Come and Save Me Alice in Chains Art 1000x1000

1991 single past Alice in Bondage

"Homo in the Box"
US commercial cassette single
Unmarried by Alice in Chains
from the album Facelift
Released	Jan 1991 (1991-01) [1]
Recorded	December 1989 – April 1990
Studio	London Bridge, Seattle Capitol Recording, Hollywood
Genre	Grunge alternative metal hard rock alternative rock
Length	4:46
Characterization	Columbia
Composer(due south)	Jerry Cantrell
Lyricist(southward)	Layne Staley
Producer(s)	Dave Jerden
Alice in Chains singles chronology
"Nosotros Die Immature" (1990) "Homo in the Box" (1991) "Drain the Freak" (1991)
Music video
"Man in the Box" on YouTube

"Man in the Box" is a song by the American stone band Alice in Bondage. It was released as a single in Jan 1991 after being featured on the group'southward debut studio album Facelift (1990). Information technology peaked at No. eighteen on Billboard'south Mainstream Rock nautical chart and was nominated for a Grammy Honour for Best Difficult Rock Performance in 1992. The song was included on the compilation albums Nothing Safe: All-time of the Box (1999), Music Banking concern (1999), Greatest Hits (2001), and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006). "Man in the Box" was the 2nd most-played vocal of the decade on mainstream stone radio between 2010 and 2019.

Origin and recording [edit]

In the liner notes of 1999's Music Banking concern box set collection, guitarist Jerry Cantrell said of the song; "That whole vanquish and grind of that is when we started to find ourselves; information technology helped Alice become what it was."^[2]

The song makes use of a talk box to create the guitar outcome. The idea of using a talk box came from producer Dave Jerden, who was driving to the studio ane 24-hour interval when Bon Jovi'southward "Livin' on a Prayer" started playing on the radio.^[3]

The original Facelift track listing credited only vocalist Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell with writing the vocal.^[4] All post-Facelift compilations credited the entire ring. It is unclear as to why the songwriter credits were changed.

Limerick and music [edit]

"Man in the Box" is a grunge^{[v] [6]} alternative metal^{[7] [8]} hard rock^[6] and alternative rock vocal^[ix] that is widely recognized by its distinctive "wordless opening melody, where Layne Staley's peculiar, tensed-throat vocals are matched in unison with an effects-laden guitar" followed by "portentous lines similar: 'Feed my eyes, can you sew them shut?', 'Jesus Christ, deny your maker' and 'He who tries, will be wasted' with Cantrell'due south drier, less-urgent vox," along with harmonies provided by both Staley and Cantrell in the lines 'Won't you come and salve me'.^[10]

Lyrics [edit]

In a 1992 interview with Rolling Stone, Layne Staley explained the origins of the song'south lyrics:

I started writing nearly censorship. Effectually the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went dwelling house and wrote about government censorship and eating meat every bit seen through the eyes of a doomed dogie.^[eleven]

Jerry Cantrell said of the song:

But what it'southward basically most is, is how authorities and media control the public's perception of events in the world or whatever, and they build you lot into a box by feeding information technology to you in your dwelling house, ya know. And it's just nigh breaking out of that box and looking exterior of that box that has been congenital for you.^[12]

In a recorded interview with MuchMusic in 1991, Staley stated that the lyrics are loosely based on media censorship, and "I was really really stoned when I wrote it, so information technology meant something different and so", he said laughing.^[13]

Release and reception [edit]

"Human in the Box" was released equally a single in 1991. "Homo in the Box" is widely considered to be 1 of the band'south signature songs, reaching number 18 on the Billboard Anthology Rock Tracks chart at the fourth dimension of its release. Co-ordinate to Nielsen Music's year-cease report for 2019, "Man in the Box" was the second nearly-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 142,000 spins.^[14]

The song was number 19 on VH1's "40 Greatest Metallic Songs", and its solo was rated the 77th greatest guitar solo by Guitar World in 2008.^[15] It was number l on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s" in 2007.^[xvi] The song was nominated for the Grammy Laurels for All-time Hard Rock Performance in 1992.^[17]

Steve Huey of AllMusic called the song "an oftentimes overlooked only important edifice cake in grunge's ascent to potency" and "a coming together of metal theatrics and introspective hopelessness."^[10]

