"Stan" was the third and final single (after "The Real Slim Shady" and "The Way I Am") released from The Marshall Mathers LP, the second LP from rapper Eminem. The song is perhaps Eminem's most critically-acclaimed song and has been called a 'cultural milestone'.[1] It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Elton John. It is a haunting story of a fan who writes to Eminem but doesn't receive a swift reply. Unhinged already, the fan (Stan) drives his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk. The first three verses are delivered by Stan, with the third being spoken as he is about to drive off a bridge and is recording a cassette to send to Eminem. The fourth verse is Eminem responding to Stan, only realizing at the last second that he has heard about Stan's death as he was writing to him.
The song was produced by The 45 King and samples "Thank You" by Dido as the chorus.
[edit] Lyrics
The song begins with Dido singing "Thank You". Unusually, this part was a verse, not a chorus in the original song. The lyrics to Dido's part are; "My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all, the morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all, and even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad". These lyrics are repeated throughout the song.
In the first verse, Stan is writing to Eminem for the third time, hoping his hero will write back. He explains the level of his devotion ('I got a room full of your posters and your pictures, man) and maintains that Eminem 'must not have got 'em', his previous two letters. Stan also reveals that his girlfriend is pregnant, and that he is going to name his daughter Bonnie, and sympathizes with the suicide of a family member ('I read about your Uncle Ronnie too I'm sorry/I had a friend kill himself over some ***** who didn't want him'). Despite of the optimism of Stan, the menacing beats, intermittent thunder and rainfall, and the background music keeps the mood dark and ominous.
In the second verse, Stan is clearly frustrated. He begins somewhat optimistically but begins to lose his temper by the second line ('I ain't mad - I just think it's ****** up you don't answer fans). The thunder in the background has grown steadily more constant and louder, particularly at some of the more chilling lines in the song. This verse also shows Stan's general lack of mental health: 'Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds/It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me.' Stan mentions his little brother, Matthew, who is an even bigger fan of Eminem than Stan himself. Stan is bitter because Eminem had supposedly refused to give Matthew an autograph at a concert, after waiting in the 'blistering cold' for four hours. Stan explains why he identifies with Eminem ('I never knew my father neither/He used to always cheat on my mom and beat her).
The third verse is Stan rapping into a tape recorder in the car he is about to drive off a bridge. His words are slurred, and he is clearly under the influence of depressants, as evidenced by the line, "I'm on a thousand downers now, I'm drowsy." His pregnant girlfriend can be heard screaming in the trunk, and the rain and thunder are loud and insistent. Stan is irate, addressing Eminem as "Dear Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Call-Or-Write-My-Fans". He explains his predicament: "I'm in the car right now, I'm doing 90 on the freeway/Hey Slim, I drank a fifth of vodka, you dare me to drive?" (quoting "My Name Is..." on the previous Eminem album, The Slim Shady LP). This is followed by a reference to a Phil Collins song, "In the Air Tonight". Specifically, Stan refers to an urban legend that the song is about Collins seeing a man drowning, while a closer bystander does nothing to save him. (Collins has stated that this is not true and nothing of the sort ever happened.) Stan vents, revealing the depths of his anger: "I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it/And when you dream I hope you can't sleep and you scream about it/I hope your conscience eats at you and you can't breathe without me". At the end, Stan realizes too late he will be unable to send the tape to Eminem. In the live Grammy performance of the song, Eminem changed the first line "can't sleep" to "go to sleep". This corrected what was likely an error on the album track due to Eminem's avoidance of "punch-ins", recording over any mistakes in a verse, in order to preserve the ferocity of lyrical delivery he is renowned for.
The fourth verse is Eminem's belated reply to Stan. He begins casually "Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy." He also says he sends a cap with his autograph for Matthew, and reveals something of his serious and sober side with his advice for Stan: "You got some issues Stan/I think you need some counseling" and "I really think you and your girlfriend need each other/or maybe you just need to treat her better". He apologizes for missing Stan at the concert mentioned in the second verse, and also chastises Stan for suggesting an apparently homosexual relationship ("That type of ****'ll make me not want us to meet each other"; later related to in the Pet Shop Boys song The Night I Fell in Love). The song ends with Eminem's realization of what has happened ("... in the car they found a tape, but they didn't say who it was to/Come to think about it, his name... it was you. Damn."), and then a sudden clash of thunder and lightning. In the music video, the lightning strike illuminates a split-second image of Stan's face staring in through a window at his former idol.
[edit] Music video
2007-03-10 12:24:52
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answer #7
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answered by charlie c 1
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