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Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline - Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL, USA on March 27, 2010





"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.

The song's odd-sounding intro was created by Robert DeLeo, who ran his bass through a wah-wah 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.


During STP's performance of "Vasoline" on VH1 Storytellers, Weiland says that the song is about "feeling like an insect under a magnifying glass." During an interview with Greg Prato from SongFacts.com on October 14, 2014, Scott Weiland confirmed that the key line in this song came from a misheard lyric: His parents put on the Eagles song "Life in the Fast Lane", and Weiland thought they were singing, "Flies in the Vasoline."


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."








Lyrics


One time a thing occurred to me

What's real and what's for sale

Blew a kiss and tried to take it home


It isn't you, isn't me

Search for things that you can't see

Going blind out of reach

Somewhere in the vasoline


Two times and it has rendered me

Punch drunk and without bail

Think I'd be safer all alone


Flies in the vasoline we are

Sometimes it blows my mind

Keep getting stuck here all the time


It isn't you, isn't me

Search for things that you can't see

Going blind out of reach

Somewhere in the vasoline


You'll see the look

And you'll see the lies

You'll eat the lies

And you will


Flies in the vasoline we are

Sometimes it blows my mind

Keep getting stuck here all the time


It isn't you, isn't me

Search for things that you can't see

Going blind out of reach

Somewhere in the vasoline




Songwriters: Dean Deleo / Eric Kretz / Robert Emile Deleo / Scott Richard Weiland

Vasoline lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC





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