Nookie (song)

"Nookie"
Single by Limp Bizkit
from the album Significant Other
Released	June 15, 1999
Recorded	1998
Genre	Nu metal, rap metal
Length	4:26
Producer	Fred Durst
Limp Bizkit singles chronology
"Faith" (1998) "Nookie" (1999) "Re-Arranged" (1999)

"Nookie" is the first single released from the album Significant Other by Limp Bizkit. It was nominated for "Best Hard Rock Performance" at the 2000 Grammy Awards.^[1]

One of the reasons Fred Durst attributes to the song becoming a success is that it's sung slower, and in a fashion where his lyrics are easier to understand, in contrast to his style in Three Dollar Bill, Yall$', where the lyrics in some songs are indistinguishable due to the fast screaming style Fred uses on the album.

The song features an interlude at the end, which features Fred Durst breaking a couple of items with the band laughing, leading into "Break Stuff".

Music

The intro and verse beat for "Nookie" is a 1 bar sample (starting at 1'05) from the song "You're Getting a Little Too Smart" by early 70's R&B act The Detroit Emeralds. It however does not appear on the song credits. ^[2] Guitarist Wes Borland used a custom built baritone guitar with only four strings: tuned nearly an octave downward from standard tuning, the string's pitches were F#, F#, B and E. For the lowest F# string (which is one octave lower than the higher F# tuned string), Borland made this string a bass guitar string. Borland also plays this particular guitar in the music video for the song.

Scott Borland, Wes Borland's brother, plays keyboard on the song. Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver fame sings the sampled "hey" in the "like a chump" prechorus.^{[citation needed]}

Lyrics

The song is about Fred Durst's relationship with a past girlfriend, in which she used him for his money, and cheated on him with his friends, and yet he continued to stay with her despite the emotional distress this caused. The hook reveals his reason for staying in the relationship, which was because of the sex. "Hey, what the hell, what you want me to say?/ I won't lie, that I can't deny/ I did it all for the nookie".

In a 2008 interview with British rock magazine Kerrang, guitarist Wes Borland had the following to say about how the lyrical content turned out: "The music was cool, but I didn't like the lyrics at all. The funny thing is that Nookie was actually the working title. When we were in the studio there was a porn magazine that had the word 'nookie' on the cover, so I was like, 'This song's called Nookie!', I never thought someone would actually run with it. I suppose it's all my fault."^[3]

Music video

In the song's music video, the band allowed hundreds of fans to participate, playing the song in front of the large crowd. All the men went to one side of the stage, and the women on the other side. When Durst sang the chorus, at certain parts he would hold out his microphone to the crowd, getting that particular side to sing. This was, according to Durst, to show that "guys go off hard, but girls go off even harder". The audio from this plays during the music video. At the end of the music video, Durst is arrested and taken away by police officers, leading into the beginning of the video for Re-Arranged.

The song was performed live on the first day of programming of MTV's "Isle of MTV", their summer 1999 promotion. At the conclusion of the song, Durst detonated a ship sitting out in the water a few hundred yards from the stage. The video was directed by Fred Durst.

Tracklisting

1. "Nookie" - 4:28
2. "Counterfeit" (Lethal Dose Remix) - 3:21
3. "Counterfeit" (Phat Ass Remix) - 3:05
4. "Nookie" (video)
5. "Faith" (video)

Legacy and influence

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this as a Lounge version on his 2000 album called, Lounge Against the Machine and his 2006 album called, The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese.^{[citation needed]} Girl Talk sampled the song, on his song "Friends 4-Ever" from his album Secret Diary.^{[citation needed]} Texan metalcore band Sky Eats Airplane released a cover of this song on their MySpace profile in 2009.^{[citation needed]} Christian comedy rock band Apologetix recorded a parody entitled "Simp Lizkut", which appeared on their album Keep the Change.^{[citation needed]}

Hed PE guitarist Wes Geer said that "Nookie" is "cheesy and is not as good as [Hed PE's song] 'Bartender'. ['Nookie' has] a catchy hook, but at least in my opinion, it's just kind of dumb. But somewhere along the way the business decided to support that one harder than they did 'Bartender', you know.".^[4] Pharrell Williams, while recording N.E.R.D.'s 2008 album Seeing Sounds cited this song as part of the band's incentive and drive to record more energetic music, noting it as the last energetic hit single before the album's release.^[5]

On September 7, 2010, Nookie became a downloadable song in the game Guitar Hero 5 (Rock 1 Track Pack).^{[citation needed]} On September 11, 2010, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the song at #23 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating that Fred Durst "did it [all] for the nookie, huh? We hope he got it, 'cause he's clearly going home without artist respect today."^[6]

References

1. ^ http://www.metrolyrics.com/2000-grammy-awards.html
2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFDOrnpvKLA
3. ^ http://www.blacklightburns.com/community/archive/index.php/t-463.html
4. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=10036
5. ^ Micallef, Ken (2008-06-01). "N.E.R.D - Old Money, New Money". Remix Magazine. Primedia Business Magazines & Media. http://remixmag.com/artists/hiphop_R&B/remix_old_money_new/. Retrieved 2009-01-14. 
6. ^ http://www.aolradioblog.com/2010/09/11/100-worst-songs-ever-part-four-of-five/

External links

• "Nookie" Official music video on YouTube