Play Dead (song)
song by Björk
"Play Dead" is a song by Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, released by the labels Island and Mother as the only single from the soundtrack of the 1993 crime drama The Young Americans, starring Harvey Keitel. The song was not included in the first edition of Björk's debut album, Debut (1993), but was later included as a bonus track, and the album was re-issued in November 1993. It was written by Jah Wobble, Björk, and David Arnold, produced by Cannon and Arnold, and received additional production and mixing by Tim Simenon.
"Play Dead", inspired by the main character of the film, was released on 11 October 1993 and charted within the top 20 in Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. An accompanying music video was released, directed by Danny Cannon, featuring images from the film which also was directed by Cannon. "Play Dead" was included in Björk's 2002 greatest hits album Greatest Hits.
Background and composition
The song was co-written by Jah Wobble, Björk featuring David Arnold. Björk was asked to write the melody and lyrics for the song, while Wobble wrote the bass part and Arnold composed the score, which Björk described as a "greatest hits of what's in the film".
Björk described the writing as "very difficult" because "the character in the film was suffering and going through hardcore tough times and at the time I was at my happiest". To help her in the writing, she asked the film's director, Danny Cannon, to write her a whole page of phrases that represented the emotions of the characters in the film, but she used only one line that Cannon wrote: "Sometimes, it's just like sinking", and still she changed it to "It's sometimes just like sleeping" in the actual lyrics.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Play Dead (song)” is song by Björk. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Play, Dead and song, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “song by Björk” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2427429. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1993 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Play Dead (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.