Black Market Music, Placebo’s third album, was released in 2000 after the successful Without You I’m Nothing. According to this interview by Melody Maker, lead singer Brian Molko wasn’t in the right place when they wrote it. The songs on this record are very explicit about drugs, sex, slavery and self disgust.
Commercial for Levi was a nod to Levi, the sound guy for the band during their second album tour. One time in Italy Brian went nuts, jumped on top of a car, started singing and then he tried to run into the street. Levi grabbed him by the neck as a car passed by, probably saving his life.
The song is about looking to a friend in the eyes and telling him “You’re my mate and I love you, but if you don’t watch out you’re going to fuck up pretty bad”.
The first time I listened to the song I thought it was a cute tune with a nice melody. The music is pretty and you don’t understand what’s going on until you listen to the lyrics. After that you realize that the melody is just filler for nasty, nasty stuff.
You’re the one who’s always choking trojan
You’re the one who’s always bruised and broken
As mentioned in Urban Dictionary, choking trojan refers to the act of performing oral sex on a man (Trojan is a brand of condoms). He’s always bruised and broken, due to his taste for masochism.
Sleep may be the enemy
But so’s another line
It’s a remedy
You should take more time
“Another line” is doing more cocaine. The author’s worried about his friend and he doesn’t want to see him crash. He’s asking him to slow down.
You’re the one who’s always choking trojan
You’re the one whose shower’s always golden
We’re back to oral sex and this time he adds golden showers to the mix. A golden shower is when someone urinates on somebody else, giving himself or the “victim” sexual gratification.
Spunk and bestiality
Well it’s an Assisi lie
As if the previous stuff was not enough, we learn that the guy’s also into animals. Spunk is
another term for semen.
Francis of Assisi was a monk from the Italian city of Assisi who was known for taking care of the animals.
It’s ahead of me
You should close your fly
The author’s telling his friend that he’s going too far. Again, he asks him to slow down.
I understand the fascination
The dream that comes alive at night
But if you don’t change your situation
Then you’ll die
You’ll die, don’t die, don’t die
Please don’t die
Our narrator’s been there and he knows how it feels, but if the friend doesn’t change his mind he’s going to die from doing all of this. “The dream that comes alive at night” is a reference to all the ”bad” stuff that happens during the night: parties, S&M, the sexual encounters, etc.
You’re the one who’s always choking trojan
You’re the one who’s always bruised and broken
Drunk on immorality
It’s pretty clear that none of the things the guy does are moral, it’s all a whirl of indecency.
Valium and cherry wine
Coke and ecstasy
You’re gonna blow your mind
Diazepam (Valium) and other opiates (Clonazepam) are mixed with cherry wine (really cheap wine) to get you high and drunk at the same time. Coke (cocaine) and ecstasy are on his repertoire as well.
In the Melody Maker Interview, Brian says that he took the lyrics to the extreme on this
song. He is being a bit sarcastic by portraying an image that could be perceived as himself to outside listeners who were convinced he was indeed a monster:
Yeah, there’s definitely a certain amount of irony in Commercial for Levi, especially if it’s directed towards me. I’m smiling wryly at people’s opinions of me and what they imagine my lifestyle is like or what I must get up to.
