About a band named Tool and 2 French Tramps- An interactive blog-post

I like many bands. But Tool is one that's stayed in my top 5 list ever since I first heard 'sober' and decided I needed more of this band than the one song.

Sober happens to be the most mainstream number Tool ever did, if I could accuse them of such a thing. It's also the one song people name if you mention the band.

"oh yeahh.. Sober! Love that one".

Sigh.

Notice how the same performance repeats for Zepp? Mention Plant and Page [and of course no one knows about John Bonham and John Paul Jones] and the immediate reaction is-- "ooh, stairway to heaven/kashmir: trippy!!"

Point is, though-- There's a lot more to Tool than just Sober. Their lyrics, for one. Which is a fact directly related to their lead singer, Maynard James Keegan, seen here with Tori Amos. I admire his control and use of the English language only .002345 more than I admire his beautiful head, profile and general being. Maynard is a beautiful man who writes lyrics using a brain he calls his own.

Which is rare. Hear most metal/rock/thrash/punk bands today and what you get if you actually think during the course of the song primarily consists of unbeeped ..erm.. strong language, and a lot of over-screamed, over-played metaphors for angst and a general lack of "getting some", as the phrase does go.

Not so with Maynard and Tool. Apart from the general hard, breaking-into-you rhythm, there are certain cuts that make you sit up and wonder where they came from. For instance, in Die Eier Von Satan [listen to it here] Maynard reads a german cookie recipe for hash sugar cookies without eggs to a frantic crowd. Very Fuhrer-style, and Beckettish coz of the biscuits. But brilliant, because the joyful fury is over trippy cookies, not aryan supremacy. Wouldn't buy an album because of it, but I did love the cockiness, the experimenting with tone and language, and the atmosphere that went with it. It's exquisite in its bite, because the title actually means "the balls (eggs) of satan"--read more about why its brilliant here.

But the song that's in my mind as I write this now is a track called Disgustipated, which you can listen to here

The track is unreal-- here's a transcript of the lyrics.

I couldn't help but remember Didi and Gogo and their waiting for Godot: the carrots in the lyrics brought the similarity home even more:



[The above link to the excerpt, btw, made me grin. In awe. Thy're reading Beckett in Baghdad. An existential play about waiting for a concept that never arrives. Is someone trying to be funny, or play god, I wonder?]

Maybe Maynard likes Beckett. Wouldn't be surprised. But the point is, the lyrics are brilliant. The juxtaposition of supplication, of asking for the multitudes to be redeemed, with that of a serial-killerish end. We dont know what happens after whoever it is walks towards the two people approaching him/her and the red car.

So here's the activity:

Listen to the song. Read the lyrics. And in the comments space, post a probable 'what happens next' scenario. Continue the story. In any style, form or language.

N.B- If in another language, include the translation for me, please.