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"Take Cover" is the ninth track on Evanescence's fifth studio album, The Bitter Truth. It's a leftover song from the ill-fated, initial sessions for the band's third album, Evanescence, in 2010 with producer Steve Lillywhite that made its debut live on October 28, 2016.
Background[]
In the light of the release of The Ultimate Collection box set in 2016, the band decided to play a new song for the fans in the 2016 U.S. Fall Tour.
We are playing a new song live right now. We got together for rehearsals and we really focused this tour on the fans and the history of the band. Kind of in light of this whole box set theme, we wanted to do everything that the fans want and not just what we felt like doing. It has been so fulfilling and so fun. When we got together the guys were really strongly supportive of it, we had a song in the bank. And we were like, ‘You know what the fans would really love is a new song. That’s all they ever ask for.’ So we knocked the dust off an old song called Take Cover that we had in the bank for a while and we loved it. It’s one of our favourite moments every night on the tour. I think they like it a lot. I posted the lyrics on Facebook and now I get at least five people in the front row mouthing along, which is extra fun.[1]
Before performing the song each night, Amy said that it's "dedicated to everyone who tried to tear this band apart from the inside out."
Amy was asked about the song in Kerrang! interview in December 2016:
When we were getting ready for this tour we were asking, 'What should we do with the set list?' I forget who said it first, but someone said, 'You know what fans want the most is a new song!' So I was like, 'What about Take Cover?' It was one of the songs that totally could have made it to the last album, but there were too many good songs and it just didn't make it - it was right at the top of the pile. So we tried it, and it was one of the best moments of every night because it has major attitude. And I think that's cool, it's a nice way to experiment song-wise, see how the fans react, how we feel.[2]
Lillywhite confirmed on his Twitter that the song belonged to his sessions with the band that took place in a New York studio from February 22, 2010 to April that same year.[3] However, they were scrapped by the label because "they thought it didn't sound like Evanescence."[4] Amy also confirmed it in a BUILD Series interview in 2017:[5]
We made “Take Cover” before the last album. So as probably for the people in this room must to know that when we made Ev3, before we put it out, we were working on a project that was like another version of it that didn’t work out and then we went back and wrote a bunch of more songs and included some of those. But we mostly made a new record that was full-on rock. It was this other style thing. So in “Take Cover” you can probably hear that the style is a little bit different, it’s a little bit more attitude. I don’t know how to define it exactly, but it comes from that batch of songs, same as “Made of Stone” and “Swimming Home.” We have a little pile of songs that’s like, ‘This is gonna be awesome someday when we find the right home’ and “Take Cover” was on the top of the pile.
The song was confirmed to be recorded and revamped for The Bitter Truth when producer Nick Raskulinecz posted an Instagram photo of Will Hunt's drum snare with the song title written on it on August 10, 2020.[6] In an interview with Kerrang! in March 2021, Amy said "Take Cover" touches upon some elements of her past that she moved on, "but apparently there’s still some things that I needed to get off my chest."[7]
“Well, I should say this: the seeds of both Yeah Right and Take Cover, much of them were written, from a lyrical standpoint, a decade ago. So think about what was going on in 2010 and some of the stuff that was a little bit closer to the forefront of my mind.”[7]
The cassette tape titled The Bitter Truth Evolution, released as part of the album's deluxe box set, includes an audio of Amy Lee explaining to programmer Tiago Nunez the programming effects she wanted before the first verse comes in.
Lyrics[]
The Bitter Truth Version[]
By the way that you talk to me |
2016 Live Version[]
By the way that you talk to me |
Video[]
Credits[]
- Amy Lee - vocals, keyboards, additional programming, songwriting, lyricist
- Will B. Hunt - additional programming, songwriting
- Troy McLawhorn - guitar, songwriting
- Tim McCord - bass guitar, songwriting
- Will Hunt - drums, songwriting
- Tiago Nunez - programming
- Nick Raskulinecz - production, mixing
- Ted Jensen - mastering engineer
References[]
- ↑ Lach, Stef (November 16, 2016). "Evanescence inspired by reaction to new song Take Cover". LOUDER
- ↑ "It's a Kerristmas miracle!". December 2016. Kerrang!.
- ↑ Lillywhite, Steve (October 31, 2016). "it was !!!". Twitter
- ↑ Celebrity Interview Steve Lillywhite (2013)
- ↑ Amy Lee Discusses Her New Single, "Speak To Me". (March 20, 2017)
- ↑ Raskulinecz, Nick (August 10, 2020). "The aftermath of tracking 9 songs with the “man of steel” Will Hunt!!!". Instagram.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "I needed to face the abyss head on". March 10, 2021. Kerrang!.