Spiders
by Moby

Album: Hotel (2005)
Charted: 50
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Songfacts®:

  • In 2004, Moby was feeling down after the re-election of George W. Bush to the US presidency and the overall rise of intolerance and fundamentalism around the world (which inspired Hotel's lead single, "Lift Me Up"). To cope with his feelings, he turned to his musical heroes, one being David Bowie, who influenced this bittersweet electro-rock anthem that finds Moby pleading for a savior.

    Moby explained on his website: "'Spiders' is a song that is partially a tribute to David Bowie, but it's also about feeling profoundly disconnected from the dominant cultural milieu in which I find myself, especially in the US in 2005. When I was growing up I found great comfort and solidarity and understanding through the company of musicians (David Bowie, Ian Curtis, etc) whom I'd never met but whose music made me feel connected to something. There is also some obvious Christ imagery in this song that will resonate with some people and not resonate with others."
  • Bowie's 1972 concept album was called The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders from Mars, which likely influenced the title of Moby's tune.
  • Moby spoke of his admiration for Bowie in a 2005 interview with The Los Angeles Times, saying: "I've also admired how he made a virtue out of being a disenfranchised outcast. I grew up poor in a wealthy neighborhood, and the only way I ever connected to anything was through music."
  • This was the album's second single to be released in the UK, where it peaked at #50.
  • The music video, directed by Ben Weinstein, follows the antics of a group of friends on their last outing before going their separate ways. After salvaging a helmet from a discarded pile of clothes, they bring it along on their adventure. One of the boys dons it at a bowling alley, where he launches down a lane into the pins, and at a Laundromat, where he takes a tumble in a dryer. Meanwhile, Moby shows up in pages of the group's scrapbook. Weinstein also directed the clip for Moby's "Beautiful."
  • Hotel, Moby's seventh studio album, finds the electronic artist experimenting with guitar rock and embracing his own vocals in contrast to his previous sample-laden efforts. It peaked at #8 in the UK and #28 in the US.

Comments: 1

  • Derek S from Usathe lyric "uncrush my hands" directly references Ziggy Stardust "And should we crush his sweet hands?"
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