"Get Your Gunn" | ||||
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Single by Marilyn Manson | ||||
from the album Portrait of an American Family | ||||
B-side | "Revelation #9" | |||
Released | June 9, 1994 | |||
Recorded | ||||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:18 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Marilyn Manson singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Get Your Gunn" on YouTube |
"Get Your Gunn" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on June 9, 1994 as the band's debut single and is from their debut studio album, Portrait of an American Family (1994). The song was written by the band's eponymous vocalist along with original guitarist and bassist Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein, respectively, and was produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. "Get Your Gunn" was inspired by the murder of abortion provider David Gunn by an anti-abortion activist, an event which angered Manson. The song also took influence from Manson's lifelong fascination with abortion and an interaction he had with an anti-abortion protester.
A gothic rock and hard rock song, the track received a mostly positive response from music critics, who described it as both nightmarish and well-produced, while Manson garnered acclaim for his vocal performance. The song features saxophone played by Sugarsmack vocalist Hope Nicholls, and an audio sample of the televised suicide of R. Budd Dwyer. According to Berkowitz, the writing of the song marked a change of direction for Manson, after which he began to write more politically-charged songs. "Get Your Gunn" was blamed by the political right in the United States for the Columbine High School massacre, and multiple critics have deemed it one of the most controversial songs of all time. Its music video was directed by Rod Chong and released in 1994. The clip garnered acclaim from critics, and the song reached number 11 on the Canadian Hot 100, three years after its initial release.
OB-GYN David Gunn was shot and killed in 1993 at an anti-abortion protest by Michael Frederick Griffin, a Christian fundamentalist. At his trial, Griffin claimed to have been manipulated into killing Gunn by John Burt, a pro-life leader and former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Gunn's death was, in the words of Slate 's Dahlia Lithwick, "the first targeted killing of an abortion doctor in America". [1] [2] The murder inspired "Get Your Gunn", hence the spelling of the song's title. In 1999, Manson wrote in Rolling Stone that Gunn's death "was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being 'prolife.'" [3]
Manson has said that the murder "almost made me laugh, but it made me mad. When you think about it, it's so fucking backwards, despite the whole Christian belief of love thy enemy and all that." [4] When writing the track, Manson also drew inspiration from his longtime fascination with abortion [5] as well as an elderly man he saw at an anti-abortion protest. Manson remembered: "I had this thing that I bought at a magic shop in Florida that shot cotton-wad fire things out of the palm of your hand, and I drove up to him one day and said 'The devil's got a message for you' and I shot the fireball at him and he ran." [4] Commenting on both "Get Your Gunn" and "Lunchbox", Manson noted that "The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I am decrying." [3]
When deciding the direction of Portrait of an American Family, Manson and band-mate Daisy Berkowitz decided that it would comment on what they saw as the hypocrisy of the U.S. media. Discussing "Get Your Gunn" with Noisey in 2014, Berkowitz said: "When we started out [Manson's lyricism] was more psychedelic. It was weirdness. We played up weirdness rather than anything socially pointed. We got more social and political as things went on. Like with our song, 'Get Your Gunn' that definitely wasn't something that we started out doing." [6]
Manson has said that "Get Your Gunn" is his favorite song from Portrait of an American Family. [4] Manson told the Sun-Sentinel that "What's great is that ['Get Your Gunn'] is the most uncommercial track, the most politically incorrect." [7] "Snake Eyes and Sissies" was originally planned to be the band's debut single, but "Get Your Gunn" was released instead [8] on June 9, 1994. [9] The single featured "Get Your Gunn" and "Misery Machine", another song from Portrait of an American Family, as well as two other tracks: "Mother Inferior Got Her Gunn" and "Revelation #9". The titles of the two latter songs are puns based on songs from the White Album . [9] The child pictured on the sleeve for the disc is Wes Brown, the half-brother of Twiggy Ramirez. [10]
"Get Your Gunn" is a gothic rock [11] and hard rock song [12] with a length of three minutes and eighteen seconds. [9] The song's lyrics were written by the band's eponymous vocalist, while its music was written by Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein; the track was produced by Manson and Trent Reznor. [13] The aforementioned murder is reflected in its lyrics "God damn your righteous hand/ I eat innocent meat/ The housewife I will beat/ The prolife I will kill". [14] Alec Chillingworth of Metal Hammer found the song's "wacky, stomping hook" reminiscent of the music of Jack Off Jill. [15]
