Karma Killer
Angriest song ever? Robbie Williams holds nothing back.
Even though this song has the theme of wanting someone dead, it’s such a banger that I’ve loved it from the first time I heard it. I’ve been back and forth on whether or not it’s appropriate to sing it but after my Robbie Williams karaoke night1 last night gave me the chance for an extra song, I sang this. And boy is it fun!
Co written with Guy Chambers and produced by Chambers and Steve Power, it appeared on Williams’ second album, I’ve Been Expecting You in 1998, Even though the song wasn’t released as a single (with good reason, given the lyrical content), Capital Records felt strongly enough about it to put it on the compliation album The Ego has Landed the following year. It was designed to introduce Williams to the North American audience.
I went around the internet trying to get a first hand source about the origins of the song but no luck. The story is that the song is about Take That’s manager Nigel Martin-Smith. (The band Williams started his career with.) One of the most memorable lyric is “I hope you choke on your Barcardi and Coke.” This is known to be Martin-Smith’s favourite drink.
Look what you didn’t take from me
Williams had talked a lot about how Martin-Smith belittled him and make him feel insecure with his place in the band (why was I never good enough?), and had stolen royalities from him. (Apparently he sued for them and lost but I couldn’t find a record of that on the internet either.) You can certainly hear in the lyrics the defiance that his success allows him to have.
The one primary source I was able to find was someone has saved a quote from his website at the time.
When you absolutely detest somebody, this is the perfect song to listen to as it says it all. It’s an anthem for people who’ve been annoyed by someone and can’t find it in their heart to forgive them. It got such a lot of anger out of my system I wish this had been written before I wrote it! It’s very rocky and it’s so scary it should have an 18 certificate.
Williams feuded with Martin-Smith for decades but he has come to regret the sentiments in this song. Last year a documentary on boy bands2 interviewed the both of them and when it was aired, Williams wrote a very concilitory open letter to Martin-Smith in which he took full responsibility for his addictions and recognized that both of them could have done better at the time. The whole thing is worth reading but this is the main bit:
Song remains a banger thought. Here it is live.
Enjoy your song of the day!
Let Me Entertain You, Love Somebody, Feel
Boybands Forever. If you know of a way I could watch, I’d appreciate it.
Very interesting backstory on the song. It's great that he could make amends and let go of that past.
I don't know anything about the Take That situation, but mismanagement and exploitation comes up so often in musician autobiographies, including royalty theft, that I tend to expect to find it now. The music industry is a bit of a wild west.
Loved to see a woman keyboardist in the video!