My Own Prison

My Own Prison is the debut studio album by American rock band Creed, released in 1997.^[1] It has been certified six times platinum in the United States alone. The man kneeling on the album's cover is Justin Brown, a friend of the band. The picture was taken by guitarist Mark Tremonti's brother, Daniel, for a photography class.^[2] It has spent over 150 weeks on the catalog albums chart and over 110 weeks on the Billboard 200.^[3] The album received generally positive reviews from critics.^[4][5] The album generated five music videos: "My Own Prison" in 1997, followed by "Torn" and "What's This Life For" in 1998.

Background, writing, recording and production

For the band's debut release, manager Jeff Hanson matched them up with John Kurzweg, a producer friend who, with his unobtrusive production style and talents as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he felt was a great fit.^[6] Together, the album was recorded for $6,000, which was funded by Hanson. My Own Prison was originally released independently on their own record label, Blue Collar Records, in 1997. The album was distributed to Florida radio stations, and their enthusiasm for the record helped it sell 6,000 copies in the first two months in Florida alone.^[6] Creed singer Scott Stapp said that even though Creed were trying to find the band's creative stride, it took a while for the band to discover its musical style. Stapp said: "I remember after Mark and I and the guys wrote our first five or seven songs and we hadn't found our identity yet. Then we wrote a song called 'Grip My Soul,' which we never recorded or put out but I remember leaving band rehearsal and all of us felt the same way. Like, alright, we found ourselves. We found out who we are and then right after that is when 'My Own Prison' poured out of us." Stapp then said: "If I'm remembering correctly, those were essentially the next 10 out of 13 songs that we wrote after that initial 'find your identity' moment that I think every band has."^[7] Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti said that in Creed's early days, he was working as a cook at Chili's and Stapp was working as a cook at Ruby Tuesday's. Creed drummer Scott Phillips was managing a knife store at a mall and Creed bassist Brian Marshall was the only one without a job, and, according to Tremonti, Marshall "was also the only one who ended up getting his degree before it was all said and done."^[8] When Creed got a record deal, the band got an advance and Tremonti quit his job and started working for about 3 weeks at the local guitar shop and then after that, Creed began touring.^[8] My Own Prison was originally released through Blue Collar Records, but was remixed by Wind-up Records and then released through Wind-up Records. Creed recorded the original version of the album in Kurzweg's house in Tallahassee, Florida. For the re-recording of the album, the band went to Long View Farm in Massachusetts.^[8]

Music and lyrics

My Own Prison is a lot heavier and more grunge-oriented than other Creed albums.^[9] The lyrics on the album include themes like self-identity, Christianity, faith, sinning, anti-abortion, and anti-affirmative action.^[9][10] The music on the album has been described as grunge^[11][10] and post-grunge.^[12] Jon Parales of The New York Times compared the album to the Badmotorfinger era of Soundgarden. He also compared the album's music to Hootie & the Blowfish and compared the song "Unforgiven" to Metallica.^[10] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "Creed don't have an original or distinctive sound -- they basically fall into the category of post-Seattle bands who temper their grunge with a dose of Live earnestness".^[12] In 1997, when My Own Prison first brought Creed some attention from the mainstream, Bradley Bambarger of Billboard wrote that Creed sound "disconcertingly reminiscent of Alice in Chains".^[13] Justin Seremet of the Hartford Courant wrote that Creed "is essentially Alices in Chains without the bite" He compared singer Stapp's vocals to Alice in Chains deceased singer Layne Staley.^[11] He described the album as "scrunge", which he defined as "the adopted name for groups that rode the Seattle wave with a couple of hits and subsequently vanished -- bands like Silverchair, Sponge, Candlebox and so on."^[11] In a review of My Own Prison, The Spokesman-Review described Creed as "slightly heavy metal, slightly alternative."^[14] Phil Freeman of Stereogum wrote:

"The music on My Own Prison took ideas from grunge, which had mostly come and gone by that point, and filtered them through more mainstream hard rock and arena metal. Creed weren't interested in the punk-rock energy of Mudhoney or Nirvana, but they were borrowing heavily from Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, whose lugubrious style was a natural fit for Scott Stapp's baritone roar. Their tempos were slow and heavy, especially on the singles, but Mark Tremonti was a full-on shredder — the guitar solo on 'Pity for a Dime' could have come off a Dio album. And album tracks like 'Ode,' 'Unforgiven' and 'Sister' had a pleasingly thick-necked stomp. Lyrically, Creed were plainspoken — poetic, but free of abstraction, a legacy of Stapp's love of earnest frontmen like Jim Morrison and Bono."^[8]

The vocals of Stapp (pictured) have often been compared to the vocals of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder.^[15]

