
2. "Piece of Pie" - 5:28
3. "Wicked Garden" [Live] - 4:26
4. "Sin" [Live] - 7:52

CD Single #2

1. "Sex Type Thing" - 3:38
2. "Piece of Pie" - 5:28
3. "Dead and Bloated" [Live] - 4:53
4. "Sex Type Thing" [Live] - 4:01

Note: Live versions recorded at the Reading Festival 1993.

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Appearances and covers

• The song appeared in notable TV shows and video games including Gran Turismo 2. Charmed, Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
• The song has been covered live by Velvet Revolver, a supergroup in which Weiland fronted from 2003-2008.
• Evanescence, Fuel, Papa Roach and Theory of a Deadman have also covered the song live.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic covered part of "Sex Type Thing" in his song "The Alternative Polka" off the album Bad Hair Day.
• An electronic reworking of the song appeared in the episode "Let it Bleed" of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
• The song was released as downloadable content on June 1, 2010 as part of Stone Temple Pilots Track Pack with "Plush" and "Between the Lines" for Guitar Hero 5.
• "Into Sandy's City", a MIDI track from Doom II: Hell on Earth, is based on Sex Type Thing.

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References

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External links

• Stone Temple Pilots Official Website - Core
• Lyrics at Lyrics.com
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Source of the article : Wikipedia