Music video [edit]

The MTV music video for the rail was released in 1991 and was directed past Paul Rachman, who later directed the first version of the "Sea of Sorrow" music video for the band and the 2006 feature documentary American Hardcore. The music video was nominated for All-time Heavy Metallic/Difficult Rock Video at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.^[18] The video is bachelor on the home video releases Live Facelift and Music Bank: The Videos. The video shows the band performing in what is supposedly a barn, where throughout the video, a mysterious man wearing a blackness hooded cloak is shown roaming around the befouled. And so, after the unknown hooded figure is shown, he is shown again looking around inside a stable where many animals live where he all of a sudden discovers and shines his flashlight on a homo (Layne Staley) that he finds sitting in the corner of the barnhouse. At the cease of the video, the hooded man finally pulls his hood downwardly off of his caput, simply to reveal that his eyelids were sewn together with stitches the whole time. This part of the video depicts on the line of the song, "Feed my optics, at present you've sewn them shut". The man with his eyes sewn shut was played past a friend of director Paul Rachman, Rezin,^[19] who worked in a bar parking lot in Los Angeles called Small-scale's.^[20]

The music video was shot on 16mm picture and transferred to tape using a FDL lx telecine. At the time this was the only device that could sync sound to picture at motion-picture show rates as depression as 6FPS. This is how the surreal motion was obtained. The sepia wait was washed past Claudius Neal using a daVinci color corrector.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Layne Staley tattooed on his back the Jesus character depicted in the video with his optics sewn shut.^{[21] [22]}

Alive performances [edit]

At Alice in Chains' final concert with Staley on July 3, 1996, they airtight with "Man in the Box". Live performances of "Man in the Box" can be establish on the "Heaven Beside You lot" and "Get Born Again" singles and the live album Alive. A performance of the vocal is as well included on the dwelling house video release Live Facelift and is a staple of the band'southward live show due to the song's popularity.

Personnel [edit]

• Layne Staley – lead vocals
• Jerry Cantrell – guitar, talkbox, backing vocals
• Mike Starr – bass
• Sean Kinney – drums

Chart positions [edit]

Weekly charts [edit]

Facelift version

Chart (1991)	Top position
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[23]	18

Live version

Chart (2000)	Peak position
US Mainstream Stone (Billboard)[23]	39

Decade-end charts [edit]

Nautical chart (2010–2019)	Position
Us Mainstream Rock (Nielsen Music)[xiv]	2

Encompass versions [edit]

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered "Man in the Box" in a lounge style on their 2005 anthology Aperitif for Destruction. Platinum-selling recording artist David Cook covered the song during his 2009 Declaration Tour. Angie Aparo recorded a cover version for his album Weapons of Mass Construction. Apologetix parodied the song as "Man on the Cross" on their 2013 album Hot Potato Soup. Metallic artist Chris Senter released a parody titled "Cat in the Box" in March 2015, featuring a music video by animator Joey Siler.^[24] Les Claypool's bluegrass project Duo de Twang covered the song on their debut anthology Four Foot Shack.

In popular civilisation [edit]

• Professional person wrestler Tommy Dreamer used the song equally his entrance music in Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2001, and with his ain wrestling promotion, Firm of Hardcore, since 2012.^[25]
• The song appeared as a playable track in the video games Rock Ring 2 and Guitar Hero Live.
• "Man in the Box" has been featured in films such equally Lassie (1994),^{[26] [27]} The Perfect Storm (2000),^[28] Funny People (2009)^{[29] [thirty]} and Ever Be My Mayhap (2019).^[31]
• The song has been featured in Boob tube shows including Beavis and Butt-Head (1993),^{[32] [29]} Dead at 21 (1994),^[29] Cold Example (season 2, episode 13, "Fourth dimension to Law-breaking" in 2005),^{[29] [33]} and Supernatural (flavour 12, episode 6, "Celebrating the Life of Asa Pull a fast one on" in 2016).^{[34] [29]}

References [edit]