Joseph Schafer of Stereogum described Manson's vocals on the track as raspy and unpolished, as well as reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan's vocals on Tool's EP Opiate (1992). [12] Schafer saw similarities between the riff in the song's verses and the music of Helmet, and thought that the snare drums and cymbals in the song's chorus evoke the work of artists signed to Wax Trax! Records, particularly Ministry. [12] The chorus of "Get Your Gunn" is "Goddamn/oh Lord/ goddamn". [10] The bridge of "Get Your Gunn" includes audio from the televised press conference where American politician R. Budd Dwyer shot himself, including the sound of the gunshot that killed him. [4] [5] When Manson sampled the audio of Dwyer's suicide, Richard Patrick of Filter heard the sample and was excited by it; Manson believes that this interaction inspired Patrick to write "Hey Man Nice Shot" (1995), a song about Dwyer's suicide. [4]
Additional saxophone playing on "Get Your Gunn" is provided by Sugarsmack vocalist Hope Nicholls. [5] The track features Manson singing "Pseudo-morals work real well, On the talk shows for the weak, But your selective judgements, And goodguy badges, Don't mean a fuck to me". [16] The Sun-Sentinel's Sandra Schulman said that the song features "searing lyrics on the mixed message morals of authority." [7]
Schafer of Stereogum ranked the song eighth on his list of "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs", saying that "While the remainder of Portrait Of An American Family comes across as undercooked, even for an early-'90s alt-metal album, 'Get Your Gunn' feels lean and vitriolic. Sadly, Manson seldom matched its aggression again." Schafer also praised Manson's "charming" vocal performance on the song. [12] Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times named it one of his favorite Marilyn Manson songs alongside "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" (1997). [4] Bloody Disgusting's Brad Miska opined that "In retrospect, its level of cheese is of legend, but in 1994 Portrait was some dark and weird shit (see 'Cake and Sodomy', 'My Monkey', 'Get Your Gun' [ sic ], etc.)." [17] Gigwise said that the song has "brutal" lyrics which "set the precedent for the rest of the band's career". [14]
Writing for Metal Hammer, Alec Chillingworth said that "'Lunchbox', 'Get Your Gunn', 'Wrapped In Plastic' and 'Dope Hat' are the catchiest [songs on the album]". [15] In a piece they wrote for Clash , the Astroid Boys deemed "Get Your Gunn" one of their "personal favourites" from Marilyn Manson's catalogue and praised its lyrics for capturing the hypocrisy in Gunn's murder. [16] Jon Wiederhorn of Loudwire praised the track for "driving the record" and helping the band to retain the loyal fan-base that it had cultivated prior to the release of Portrait of an American Family. [18]
Sandra Schulman of the Sun-Sentinel said that the song is "Horrifyingly good, loopy music, with discordant riffs that crawl under your skin and stay there. The soundtrack to every nightmare you've ever had." [7] Dazed 's Daisy Jones described "Get Your Gunn", Nirvana's "Rape Me" (1993), The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" (1997) and Lady Gaga and R. Kelly's "Do What U Want" (2013) as "tracks that provoked, thrilled and shocked their listeners." [19] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "Even though it wasn't one of the best tracks on Portrait of an American Family, 'Get Your Gunn' was a solid track that was a fairly good choice for a single." [9] Conversely, The Chicago Maroon 's Matt Zakosek called the track "weary Goth-rock junk" and criticized its inclusion on the greatest hits album Lest We Forget: The Best Of (2004). [11]
In America, the far-right blamed the Columbine High School massacre on "Get Your Gunn"; Manson responded to this claim by saying that "In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us." Due to its association with the Columbine massacre, Daisy Jones of Dazed placed "Get Your Gunn" on her list of the most controversial songs of all time, though she deemed the association absurd. Jones wrote that the song created an amount of controversy comparable to that sparked by "Fuck tha Police" (1988) by N.W.A and "Blurred Lines" (2013) by Robin Thicke. [19] Similarly, a PRS for Music survey conducted in 2010 revealed that the British public considered "Get Your Gunn" the eighth most controversial song of all time, [20] while Schafer of Stereogum noted in 2015 that it was "still one of the most controversial songs in Manson’s repertoire". [12] Gigwise ranked the track fifteenth on their list of "The 20 Most Controversial Songs of All Time". [14]
The music video, directed by Rod Chong, features Manson performing in an abandoned house. It is one of four Marilyn Manson music videos where the band's frontman has eyebrows. [8] The video was accepted by MTV. Although it was rarely aired by the network, it was shown on Headbangers Ball . Manson told The New York Times that MTV wanted to censor the use of the word "goddamn" in the track's chorus, commenting "They wanted the word 'God' bleeped, which is assbackward because 'damn' is the cussword." [10] The clip focuses on Manson's eyes, and features imagery of light coming in through windows. [7]
