Join Me

Join Me is the name given to a movement started in London by British writer Danny Wallace in 2002, and to a book by him which documents the movement's formation.

Members of the movement are called Joinees and collectively they have sometimes been referred to as the Karma Army.

Movement

Origin

Inspired by a recently deceased relative who had once unsuccessfully attempted to build a pacifistic community on his farm in Switzerland, Wallace put a classified advertisement in Loot, a London classified advertising magazine, asking readers to "Join me. Send one passport-sized photograph to..." This was followed by Wallace's address; he later created a post office box address for Joinees to send their photos to. The advertisement contained no other details. Wallace claims he had no plans as to what he would do when people sent their photos. He originally hoped he could reach and improve upon the number of people who had joined his relative – three (of a desired one hundred). According to Wallace:

Join

Join may refer to:

Join Me in Death

"Join Me in Death" is a single by the Finnish band HIM, taken from their second studio album Razorblade Romance. It was also released as "Join Me", since they were not allowed to include "Death" in the title for the US version. It was featured in the end credits of the European version of the sci-fi movie The Thirteenth Floor (The US version featured The Cardigans' "Erase/Rewind" instead). It is the fifteenth-best-selling single of all time in Finland.

Overview

HIM performed this song for the first time in Ilosaarirock, Finland on 12 September 1998, which featured an extra verse not included in the studio versions.

The song has met with controversy regarding its subject matter. "A couple of people blamed me for a suicide someone committed over here saying that 'Join Me' is an invitation to kill yourself," HIM frontman Ville Valo told the European magazine Metal Hammer in 2003. "What I was trying to do was sort of rip-off 'Don't Fear the Reaper' by Blue Öyster Cult, making a rock track of Romeo And Juliet." Lyrics such as "Would you die tonight for love?" have contributed to the misconception that the song is about suicide, which Valo denies, claiming the lyrics refer to giving things up for the sake of love. "It's not about suicide, that song. It's about giving it all away," Valo told the magazine Modern Fix.

Gregorian (band)

Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment.

Band history

Originally, Gregorian was conceived as a more pop-oriented group in the vein of Enigma. Under this concept, they recorded the 1991 album Sadisfaction, with lead vocals provided by The Sisters of Oz: Susana Espelleta (Peterson's wife at the time) and Birgit Freud. However, this was the only album in that style.

In 1998, Peterson and his team of Jan-Eric Kohrs, Michael Soltau and Carsten Heusmann re-invented the project to perform popular songs in the Gregorian style. The criteria for song selection were strict; in order to be considered, a song needed to be translatable into the 7-tone scale. For each album, songs were carefully chosen in addition to original songs written by Jan-Eric Kohrs, Amelia Brightman and Carsten Heussman. Twelve vocalists - previously acclaimed session and choir singers - were then hired to record the tracks.