Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity

Album: Slow, Deep And Hard (1991)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Rarely does a title explain the meaning of a song as well as this one. Type O Negative lead singer Peter Steele wrote it about his longtime girlfriend who he found out was cheating on him. He didn't handle it well, and in this song, he lashes out.
  • "Unsuccessfully Coping..." is the first song on Slow, Deep And Hard, the debut album by Type O Negative, a New York City band that was led by the 6' 8" Steele until 2010, when he died of heart failure at 48. At the time, they were more hardcore than goth, with Steele doing a lot of screaming. They also had day jobs, which they quit when their 1993 album Bloody Kisses, with more melody and less screamo, put them on the map.

    Before forming the band, Steele was in a hardcore metal band called Carnivore.
  • The song runs 12:39 and is broken into three sections. A version edited to 6:41 was released as a single. It's not even close the strangest song on the album: "The Misinterpretation Of Silence And Its Disastrous Consequences" is 64 seconds of tape hiss at very low volume. The band wanted listeners to turn it up and then get blasted by the next song.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)Songwriter Interviews

The co-writer/guitarist on many Alice Cooper hits, Dick was also Lou Reed's axeman on the Rock n' Roll Animal album.

Ralph Casale  - Session Pro

Ralph Casale - Session ProSongwriter Interviews

A top New York studio musician, Ralph played guitar on many '60s hits, including "Lightnin' Strikes," "A Lover's Concerto" and "I Am A Rock."

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.

The End Of The Rock Era

The End Of The Rock EraSong Writing

There are no more rock stars - the last one died in 1994.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Movie Stars In Music Videos

Movie Stars In Music VideosSong Writing

Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis and John Malkovich are just a few of the film stars who have moonlighted in music videos.