Protège Moi, Sleeping With Ghosts, (Placebo lyrics, explanations and press quotes)

C'est le malaise du moment
L'épidémie qui s'étend
La fête est finie, on descend
Les pensées qui glacent la raison
Paupières baissées, visages gris
Surgissent les fantômes de notre lit
On ouvre le loquet de la grille
Du taudis qu'on appelle maison

Protect me from what I want
Protect me from what I want
Protect me from what I want...

Sommes-nous les jouets du destin
Souviens-toi des moments divins
Planant, éclatés, au matin
Et maintenant nous sommes tout seuls
Perdus les rêves de s'aimer
Le temps où on avait rien fait
Il nous reste une vie pour pleurer
Et maintenant nous sommes tout seuls

Protect me from what I want
Protect me from what I want
Protect me from what I want...

Press Quotes

(Translation, quote in French here)

Why did you release a French version of "Protect Me From What I Want"?

Brian Molko : This track is a waltz. So there was this little continental, Viennese atmosphere. And the French I know in London found that it sounded french. So, it was a Franco-German thing. But we didn't make a Teuton version. Sometimes, when I sing it, I feel like Edith Piaf. (And Brian Molko imitates Edith Piaf)

Why did you choose Virginie Despentes to tranlate this track, the author, among other things, of Baise-moi, a book and film that have caused much controversy in France?

Brian Molko : We met several years ago thanks to mutual friends and we like each other. She's a great trash artist, and that's often what media shows, but we sometimes forgot that she's also an excellent writer. For us, Virginie was the obvious choice. She had never done this before and, for her, it was a challenge. But when you go in the studio, better doing it with someone you get on well with.

Does the scent of scandal around Virginie Despentes attracts you?

Brian Molko : Despite her lesbian punk activist image she's an extremely sedate person. But, of course, for us it's also exciting to work with an artist by whom the scandal appears, who forces the media to its limits, which creates controversy.

Brian Molko, Made in Paris, New'Zic n° 6 (March/April), February 12th 2004

(Translation, quote in French here)

PLACEBO : "Protège-Moi"

Brian : This waltz sounded French when it was recorded. Half-German, half-French. It seems continental, Europeean, probably because it's a waltz. This song is a ballad. It confronts us with our weaknesses. It shows us how we go next to every parcel of happiness. When we are diverted by our weaknesses and desires, contradictory desires. Like many other songs, it's about confusion.

Steve : And social pressure too.

Brian : It's like you are locked in a cage, feeling guilty to destroy the happiness at every moment. It has worked with Virginie Despentes on the translation, because she's a friend, and we prefer to work with people we know rather than strangers. We tell ourselves "we need a translation. Which French writer do we know? Virginie!" We have offered her to do it and she said yes.

Brian Molko, Steve Hewitt, M6 Music, Mars 2004

(Translation, quote in French here)

On "Protège Moi," you have chosen to entrust the French adaptation of "Protect Me From What I Want" to the novelist Virginie Despentes. How do you explain this choice?

Brian : I wrote this song about four years ago, just at the end of the recording of Black Market Music. This is a song rather dark and painful recounting the pain of a trying separation. When we had the idea to do an adaptation in French, our choice fell immediately on Virginie. I love her writing style. I had already greatly like "Les jolies choses" and "Baise Moi", so everything took place spontaneously. I also think that her adaptation fits perfectly into the world of Placebo.

Brian Molko, Guitarist Mag n°167 mai 2004

“The most challenging thing we’ve done recently was for a French only release for a song called ‘Protect Me’ which was directed by a filmmaker called Gaspard Noe. He made a film called ‘Irreversible’, which was quite scandalous. And we can’t show it, because it is hard core porn…. But we love it. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of hardcore.”

Brian Molko, Xfm Online 2004