GH5: The Story Behind The Music

Activision just sent us through some rather ace biographies of the songs in Guitar Hero 5, written by Guardian music maestro Rob Fitzpatrick. We thought we’d share a few of the best ones with you, given that a fantastic effort has clearly been made with them.

MEGADETH

Sweating Bullets

1992

By 1992, LA metal kings Megadeth had decided they wanted a piece of the big time. They holed up in Burbank’s Enterprise Studios with producer Max Norman with the specific intention of finding a less convoluted, more radio-friendly sound. The result was their fifth album Countdown To Extinction, their biggest-selling to date, shifting over two million copies and netting a Grammy nomination a year later. But while the albums other big hits like Symphony Of Destruction and Foreclosure Of A Dream have outwardly political themes, this is a manic, often comedic song about schizophrenia. Structurally Sweating Bullets light-heartedly apes the effect of multiple personalities, and machine-gun guitars stop and start, with singer Dave Mustaine filling the gaps with manic cries of “Hello me, meet, the real me!” and through smacking lips declaring how “it’s nice talking to myself!” As it thunders into a more conventional metal middle section, multiple vocals are layered over each other and a sense of panic rises, with the character in the song howls how “if this war inside my head, won’t take a day off, I’ll be dead.”

QUEEN & DAVID BOWIE

Under Pressure

1981

There can’t be many people left in the world who don’t recognise the bass, piano and percussion intro to the Under Pressure. This was the first time ever that David Bowie released a collaboration with another recording artist and it was an astonishingly big hit – going to Number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, it was originally on the 1981 album Hot Space, but ended up on Greatest Hit collections from both Bowie and Queen. Many years later VH1 voted it Number 31st in the 100 Greatest Songs of the ’80s. The song grew from an extended jam session Queen enjoyed with Bowie at a studio he once owned in Switzerland. David Bowie – who never performed the song live until the tribute concert for Freddie Mercury in 1992 – has said the track’s defining riff, that unforgettable bassline, was already written before he became involved with the song. In September 2005 online music magazine Stylus decreed the bassline as the best in popular music history. Strange But True: On the morning of December 14, 2006, Under Pressure was played at the International Space Station. It became the wake-up call for the crew of Space Shuttle flight STS-116.

DURAN DURAN

Hungry Like The Wolf

1982

Hungry Like the Wolf was the song that changed so many things for Suran Duran. The video, filmed in the thick, steaming hot jungles of Sri Lanka, was meant to conjure up the atmosphere of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark and it did it so brilliantly that MTV, previously immune to the charms of the five-piece from Birmingham, put the song on the heaviest of heavy rotations. The song peaked at number three in the Billboard chart and Duran Duran became massive. Written by the whole band collectively in the spring of 1982, the song originally appeared on their second studio album Rio and became their fifth UK single release. Showing how fast a band can work when they’re on form, Hungry was begun by k eyboard player Nick Rhodes one morning then built upon by each band member as the day progressed. By that night it was basically done. Lyrically, the song is believed to have been inspired by the Brothers Grimm version of the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale. Musically, guitarist Andy Taylor was inspired by Marc Bolan and T Rex, particularly the staccato melody part from Get It On. Strange but true: the laugh at the beginning of the song was provided by Rhodes’ then girlfriend.

JIMMY EAT WORLD

Bleed American

2001

Bleed American was the title track on Jimmy Eat World’s fourth album, released in July 2001. But following the attacks of 9/11 it was understandably considered an unsuitable title. The track was renamed Salt, Sweat, Sugar after its chorus line, and the album self-titled Both were restored to Bleed American with the album’s 2008 deluxe re-release. In fact, the song is a hysterical release of post-millennial tension. As it powers in on a riff that zig zags in all directions, Jim Adkins sums of the feelings of a generation of young Americans in search of direction, “I’m not alone ‘cos the TV’s on yeah / I’m not crazy ‘cos I take the right pills.” It’s the panicky flipside of the album’s more euphoric smash it, The Middle and marshalled a new movement in alternative rock. Indeed, while the ‘emo’ genre can be dated back to the 1980s DC punk movements, Bleed American is one of the songs credited with the explosion in popularity of ‘emotional hardcore’ in the early 21st century, doing wonders for the sale of Sesame Street backpacks among teenage girls.

IGGY POP

Lust For Life

1977

As the opening track on Iggy Pop’s most successful solo release, Lust For Life has gone down as his signature song. And rightly so, it’s a rallying cry for outlaws and misfits everywhere. Recorded with David Bowie in Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studios, Bowie’s iconic opening riff was apparently inspired by the morse code opening to the American Forces Network News in the city at the time. The refrain was such an instant classic that at points, the entire band doubles up the melody, hammering it home with even more vigour. Backed against this is a feral Pop with a message of empowerment, singing “I’m worth a million in prizes, yeah I’m through with sleeping on the sidewalk, no more beating my brains, with liquor and drugs.” Well, it didn’t turn out quite like that for a while, but Rolling Stone were moved to describe Lust For Life as Pop’s “survivor message to the masses.” Lust For Life found popularity with a whole new generation after it was placed over the opening sequence of the smash 1995 movie Trainspotting. Strange but true: Iggy’s habit of improvising lyrics during the Lust For Life sessions inspired Bowie to do the same on his own next album, Heroes.

Courtesy of Activision. Note of interest: I once bought Bleed American just to impress a girl I used to fancy. Guess what? She wasn’t impressed.