INCUBUS: “PARDON ME” [VIDEO & LYRICS]

Incubus, Pardon Me, Video & Lyrics

Ah yes, INCUBUS!

My heart always flutters a little when talking about these guys. Today’s I LOVE THE 90′s is Incubus’ “Pardon Me,” from the band’s third album, Make Yourself, which was released in 1999. (Ugh, 12 years ago, ALREADY?! Seriously, where does the time go?)

This was pretty much the song that turned me, and a lot of people, on to Incubus. And the “Pardon Me” video turned me onto Brand Boyd, shirtless and beautiful, he was. And his voice is still one of my favorites in the industry. Smooth, strong and clean. I mean, even his voice is handsome!

What dolls these guys are, too. Some of you may have heard the story before, so forgive me in advance. I had the opportunity to chill out with Incubus in ’01 (or was it ’02?)  for a few hours after their show at the Paramount Theater in Seattle and they were by FAR the coolest, sweetest group of musicians I had ever met. Brandon Boyd was very modest, soft spoken and smiley. I remember telling him how lucky he was to be living his dream. Mike was a bit more outgoing, engaging and silly. Loved them both though.

Anyhow, back to Incubus’ “Pardon Me.”

The song, Brandon says, was inspired by his reading about spontaneous human combustion. He compared it to some crazy stuff going on in his life at the time, he had lost a grandmother and a good friend, and after returning home from a tour he discovered his longtime girlfriend had been cheating on him. (Seriously, woman!? Were you crazy?) The stress of everything made him feel like he was about to spontaneously combust.

Brandon Boyd of Incubus on writing Pardon Me: “I was in a bookstore, browsing through an old Life magazine, when I saw a picture of what the article called spontaneous human combustion. There were an old guy’s legs and shoes, perfectly intact…then, right around his knee area, was just a pile of charred ashes. I was going through some turmoil in my life, both good and bad, and the image struck a chord, so…I wrote a song about it.”

And a great song at that. Crank it up, and check out the lyrics after the cut.

Pardon me while I burst…

A decade ago,
I never thought I would be,
at twenty-three, on the verge of
spontaneous combustion. -Woe-is-me.-
But I guess that it comes
with the territory,
An ominous landscape of
never-ending calamity.
I need you to hear,
I need you to see
that I have had all I can take and
exploding seems like an imminent possibility
to me.

So pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I’ve had enough of the world
and its people’s mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me…
I’ll never be the same!

Not two days ago,
I was having a look
in a book
and I saw a picture of a guy
fried up above his knee.
I said, “I can relate,”
cause lately I’ve been thinking of combustication
as a welcome vacation from
the burdens of
the planet Earth.
like gravity, hypocrisy,
and the perils of being in 3-D…
but thinking so much differently.

Pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I’ve had enough of the world
and its people’s mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me…
I’ll never be the same!

Never be the same, yeah…
Pardon me, while I burst into flames…
Pardon me, pardon me, pardon me.

So pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I’ve had enough of the world
and its people’s mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me…
I’ll never be the same!

Never be the same….