| "À Tout le Monde" | ||||||||||||
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| Single by Megadeth | ||||||||||||
| from the album Youthanasia | ||||||||||||
| Released | February, 1995 | |||||||||||
| Recorded | 1994 | |||||||||||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||||||||||
| Length | 4:28 | |||||||||||
| Label | Capitol | |||||||||||
| Producer | Dave Mustaine | |||||||||||
| Megadeth singles chronology | ||||||||||||
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"À Tout le Monde" is the fourth song on Megadeth's sixth studio album Youthanasia, released as a single in 1995. In 2007, a re-arrangement titled "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)" featuring Cristina Scabbia of Italian band Lacuna Coil was released as the second single from the band's album United Abominations.
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The music television channel, MTV, banned the music video for "A Tout Le Monde" claiming that it was pro-suicide. However, in an interview conducted around 1994, Dave Mustaine states:
It's not a suicide song. What it is, it's, you, it's when people have a loved one that dies and they end on a bad note, you know, they wish that they could say something to them. So this is an opportunity for the deceased to say something before they go. And it was my impression of what I would like to say to people, if I had say, 3 seconds to do so in life before I died I'd say to the entire world, to all my friends, I love you all, and now I must go. These are the last words I'll ever speak, and they'll set me free. I don't have to say I'm sorry, I don't have to say I'm going to miss you, or I'll wait for ya. You know, I'll just say I loved you all, good, bad, indifferent, I loved you all.[1]
Mustaine has openly criticized MTV for the banning of the video, saying "You made Kurt Cobain man of the year, and if anything he left an indelible last message that the easy way out is to blow your fucking head off." [2]
This is featured in the DVD release Arsenal of Megadeth and is played before the music video starts.
"À tout le monde" is French for "To all the world" or "To everyone". The chorus of the song, "à tout le monde, à tous mes amis, je vous aime, je dois partir" translated to English is respectively: "To everyone, to all my friends, I love you, I must leave".
Kimveer Gill, the man behind the Dawson College shooting in September 2006, was a fan of the band and in his blog on VampireFreaks.com on the day of the attack, he had mentioned the song. This led Megadeth to be blamed by many watchdog groups for the shooting. In a performance in Montreal on September 27, shortly after the attack, Dave Mustaine said to the crowd:
The guy who went to Dawson College and shot everyone, it's terrible. Aside from the fact that what he did was wrong, we have a relationship with Montreal, and that really pissed us off.
Before the concert in an interview for CBC News Mustaine said:
"I was so angry that this guy would use my song, and that he would try and turn that beautiful song into something ugly and nasty. It's for those who lost their lives, and it's a gift to those who are in the process of healing (...) and Gill was not worthy of being a Megadeth fan."[3]
The song was remade as "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)", sung as a duet with Cristina Scabbia, singer of Italian metal band Lacuna Coil. The guitars for the song are all in standard tuning (bringing the song to F-sharp minor), whereas Youthanasia was recorded a half-step down (which put the song in F minor). The new version is also slightly faster, and the guitar solo performed by Glen Drover is musically 4 bars longer than the original by Marty Friedman.[4] À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free) was the first single released from the album with a new music video made for it. The song has the revised title "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)" to distinguish it from the original,[5] although this altered title does not appear on some pressings of the album. The new video can be viewed at Megadeth's official website and also YouTube.
On June 11, 2007, the video for the single won its 16th victory in the context of the one-on-one video show, L'Ultime Combat des Clips, aired Monday to Thursday on the French-Canadian music channel, Musique Plus. Winning sixteen consecutive times earned them a star in the show's "hall of fame." Despite the accolades, both the original music video for "À Tout le Monde" and its remake have been banned by MTV, possibly for lyrical content that they deem to be pertaining to committing suicide.[6] The duet version did, however, air on MTV2's Headbangers Ball upon release.
CD A Tout Le Monde (USA)
| Song | Duration | Composers |
|---|---|---|
| 1. A Tout Le Monde | 4:28 | Dave Mustaine; David Ellefson; Marty Friedman; Nick Menza |
| 2. Problems | 3:56 | Glen Matlock; Johnny Rotten; Paul Cook; Steve Jones |
| 3. New World Order (demo) | 3:25 | Dave Mustaine; David Ellefson; Marty Friedman; Nick Menza |
CD A Tout Le Monde (Holland)
| Song | Duration | Composers |
|---|---|---|
| 1. A Tout Le Monde | 4:28 | Dave Mustaine; David Ellefson; Marty Friedman; Nick Menza |
| 2. Symphony of Destruction (demo) | 5:32 | Dave Mustaine |
| 3. Architecture of Aggression (demo) | 2:49 | Dave Mustaine; David Ellefson |
| 4. New World Order (demo) | 3:25 | Dave Mustaine; David Ellefson; Marty Friedman; Nick Menza |
Youthanasia Version:
United Abominations Version: