We Care a Lot (song)

"We Care a Lot"
Single by Faith No More
from the album Introduce Yourself
Released	January 18, 1988
Format	CD, vinyl
Recorded	Mid 1986, Studio D in Sausalito, California
Genre	Funk metal
Length	4:02
Label	Slash
Writer(s)	Chuck Mosley, Roddy Bottum, Billy Gould
Producer(s)	Matt Wallace, Steve Berlin, Faith No More
Faith No More singles chronology
"Quiet in Heaven" / "Song of Liberty" (1983) "We Care a Lot" (1988) "Anne's Song" (1988)
Alternative cover Roller brushed cover Introduce Yourself track listing "Death March" (5) "We Care a Lot" (6) "R N' R" (7) "We Care a Lot" live 1991 live single for "We Care a Lot" from the album Live at the Brixton Academy Length 3:50 "From out of Nowhere" (5) "We Care a Lot" (6) "Zombie Eaters" (7)

"We Care a Lot" is a song by Faith No More. There are three versions of the song (including a Mike Patton era 'Live' version), all of which have been officially released over three different albums. The original was recorded for and released on the band's first studio album, We Care a Lot. A re-recorded version, with new lyrics was included on the Introduce Yourself album and was the lead single, reaching no.53 on the UK Singles Chart).^[1] The live version, without original singer Mosley was included on the live album and video Live at the Brixton Academy and was also released as a single in 1991. Although a Chuck Mosley-era song, it was the second most frequently-played song during the band's live performances, behind "Epic".^[2] "We Care a Lot" featured different lyrics and ad-libs when performed by Mike Patton, much like performances of "Chinese Arithmetic".

Production

The original version of the song was one of the first five songs finished for We Care a Lot, recorded before the band received financial backing for the album^[3] at Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati, California, and was re-recorded, with some updated lyrics, for their major label début Introduce Yourself in mid-1986 at Studio D, Sausalito, California.

Lyrical content

Music sample:

	Faith No More "We Care a Lot" (1987) 31 second sample from Faith No More's "We Care a Lot".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The lyrics of this song are a sarcastic parody of "the popstar posing that accompanied those [Live Aid style] charitable events"^[4] and mentions a range of things about which the band sarcastically claims 'we care a lot', such as the LAPD, the "food that Live Aid bought", the Garbage Pail Kids and even The Transformers. The original version, released in 1985, mentions Madonna and Mr. T. This was altered for social relevance in the 1987 re-release. When asked about the song's meaning, Chuck Mosley replied

Well, ah Roddy wrote all the things that he cared about and I just wrote the part that says, "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it" 'cause I figured that's just the feeling I got. That's the only thing I submitted. That, and the newer lyrics in the updated version.^[5]

There was a seven-second-long ad-lib of "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block on The Real Thing-era live performances, including the Live at the Brixton Academy version. In later performances of the song, during the Mike Patton era as vocalist, he occasionally changed some lines: the studio versions' lyrical reference to Rock Hudson and disease (i.e., AIDS) was changed to mention Rodney King.

Music video

The music video produced for "We Care a Lot", directed by Bob Biggs & Jay Brown,^[6] was the first video produced for a Faith No More song and received moderate airplay on MTV.^[4]

Appearances

As well as the appearing on the albums We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself and Live at the Brixton Academy the song has appeared on every compilation and video album released by the band and has three different cover versions on the tribute to Faith No More compilation album Tribute of the Year. It appeared in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank, and was also track No. 7 on the first volume of movie's two soundtracks. The bridge of the song is also used as the theme to the Discovery Channel program Dirty Jobs (except for a few months in 2007), and is referenced in the opening of the song "Cats, Sex, and Nazis" by the Canadian punk band NoMeansNo, from their album Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy?. The song was later made available as a download for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the music video game Rock Band on February 5, 2008, and for Wii and PlayStation 2 versions on the Rock Band Track Pack: Volume 1, released on July 15, 2008. The song was also used in the movie Bio-Dome.

Members

• Chuck Mosley - vocals
• Roddy Bottum - keyboards
• Billy Gould - bass guitar
• Jim Martin - guitar
• Mike Bordin - drums

Critical reception

Allmusic's reviewer laments the song's lack of future front-man Mike Patton, calling Mosley's vocals "brute thuggishness" and "flat", but also says that the song is a "fully realized effort in itself".^[4] "We Care a Lot" was also listed in PopMatters' 65 Great Protest Songs, citing it as Faith No More's anti-protest song and as a "smirking account of everything that pop and political culture shoved down our throats at the height of the Reagan revolution".^[7]

Track listings

Charts

Covers

• MC Hammer's 1990 song "Pray" contains a sample of "We Care a Lot".^[10]
• Russian band I.F.K. (Insect Flyin' Killa) recorded the song in 2000.
• Chuck Mosley recorded the song for his 2009 album Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food with keyboardist Roddy Bottum. Mosley changed lyrics in the verses, including a nod to his former band's biggest hit "Epic" with the lyric, "We care a lot about the guy who wanted it all but couldn't have it."^[11]
• It is suspected that Muse used samples of "We Care A Lot" to create the music for their 2012 song Panic Station.^[12]
• Grant Kirkhope, co-composer of the soundtrack to the hit N64 video game Goldeneye 007 stated on an episode of the Let's Play series Game Grumps that the music on the 'Frigate' level borrowed elements of the song, as well as the Duran Duran song A View to a Kill. ^[13]

Footnotes

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics