Bedshaped

"Bedshaped"
Single by Keane
from the album Hopes and Fears
Released	16 August 2004
Format	7" vinyl, CD single
Recorded	2003 Heliocentric Studios, Rye, East Sussex
Genre	Alternative rock, Piano rock
Length	4:38 (album version) 3:57 (radio version)
Label	Island
Writer(s)	Tim Rice-Oxley Tom Chaplin Richard Hughes James Sanger
Producer(s)	Andy Green
Keane singles chronology
"Everybody's Changing" (2004) "Bedshaped" (2004) "This Is the Last Time" (2004)
Hopes and Fears track listing "Untitled 1" (10/11(UK)) "Bedshaped" (11/12(UK))

"Bedshaped" is a song by English rock band Keane, released as the third single from Hopes and Fears. This is the first single released after the album, and it sold about 22,000 copies in its first week of release, charting at number 10.

Track listing

CD CID870

1. "Bedshaped" – 4:37
2. "Something in Me Was Dying" – 4:46
3. "Untitled 2" – 3:02
4. "Bedshaped" (Video) – 4:41

UK, 7" vinyl IS849

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "Something in Me Was Dying"

Alternative versions

The Netherlands, 3CD

All live tracks recorded at BNN
CD1
Released 15 October 2004

1. "Bedshaped" – 4:37
2. "Something in Me Was Dying" – 4:47
3. "Everybody's Changing" (live) – 3:35
4. "Can't Stop Now" (live) – 3:41

CD2
Released 19 October 2004

1. "Bedshaped" – 4:37
2. "Untitled 2" – 3:01
3. "Somewhere Only We Know" (live) – 3:52
4. "Bend and Break" (live) – 3:36
5. "Bedshaped" (video) – 4:41

CD3
Released 12 November 2004

1. "Bedshaped" – 4:38
2. "This Is the Last Time" (live) – 3:27
3. "We Might as Well Be Strangers" (live) – 3:10
4. "Bedshaped" (live) – 4:08
5. "Bedshaped" (live video) – 4:47

Germany, 2CD, DVD

Released 18 April 2005
CD1

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "This Is the Last Time"
3. "Untitled 2"
4. "Everybody's Changing" (live) (Airwaves Festival, Reykjavík, 23 October 2004)
5. "Somewhere Only We Know" (live) (Forum, London, 10 May 2004)

CD2

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "Something in Me Was Dying"
3. "This Is the Last Time" (live acoustic) (Mill St. Brewery, Toronto, 20 September 2004)
4. "Bedshaped" (live) (Brixton Academy, London, 17 November 2004)
5. "We Might as Well Be Strangers" (live) (Columbiafritz, Berlin, 19 May 2004)

DVD

1. "Bedshaped" (video)
2. "Somewhere Only We Know" (video)
3. "Everybody's Changing" (video)
4. "This Is the Last Time" (video)

Switzerland, CD

Released 18 April 2005

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "Something in Me Was Dying"
3. "This Is the Last Time" (live acoustic) (Mill St. Brewery, Toronto, 20 September 2004)
4. "Bedshaped" (live) (Brixton Academy, London, 17 November 2004)

Austria, 2CD

Released 18 April 2005 CD1

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "This Is the Last Time"
3. "Untitled 2"
4. "Everybody's Changing" (live) (Airwaves Festival, Reykjavík, 23 October 2004)
5. "Somewhere Only We Know"

CD2

1. "Bedshaped"
2. "Something in Me Was Dying"
3. "This Is the Last Time" (live acoustic) (Mill St. Brewery, Toronto, 20 September 2004)
4. "Bedshaped" (live) (Brixton Academy, London, 17 November 2004)
5. "We Might as Well Be Strangers" (live) (Columbiafritz, Berlin, 19 May 2004)

Promo version

1. "Bedshaped"

Composition and recording

"Bedshaped" was composed sometime in 2001 by Tim Rice-Oxley. It was originally recorded at Les Essarts, France, and first released as a B-side on the Fierce Panda release of "Everybody's Changing" in May 2003. James Sanger is credited on this song as the fourth composer.