Simon Young of Team Rock called the "Get Your Gunn" video one of the band's "classic videos". [8] Sandra Shulman of the Sun-Sentinel called the video "a searing and tight piece of work". [7] Dan Epstein of Revolver wrote that "Marilyn Manson might be best known as a musician, but he's also made his mark as a video artist, simultaneously captivating and disgusting viewers since 1994's 'Get Your Gunn' clip all the way up to this year's nympho-nuns-with-guns visual 'We Know Where You Fucking Live'." [21] MTV's Rob Mancini viewed the video for "Get Your Gunn" as one of Marilyn Manson's "early nuggets". [22]
"Get Your Gunn" appeared on the soundtracks for the films S.F.W. (1994) [5] and Strange Days (1995). [23]
All songs written by Manson, Berkowitz and Gein, except 2 by Manson, Berkowitz, Gein and Madonna Wayne Gacy, and 4 by Manson and Gacy.
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the "Get Your Gunn" single. [13]
Marilyn Manson
Additional musicians and technical personnel
Chart (1997–1999) | Peak position |
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Australia (ARIA) [24] | 97 |
Canada ( Billboard ) [25] | 11 |
UK Rock & Metal (OCC) [26] | 5 |
Marilyn Manson is an American rock band formed by namesake lead singer Marilyn Manson and guitarist Daisy Berkowitz in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989. Originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, they gained a local cult following in South Florida in the early 1990s with their theatrical live performances. In 1993, they were the first act signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. Until 1996, the name of each member was created by combining the first name of a female sex symbol and the last name of a male serial killer—for example, Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Their lineup has changed between many of their album releases; the eponymous lead singer is the only remaining original member.
Portrait of an American Family is the debut studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on July 19, 1994, by Nothing and Interscope Records. The group was formed in 1989 by vocalist Marilyn Manson and guitarist Daisy Berkowitz, whose names were created by combining the given name of a pop culture icon with the surname of a serial killer: a naming convention which all other band members would conform to for the next seven years. The most prominent lineup of musicians during their formative years included keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy, bassist Gidget Gein and drummer Sara Lee Lucas.
Antichrist Superstar is the second studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 8, 1996, by Nothing and Interscope Records. It was recorded at Nothing Studios in New Orleans and produced by the band's eponymous vocalist along with Sean Beavan, former Skinny Puppy producer Dave Ogilvie and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The recording of the album was marred by excessive drug use, which provoked a high level of antagonism between band members. Consequently, it was their last release to feature contributions from founding guitarist Daisy Berkowitz, who was acrimoniously fired partway through recording.
Smells Like Children is an EP by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on October 24, 1995, by Nothing and Interscope Records. Produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, it represents an era of the band full of drugs, abuses, tours, sound experiments, and references to the Child Catcher, a villain from the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The Last Tour on Earth is a live album comprising recordings from Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals Tour, Beautiful Monsters Tour and Rock is Dead Tour, released on November 12, 1999. On the studio version of "The Dope Show", Manson says that drugs "are made in California", but in the live version, he says that "drugs, they say, are made right here in Cleveland", to a roar of crowd approval, suggesting that the song was recorded in Cleveland, Ohio. "Lunchbox" was recorded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and "I Don't Like the Drugs " was recorded in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "The Last Day on Earth" was recorded in Las Vegas on the Mechanical Animals Tour, and "Get Your Gunn" was recorded some time during the Rock is Dead Tour.
Brian Hugh Warner, known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band that shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since its formation in 1989. Known for his controversial stage personality, his stage name was formed by combining the names of two opposing American cultural icons: actress Marilyn Monroe and cult leader Charles Manson.
Bradley Mark Stewart, known by his stage name Gidget Gein, was an American musician and artist. He was the second bassist and co-founder of the rock band Marilyn Manson. His stage name is a combination of fictional character Gidget and serial killer Ed Gein.
"The Beautiful People" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the lead single from the band's second studio album, Antichrist Superstar, in September 1996. Classified as industrial metal, the song was written by frontman Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez, and was produced by Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie and Manson.
