Song of the day for December 26, 2023
Today’s song is from Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds To Mars. The song I chose is The Kill live performance from Reading Festival 2011.
Jared Leto is celebrating his 51st birthday today. Born in 1971, he formed the band when he was 27 years old in 1998. He started his acting career in the TV show My So Called Life in 1994. He made his film debut in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and gained critical attention for his performance in Prefontaine (1997). After supporting roles in The Thin Red Line (1998), Fight Club (1999), Girl, interrupted (1999) and American Psycho (2000), he received praise for his lead role as a drug addict in Requiem for a Dream (2000). He then began focusing increasingly on music, returning to acting with Panic Room (2002), Alexander (2004), Lord of War (2005), Chapter 27 (2007), and Mr. Nobody (2009). His performance as a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has since starred in Suicide Squad (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), The Little Things (2021), House of Gucci (2021), and Morbius (2022).
Leto is the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars, a band he formed in 1998 with his older brother Shannon Leto. Its debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but to limited commercial success. Its second album, A Beautiful Lie (2005), pushed the band into the public eye and the next releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success. It was followed by America (2018), which polarized critics upon release. The band has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
“The Kill” (written “The Kill (Bury Me)” on the single and music video) is a song by American band Thirty Seconds to Mars. The song was released on January 24, 2006, as the second single from their second album, A Beautiful Lie. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and peaked at number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The music video is based on the movie The Shining. It features the band exploring a hotel which they are caretaking. At the start, Jared Leto states that they have the hotel all to themselves for three days; although, later on, after the first chorus, it comes on the screen saying, “One Week Later”, before showing the pages saying “This is who I really am”. In the extended version of the video, the other band members complain that they have been at the hotel longer than expected and have canceled shows because of Jared’s peculiar behavior, explaining the discrepancy.
A letter from the hotel owner tells the band to “Enjoy your stay and please stay out of Room 6277.” Shannon Leto does not heed the warning and opens Room 6277. Following the opening of the door, each band member begins to experience the effects of the room opening throughout the hotel. Each member experiences the effects differently, but one thing remains constant for everyone – they encounter a version of themselves dressed in a 1920s style tuxedo with tails. Several other apparitions then take up residence in the hotel, dispelling the promise Jared made in the beginning of the video that the band will have the hotel all to themselves and that “there’s not gonna be a single f*cking soul”. The video reaches its climax when Tomo encounters himself in bed with a man in a bear suit (another Shining reference), and immediately the band dressed in tuxedos are shown performing the song in the hotel’s ballroom in front of a crowd of twins, dressed like the roaring 1920s, dancing with themselves. The theme of duplicity resonates throughout the video.
