Vasoline

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the song by Stone Temple Pilots. For the skin care product, see Vaseline.

"Vasoline"

Single by Stone Temple Pilots

from the album Purple

B-side

"Meat Plow"
"Andy Warhol" (live from MTV Unplugged)
"Crackerman" (live from MTV Unplugged)"

Released

June 1, 1994

Format

CD single

Recorded

1994

Genre

Grunge[1]

Length

2:56

Label

Atlantic

Writer(s)

Music: Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo, Eric Kretz

Lyrics: Scott Weiland

Producer(s)

Brendan O'Brien

Stone Temple Pilots singles chronology

"Big Empty"

"Vasoline"

"Interstate Love

(1994)

(1994)

Song"
(1994)

Purple track listing

"Meat Plow"

"Vasoline"

"Lounge Fly"

(1)

(2)

(3)

Music sample
"Vasoline"
MENU
0:00

Music video
"Vasoline" on YouTube

"Vasoline" is a song by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots from their second album, Purple.
The song was the second single of the album (and also the second most successful, only behind
"Interstate Love Song"), reaching #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks.
[2]
The song's odd-sounding intro was created by Robert DeLeo, who ran his bass through a wahwah pedal to get the said effect. The song's lyrics were written by vocalist Scott Weiland. "Vasoline"
also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. A live version also appears on The
Family Values 2001 Tour compilation.
Contents
[hide]

1Composition and meaning

2Charts

3Track listing

4Music videos
o

4.1Differentiation

5Notable appearances

6Notes

7External links

Composition and meaning[edit]

During STP's performance of "Vasoline" on VH1 Storytellers, Weiland says that the song is about
"feeling like an insect under a magnifying glass."
In his autobiography Not Dead and Not For Sale, he adds that it "is about being stuck in the same
situation over and over again. It's about me becoming a junkie. It's about lying to Jannina
[Castaneda, first wife] and lying to the band about my heroin addiction." [3]
Perhaps one of the strangest things about this song is the use of syncopation in the riff that the
guitar and bass play. By itself, the riff sounds something like swung eighth notes alternating between
the musical notes F natural and G natural. The riff, however, is an alternating sixteenth and eighth
note pattern as part of a 3-beat rhythmic figure played over a drum beat in 4/4 time, creating a
rhythmic tension and release that is characteristic of such figures.
The over-the-counter balm after which the song appears[citation needed] to be named is spelled Vaseline.
Alternatively, it is believed that the name is a portmanteau of "Vaseline" and "Gasoline", which may
be an allusion to a chemical mixture that is popularly known to be the composition of a flammable
compound similar to, if not that of, Napalm.

Charts[edit]
(199495)

Position

Canadian RPM Singles Chart

21

UK Singles Chart

48

U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay[4]

38

U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks[5]

U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[6]

Track listing[edit]
1. "Vasoline" - 2:56
2. "Meatplow" - 3:39

3. "Andy Warhol" (David Bowie) [Live] - 3:09

4. "Crackerman" [Live] - 4:03

Music videos[edit]
The music videos (directed by Kevin Kerslake) were in heavy rotation on MTV when the single was
released in 1994.[7] There are at least three different versions of the video, labeled "X Version", "Y
Version", and "Z Version". All versions are similar, using parts of the same footage with some minor
differences and shown in different orders. The single album art is taken directly from the music
video.

Differentiation[edit]

X Version - begins with a shot of flypaper and then a laughing clown

[Robert DeLeo]

Y Version - begins with a butterfly-catching girl [Deanna Stevens]

skipping up to the camera

Z Version - begins with a man using a sharpening stone wheel

Notable appearances[edit]

"Vasoline" appeared in the video games Rock Band and SingStar

Amped and is a learnable song on Rocksmith, which uses an actual
guitar. The song is played at some NFL stadiums during kickoffs
and in the 2012 Judd Apatow film This is 40.

Notes[edit]
1.

Jump up^ Michael Danaher (August 4, 2014). "The 50 Best Grunge

Songs". Paste.

2.

Jump up^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits,
8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 607.

3.

Jump up^ Not Dead and Not For Sale (Scribner, 2010), pp111

4.

Jump up^ "Radio Songs Stone Temple Pilots". Retrieved 2013-0308.

5.

Jump up^ "Mainstream Rock Tracks Stone Temple Pilots".

Retrieved 2013-03-08.

6.

Jump up^ "Alternative Songs Stone Temple Pilots". Retrieved 201303-08.

7.

Jump up^ http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=26789

External links[edit]

"Vasoline" music video on YouTube

"Vasoline" Version Y music video on YouTube

"Vasoline" Version X music video on YouTube

Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

[hide]

v
t
e

Stone Temple Pilots

Robert DeLeo

Core
Purple

dio albums

Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop

No. 4
Shangri-La Dee Da
Stone Temple Pilots

ended plays

High Rise

ompilations

Thank You

Singles

Commercial

"Sex Type Thing"

"Plush"
"Creep"
"Big Empty"
"Vasoline"
"Interstate Love Song"
"Dancing Days"

Dean DeLeo

Eric Kretz
Scott Weiland
Chester Bennington

"Big Bang Baby"

"Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart"
"Lady Picture Show"
"Down"
"Sour Girl"
"Days of the Week"
"Hollywood Bitch"
"Revolution"
"All in the Suit That You Wear"
"Between the Lines"
"Take a Load Off"
"Cinnamon"
"Out of Time"
"Black Heart"
"Dead & Bloated"
"Crackerman"
"Wicked Garden"
"Unglued"
Promotional

"Pretty Penny"
"Tumble in the Rough"
"Art School Girl"
"Heaven & Hot Rods"
"No Way Out"
"Wonderful"

Discography
2008 Reunion Tour
Army of Anyone
Talk Show
Related

Velvet Revolver
The Wondergirls
Linkin Park
Army of Anyone
Talk Show

Book
Category

Categories:

1994 singles

Billboard Mainstream Rock number-one singles

Grunge songs

Songs written by Scott Weiland

Song recordings produced by Brendan O'Brien (record producer)

Stone Temple Pilots songs

Songs about drugs

Navigation menu

Not logged in

Talk

Contributions

Create account

Log in

Read
Edit
View history

Search
Go

Main page

Contents

Featured content

Current events

Random article

Donate to Wikipedia

Wikipedia store
Interaction

Help

About Wikipedia

Community portal

Recent changes

Contact page
Tools

What links here

Related changes

Upload file

Article
Talk


Special pages

Permanent link

Page information

Wikidata item

Cite this page

Print/export

Create a book

Download as PDF

Printable version
Languages

Espaol

Galego

Italiano
Edit links

This page was last modified on 21 December 2016, at 08:05.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional

terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.