THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

335-Faith No More-Epic.

1990-Number 25 single.

Best Bit-At 0.33. After hearing Faith No More’s Album ‘The Real Thing,’ Anthony Kiedis who is the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (see also best songs 977) accused Mike Patton the lead singer of Faith No More of stealing his style. Tongue in cheek Kiedis said, ‘My drummer says he’s gonna kidnap (Patton) him, shave his hair off, and cut off one of his feet, just so he’ll be forced to find a style of his own.’ In another interview he clarified his comment, remarking, ‘I love ‘The Real Thing,’ and I liked his vocals, when I heard the record I noticed subtle similarities, but when I saw the video it was like, ‘Wait a second here, what the fu#k?’ Mike Patton has since gone on to say that he is flattered that Anthony Kiedis talks about him in interviews, and enjoys the free publicity it brings.

Faith No More were formed in San Francisco, California, United States, in 1979, three of the original line up, Billy Gould, (bass) Roddy Bottum, (keyboards and rhythm guitar) and Mike Bordin (drums) are the bands three constants. They were active until 1998, but reformed again in 2009, through until 2020, and at the time of writing they are on hiatus. In total there have been 13 different members come and go, including the American singer Courtney Love, (see also best songs 623) who was with the group for a short time in 1984, but didn’t appear on any released recordings. In 1979 the group started out life as ‘Sharp Young Men,’ by 1983 they had changed to ‘Faith. No Man,’ issuing their first single ‘Quiet in Heaven/Song of Liberty,’ under that name. When one of the founding members Mike Morris left the group shortly after, they chose the name ‘Faith No More’ to to accentuate the fact that ‘The Man’ (Mike Morris) was ‘No More.’

The discography of Faith No More includes seven studio Albums released between 1985-2015, and 25 singles released between 1983-2016, there are also six official compilation Albums and one live Album available. In America on the Billboard 200 Album chart, four of their studio Album releases have made the top 40, with their fourth Album ‘Angel Dust’ peaking the highest at Number 10 in 1992. Faith No More have had one single reach the Billboard Hot 100, which is this track ‘Epic,’ which made Number 9 in 1990, while in the UK, 12 of their singles have reached the top 40, with their 1992 cover of the Lionel Richie penned hit ‘Easy’ for his American group the Commodores peaking the highest at Number 3, six places above the 1977 Commodores original.

‘Epic’ was the second of five singles released from ‘The Real Thing,’ which is the third studio Album by Faith No More, from June 1989, the song was co-written by the group members Mike Patton, Billy Gould, Jim Martin, Roddy Bottum, and Mike Bordin, with the production being by Matt Wallace, whose other high profile work includes Faith No More’s ‘Angel Dust’ Album, (1992) and Maroon 5’s debut studio Album ‘Songs About Jane’ (2002.) Faith No More’s lead singer Mike Patton who had joined the group in 1989 was responsible for the lyrics, while the majority of the songs music had been composed at an earlier date prior to his arrival. Faith No More were struggling for a breakthrough hit, with their record label suggesting that this was their last chance. The label let the band choose a song for release, and a video for it to be made, but both the band and the label had no real expectations of the song being a hit. Billy Gould has recalled, ‘At the time it was our favourite song on the Album, but no one from the record label seemed too interested in it. In fact, we had done a video for ‘From Out Of Nowhere’ which didn’t get much traction, and the label told us, ‘Hey guys, the Album didn’t work. We’ll do one more video for whatever song you want.’ So we picked ‘Epic’ because it just felt the most natural at the time. We had very little expectations of it becoming a commercial hit.’

Faith No More are recognised as leading lights in the genre of ‘Alternative Rock’ music, and it’s offshoot ‘Rap Metal.’ Rap Metal is a fusion genre that combines ‘Hip-Hop’ with ‘Heavy Metal.’ It usually consists of Heavy Metal guitar riffs, ‘Funk Metal’ elements, rapped vocals, and sometimes turntables. Other artists on this ‘1000 Best Songs’ list who have fused the genres include the Beastie Boys, (see also best songs 610) and Run-DMC (see also best songs 305 and 113.) Scott Ian, the co-founder of the American ‘Thrash Metal’ group Anthrax who helped pioneer the genre, believes that it was Rage Against the Machine (see also best songs 837) who invented the genre.

What ‘Epic’ is about is open to interpretation. Personally I would like to think it is about that ultimate feeling of satisfaction, when for instance, you finally meet that special person that will change your life. Or it might be that moment when you finally achieve something that you have always striven for. It’s that fleeting moment when your on cloud nine. In 1990 Mike Patton who wrote the lyrics gave some insight to the songs meaning when saying it was about sexual frustration, sex, and the lack of it. Patton said that the song is about masturbation, ‘Most people don’t like to talk about it. I’m here to tell ya, I love it. That’s kinda of what Epic’s really about.’……. I prefer my interpretation.

‘Can you feel it, see it, hear it today? If you can’t, then it doesn’t matter anyway. You will never understand it ’cause it happens too fast, and it feels so good, it’s like walking on glass.’