1. ^ "Alice In Chains Timeline". SonyMusic.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 1999. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
2. ^ Liner notes, Music Banking concern box set. 1999.
3. ^ de Sola, David (August 4, 2015). Alice in Chains: The Untold Story. Thomas Dunne Books. pp. 115–116. ISBN978-1250048073.
4. ^ Liner notes, Facelift. 1990.
5. ^ "10 Grunge Albums Yous Need to Own". Revolver. September sixteen, 2014. Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
6. ^ ^{a b} Lealos, Shawn S. (November 25, 2014). "The 10 all-time Alice in Chains songs". AXS. Archived from the original on February sixteen, 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
7. ^ Ramirez, AJ (August 3, 2011). "The 10 Best Alternative Metal Singles of the 1990s". PopMatters. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
8. ^ Hartmann, Graham (March 12, 2012). "Metal Madness: Phase Dive Region". Loudwire . Retrieved April 23, 2022.
9. ^ Yglesias, Matthew (May 21, 2007). "The Ultimate Nineties Alt-Rock Playlist". The Atlantic . Retrieved February 22, 2016.
10. ^ ^{a b} Huey, Steve. "Man in the Box". Allmusic. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
11. ^ Jeffrey Ressner (November 28, 1992). "Alice in Chains: Through the Looking Glass". Rolling Rock . Retrieved Baronial eighteen, 2017.
12. ^ "Jerry Cantrell Explaining Alice In Bondage' "Man In The Box"". Archived from the original on 2021-12-xiii. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
13. ^ "Layne Staley and Sean Kinney on nighttime songs and the significant of "Man In The Box"". Archived from the original on 2021-12-thirteen. Retrieved April two, 2018.
14. ^ ^{a b} Trapp, Philip (January 14, 2020). "Nirvana Were the Nearly-Played Band of the Decade on Rock Radio". Loudwire . Retrieved January 23, 2020.
15. ^ "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". Guitar Globe. October 30, 2008.
16. ^ "VH1's 100 Greatest Songs Of The '90s: Not Enough Pavement". Stereogum. December 12, 2007.
17. ^ "The Grammy Nominations". Los Angeles Times. January 9, 1992.
18. ^ "1991 MTV Video Music awards". Rockonthenet.com. Retrieved December eight, 2007.
19. ^ Rachman, Paul (March 27, 2014). "Me on the set of the Human being In The Box video I directed '90 #tbt @AliceInChains". Twitter.
20. ^ Rachman, Paul (May 12, 2018). "The man I cast in @AliceInChains' #ManInTheBox music video was nicknamed Resin and worked in a bar parking lot in Los Angeles chosen Minor's". Twitter.
21. ^ Baltin, Steve. "Q&A With Jerry Cantrell". Inked Magazine. Archived from the original on October x, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
22. ^ "Layne Staley's Tattoo Was Inspired By "Homo In The Box" Lyric & Video". Experience Numb. December 8, 2010. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
23. ^ ^{a b} "Alice in Chains Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard.
24. ^ Kitties In Chains "Cat In The Box" Is Childish, Young And I Love Information technology
25. ^ McNeill, Pat (April 17, 2002). The Tables All Were Broken, McNeill'due south Take on the Stop of Professional Wrestling Every bit We Know It. p. 197. ISBN978-0595224043.
26. ^ "Lassie (1994)". SoundtrackInfo . Retrieved July 28, 2017.
27. ^ "Man In The Box em "Lassie" (1994)". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
28. ^ "Man In The Box no filme "Mar Em Fúria" (2000)". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
29. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Alice in Chains - Soundtrack". IMDb . Retrieved July 28, 2017.
30. ^ "Funny People Soundtrack". Whatsong . Retrieved July 28, 2017.
31. ^ Allen, Ben (May 29, 2019). "Here's every vocal featured in Netflix romcom Always Be My Possibly". Radio Times.
32. ^ "Beavis & Butt head Ice Ice Baby Vanilla Water ice Man in the Box Alice in Bondage". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
33. ^ "Cold Case - S2 · E13 · Time to Offense". Melody Observe . Retrieved July 28, 2017.
34. ^ "Supernatural 12x6 : Alice In Chains - Man In The Box (Scene)". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved July 28, 2017.

External links [edit]

• Review of "Man in the Box" at AllMusic
• "Man in the Box" official music video on YouTube

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Box

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