| "Same On The Inside" | |
|---|---|
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| Song by Stone Temple Pilots | |
| from the album High Rise | |
| Recorded: | 2013 |
| Released: | October 08, 2013 |
| Format: | Digital, CD, Vinyl |
| Length: | 3:15 |
| Writer: | Chester Bennington, Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, Eric Kretz |
| Producer: | Stone Temple Pilots |
| Label: | Play Pen, LLC |
| High Rise tracklist | |
Background
In an interview with ArtistDirect on October 16, 2013, Chester Bennington talked about the meaning of the song: "For all of us, that one came from out of nowhere. It's really different. In a stylistic way, it's a step in a new stylistic direction for STP that still sounds very STP. I think a lot of people find themselves trying to play some type of role in society and fit in. Sometimes, in their lifetimes, people don't feel like anybody else and they don't want to play by the same rules anybody else does. You start to find the glass half empty. You also start to find your own independence and point-of-view. This is a song about struggling with those things. When I write lyrics, they're a little more to the point. It's a bit easier to figure out what they're about. When I was writing for High Rise, I was channeling the spirit of Mike Shinoda to a degree. It's like when Luke Skywalker is talking to Yoda and he's already absorbed "The Force". I was pulling on those guys, Mike, Rick Rubin, Don Gilmore, and all of the people who pushed me when it comes to writing lyrics. I'd run it through what my brain reconstructed as those people in my mind, and they criticized the lyrics along with me. I was hoping I wouldn't just settle for something I thought sounded nice when I sang it. I would try to live up to what we do with Linkin Park in terms of having songs with meaning but also writing in a more poetic manner as STP has in the past. I tried to combine more of that poetic style into the lyrics."
Eric Kretz explained how the song came together in an interview with SongFacts on November 20, 2013: "Whereas the song "Same On The Inside," Dean was strumming something on guitar when I walked in, "Ah, let's go play that." So he and I would just sit there and start going through the chord progressions and getting over all the jive feel, the jumpin' and jive feel of where the song was going. Chester would come in and suddenly start shooting melodies [snaps fingers], like, bam, bam bam! That was just so exciting as we were putting songs together. Within a few hours we were getting songs together, minus the lyrics. What Chester would do, as he would call them, is "banana lyrics" where he would just sing, "bananananana." Those are his words, not mine. That gets the point across. He doesn't have specific words yet. He'll be writing stuff down on his laptop and sing out the vowels and we all go, "Alright. The song's coming together." It's a really exciting time to be in the studio and working with the band when it goes that quickly."
Versions
Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Same On The Inside | High Rise | 3:15 | May 2013-October 2013 | October 8, 2013 | |
| Same On The Inside Guitar Only | memo:demo | 3:25 | 2013 | January 29, 2015 |
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Personnel
Lyrics
Sending out a message to the world
But I just can't seem to find the words
No one wants to die alone
Broken and insane
Question every last decision
Another empty page
Do you know the answers
Tell me, I'll find my happy ending
When do we start pretending that
We're all the same on the inside
Wanting what I know won't satisfy
Just to live this, need to live a lie
Never meant to run away (Never meant to run away)
Jumping out the train (Jumping out the train)
My cage was built on good intentions
Running every page
Do you know the answers
Tell me, I'll find my happy ending
When do we start pretending that
We're all the same on the inside
All the same on the inside
All the same on the inside
Do you know the answers
Tell me, I'll find my happy ending
When do we start pretending that
We're all the same on the inside
All the same on the inside
We're all the same on the inside
We're all the same on the inside
Yeah, we're all the same on the inside