Creed lead singer Scott Stapp was influenced heavily by U2's album The Joshua Tree and was also influenced by The Doors and Led Zeppelin.^[13] Despite being inspired by The Doors, Led Zeppelin and U2, Creed was compared frequently by critics to Tool, Soundgarden and, most frequently, Pearl Jam. In response to the Pearl Jam comparison, Stapp said: "It could be worse," he says. "They could be comparing us to some shitty band that no one has ever heard of, rather than the biggest band of the decade."^[9] Tremonti also was okay with the Pearl Jam comparison: "It doesn't bother me so much. They're one of the best bands to come out in the past 10 years."^[15] He left home at age 17 to be in "the school of hard knocks," Stapp said, and it was in the latter days during this education that Stapp decided he will "take responsibility" for his actions. Stapp was inspired by this experience when he wrote My Own Prison's title track. Stapp said the song relates his discovery that he "couldn't blame others for the walls constricting my life. 'My Own Prison' was the consequences for my bad decisions. It was my own fault that I did shitty in school, that I got fired from my job, that I was living in my car. I had to grow up."^[13] Stapp said about writing the title track: "One night I woke up about 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. from a dream and I just wrote it all down," Stapp said. "I didn't know it was a song at the time. A few days later I called [guitarist] Mark [Tremonti], he had been putting together some music, and we sat down and got the song together in about 30 minutes."^[9] "What's This Life For" is about a best friend of Tremonti who committed suicide, and Tremonti described the song as "a song about suicide and kids searching for that meaning of life".^[16] "One" is about unity and criticizes society's alleged lack of unity.^[17] "Torn" is about how Stapp was expelled from a Christian school, lived in an apartment, and wrote his thoughts on a piece of paper, becoming the basis of the song.^[18] Tremonti wrote "Torn". Prior to Creed's mainstream success, Tremonti had a couple of jobs to finance college, and he washed cars for 4 years and worked as a cook. "One day, I came home from work at about 3 in the morning," he said. "I was all dirty and stinky and hating my life, so I just wrote a song about what it's like being a kid in between 18 and 23, when you haven't graduated from school yet and you don't know what you're doing with your life." Tremonti then said: "It's about how hard that period of time is, when you're broke, you have to work two jobs to go to school. I was at a hard point in my life, so I wrote a song about it," he explained.^[15]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Music Critic	70[19]
Rock Hard	[20]

Critical reception

My Own Prison received reviews ranging from negative to positive. AllMusic wrote: "Creed don't have an original or distinctive sound -- they basically fall into the category of post-Seattle bands who temper their grunge with a dose of Live earnestness -- but they work well within their boundaries. At their best, they are a solid post-grunge band, grinding their riffs out with muscle; at their worst, they are simply faceless. The best moments of My Own Prison suggest they'll be able to leave post-grunge anonymity behind and develop their own signature sound."^[12] Trevor Miller of Music Critic described the album as "overall, an excellent first album".^[19] Jon Pareles of The New York Times, with an article entitled "Grunge Gets Religion, and It's Not Pretty", criticized My Own Prison and wrote: "Convictions aside, Creed's weakness is its music. The band's imitation of Soundgarden circa 1991 is a clumsy one."^[10] The Spokesman-Review wrote: "I like the CD. I like the band, but there is room for improvement."^[14] Justin Seremet of the Hartford Courant panned My Own Prison: "Just as the Warrants and Slaughters of the world hung around long after their brand of music had gone to the grave, so will Creed. Let's move on, folks."^[11]

Commercial performance

My Own Prison peaked at number 22 on the Billboard 200 on May 2, 1998, being on the chart for 112 weeks.^[21] The album also peaked at number 1 on the Heatseekers Albums chart on November 8, 1997.^[22] On January 22, 2000, the album peaked at number 1 on the Catalog Albums chart, remaining on the chart for 157 weeks.^[23] My Own Prison was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on August 25, 1998. It was certified triple platinum on February 26, 1999, 4x platinum on November 3, 1999, 5x platinum on December 4, 2000 and 6x platinum on August 26, 2002.^[24] On September 18, 1998, The New York Times reported that My Own Prison had sold 2,200,000 copies in the United States.^[10] As of January 3, 2002, My Own Prison sold 5,700,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[25]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti.

Personnel

Credits adapted from album liner notes.^[26]

Charts and certifications

Appearances

• The song "My Own Prison" was featured on the WXSR-FM Locals Only compilation album in 1997, in the movies Wings of the Crow in 2000 and Bang Bang You're Dead in 2002, and as downloadable content for the video game Rocksmith 2014 in 2014.
• The song "Ode" was featured in the film Can't Hardly Wait in 1998.
• The song "What's This Life For" was featured in the film Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998.
• The song "Bound and Tied" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Dead Man on Campus in 1998.
• The song "Unforgiven" was featured in the video game Gran Turismo 2 in 1999.
• The song "Torn" was featured in the fifth episode of Roswell in 1999.
• The song "Pity for a Dime" was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Jailbait! in 2000.

References