Muscle Museum

Muscle Museum Lyrics

edit She had something to confess to But you don’t have the time so Look the other way You will wait until it’s over To reveal what you’d never shown her Too little much too late Too long trying to resist it You’ve just gone and missed it It’s escaped your world Can you see that I am needing Begging for so much more Than you could ever give And I don’t want you to adore me Don’t want you to ignore me When it pleases you And I’ll do it on my own I have played in every toilet But you still want to spoil it To prove I’ve made a big mistake Too long trying to resist it You’ve just gone and missed it It’s escaped your world Can you see that I am needing Begging for so much more Than you could ever give And I don’t want you to adore me Don’t want you to ignore me When it pleases you yeah... So I’ll do it on my own and I’ll do it all by myself And you will never make it edit

Did you mean Muscle Museum (EP) - Muse's second mini-album from 1999?

Muscle Museum is a bass-led song that appears on Showbiz and the Muscle Museum EP.

Meaning

The title comes from a dictionary that Muse used, which had 'muscle' immediately before 'muse' and 'museum' immediately after.

Bellamy said that the meaning was the "conflict between the body and the soul or mind" - the Freudian idea of inner conflict between want and conscience. He later stated that the meaning somehow involved people in the future no longer having bodies. This idea came from a book that he had read.

Matt could be interpreted as talking about his hometown, where the people of Teignmouth still wanted to convince Muse they were doing wrong ("to prove I’ve made a big mistake").

Versions

This song came from a practice session at Matt's house early in Muse's existence as a band, with the guitar part coming before the bass and percussion. Its first recorded release was on the Muscle Museum EP, where it came in two versions. One is close to the later incarnation on Showbiz, and one is a short acoustic with rain effects. The latter was used at the beginning of the former as an introduction.

As the song featured on four separate releases, a wide variety of edits and versions were created, some exclusively on promotional media.

Track listing

7" vinyl

1. "Muscle Museum" – 4:22
2. "Minimum" – 2:40

CD1

1. "Muscle Museum" – 4:22
2. "Do We Need This" (live) – 4:15
3. "Muscle Museum" (live acoustic) – 4:44

CD2

1. "Muscle Museum" (full-length) – 5:25
2. "Pink Ego Box" – 3:32
3. "Con-Science" – 4:52