"Vasoline" is a song by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots from their second album, Purple. The song was the second single of the album (and also the second most successful, only behind "Interstate Love Song"), reaching #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks.
The song's odd-sounding intro was created by Robert DeLeo, who ran his bass through a wah-wah pedal to get the said effect. The song's lyrics were written by vocalist Scott Weiland. "Vasoline" also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. A live version also appears on The Family Values 2001 Tour compilation.
During STP's performance of "Vasoline" on VH1 Storytellers, Weiland says that the song is about "feeling like an insect under a magnifying glass." During an interview with Greg Prato from SongFacts.com on October 14, 2014, Scott Weiland confirmed that the key line in this song came from a misheard lyric: His parents put on the Eagles song "Life in the Fast Lane", and Weiland thought they were singing, "Flies in the Vasoline."
In his autobiography Not Dead and Not For Sale, he adds that it "is about being stuck in the same situation over and over again. It's about me becoming a junkie. It's about lying to Jannina [Castaneda, first wife] and lying to the band about my heroin addiction."
Lyrics
One time a thing occurred to me
What's real and what's for sale
Blew a kiss and tried to take it home
It isn't you, isn't me
Search for things that you can't see
Going blind out of reach
Somewhere in the vasoline
Two times and it has rendered me
Punch drunk and without bail
Think I'd be safer all alone
Flies in the vasoline we are
Sometimes it blows my mind
Keep getting stuck here all the time
It isn't you, isn't me
Search for things that you can't see
Going blind out of reach
Somewhere in the vasoline
You'll see the look
And you'll see the lies
You'll eat the lies
And you will
Flies in the vasoline we are
Sometimes it blows my mind
Keep getting stuck here all the time
It isn't you, isn't me
Search for things that you can't see
Going blind out of reach
Somewhere in the vasoline
Songwriters: Dean Deleo / Eric Kretz / Robert Emile Deleo / Scott Richard Weiland
Vasoline lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
