"Too Young to Die" is a song by British

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and acid jazz band

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai () are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in the ...

, released as the second single from their debut studio album, ''

Emergency on Planet Earth ''Emergency on Planet Earth'' is the debut studio album by English funk and acid jazz band Jamiroquai, released on 14 June 1993 under Sony Soho Square. Prior its release, the band debuted in 1992 with "When You Gonna Learn" under Acid Jazz Rec ...

'' (1993). The original version of the track runs at 10:18; however, both the single and album versions were cut, running at 3:22 and 6:05, respectively. The single peaked at number 10 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and reached the top 50 in France, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. The track's stems were made available to the public in March 2013 as part of a remix competition for the song; as such, there is an abundance of bootleg remixes to the song in addition to the official remixes. The competition was won by Australian DJ and music producer Late Nite Tuff Guy.

Background

The commercial single includes all three versions of the track. The song's lyrics are about the fear of war and death due to political machinations. The single's cover art depicts Jay Kay in the background, looking into the camera, with a sky-blue "grill" of the Buffalo Man in the left, as hollow spots, which are slowly morphing into solid blue crosses (specifically, headstones), which are the polar opposites to the meaning of the buffalo man. This morphing happens as one moves their eyes from left to right over the cover of the single. There is also a banner near the bottom of the sleeve which has several images on it, including a picture of a baby with a caption beside it reading "Too Young to Die", an image of the

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently ener ...

, and a

Swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

, with the latter having a red "X" over it.

Critical reception

A reviewer from ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later ...

'' wrote, "An uplifting strings intro heralds

's follow-up to last year's massive

When You Gonna Learn "When You Gonna Learn" is a song by British funk/ acid jazz band Jamiroquai, released as their debut single. It was originally released in 1992 by Acid Jazz Records before being re-released on Sony Records in 1993 as the lead single from the b ...

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family (biology), family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For examp ...

's "

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

"-ful voice grabs the melody and envelopes itself in a warm overcoat of horns, funky guitar and intricate percussion accompaniment worthy of a

Roy Ayers Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Pol ...

set. "Real" music for the acid jazzed amongst you." Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' described it as a "loose and attractive retro-

workout that owes more to the Seventies than the Nineties." Dr Bob Jones from the '' RM'' Dance Update stated, "This is pure soul jazz with the funky bassline. A simple worldly message is scattered over a tight rhythm section with horn stabs Seventies-style. Pure class — one to raise some dust!" Tony Cross from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' gave the song four out of five, commenting, "Led by the young (but still Stevie Wonder sounding) lead singer Jay, Jamiroquai have updated dark and dirty '70s funk. This is a stylish anti-war song that has really got what it takes. The obscenely talented Jamiroquai will go from strength to strength." The magazine's Pete Stanton noted that it "feature a multitude of enticing grooves (plus plenty of do-do-do-dad-dos)."

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was shot for "Too Young to Die". It was directed by British director

W.I.Z. Andrew John "W.I.Z." Whiston (born 4 January 1964) is an English director of films and music videos. Career W.I.Z. has directed a number of high-concept videos for major music artists from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Ma ...

(a.k.a. Andrew John Whiston), and consisted mainly of Jay Kay singing in what appears to be a desert military installation. The video was later published by

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in November 2009. As of December 2022, it had generated more than 13 million views.

Track listings

* UK 12-inch vinyl # "Too Young to Die" (Extended Version) - 10:18 # "Too Young to Die" (Original) - 6:05 # "Too Young to Die" (Instrumental) - 6:22 * UK CD single # "Too Young to Die" (7" Edit) - 3:22 # "Too Young to Die" (Extended Version) - 10:18 # "Too Young to Die" (Original) - 6:05 # "Too Young to Die" (Instrumental) - 6:22 * Japanese CD single # "Too Young to Die" (7" Edit) - 3:22 # "When You Gonna Learn" (Digeridoo) - 3:48 # "Too Young to Die" (Original) - 6:05 # "When You Gonna Learn" (Cante Hondo Mix) - 5:49

Charts

References