Musical structure

After the mysterious string-based intro, a honky tonk-reminiscent piano completes the main riff, with an E maj chord. Tom Chaplin vocals are introduced with the song clocking 59 seconds. After the second chorus, a small piano-riff gives place to the song's instrumental bridge which featured gothic voices, ending with an instrumental chorus with guitar alike sounds, produced by Rice-Oxley's Yamaha CX7 (these are sung by Chaplin during some live performances) to fade with Chaplin singing "But what do I know?, what do I know? I know". The instrumentation used on the song includes all instruments used through all the Hopes and Fears era (excepting the acoustic guitar and effects used on "The Happy Soldier").

• Length: 4:37
• Tempo: 76bpm
• Key: E major
• Time signature: 4/4
• Instrumentation: piano, drums, bass, synthesizer, vox synthesizer

Information about song's meaning

Rice-Oxley posted an explanation of the song on the official messageboard:

[The song] is about feeling that you've been "left behind" by an old friend or lover, and about hoping that you'll be reunited one day so that you can live out the end of your lives together the way you started them (...) a hope that they'll eventually want to get away from the bright lights and come back home. it's a sad and angry song, but also full of hope. I think I'm right in saying that in hospital when someone is ill and has to spend a lot of time in bed they can become 'bedshaped'. It sounds a bit depressing (...) but in the context of the song I wanted to suggest old age and frailty(...)

B-sides

Something in Me Was Dying

Rice-Oxley is believed to have said to a fan that this song was written about "a most excellent young lady".

• Length: 4:46
• Tempo: 107bpm
• Key: G (maj)
• Time signature: 4/4
• Genre: Rock pop
• Instrumentation: piano, drums, bass, synthesizer

Untitled 2

• Length: 3:02
• Tempo: 110bpm
• Key: Bb (B flat, maj)
• Time signature: 3/4
• Genre: Ballad
• Instrumentation: electric piano, bass, drums

Cover versions

• Italian opera singer Vittorio Grigolo recorded an Italian-language version of "Bedshaped", renamed "Cosi", which appears on his album In the Hands of Love.
• The band Marillion recorded a cover on their live album Friends.

Music video

The video for the song is available on the enhanced CD single version, as well as the Bonus DVD edition of Hopes and Fears and on Strangers. The video is directed by Corin Hardy, and based on his animated short film "Butterfly", making use of stop-motion animation. The video shows a bedraggled, naked man amongst some refuse, drowning his sorrows in alcohol. He is lonely and sad, and crawls into a bathroom where he hides, and writes some of the song's lyrics such as 'don't laugh at me' and "don't look away" on the walls, like graffiti. A cat drags some ill-fitting clothes into the room for him, where he dresses and dares to venture outside. He exits and sees people gathered in a restaurant. He hallucinates and their faces turn into gremlin-like monsters, causing him to run back to the bathroom in fear, only for the walls to collapse and drown him in white light. The wizened man finds himself against a white background, where he witnesses animated versions of Keane's band members playing the titular song with the lyrics he wrote on the walls. Having seemingly found solace in this unusual scene, the man, along with Keane, fades into the light.

The band appear throughout as animation within the background of the main action, and as drawings towards the end of the video. To achieve this, Hardy's friend David Lupton was recruited to hand-draw 500 pictures of the band in the space of a week.

The music video was produced by Kit Hawkins and Adam Tudhope for White House Pictures.

Chart performance

Chart (2004–2005)	Peak position
Belgium (Ultratip Flanders)	7
Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia)	2
Denmark (Tracklisten)	7
Germany (Official German Charts)	61
Ireland (IRMA)	38
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)	26
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)	10

External links

• Official site
• Keaneshaped - Information about record
• Keane.fr - Information about record in French
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics