Not enough is made of the fact that on the song “Arose”, off Eminem’s 2017 album Revival, where Eminem re-lives his 2007 overdose and near-death experience, he samples Bette Midler’s “The Rose”. Eminem samples Bette Midler – respectfully – and the sample deepens the experience of the song .
He hasn’t chosen “The Rose” for the beat, obviously. It’s the lyrics and the context he’s interested in. He wants you to think about what she is saying, he understands what she’s talking about and uses the sample to support his own story.
I’ve seen YouTube reactors reacting to this song. It stops everyone in their tracks. It’s just that kind of song. I skip over it if it comes up on Shuffle, it’s too intense for a casual listen. (It’s one hell of an acting performance as well.) Maybe because the reactors don’t know Bette Midler or the movie, or what the movie is about, they don’t get the connections he’s making in the sample.
“The Rose” is the theme song of a movie about a self-destructive rock star with a drug/alcohol problem who may very well might not make it. There’s a thematic connection. But the connection is also in the title of his song, so simple you might miss it. Or you wouldn’t pick up on it if you didn’t get the connection in the first place.
“Arose.” “A Rose.”
When Eminem ODd, he came so close to dying he saw his dead best friend across the room and left his own body and floated towards him all while his ex-wife and daughters were crying over his body. He could sense all of it, but he couldn’t move or speak. His liver and kidneys shut down. It was the end. The doctor told him if he had gotten to the hospital 2 hours later he would have been dead, or at least it would have been too late to save. “Arose” is a monologue about what it was like for him on the table in the ER, frozen, dying, and how this moment ultimately was what made him decide to get clean (14 years now). In the song he literally “arose” from the dead.
The Midler sample is so extensive it’s really not accurate to call it a sample. Her song plays through the whole thing, accompanied only by the sound of the breathing machines they had him on.
Midler tweeted about it when the album dropped. “Yes. That is me.”
What a nice tribute to her song and its staying power!
The way Eminem puts it all together makes it a harrowing listen. Rick Rubin produced Revival so maybe the sample was his choice, but the title of Eminem’s song suggests Eminem wrote it as a nod to Midler’s song.
Eminem and Bette Midler. The world is sometimes a magical and mysterious place where weird things happen but they make sense.
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