Even before taking the oath of office in a few days, Joe Biden will publicly threaten to kick Marilyn Manson’s ass. The opening festivities, mostly virtual, of Biden will feature several renowned musicians, including Lady Gaga, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and Jennifer Lopez. But Biden’s opening will also feature a reunion of New Radicals, the short-lived alternative pop group whose only success, 1998’s “You Get What You Give”, has been surprisingly long-lived.
New Radicals will present “You Get What You Give” as the final act of Biden’s virtual opening parade, which will take place shortly after Biden takes the oath on Wednesday. Rolling Stone reports that New Radicals co-founders Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois received an invitation to play less than a week before the opening, and they were surprised. New Radicals broke up in 1998, shortly after the release of their only album Maybe you have also been brainwashed. On Wednesday, the band will perform at a studio in Philadelphia, and it will be the first time they have played together since the split.
“You Get What You Give” is not just a critical favorite. It is also a song with personal meaning for Biden and his family. Like Rolling Stone points out, Biden wrote in his 2017 memoirs that his late son Beau Biden used “You Get What You Give” as his “theme song” for his fight against cancer: “During breakfast, Beau often made me hear the which I thought was his theme song, ‘You Get What You Give’ by New Radicals. Even though Beau never stopped fighting and his will to live was stronger than most – I think he knew that day could come The lyrics to the song are: This goddamn world can fall apart. You’ll be fine, follow your heart.
After New Radicals ended, Gregg Alexander was out of the limelight, moving to England and working as a songwriter. Alexander resurfaced in 2014 after writing a few songs for the independent film Starting over; he gave interviews and performed live for the first time in more than a decade. In 2018, Alexander said he recorded somewhere between seven and 10 albums since Maybe you have also been brainwashed but that he has no plans to release them.
In a release, Alexander says: “If there is anything on Earth that would make us join the band, if only for a day, it is the hope that our music could be even the smallest beacon of light in such a dark time. America knows in its heart that things will be bright again with a new administration and a real vaccine plan on the way. That’s the message of the song … this world will survive. “