Vasoline is a song by Stone Temple Pilots from their second album, Purple. The song was the second single of the album, reaching number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks. Vasoline was released on June 1, 1994. 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 Vaseline.”
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.”
Tracklist:
- Vasoline
- Meatplow
- Andy Warhol (David Bowie cover live from MTV Unplugged)
- Crackerman (live from MTV Unplugged)
The music videos of Vasoline (directed by Kevin Kerslake) were in heavy rotation on MTV when the single was released in 1994. There are at least three different versions of the video, labeled “X Version”, “Y Version”, and “Z Version”. All versions are similar, using parts of the same footage with some minor differences and shown in different orders. The single album art is taken directly from the music video. One portion of the “X Version” was censored when it aired on MTV. During the table scene, a man is bound to a chair while a sadistic guard prepares to puncture his eye with a drill. The uncensored version can be seen on Kerslake’s YouTube channel, while the censored version is found on the band’s YouTube page.
Stone Temple Pilots
Scott Weiland: lead vocals
Dean DeLeo: electric and acoustic guitars
Robert DeLeo: bass, backing vocals
Eric Kretz: drums, percussion
Scott Weiland (October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015).
