B-side "Tattoo of the Sun" Format CD single | Released June 17, 1997 Recorded 1996 | |
Length 4:29 (Album Version)4:00 (Video Edit)3:40 (Radio Edit) | ||
"Semi-Charmed Life" is a song by American alternative rock band Third Eye Blind. It was released in June 1997 as the lead single from their self-titled debut album. It was a major hit of the 1990s, reaching number 4 in the U.S., number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks, number 2 in Canada, and making the Top 40 in the UK. VH1 has named the song as the 34th best of the 1990s.
Contents
Background
According to lead singer Stephan Jenkins, the song was meant as a response to Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" but from a San Francisco perspective. The style of the song reflects changes that were occurring in the San Francisco music scene, particularly a growing interest in hip-hop.
Content
"Semi-Charmed Life", which sounds like easygoing pop, contains lyrics about a drug user's descent into crystal meth addiction. According to Jenkins, "It's a dirty, filthy song about snorting speed and getting blow jobs." He later explained that, "It's about a time in my life when it seemed like all of my friends just sort of tapped out on speed." He added that the song is "bright and shiny on the surface, and then it just pulls you down in this lockjawed mess ... The music that I wrote for it is not intended to be bright and shiny for bright and shiny's sake. It's intended to be what the seductiveness of speed is like, represented in music." The title, Jenkins said, "refers to a life that's all propped up. You know, the beautiful people who lead bright and shiny lives that on the inside are all fucked up."
Music video
The video features many scenes with motor scooters and a 1960 Chevrolet Impala filmed around San Francisco.
Demo
Several changes were made for the studio recording. In the demo version, Jenkins spoke during the verses as opposed to singing it. The chorus lyrics were originally "I want nothing else to get me through this…" as opposed to "I want something else to get me through this…" In the second verse, instead of "Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break," the demo version went, "Crystal methylene will lift you up until you break." Finally, the reprise of the beginning of the second verse at the end of the song is omitted in the demo version.
Radio edits
Released on the single were a "clean edit" and the "radio edit." Both edits cut from section 2:20 through 3:07 on the album version. The differences between the two edits is that the clean edit has the words "crystal meth" censored through backmasking. Radio stations that chose not to edit the drug reference played the radio edit. A third edit omits the entire second verse and second chorus, and is usually played on adult contemporary stations to avoid the drug and sexual references of the song.
The music video also shortened the song, but in a different section. The song was cut from 2:41 through 3:09, compared to the album version. The drug references were either intact or removed from the video, depending on which television channel the video aired.
In popular culture
A clear clip of "Semi-Charmed Life" is heard during the opening shot sequence of the film Contact (1997) as part of a jumble of modern radio transmissions used to establish the setting as present day. The song is also featured in the film Dirty Work (1998). The song was used in the film American Pie (1999), but did not appear on the soundtrack. In 1999, "Weird Al" Yankovic included the song in the polka medley "Polka Power!" from his album Running with Scissors. Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the album version of the song (with major lyric changes) as a bonus track for their video game Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007). The song was prominently featured on a 2013 episode of The Neighbors, where it was described as one of the two perfect things to ever come out of Earth, the other being Free Willy.