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

F. E. A. R.
F. E. A. R.
F. E. A. R.
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. was released one week after the September 11 attacks (often referred to as September 11th or 9/11). The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many of those working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. The first three planes were targetted by Al-Qaeda at the financial and military headquarters of the United States of America. The ultimate target of this fourth plane, Flight 93, was thought to be poilitical - either the United States Capitol or White House. There were no survivors from any of the four flights. Almost 3,000 people were killed in what was the largest foreign attack ever on American soil. Ian's disapproval of the Allied response to 9/11 - the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the March 2003 invasion of Iraq - would find expression on Illegal Attacks, featuring Sinead O'Connor.
Top left: The second tower, just before impact.
Top right: U.S. President George W. Bush was speaking to children at Booker Elementary School, Florida, when informed of the attacks.
Second row: From the moment of the first impact, it took 102 minutes for both towers to collapse.
Third row: An overhead view of the Twin Towers' destruction.
Fourth row: Lower Manhattan, with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground.
Fifth row: Landsat 7 image of Manhattan on 12th September 2001. The picture shows a smoke plume spreading over large portions of the city, from the World Trade Center attack.
Sixth row: A solitary firefighter stands amid the ruins of the World Trade Center, 14th September 2001.
Seventh row: The Pentagon was damaged by fire and partly collapsed. The Primal Scream track, 'Rise' was originally titled 'Bomb the Pentagon', and debuted as part of the band's live set in the summer of 2001. In light of the September 11 attacks, both the lyrics and title of the song were reworked, and the revised version appears on the 2002 Evil Heat album. The incoherent paranoia of Primal Scream's storming XTRMNTR (2000) contained a prescient anti-Blair/Bush manifesto in 'Swastika Eyes.' This track attacks the imperialist and capitalist policies of both governments and the multi-national corporations operating in the U.S. and the U.K. Speaking to MTV, the band explained the song's meaning: "When was the last time you saw [Clinton's U.S. Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright on the TV ? Therein lies the answer to the conundrum. She has got swastika eyes. [U.K. Prime Minister] Tony Blair has got swastika eyes." "[So does] the head of BP, the head of Shell, Lockheed TriStar, McDonnell Douglas," Gillespie added. I see your autosuggestion psychology / Elimination policy / A military industrial / Illusion of democracy / Swastika eyes.
Bottom row: Al-Qaeda's plot was psychologically astute. On all four hijacked flights, its members first carried out grisly 'execution killings', using the small knives they had legally carried on board. Having terrified, they reassured, announcing that this was a standard hijack, and they would land and issue demands. It had went to plan on the first three flights, but it did not work on Flight 93. This plane had been delayed for 41 minutes on the runway in Newark, finally taking off at 08:42. Due to this delay, news of the earlier attacks was able to be communicated by phone to the hijacked passengers on Flight 93, giving them something people on the earlier flights did not have: proof that the hijackers were lying. The passengers and crew fought back, and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes short of its assumed target of Washington.

This excellent debut single from Music of the Spheres won a 2002 Muso Award for best single, as voted for by Ian's peers in the British music industry.

 

Ian wrote F.E.A.R. after reading Alex Haley's biography of Malcolm X. "Malcolm X's message to people was to study etymology, the breakdown 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." (Ian Brown speaking to Clash magazine, September 2005, Volume 1, Issue 10). Playing with the word 'fear', Ian came up with hundreds of acronyms whilst looking out from a New York tower block. Whilst unlikely to have been an influence, it is worth noting that the Fighting Fantasy series author Steve Jackson released a book entitled 'Appointment With F.E.A.R.', in which F.E.A.R. stands for Federation of Euro-American Rebels. Ian Brown went to the same school as Jackson's co-writer Ian Livingstone.

'Gangsta's Paradise' (itself a rework of Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime Paradise') by Coolio, one of Ian's 2001 Planet Groove selections, is a discernible influence on F.E.A.R. In his notes for the 2003 Under The Influence compilation, Ian cites 'Time' by Edwin Starr (a popular figure on the Northern Soul circuit) as being an inspiration on the track. One of Ian's Planet Groove selections, 'Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth' by GZA, may have provided further inspiration for the lyrical structure:

F.E.A.R. cover artwork. Dann, short for Dan Liebermann, features on the b-side take of F.E.A.R. The music video for F.E.A.R. (camera work by Des Dubber) featured footage of Ian riding a bicycle through the busy streets of Chinatown (Wardor / Old Compton Street, Soho), London, which was then reversed to give the impression that he was cycling backwards.


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