WOW

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"WOW"
WOW cover
Song by Marilyn Manson
Album The High End of Low
Released May 20, 2009
Recorded March 2008–January 2009 in Los Angeles and Hollywood, California
Genre Industrial rock, stoner rock, gothic rock
Length 4:55
Label Interscope
Writer Marilyn Manson
Composer Twiggy, Chris Vrenna
Producer Marilyn Manson, Chris Vrenna, Twiggy, Sean Beavan

"WOW" is the ninth track from Marilyn Manson's 2009 release The High End of Low. Its title was revealed on April 7, 2009, in a blog which described both it and another songs from the album, "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon".[1]

Music details

A blog by Metal Hammer describes "WOW" as "a grinding, NIN-tinged sex anthem. Genuinely filthy and intensely sexy, The Wow sees Manson riding a dirty Twiggy Ramirez bassline in an almost spoken-word style. Quirky keyboards interject all the way through the track while sexual female groans (occasionally spoken in German) swarm behind the crunching industrial backing track. The WoW doesn't have anything in the way of memorable hooks but it is the sort of track that would sound amazing in a goth stripclub...if one existed."[1]

"I got "WOW" tattooed on my wrist, because you'd be surprised how often it's said. I wanted to sing a song that had no inflection whatsoever. I was trying to talk without any sort of emotion. It sounds like a bunch of people in a room that are very, very fucked up - and that's what it was."
Marilyn Manson Interview with Revolver Magazine

Reviewing for Thrash Hits, Hugh Platt cited that "for every killer track there's one like 'WOW', a gutful of sickly electro honky-tonk with Manson at his lyrically most self-absorbed."[2]

John Robb of The Quietus deems that the song "is very Iggy [Pop]; Iggy when he swerved and went industrial on The Idiot." In an interview with BBC Radio's 6 Music, Manson acknowledged this influence, and also exclaimed the song has literary references to the 1868 Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Idiot (which the aforementioned Iggy Pop record lifts its name from).[3]

Appearances

Albums

Versions

  • "WOW" — Appears on The High End of Low
  • "The WOW" — Appears on The Unruly Demos

Music video

Still from the music video

On May 11th, 2010 a music video for "WOW" was released to Manson's MySpace account. It was directed by Marilyn Manson and consists of nothing more than a two second clip being looped for about six minutes. The clip shows Evan Rachel Wood, in make-up reminiscent of the Black Dahlia, playing with the strap of her dress. According to the video's description it was filmed in 2008, about a year before the album's release, and was a "tor­ture pro­duc­tion tech­nique [Manson] used to write the song with the boys." Presumably this means the video existed before the song itself. Oddly the video continues for over a minute longer than the song.


"WOW"


Lyrics

    I had a dream,
    this one I feel the need to mention:
    
    i was happy for 'awhile' and i stopped being scared and ashamed to say what's on my mind.
    but you thought that I'd change after 'awhile' and said,
    "you better treat me different, or else!"
    "or else" seems like a stupid,
    fucking thing to say to someone like me
    someone like me?
    wow
    wow
    wow
    w w w w w w w wow
    
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    
    i am worse
    than what you think you'd catch from me
    'complicated' is understated.
    did you stop and take a look at who you fell in love with?
    at who you fell in love with?
    It doesn't matter how many times I say it,
    it never gets old,
    that's why i have to say WOW
    wow wow wow
    w w w w w w w WOW
    
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    
    It doesn't matter if you're  going to come
    or just going
    I never wanted you to come
    here anyway
    there is a word that's like you,
    because it can be a noun, a verb, an exclamation
    or the thing that I say
    when something is unbelievable
    when i am not able to believe, how unbelievably, unbelievable
    that you believe that you could not be leavable
    that's when I have to say
    WOW WOW, WOW
    w w w w w w w WOW
    
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    don't be surprised i can look you in the eye
    but it's hard
    to take you
    serious
    when you take me inside
    
    It doesn't matter how many times I say it,
    it never gets old,
    that's why i have to say WOW

Trivia

  • Manson had the word "WOW" tattooed on his right wrist in April 2009.
  • The hollow whistling noise at the beginning of the song is thought to be Manson "snorting something — whatever it might have been" as a percussive instrument. The substance was presumably, cocaine.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Marilyn Manson New Tracks Previewed. Metal Hammer. March 27, 2009.
  2. Album: Marilyn Manson - The High End Of Low. Hugh Platt. Thrash Hits. May 25, 2009
  3. Meeting Marilyn Manson. BBC Radio. June 1, 2009.