We Care a Lot (song)

"We Care a Lot"
Single by Faith No More
from the album We Care a Lot and Introduce Yourself
Released	January 18, 1988
Format	CD, vinyl
Recorded	Mid 1986, Studio D in Sausalito, California
Genre	Funk metal
Length	4:02
Label	Slash
Writer(s)	Lyrics: Chuck Mosley Roddy Bottum Music: Billy Gould Roddy Bottum
Producer	Matt Wallace, Steve Berlin, Faith No More
Faith No More singles chronology
"Quiet in Heaven" / "Song of Liberty" (1982) "We Care a Lot" (1988) "Anne's Song" (1988)
Alternative cover Roller brushed cover Introduce Yourself track listing "Death March" (5) "We Care a Lot" (6) "R N' R" (7) from the album We Care a Lot Length 4:09 Label Mordam "We Care a Lot" (1) "The Jungle" (2) "We Care a Lot" live 1991 live single for "We Care a Lot" from the album Live at the Brixton Academy Length 3:50 "From out of Nowhere" (5) "We Care a Lot" (6) "Zombie Eaters" (7)

"We Care a Lot" is a song by Faith No More. It was recorded for and released on the band's first two studio albums, We Care a Lot and Introduce Yourself, and was included on the live album and video Live at the Brixton Academy; the latter two recordings also each have the song as a single release (January 18, 1988 and in 1991 respectively, the former making it to No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart). Although a Chuck Mosley-era song, it was the second most frequently-played song during the band's live performances, behind "Epic". "We Care a Lot" featured different lyrics and ad-libs when performed by Mike Patton, much like performances of "Chinese Arithmetic".

Production

The original version of the song was one of the first five songs finished for We Care a Lot, recorded before the band received financial backing for the album at Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati, California, and was re-recorded, with some updated lyrics, for their major label début Introduce Yourself in mid-1986 at Studio D, Sausalito, California.

Lyrical content

Music sample:

The lyrics of this song are a sarcastic parody of "the popstar posing that accompanied those [Live Aid style] charitable events" and mentions a range of things about which the band sarcastically claims 'we care a lot', such as the LAPD, the "food that Live Aid bought", the Garbage Pail Kids and even The Transformers. The original version, released in 1985, mentions Madonna and Mr. T. This was altered for social relevance in the 1987 re-release. When asked about the song's meaning, Chuck Mosley replied

“

Well, ah Roddy wrote all the things that he cared about and I just wrote the part that says, "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it" 'cause I figured that's just the feeling I got. That's the only thing I submitted. That, and the newer lyrics in the updated version.

”

There was a seven-second-long ad-lib of "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block on The Real Thing-era live performances, including the Live at the Brixton Academy version. In later performances of the song, during the Mike Patton era as vocalist, he occasionally changed some lines: the studio versions' lyrical reference to Rock Hudson and disease (i.e., AIDS) was changed to mention Rodney King.^{[citation needed]}

Music video

The music video produced for "We Care a Lot", directed by Bob Biggs & Jay Brown, was the first video produced for a Faith No More song and received moderate airplay on MTV.

Appearances

As well as the appearing on the albums We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself and Live at the Brixton Academy the song has appeared on every compilation and video album released by the band and has three different cover versions on the tribute to Faith No More compilation album Tribute of the Year. It appeared in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank, and was also track No. 7 on the first volume of movie's two soundtracks. The bridge of the song is also used as the theme to the Discovery Channel program Dirty Jobs (except for a few months in 2007), and is referenced in the opening of the song "Cats, Sex, and Nazis" by the Canadian punk band NoMeansNo, from their album Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy?. The song was later made available as a download for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the music video game Rock Band on February 5, 2008, and for Wii and PlayStation 2 versions on the Rock Band Track Pack: Volume 1, released on July 15, 2008. The song was also used in the movie Bio-Dome.

Critical reception

Allmusic's reviewer laments the song's lack of future front-man Mike Patton, calling Mosley's vocals "brute thuggishness" and "flat", but also says that the song is a "fully realized effort in itself". "We Care a Lot" was also listed in PopMatters' 65 Great Protest Songs, citing it as Faith No More's anti-protest song and as a "smirking account of everything that pop and political culture shoved down our throats at the height of the Reagan revolution".

Track listings

From Introduce Yourself
No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"We Care a Lot"	Mosley	Gould, Bottum	4:02
2.	"Spirit"	Gould	Gould	3:50
3.	"Chinese Arithmetic" (Radio Mix, 12" bonus track)	Mosley	Martin, Bordin	3:54

From Live at the Brixton Academy
No.	Title	Length
1.	"We Care a Lot" (live at Brixton)	3:50
2.	"We Care a Lot" (Remix)	3:52

Covers

• Chuck Mosley covered the song under the title "We Care a Lot" in his solo project, and released it on his album Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food. The lyrics are different in the verses, however the chorus remains the same. The song is longer than the original and the first part of the first verse is almost a switch of words with the original first verse. Roddy Bottum guest-played with Mosely for this release. The song also references "Epic" with the lyric, "We care a lot about the guy who wanted it all but couldn't have it."
• "Нам важно всё" by I.F.K., Russia, 2000.
• MC Hammer's song "Pray" contains a sample of "We Care a Lot". [2]