She used my head like a revolver

” She used my head like a revolver ” is a song and simple created by Gustavo Cerati and interpreted by the Argentine rock band Soda Stereo . It quickly became one of the group’s best-known hits.

The theme was released on the album Sueño Stereo , in 1995 , as the first song. The video was chosen as Video de la Gente (Latin) in 1996 , maximum continental recognition of Latin rock , before the MTV Latin America Awards were established in 2002 .

The song is particularly notable for its complex musical structure and a slow and melancholic rhythm. As on rare occasions, Soda Stereo experimented with additional arrangements of quite enveloping strings : two violins , a viola and a cello .

The letter

The central idea and title of the subject, concentrates the whole attention: “she used my head like a revolver”. Ambiguous as it is, the phrase strikes however crudely the imagination and is immediately recognizable to the passionate experience of any young person.

The song refers not only to the fact that “she” has used the singer as an object, but of the ends to which it came (“you would not believe the things I have done for her”), which is what explains Some way she “could” get to the point of having made a revolver of his head . The idea of ​​the title is almost unbearable: every shot of the revolver must have left irreversible damage. The singer says that he acted “cowardly, but without shame.” The phrase indicates alienation: neither courage to face the abuse, nor embarrassment to flee from it. Or it may mean that he acted cowardly as part of a betrayal of a third person in the puzzle with the scoundrel that that means. The final sentence, “pass the time and now I think the emptiness is a normal place”, reminds us of the reflections on time and the lack of love that characterize the tango , a genre that Cerati himself has recognized as influential in his work. ¹
There are also some critics who say that it deals in a metaphorical way about the drug, since many of the sentences can be associated with what a drug addict would say about its slavery to her.

In an interview conducted by Rolling Stone (Argentina) , Gustavo Cerati referred to the lyrics of the song:

The music

The music is centered on a main melody attached to the title, like leitmotiv , that dominates the song and is imposed like a lament when the singer says “she used my head like a revolver”. In contrast to the main theme, the rest of the melody is complex, seductive and difficult to retain, which produces the effect on the one who hears of waiting for the return of the leitmotiv , and receive it with some relief when it finally arrives, despite its Atrocious message.

The video

The video was chosen as Video de la Gente (Latin) in 1996 , maximum continental recognition of Latin rock, before the MTV Latin America Awards were established in 2002 . It is considered by his followers (along with “When the tremor”) the second best of the history of the band, behind ” In the city of the fury “. ⁵

It was filmed in 35 mm. In Chile and directed by Stanley Gonczanski , ⁶ former partner of the University of El Salvador de Cerati and Bosio, a successful director of publicity film with action throughout the continent and president of Stanley Films, also author of the Chilean film “Monos con navaja” For which Cerati made the theme “Taboo” (2000). ^{7 8}

The video is full of symbols that allow multiple interpretations, even that the “Ella” of the song is actually the band itself, Soda Stereo. The constant presence of a magnifying glass is used for the spectator to “see with a magnifying glass”, again and again, the members of the group. Two twins identical, played by the Chilean Andres and Rodrigo Súnico, ⁹ play a ubiquitous role asmen - speaker and are even those who play with two cellos, two melodic phrasings holding funeral song. It is also the twins who, in one of the scenes, act as husband and wife, marrying and then dueling.

The image of the speaker, as a symbol of group members, is used on the cover of the album Stereo Dream , in which three speakers (the largest center) in the form of eggs , emerge from a mattress and are surrounded by sperm - headphones ready to fertilize. ¹⁰ The speakers reappear in the video at the end, in the form of a wall-loudspeaker that beats-breathe behind the three musicians.

In addition to the three members of the band (Cerati, Bosio and Alberti) and the two twins (speaker men), the video records the decisive presence of “Ella”. “She” appears as some kind of monster-woman, unfaithful and unfeeling, devouring her little bird trapped in a cage. But “She” also appears as a powerful erotic attraction in bed. The bed, also sprouted from loudspeakers, is a constant presence in the video. In one of the most expressive images of the video clip, at the beginning, “She” appears naked in the bed sliding the revolver by its belly towards its sex; Is the same bed-loudspeaker on which Cerati only collapses several times on his back, banging his head on a white pillow.

The video closes with a last and very brief scene difficult to perceive in its details, in which the two speaker-men run towards the camera with siphons (symbolically related with ” Soda Stereo “) in the hand, and they wet the lens.

As curiosity the “keyboard” of the intro of She used my head as a gun was a toy of Benito (the son of Cerati). ^eleven

Related terms

• The former model and Chilean dj Cecilia Amenábar , by then wife of Gustavo Cerati, conducted in National Television of Chile a program called “Revolver” (1998-1999). ¹²

• The phrase comes from a song by the legendary band of ’60 T Rex, in which uses two similar fragments “She used my head like an explorer” and “She used my head like a revolver”, the song is Planet Queen. However, it is not officially recognized by the singer of the Argentine band.

Versions

• The classic version is included in the album Sueño Stereo and is the one that runs in the video.
• The version “Unplugged” (Unplugged) performed on MTV Unplugged on December as March as 1996 included in the album Comfort y Música Para Volar . The version is ironically much more electric ( “plugged in” ) than the original, even including a violin , a cello and a bassoon and adds a heavy ending with a guitar riff played by Cerati, which accentuates the desperate tone of the song.
• The version of The last concert , of the year 1997 . This version was included like last track of the album The Last Concert A and is similar to the original version.

Notes