"Coma White" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson and the last track from the album Mechanical Animals. It is a hard rock ballad written by Manson, Twiggy Ramirez, Madonna Wayne Gacy, Zim Zum and produced by Manson and Michael Beinhorn. It was inspired by Manson's relationship with Rose McGowan and the numbness that his drug use caused him to feel. The track features a snare drum, cymbals, guitar, piano and keyboard bass in its instrumentation. Critics offered varied interpretations of its meaning, ranging from a song about a drug-addicted woman to a critique of celebrity culture. The song garnered a mostly positive response from music critics, with some critics deeming it one of the greatest songs of the band's career.
Lunch Boxes & Choklit Cows is a compilation album of previously unreleased demo tracks recorded in the early 1990s by American rock band Marilyn Manson. Original guitarist Scott Putesky obtained the rights to these and 11 other recordings in a lawsuit against Brian Warner, and announced that this release is the first in a planned series of Spooky Kids CDs. Some are from demos and others have never been previously released. These are digitally remastered and Putesky says they sound better than the original cassettes because of it.
"Lunchbox" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the second single from their debut album, Portrait of an American Family (1994). A heavy metal song that features elements of death metal, industrial music and punk rock, "Lunchbox" was written by the band's eponymous vocalist, Daisy Berkowitz, and Gidget Gein, and produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. According to Berkowitz, the track was written as the frontman's plea to be left alone; it was also inspired by a time where Manson defended himself from bullies with a Kiss lunchbox. The track features elements of "Fire" (1968) performed by Arthur Brown, a musician who influenced the band.
"This Is the New Shit" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson, written by Marilyn Manson, John 5 and Tim Sköld, produced by Manson and Sköld. It is the second track on and second single from the band's fifth studio album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, following "mOBSCENE", and had the most success.
"Tourniquet" is song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the second major-label single from their second studio album Antichrist Superstar. The image this song conveys is that of the main character in a world of sorrow and self-pity, prior to his transformation into the Little Horn. It was written by frontman Marilyn Manson, co-founder Daisy Berkowitz and longtime bassist and guitarist Twiggy Ramirez. Like many other songs from Antichrist Superstar, the song's lyrics are based on a dream Manson had.
"The Fight Song" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released in 2001 as the second single from their fourth full-length studio album, Holy Wood .
"Dope Hat" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the promotional single from their debut album, Portrait of an American Family. It was first recorded for a demo tape released in 1992, entitled The Family Jams.
"Long Hard Road Out of Hell" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson and British trip hop band Sneaker Pimps. It was released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 motion picture Spawn. An arena rock and gothic rock song, "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" was written by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez and produced by Manson and Sean Beavan. Its lyrics are about self-loathing and its title is derived from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667). After the track was written, the Sneaker Pimps' Kelli Ali was recruited to perform background vocals on it, as the Spawn soundtrack featured collaborations between hard rock artists and electronic music artists. The Sneaker Pimps were dissatisfied with the final track and wanted a remix of it to be released as a single instead; conversely, Manson deemed it a personal favorite.
Scott Mitchell Putesky, also known by the stage name Daisy Berkowitz, was an American guitarist. He was a founding member of the rock band Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids and the band's guitarist until 1996. After leaving Marilyn Manson, Putesky was involved in a number of other projects such as Three ton Gate, the Linda Blairs, Jack Off Jill, Stuck on Evil, Kill Miss Pretty, and the Daisy Kids.
The Manson Family Album is the first studio recording by American rock band Marilyn Manson and a precursor to their debut studio album, 1994's Portrait of an American Family. It was produced by Roli Mosimann and is composed of original takes and mixes of songs which were later found on their debut album. However, the band and its eponymous vocalist were unhappy with Mosimann's production, claiming it to be poorly representative of their established sound and calling it too "smoothed and polished". The majority of songs on The Manson Family Album were later re-recorded or remixed by Nine Inch Nails personnel Trent Reznor, Sean Beaven and Alan Moulder at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. The album's title is a double entendre; it also relates to the commune of cult leader Charles Manson.
The Smells Like Children Tour was the fourth tour Marilyn Manson embarked on, under the management of major record label Interscope Records. The tour was, however, the band's second headlining tour, following the Portrait of an American Family Tour the previous year. The band was on tour from June 1, 1995, until February 4, 1996.
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