We Care a Lot by Faith No More

Album: We Care a Lot (1985)

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Through black humor, this song found Faith No More singing of the pomposity of the Live Aid generation. "We were very sarcastic," keyboardist Roddy Bottum recalled to Mojo in 2015, "and that's where 'We Care a Lot' came from: it drew on the stuff we loved - Soulsonic Force, Kraftwerk and the first Run-D.M.C. album - while poking fun at modern culture and the media stuff we thought was stupid."
The lead vocals are by Chuck Mosley, who was FNM's lead singer until 1988. Mosley, who wrote the lyrics along with Roddy Bottum, considers it the first rap-rock song. In a Songfacts interview with Mosley, he explained that while the Red Hot Chili Peppers rapped over funk and the Beastie Boys rapped over beats, this track was the first instance of rap over rock.
The song was released the same year that Rock Hudson became the first high profile victim of AIDS. The actor's death is referenced in the lyric, "We care a lot about disease, baby, Rock Hudson, rock."
There are three different versions of the song. The original was the title track of Faith No More's first studio album, 1985's We Care a Lot.

A re-recorded version, with updated, more topical, lyrics was included two years later on the Introduce Yourself album. Released as the lead single, it reached #53 on the UK Singles Chart.

A live version was included on the Live at the Brixton Academy album and DVD and was also released as a single in 1991.
Five years after this was released, MC Hammer had a huge hit with "Pray," which lifts the vocal melody from "We Care A Lot." Hammer and his crew shout "That's why we pray" the same way Faith No More shouts the "We care a lot."
It was only when the band recorded "We Care A Lot" at Prairie Sun that bassist Billy Gould got to hear the song with the lyrics. He recalled to Kerrang!: "It was just music before that. Roddy had written the lyrics and given it to Chuck. He got on the mic and started singing, I was like, 'This is a real song!'"

Comments: 2

Luna Loud from Royal Woods, MichiganThey were making fun of all the big time celebrities, who they felt cared a lot less about working for a cause then by making themselves look good by doing the Live-Aid and Hands Across America campaigns.

P.S. This song was the theme song to the show "Dirty Jobs" that my 7 year old sister is a fan of, so in a way, she is actually the one who got me into this song. Go figure!
Luna Loud from Royal Woods, MichiganThe lyrics on this site are either the ones from the Live At Brixton Academy album or another live recording. The "Introduce Yourself" album version is pretty much the same lyrics, except it omits the lyrical snippet from House Of Pain's "Jump Around" in the middle, and Chuck Mosley sings, "Well, it's a dirty song, but someone's gotta sing it, now," as the last line (come to think of it, I think Mike Patton sings a snippet from New Kids on the Block's "The Right Stuff" on the Brixton version, so this is from a different live version).

The lyrics to the original We Care A lot album version go as follows:

(We care a lot)
(We care a lot)

(We care a lot) About disasters, fires, floods and killer bees.
(We care a lot) About Los Angeles falling in the sea.
(We care a lot) About starvation and the food that Live Aid bought.
(We care a lot) About disease, baby, Rock Hudson, rock, yeah!

Whoa...

(We care a lot)
(We care a lot)

(We care a lot) About the gamblers and the pushers and the freaks.
(We care a lot) About the people who live off the street.
(We care a lot) About the welfare of all the boys and girls.
(We care a lot) About you people, 'cause we're out to save the world, yeah!

Well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta to do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
Well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

Whoa...

(We care a lot) About the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
(We care a lot) About the NY, SF, and LAPD.
(We care a lot) About you people,
(We care a lot) About your guns,
(We care a lot) About the wars you're fighting,
gee that looks like fun!

(We care a lot) About the Cabbage Patch and Smurfs and DMC.
(We care a lot) About Madonna and we cop for Mr. T.
(We care a lot) About the little things, the bigger things, we top.
(We care a lot) About you people, yeah, you bet we care a lot, yeah!

Whoo, whoo!

Well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
Well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
Well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it, now.

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