Man Is Sick
Encyclopedia
"Man is Sick" is a song by British rock band Exile Parade
. It is the fifth track from the band's EP Brothel Ballet
.
. The band revealed, "There was an old cinema and you used to get pretty strange characters going in there. Apparently you could buy all sorts of erotic things in there - even little crocodiles. So the song just became about one of the people that used to go there and all the strange things he'd get up to on a night out."
and the image of Jack Torrance
hammering his typewriter. So we took it from there and, instead of a typewriter, we gave our character a piano." The man appears to be a ruffled, gothic amalgamation of Slash
and Daniel Day-Lewis' character in Gangs of New York
.
playing "Man is Sick" in a white room.
After swapping between the band, the man playing the piano and the man ripping his hair out, the video cuts to the man crouched underneath metallic stairs. The band are then seen playing the song again, only this time in slow-motion. The man suddenly launches himself from underneath the stairs and around the corner, where he sees a woman getting out of her car. He pushes her to the ground and strangles her, only to have her push him into her car. Slamming into the door, the man panics and runs away. Another man (the band's guitarist Chris Owen) walks through the corridor containing the piano, only to have the "sick" man jump out from a nearby cupboard and stab him. Due to the location of this event, it could be said that the skull on the piano is Owen's. The video then cuts to the band playing the song again, with a few seconds of emphasis on each individual member, and the colour of the footage is more vivid than before. The man is seen ripping his hair out again, and playing the piano in a different location, before a rapid montage of each event portrayed in the video plays. The song ends as the man, back in the abandoned warehouse, walks backwards in slow-motion until the video breaks down into static. The video ends with the man slowly closing the case on his piano, standing up, picking up the skull - which is still dripping with blood - and exiting the room.
first met up with the director, Ryan Davies, to discuss the video, he used Gangs of New York as an example of how the character should look. Davies took this idea to his sister, who served as the sole makeup artist for the video, and they created the image of the video's main character (she also appears in the video as the woman who is attacked by the "sick" man).
Exile Parade
- Formation :The band formed in the summer of 2006. After hearing the band's early demos on MySpace, Owen Morris called the former Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs, who had been playing the demos on his BBC Manchester Music show. Not long after the stamp of approval from Arthurs, he and Morris went to...
. It is the fifth track from the band's EP Brothel Ballet
Brothel Ballet
Brothel Ballet is an EP album by British rock band Exile Parade, released in April 2010. The EP was produced by Owen Morris, Rob Ferrier and Exile Parade.-Track listing:-Album personnel:* Exile Parade – writing, performance and production...
.
Lyrical interpretation
The song was inspired by a story told to the band by author Mick Middles about the "seedier side" of ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. The band revealed, "There was an old cinema and you used to get pretty strange characters going in there. Apparently you could buy all sorts of erotic things in there - even little crocodiles. So the song just became about one of the people that used to go there and all the strange things he'd get up to on a night out."
Music video
The official video for the song, directed by Ryan Davies, features the band's lead singer as a man who has gone insane ("sick"). The band explained, "The song is about someone who's lost their mind so the inspiration came from The ShiningThe Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
and the image of Jack Torrance
Jack Torrance
Jack Torrance is a fictional character, the antagonist in the 1977 novel The Shining by Stephen King. He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 movie adaptation of the novel, and by Steven Weber in the 1997 miniseries. The American Film Institute rated the character the 25th greatest film...
hammering his typewriter. So we took it from there and, instead of a typewriter, we gave our character a piano." The man appears to be a ruffled, gothic amalgamation of Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
and Daniel Day-Lewis' character in Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New...
.
Synopsis
The video begins, crackly and old with an odd blue tint, as the man stands aimlessly in an abandoned warehouse. The video cuts to the man sat at a piano with a bloodied skull resting on top of it. In slow-motion, the man cracks his knuckles. The slow-motion effect disappears as the man's hands fall down, and the song begins as he starts to bash the keys to the beat of the song. The man is then seen outside, charging towards another man, who is knocked into an iron gate by the "sick" man. The video cuts back to the man playing the piano, with the window above it reading "MAN IS SICK" in blood. The man's hands are now bloody and bruised from mercilessly pounding the piano keys without stopping. He carries on playing despite the injuries. The man is then seen balled up in the corner of a room, screaming and ripping his hair out with his hands and a pair of scissors. The video, changing from the blue-tinted and wrecked footage, cuts to Exile ParadeExile Parade
- Formation :The band formed in the summer of 2006. After hearing the band's early demos on MySpace, Owen Morris called the former Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs, who had been playing the demos on his BBC Manchester Music show. Not long after the stamp of approval from Arthurs, he and Morris went to...
playing "Man is Sick" in a white room.
After swapping between the band, the man playing the piano and the man ripping his hair out, the video cuts to the man crouched underneath metallic stairs. The band are then seen playing the song again, only this time in slow-motion. The man suddenly launches himself from underneath the stairs and around the corner, where he sees a woman getting out of her car. He pushes her to the ground and strangles her, only to have her push him into her car. Slamming into the door, the man panics and runs away. Another man (the band's guitarist Chris Owen) walks through the corridor containing the piano, only to have the "sick" man jump out from a nearby cupboard and stab him. Due to the location of this event, it could be said that the skull on the piano is Owen's. The video then cuts to the band playing the song again, with a few seconds of emphasis on each individual member, and the colour of the footage is more vivid than before. The man is seen ripping his hair out again, and playing the piano in a different location, before a rapid montage of each event portrayed in the video plays. The song ends as the man, back in the abandoned warehouse, walks backwards in slow-motion until the video breaks down into static. The video ends with the man slowly closing the case on his piano, standing up, picking up the skull - which is still dripping with blood - and exiting the room.
Concept
When Phil Hennessey of Exile ParadeExile Parade
- Formation :The band formed in the summer of 2006. After hearing the band's early demos on MySpace, Owen Morris called the former Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs, who had been playing the demos on his BBC Manchester Music show. Not long after the stamp of approval from Arthurs, he and Morris went to...
first met up with the director, Ryan Davies, to discuss the video, he used Gangs of New York as an example of how the character should look. Davies took this idea to his sister, who served as the sole makeup artist for the video, and they created the image of the video's main character (she also appears in the video as the woman who is attacked by the "sick" man).