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Rest is good for the blood!

Dracula is a song by Gorillaz and a b-side track to the single Clint Eastwood. It was also featured as a bonus track on certain releases of the band's self-titled debut album, Gorillaz, most often as the sixteenth track, as well as the second track on most versions of the compilation album G-Sides. The song was produced by British musician and producer Curtis Lynch Jr..

Information[]

Dracula is considered to be the most popular b-side track by Gorillaz from Phase 1, partially due to the enormous success of the Clint Eastwood single, having had the most live performaces (such as the Live at the Forum) and alternate versions out of all b-sides from the self-titled album's singles in addition to having its own video.

The bass guitar was provided by Junior Dan, drum programming by Jason Cox and saxophone by Mike Smith.

The beginning of the song also samples voice lines by the character Count Bloodcount from the Merry MelodiesW short film Transylvania 6-5000W, voiced by Polish actor Ben Frommer. The saxophone section of the song also bears a resemblance with the song Carter Takes A Train by British musician Roy BuddW, the main theme from the soundtrack of the movie Get CarterW, but using a different instrument (the saxophone, instead of the electric piano used on the original composition).

Background and Recording[]

Curtis Lynch Jr. was brought to work on the Gorillaz record after receiving a phone call from former Parlophone chairman Miles Leonard, who told him that Blur frontman and Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn wanted a reggae influence on his new "cartoon band project", and asked Curtis if he was interested in taking part in it. Curtis answered affirmatively and met Damon at a coffee shop near the record label Middle Row Records's recording studio (in the same building as Damon's Studio 13).[1]

In an interview for the Hip Albatross blog, Curtis answered some questions made by journalist Jack Seda-Schreiber regarding the recording of Dracula:

What was interesting about it, is that I was called on for sessions at random. I remember one of them might have been about 10 PM. I got to the studio, and the word 'chaos' comes to mind describing it. There were horns in one section of the studio, Jamie was there, there were people filming it the whole time and Damon was sort of orchestrating everything. I remember for this session, I started the song off with the drum pattern, I kind of just went in and got to it cause I kind of had in mind already what could come out of this. So, I was laying the track down with a drum and a bass line with some various dub reggae sound effects, and the thing is that I didn’t hear Damon’s vocals until way down the line. By time I heard it, my bass was replaced with a live one by Junior Dan, and the drums and effects you hear are exactly as I put them down with some live instrumentation on top of them. When I heard his vocal part, I found it quite mesmerizing, I would never have gone there with the vocal but it sounded amazing.
There was about three songs we did. You reminded me, I got to go find the other two because I (still) have them. We worked on about three songs across three sessions, but he (Damon) chose 'Dracula' as the best one out of the two that he seriously considered.

The song was initially planned to be included on the standard release of the band's debut album. However, it got cut just shortly before its release, being relegated to a bonus track on certain releases of the record, leading the standard album to only include songs produced by Dan The Automator.

When the Clint Eastwood single came out, Curtis was told that Dracula would also be featured on the self-titled album, but only found out it had been left out of it after it had already been released, with no explanation given to him as to why it happened. In the same interview, Curtis also revealed he wasn't aware of the existence of the visualiser made for the song but was very happy to find out about it.

I remember when it came out on the flip side of the 'Clint Eastwood' single and I got really excited to hear where it would go on the actual album, and then it wasn’t on there. I couldn’t believe it, I was like, 'What’s happened here?!' I was really surprised it wasn’t there, but then I found out it was on every other version of the album. So, I never worked out why it was cut here, but I was ok. It came out on the biggest single, and its on all the other versions of the album. They could have chosen any other song to be on the flip side of the 'Clint Eastwood' package but they chose that one. I was upset about it at first, but other than that it was cool. It’s their project, at the end of the day I was a part of it, and I was just happy for that to be honest.

Visualiser[]

DraculaVisuals

The visualiser for Dracula was produced around late 2000-early 2001, shortly before the release of Clint Eastwood. It was played during the live performances of the Gorillaz LIVE tour and was also later included on the Phase One: Celebrity Take Down DVD. It consists of a giant robot ape walking through a CGI urban landscape from dusk to late at night.

It was directed by Jamie Hewlett & Pete Candeland and animated by Passion Pictures, the same company responsible for the music video for Clint Eastwood.

Lyrics[]

[Count Bloodcount]
(I am a vampire!)

[2-D]
(Percentage of us tow the line
The rest of us is out of reach
Everybody, party time
Some of us will never sleep again)

[Count Bloodcount]
(Rest is good for the blood!)

[2-D]
The percentage of us tow the line
The rest of us out of reach
Everybody party time
Some of us will never sleep again

Dracula
Dracula, dracula
Dracula, dracula

The percentage of us tow the line
The rest of us out of reach
Everybody party time
Some of us will never sleep again

Dracula
Dracula, dracula
Dracula, dracula

Video[]

Availability[]

Song[]

  • Clint Eastwood single (most physical releases & digital);
  • Gorillaz (US eCD, Cassette & digital, French Nouvelle Edition bonus disc, Asian bonus AVCD & MY Cassette);
  • G-Sides (all non-US versions & digital).

Visualiser[]

  • Phase One: Celebrity Take Down DVD;
  • Unofficial YouTube reuploads.

Trivia[]

2-2d-Nosferatu

Original artwork

  • Dracula was the only b-side track from Phase One to have been played live during the Gorillaz LIVE tour and on the Song Machine Live performances.
  • The artwork for the song contains an edited close-up shot of the character Count OrlockW, portrayed by German actor Max SchreckW, from the 1922 silent film NosferatuW.
  • While Dracula is the only Gorillaz song ever released to be produced by Curtis Lynch Jr., he also made a remix of a different Gorillaz song, Slow Country, featuring deejay and rapper Spragga Benz, named Slow Country (Curtis Lynch Jr. Remix), released as a promo acetate on August 2000 and as a b-side track to vinyl release of the Ed Case Refix of Clint Eastwood, before the band's debut album even came out.
  • On certain editions of the Clint Eastwood single, Dan The Automator is credited as producer instead of Curtis. This error was subsequently corrected on later releases.
  • On the US and Canadian versions of G-Sides, Dracula is replaced with Latin Simone as the second track.
    • This also goes toward the Brazilian version of G-Sides, but instead of not appearing at all, Dracula appears as the tenth track, replacing the international versions' 12D3, also with its position changed.
  • Because of a factory error on the French Limited Edition of the self-titled album, Dracula became the second track of the second disc (nineteenth track in total), after Left Hand Suzuki Method, instead of being the first. The intended track listing for the second disc — consisting of Dracula, Hip Albatross, Left Hand Suzuki Method and The Sounder — is retained on the printing, but the disc itself has a different track order when played.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Jack Seda-Schreiber. "Tow The Line - An Interview With Curtis Lynch Jr.". Hip Albatross. Retrieved on 23 December 2021.

Navigation[]

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