Weapon of Choice (song)

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Christopher Walken in Weapon of Choice.

"Weapon of Choice" is a song by Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, released in 2001. Bootsy Collins (Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber band bassist) provided the lead vocals. The track peaked at #10 on the British music charts, along with "Star 69" from the same album. "Weapon of Choice" features a prominent sample of Sly & the Family Stone's 1968 recording "Into My Own Thing". It can be heard on the album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars.

The song draws elements from Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune. The lyric "If you walk without rhythm, it won't attract the worm," is the same advice given by Paul Atreides to Lady Jessica. On the planet Arrakis, also called Dune, giant sandworms living underground are attracted to steady rhythms. The advice given by Paul is meant to keep anyone safe from sandworms if they have to walk on the surface of the planet.

Another Dune reference is the so-called "Weapon of Choice" itself, which could be a reference to one of two things:

A subculture of witches called the Bene Gesserit possess an ability called "the Voice", which lets them give irresistible commands to others, bypassing their victims' higher brain functions. This is suggested by the lyrics: "Don't be shocked by the tone of my voice. It's the new weapon, the weapon of choice". The effect used on the singer's voice is very similar to how someone's speech sounds when they're using "the Voice" in the David Lynch film adaptation.
The other possible reference to the "Weapon of Choice" also comes from the David Lynch film, in which the Fremen learn to use a weapon called a Weirding Module (not mentioned in the book), which translates certain spoken sounds into focused attacks that can be fired at a target.

[edit] Music video

The song is best known for its accompanying music video starring actor Christopher Walken and directed by Spike Jonze.

In the video, Walken dances and flies around in an empty hotel lobby to the music. The "Weapon of Choice" video won six MTV awards in 2001[1]; as one of the video's MTV "Moonmen" was for Best Choreography, Walken became a Video Music Award winner. The clip was also cited as the best video of all time in April 2002, in a list of the top 100 videos of all time that was compiled from a music industry survey by music TV channel VH1.[2]

[edit] Trivia

At one point in the video, Walken is dancing down a corridor. At the beginning of it, there is a painting of a man. This is in fact a portrait of Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) himself.
This song was in the commercial of The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour.
In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Libby Folfax played a little bit of the song with a different instrument on the episode "Vanishing Act".
This song is used as a sound bed by EMAP, GCap Media and Tindle radio stations.
The dance by Christopher Walken is used in the game Guild Wars with the /dance command with the male Dervish.
This song is used in the movie Night at the Museum, released in 2006, starring Ben Stiller.
The song was used multiple times as scene music on Malcolm in the Middle
The song was used as a station ID for the Nine television network in Australia, in 2002. It featured network personalities dancing around a hotel in a similar fashion to the actual film clip.
One of the clips used in the background at about 4:14 is the drum intro played by John Bonham in his showcase song, Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick."