Wake the Dead

Album: Along Came A Spider (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • Cooper co-wrote this track with Heavy Metal icon Ozzy Osbourne and musician/producer Danny Saber, whose former bands include Black Grape and Agent Provocateur. Ozzy also played the harmonica, and Saber handled all the guitar parts, including the Beatlesque bass line. He also played keyboards on the track and co-produced the album with Greg Hampton.
  • Along Came a Spider is a concept album that tells the story of a sophisticated serial killer known as Spider, who cocoons his victims in a silk web. In a 2007 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, the shock-rock legend discussed how the album's concept came about: "I hadn't written a concept for about four albums and, all of a sudden, it started taking off, this personality," he said. "I started realizing that this guy Spider was a serial killer, but very slick and elegant."
  • The lyrics on this song touch on the album's theme of an urbane, spiderlike serial killer: "How many more will cross my path? How many more must die? I never wonder where they come from. I never wonder, why."
  • Along Came a Spider was Cooper's highest-charting album since Hey Stoopid in 1991. It climbed to #53 on the US Billboard 200 album charts and peaked at #31 on the UK album charts. The collection also performed well in other parts of the world, breaking the Top 40 in several countries. Slash makes a guest appearance on the album, contributing some blistering solos on the track "Vengeance is Mine."

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