An epic is the glorification of a majestic event, which without the help of a talented writer, would be detestable.
Like an electron, the author ties an event to history and human memory, beautifying it.
Such an action can unite different, independent, things with each other and make them bigger, at least in the eyes of people.
Depending on the religion and the philosophical approach, it has a different name.
In Rock’N’Roll this name refers to a musician, usually a new member, who with his presence takes it to the next level…
In epic proportions, even if his contribution is not so majestic.
Mike Patton’s surreal personality was the electron that Faith No More needed to grow from a promising band to a successful one.
The passport to success was their third album, “The Real Thing” of 1989.
After the flee – the ouster of Chuck Mosley, shortly before its release, the vocals were taken over by Mike Patton, as well as the lyrical score of all the songs.
And among them a song, which was to be a station for hard music.
Epic…
The musical part of “Epic” was completed before the lyricist left Mr. Bungle and join his new band.
The creators of the biggest success of the band are Billy Gould, Jim Martin, Roddy Bottum, Mike Bordin.
The lyrics are just as surreal as the singer’s personality.
The constant reference to “it”, without specifying at any point what exactly “it” is!
He intensifies the surrealism with the question “It’s it,” from the rest of the band and he himself answers “What is it?”.
But the music, although written in a very normal way, is the basis for the evolution of heavy metal music into Nu Metal.
The combination of Funk, Rap, Heavy Metal, and classical music was unprecedented for the ears of the “metalheads” of that time.
The failure of success …
The title of the song is completely unrelated to the surreal lyrics.
It came from an idiomatic name of the process of creating a song.
Specifically, they started by creating the music first and on top of that they added the music, calling this whole process simply ‘Epic’.
The first single of the album “From Out Of Nowhere” is released together with a video clip, with a huge… failure!
Their record label wants to abandon them, but gives them another chance, telling Gould to choose another song to become a video.
As a last resort, they release “Epic”, without having special expectations from the release of the video.
Eventually, everyone fell out, and “Epic” experienced apotheosis, with MTV playing it constantly!
The video clip …
The inspiration for the video came from the works of the Spanish painter Salvador Dali.
The striking finish shows a fish bursting out of the water and a piano closing and exploding.
The “owner” of the fish was Björk, who at the time was in San Francisco for a poetry recital.
After that she went to the party at Roddy Bottum’s house, to which she gave the fish, which had been given to her earlier.
She confided in them with the belief that they would not harm it, but in the end, no one saw it again!
The Icelandic singer herself confesses that “if she had not given it, nothing would have happened”…
Neither in the fish, nor in the band, but with a different ending for everyone.
The video also shows guitarist Jim Martin wearing a T-shirt with the face of Cliff Burton and the phrase: “A Tribute to Cliff Burton.”
The two of them were close friends and participated in two bands together and the death of the Metallica bassist cost him… a lot.
The story of this song is another proof that failure is not the end, but the beginning to success…