Sex Type Thing

"Sex Type Thing" is the debut single released in 1993 by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots from their debut studio album, Core. "Sex Type Thing" also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. The song spawned a music video which received moderate rotation on MTV (at the height of the early 1990s grunge music scene). The single peaked at number 23 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.

"Sex Type Thing"
One of several covers used in the UK
Single by Stone Temple Pilots
from the album Core
B-side
  • "Piece of Pie"
  • "Wicked Garden (live)"
  • "Sin (live)"
ReleasedJanuary 25, 1993
Recorded1991
GenreGrunge[1]
Length3:38
LabelAtlantic
Songwriter(s)Music: Dean DeLeo & Eric Kretz
Lyrics: Scott Weiland
Producer(s)Brendan O'Brien
Stone Temple Pilots singles chronology
"Sex Type Thing"
(1993)		 "Plush"
(1993)
Audio sample
"Sex Type Thing"
  • file
  • help
Music video
"Sex Type Thing" on YouTube

Lyrics and composition

Scott Weiland wrote the lyrics after a girl he was dating was raped by three high school football players after a party. Weiland has stated the song is an anti-rape statement, not a song simply about sex, saying:

This song is really not about sex at all. It's about control, violence and abuse of power.[2]

According to guitarist Dean DeLeo, the song "In the Light" by Led Zeppelin had a direct influence on the main riff in "Sex Type Thing".[3] In an October 1997 interview in Seconds magazine, Glenn Danzig mentions the similarity of the main riff to the Danzig song "Snakes of Christ".

Live performances

Over the years, "Sex Type Thing" became the band's traditional closer at live shows. During some performances from 1999 until STP's 2002 break-up, the band would extend the song's ending into a jam session where Weiland would strip naked in front of the audience and then wrap his lower body in an American flag.

Music video

During the grunge explosion of the 1990s, the music video for "Sex Type Thing" is usually denoted as the single factor that drove Stone Temple Pilots into the scene. The video was in medium-heavy rotation on MTV during the time, and helped make STP a contender in the grunge era. The video itself hosts a very dark motif, showing the band performing in a dungeon chamber, with singer Scott Weiland having bleached his hair blond, interspersed between clips of a dancer swinging on a chain and a woman surrounded by a ring of fire. This video is rather distinctive because it is the first to showcase Scott Weiland's trademark "dance".[4] The set was used again for Sunny Day Real Estate's "In Circles" music video in 1994.[5]

Controversy

Upon the success of "Sex Type Thing", controversies regarding the song's lyrics emerged while STP was on tour opening for Megadeth. Weiland found himself in the position of defending "Sex Type Thing" to individuals who took the first-person approach he used in the song ("I am a man, a man/I'll give ya something that ya won't forget/I said ya shouldn't have worn that dress") literally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland expressed his frustration with the song's reception by saying "It was, 'All right, the "Cop Killer" controversy's dead, let's try to find something else'...I never thought that people would ever seriously think that I was an advocate of date rape."[6]

Charts
Chart (1993) Position
UK Singles Chart 55
U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks[7] 23

Track listing

CD Single #1

  1. "Sex Type Thing" - 3:38
  2. "Piece of Pie" - 5:28
  3. "Wicked Garden" [Live] - 4:26
  4. "Sin" [Live] - 7:52

CD Single #2

  1. "Sex Type Thing" - 3:38
  2. "Piece of Pie" - 5:28
  3. "Dead and Bloated" [Live] - 4:53
  4. "Sex Type Thing" [Live] - 4:01

Note: Live versions recorded at the Reading Festival 1993.

Appearances and covers

References
  1. Frost, Deborah (12 March 1993). "Core (1993) Music Review". Entertainment Weekly (#161). Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  2. ""Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2017-07-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)". below empty. Retrieved 2005-06-13.
  3. ""Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2017-07-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)". below empty. Retrieved 2005-06-13.
  4. "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s3lmr09oVg ". Music video on Youtube. Retrieved 2005-06-13. Archived December 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Sunny Day Real Estate"In Circles" | Russell Bates - Director". Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  6. "Hard To The Core". August 1, 1993. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  7. "Mainstream Rock Tracks – Stone Temple Pilots". Retrieved 2013-03-08.
  8. " ". CSI Files. Retrieved 2005-06-13.
  9. Tech, El Mundo (May 26, 2010). "Guitar Hero 5/Band Hero DLC: Stone Temple Pilots, Alice Cooper, National Anthems". Retrieved December 4, 2019.
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