and without them The World Is Not Enough would be seen as a generic action movie. Getting the balance right might be a "poisoned chalice", since the results could sound too much or too little like a Bond theme. Arnold collaborated with lyricist Don Black on the song. Black, with 30 years of experience writing Bond themes, wrote the lyrics to Tom Jones's "Thunderball", Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever", Lulu's "The Man with the Golden Gun" and k.d. lang's closing credits theme, "Surrender", from Tomorrow Never Dies. Arnold and Black met several times to discuss lyrics for "The World Is Not Enough", also collaborating by phone, fax and email. According to Arnold, he "strung some la-las together, and all of a sudden the [song] came to life". By the end of 1998 he and Black finished the music and lyrics, except for the bridge (a contrasting section of about eight bars). The lyrics are from the viewpoint of Elektra King, the Bond girl revealed as the mastermind of the villainous scheme. Its underlying themes are seduction and domination, described by Arnold as "a steel fist in a velvet glove. It beckons you in with its crooked finger." Black added that although the lyrics reflected the film's plot, they were "of course all about world domination" and "a lot more personal and intense", evoking a "ballady and dramatic" mood. A line of dialogue from the film, "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive," was included in the lyrics. By the first week of January 1999, Arnold completed the song's outline and made a synthesizer-arranged demo recording in his recording studio. He played the demo for Wilson, Broccoli and Apted, who were "extremely pleased" with the results. Arnold's agent then presented the demo to MGM executives in Los Angeles, who initially disliked it because it was a ballad and they expected a more uptempo song. MGM asked Arnold to rewrite a three-note sequence considered too similar to a motif in earlier Bond themes. That month Arnold offered the theme to Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson, who was very enthusiastic; Arnold said he "never heard someone screaming down the phone". A week later he sent the band the rough demo, which they approved. Manson requested a small change in the lyrics, disliking the line "I know when to kiss and I know when to kill", so Arnold and Black changed