"Sex Type Thing"
One of several covers used in the UK
Single by Stone Temple Pilots
from the album Core
B-side
  • "Piece of Pie"
  • "Wicked Garden" (live)
  • "Sin" (live)
ReleasedMarch 15, 1993 (1993-03-15)
GenreGrunge[1]
Length3:38
LabelAtlantic
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)Scott Weiland
Producer(s)Brendan O'Brien
Stone Temple Pilots singles chronology
"Sex Type Thing"
(1993) 		"Plush"
(1993)
Audio sample
"Sex Type Thing"
Music video
"Sex Type Thing" on YouTube

"Sex Type Thing" is the debut single of American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, released from their debut studio album, Core, in March 1993. "Sex Type Thing" also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. The song spawned a music video which received moderate rotation on MTV (at the height of the early 1990s grunge music scene). The single peaked at number 23 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.

Lyrics and composition

Scott Weiland wrote the lyrics after a girl he was dating was raped by three high school football players after a party. Weiland has stated the song is an anti-rape statement, not a song simply about sex, saying:

This song is really not about sex at all. It's about control, violence and abuse of power.[2]

According to guitarist Dean DeLeo, the song "In the Light" by Led Zeppelin had a direct influence on the main riff in "Sex Type Thing".[2] In an October 1997 interview in Seconds magazine, Glenn Danzig mentions the similarity of the main riff to the Danzig song "Snakes of Christ". The riff also bears resemblance to the 1977 song "Burning Up Time" by The Stranglers.

Live performances

Over the years, "Sex Type Thing" became the band's traditional closer at live shows. During some performances from 1999 until STP's 2002 break-up, the band would extend the song's ending into a jam session where Weiland would strip naked in front of the audience and then wrap his lower body in an American flag.

Music video

During the grunge explosion of the 1990s, the music video for "Sex Type Thing" is usually denoted as the single factor that drove Stone Temple Pilots into the scene. The video was in medium-heavy rotation on MTV during the time, and helped make STP a contender in the grunge era. The video itself hosts a very dark motif, showing the band performing in a dungeon chamber, with singer Scott Weiland having bleached his hair blond, interspersed between clips of a dancer swinging on a chain and a woman in a prom dress surrounded by a ring of fire which then is being menaced before she rips her clothes off. Footage of a wild woman dancing plays throughout. This video is rather distinctive because it is the first to showcase Scott Weiland's trademark "dance".[3] The set was used again for Sunny Day Real Estate's "In Circles" music video in 1994.[4]

Controversy

Upon the success of "Sex Type Thing", controversies regarding the song's lyrics emerged while STP was on tour opening for Megadeth. Weiland found himself in the position of defending "Sex Type Thing" to individuals who took the first-person approach he used in the song literally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland expressed his frustration with the song's reception by saying "It was, 'All right, the "Cop Killer" controversy's dead, let's try to find something else'...I never thought that people would ever seriously think that I was an advocate of date rape."[5]

Track listings

All live tracks were recorded at the Reading Festival 1993.

CD single 1

  1. "Sex Type Thing" – 3:38
  2. "Piece of Pie" – 5:28
  3. "Wicked Garden" (live) – 4:26
  4. "Sin" (live) – 7:52

CD single 2

  1. "Sex Type Thing" – 3:38
  2. "Piece of Pie" – 5:28
  3. "Dead and Bloated" (live) – 4:53
  4. "Sex Type Thing" (live) – 4:01

Charts

Chart (1993) Peak
position
UK Singles (OCC)[6] 60
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[7] 23

Release history

Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
United States January 1993 Radio Atlantic
United Kingdom March 15, 1993
  • 12-inch vinyl
  • CD
 [8]
United Kingdom (re-release) November 15, 1993
  • 12-inch vinyl
  • CD
  • cassette
 [9]

Appearances and covers

References

  1. ^ Frost, Deborah (March 12, 1993). "Core (1993) Music Review". Entertainment Weekly. No. 161. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Sex Type Thing Comments". Archived from the original on November 24, 2005.
  3. ^ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s3lmr09oVg ". Music video on Youtube. Retrieved June 13, 2005. Archived December 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Sunny Day Real Estate"In Circles" | Russell Bates – Director". Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  5. ^ "Hard To The Core". August 1, 1993. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  6. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  7. ^ "Stone Temple Pilots Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  8. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. March 13, 1993. p. 17.
  9. ^ "Single Releases". Music Week. November 13, 1993. p. 25.
  10. ^ "[1] ". CSI Files. Retrieved June 13, 2005.
  11. ^ Tech, El Mundo (May 26, 2010). "Guitar Hero 5/Band Hero DLC: Stone Temple Pilots, Alice Cooper, National Anthems". Retrieved December 4, 2019.

External links

Stone Temple Pilots
Authority control databases
Categories