F.E.A.R.

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Find everybody and rule
F*** everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason
Forgive everybody and remember

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Face everybody and rule
F*** everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R.

Finding eternity arouses reactions
Freeing excellence affects reality
Fallen empires are running
Find earth and reap

Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Final execution and resurrection
Free expression as revolution
Finding everything and realizing

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)

(Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Finding everything and realizing
For everything a reason)

F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
F. E. A. R. (You got the fear)
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear

Lyrics by:
Brown / McCracken / Colquhoun

Format:
Released September 2001:
F.E.A.R. (Radio Edit) (Polydor, FEAR1, promo CD)

Released 17th September 2001:
F.E.A.R. / F.E.A.R. (With Dann*) / Hear No Speak No See No / F.E.A.R. (CD-ROM Video) (Polydor, 587 284-2, CD)
F.E.A.R. / F.E.A.R. (Instrumental) (Polydor, 587 284-7, 7")
F.E.A.R. / F.E.A.R. (With Dann) (Polydor, 587 284-4, cassette)

Released 2001:
F.E.A.R. (Polydor, no catalogue number, promo video)

UK chart position:
#13

Also available on:
Music Of The Spheres (4.29)

Details:
F.E.A.R., released one week after Al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre and The Pentagon, was the first single from Ian Brown's third solo album, Music of the Spheres. It won a Muso Award for best single, as voted by his peers in the British music industry, in late 2002. This excellent opening to the LP is as a take on 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio (one of Ian's choices for his Planet Groove LP), with its use of sharp-sounding strings. Gangsta's Paradise itself was a rework of Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime Paradise'.

F.E.A.R. was written by Ian after reading Alex Haley's biography of Malcolm X:

"Malcolm X's message to people was to study etymology, the break down of language and words. He speaks of how important this is to society and why society has got so much control over people through the use of language and how you can manipulate with it." 'For Each A Road. For Everyman A Religion. Find Everybody And Rule'; only a few of the hundreds of acronyms he came up with sitting looking out from a New York tower block and playing with the word 'fear'. (Ian Brown speaking to Clash magazine, September 2005, Volume 1, Issue 10).

Another one of Ian's Planet Groove selections, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth by Genius / GZA, may have provided the inspiration for the lyrical structure:

The Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (x2)

Chorus: (x2)

Life is a test, many quest the universe
And through my research, I felt the joy and the hurt
The first shall be last and the last shall be first
The basic instructions before leaving earth

Verse One:

Knowledge is wisdom, this goes back when I was twelve
I loved doing right but I was trapped in hell
Had mad ideas, sad eyes and tears
Years of fears, but yo my foes couldn't bear
I searched for the truth since my youth
And went to church since birth, but it wasn't worth the loot
that I was paying, plus the praying
I didn't like staying cuz of busy-bodies and dizzy hotties
That the preacher had souped up with lies
Had me couped up lookin at loot, butt, and thighs
Durin' the service, he swallowed up the poor
And after they heard this, they wallowed on the floor
But I ignored, and explored my history that was untold
And watched mysteries unfold
And dropped a jewel like Solomon, but never followed men
cause if you do your brain is more hollow than
Space oblivia, or the abyss
With no trace of trivia, left with the hiss
Does it pay to be deaf, dumb and blind ?
From a slave we was kept from the mine
And from the caves he crept from behind
And what he gave, was the sect of the swine
When the bible, it condemns the pig
I don't mean to pull your hems or flip your wigs
But we used to wear a turban, but now we're in the urban
No more wearing beanies and dress like a genie
No hocus pocus cause I focus on the facts
And put it on the tracks and brought it through the wax
I speak on Jacob, it might take up some time
And too much knowledge, it might break up the rhyme
I did it anyway just to wake up the mind
of those who kiss stones or praise on the carpet
Those who sit home, or sell books by the market
Need to chill and get their mind revived
For years religion did nothing but divide
The basic instructions before leaving earth

Chorus (x2)

Verse Two:

I strolled through the books of Job to unfold
And open bibles, instead of hoping on revivals
Calling on his name and screaming hallelujah
when he hardly knew ya, that's how the devil's fooled ya
See, look into my eyes brethren, that's the lies of a Reverend
Why should you die to go to heaven ?
The Earth is already in space, the bible I embrace
A difficult task I had to take
I studied 'til my eyes was swollen, and only arose when
I found out that we were the chosen
I deal with the truth, and build with the youth
And teach my son as he kneels on the stool
Son, life is a pool of sin, corruptible foolish men
and women with wicked minds, who build picket signs
to legalize abortion, the evil eye distortion
I quiz some with my wisdom
Before I converted, I was perverted, and knowledge was asserted
The study of wisdom, I perferred it
The understanding, it gave me mental freedom
I even learnt Caucasian were really the Tribe of Edam
The white image, of Christ, is really Cesare Borgia
and uhh, the second son of Pope Alexander
The Sixth of Rome, and once the picture was shown
That's how the devils tricked my dome
I prophesized to save a man, but no one gave a damn
for my nation - the seed of Abraham
Blessed with the tongue of Hebrew
Now we're strung on needles, and some are plungin evils
So study and be wise in these days of darkness
Peace to my nephew Marcus

The basic instructions before leaving earth

Chorus (repeat to fade)

Could the Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone also have been an influence in Ian's choice of the word 'fear' ? There is a Steve Jackson book entitled 'Appointment With F.E.A.R.' where F.E.A.R stands for Federation of Euro-American Rebels. Note too the similarity in style of handwriting of 'F.E.A.R.' on the single front cover and another Fighting Fantasy novel entitled 'Phantoms Of Fear'. Keep in mind that Ian Brown went to the same school as Ian Livingstone !

The music video for F.E.A.R. was Brown's directorial debut. It featured footage of the singer riding a bicycle on the busy streets of Chinatown (Wardor / Old Compton Street, Soho), London, which was then reversed to give the impression that the bicycle was being ridden backwards. Camera work was by Des Dubber.

* Dann is short for Dan Liebermann.

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