“Queer” by Garbage

"Queer" came off Garbage's self-titled 1995 debut, and it began life before the band had a singer: a demo cooked up by Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker. Once Shirley Manson joined, she rewrote its sexual lyrics into something far more ambiguous and reshaped the whole track into a slow, smoky crossbreed of trip hop and rock. All four share the writing credit, and they produced it themselves.

It crawls rather than rocks. Vig's drums and effects and his and Marker's samplers build a murky, narcotic bed, Erikson handles bass, guitar and keyboards, and there are guests all over it: Clyde Stubblefield on additional drums, Mike Kashou on bass and Les Thimmig on clarinet. Over the top Manson purrs and sneers like she knows exactly what you're thinking, and she's not impressed.

Released in 1995 as the band's second single internationally (the fourth in Britain), it caught on with modern rock radio fast and drew warm reviews, and it gave the fledgling band its first top-20 hit on both the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and the UK Singles Chart. Stéphane Sednaoui's video, shot from a first-person view as Manson detains, strips and shaves a man, was all over MTV, sold Garbage as a band with a real eye for visuals, and was nominated for Breakthrough Video at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.