a.k.a. "Vacant"
Lyrics by Maynard James Keenan
"Dead as dead can be,"
the doctor tells me.
But I just can't believe him.
Ever the optimistic one, I'm sure of your ability
to become my perfect enemy.
So, wake up and face me.
Don't play dead, 'cause maybe
someday I will walk away and say,
"You disappoint me. Maybe you're better off this way."
Leaning over you here
cold and catatonic.
I catch a brief reflection of what you could and might have been.
It's your right and your ability
to become my perfect enemy.
But, maybe you're better off this way.
Go ahead and play dead.
I know that you can hear this.
Go ahead and play dead.
Why can't you turn and face me?
You fucking disappoint me.
Passive aggressive bullshit.
A Perfect Circle has two songs that are just about the most moving I've ever heard. The sentiment is powerful, supremely human, and so uniquely expressed. Only those you love the deepest can hurt you the most. How do you deal with it, when the one you love becomes atrocious?
Also the manner and method of the sins being committed. Most people can't process or explain it. They can't understand it so there's nothing left to do but suffer it under the additional pain of frustration and confusion. This song and "The Outsider" both do a phenomenal job of confronting and addressing (perhaps not effectively, but perhaps still as well as one might) such crimes of subtlety.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Creatures (For A While)
Lyrics: N. Hexum, D. Martinez
Restlessness. Thank GOD for it. This song is epicly life affirming. I'm not the type of person to have favorite anythings. I like a little bit of everything. I hate to miss out, I want it all, and I want every perspective there is. I don't have a favorite food or drink or tennis shoe or human being. But I do have a favorite movie and a favorite song.
They are my favorites not because they are quantitatively the best constructed or executed works of art (though a fair enough case could be made). They are my favorites because they are the most important to me. They have truly impacted me, that is to say left a permanent impression. They are not simply things pleasantly experienced; they are active in their influence. Through deft engineering they seize me in stages ensuring that I hit every stop they have prepared for me.
The movie we'll get to later (my counterpart has stopped in there already on this page, though he didn't take me with him). The song, is this song: Creatures (For a While).
(By the way, I love parenthetical addendums on song titles. Right there, right at the get-go, you've got a multi-layered experience. This song is about Creatures first and foremost... And that's got plenty to ponder right there. It invites the imagination to run where the wild things are immediately and wonder about what fascinating, necessarily exciting things are in store.
But the second part of the title steps in in the second instant to swiftly temper the subject. This is not a subtitle. Movies have subtitles. Subtitles make the subject more specific. "This movie is about the Star Wars, sure, but it only covers the portion in which the Clones Attack."
No. The parenthetical portion of the title is the rest of the title. It's the subtext of the title; the underlying essence. Why is it in parentheses though, and not simply "Creatures For a While"? Well that's what I'm getting at. It's not just a song about being a creature for a while. It's about being a Creature, first and foremost but shed in the light of the fact that it will only be for a while.)
Now that was getting a bit wishy-washy so I put the cap on it. Close parenthesis.
Here's the thing...
Restlessness. Why? Why not be at peace? We've had years of mischief. Is that not enough? Apparently not. After these weeks of thrift the energy once again gets the best of me. But it's a continuous struggle. Sometimes I get crazy (just like you I do). And yet.... Is there ever a time when the state of sleeping willingly leaves my mind?
There's a compulsion that acts outside of a natural ebb and flow. This isn't the tide coming and going... This is lightning striking in a forest, starting a blaze that will make way and nurture a wave of new growth. Wildfire, followed by the luscious frantic swarming green, finally settling into the peaceful sylvan serene... Only to begin again.
We are creatures. We LIVE, we MUST live. It is the definitive state of us. But that state exists in contrast. Our mortality looms, of course. We are only creatures for a while and the cold hard fact of our end is the frame in which we must view our life. We will meet that end, it is our fate, it is our destination, it is what our entire life is leading to. It is the result of life. And so it is easy to skip ahead. Stop living for a bit. Rest, relax, take it easy. Now there's nothing wrong with enjoying the serenity of a peaceful moment in a beautiful world, but don't linger...
I land on Earth's hard face. No legs could keep that pace. Highly frustrated want to feel elated.
But, don't buy the fear. Don't by that, my dear. The things you love, you must keep near. Carry on and you won't feel withdrawn, even if you're coming down.
Sometimes it's wearable. Sometimes it's bearable.
I careen towards balance 'til the glass is full.
Life is hard. Life is frantic and stressful. But, life is beautiful. But more urgently: life is a limited time offer. So no matter how difficult it gets to appreciate what's going on don't you dare stop. Because, the good comes on the heels of the bad and we're just creatures, just creatures for a while. And that's what I learn from this beautiful anthem every time I hear it.
PS: Of course.......... it can hardly be done justice without the music. ;-} You'll have to see to that yourself, though.
Ravious: This link should suffice. Just head to "Media" >> "Music Videos" and scroll down to Creatures.
Restlessness. Thank GOD for it. This song is epicly life affirming. I'm not the type of person to have favorite anythings. I like a little bit of everything. I hate to miss out, I want it all, and I want every perspective there is. I don't have a favorite food or drink or tennis shoe or human being. But I do have a favorite movie and a favorite song.
They are my favorites not because they are quantitatively the best constructed or executed works of art (though a fair enough case could be made). They are my favorites because they are the most important to me. They have truly impacted me, that is to say left a permanent impression. They are not simply things pleasantly experienced; they are active in their influence. Through deft engineering they seize me in stages ensuring that I hit every stop they have prepared for me.
The movie we'll get to later (my counterpart has stopped in there already on this page, though he didn't take me with him). The song, is this song: Creatures (For a While).
(By the way, I love parenthetical addendums on song titles. Right there, right at the get-go, you've got a multi-layered experience. This song is about Creatures first and foremost... And that's got plenty to ponder right there. It invites the imagination to run where the wild things are immediately and wonder about what fascinating, necessarily exciting things are in store.
But the second part of the title steps in in the second instant to swiftly temper the subject. This is not a subtitle. Movies have subtitles. Subtitles make the subject more specific. "This movie is about the Star Wars, sure, but it only covers the portion in which the Clones Attack."
No. The parenthetical portion of the title is the rest of the title. It's the subtext of the title; the underlying essence. Why is it in parentheses though, and not simply "Creatures For a While"? Well that's what I'm getting at. It's not just a song about being a creature for a while. It's about being a Creature, first and foremost but shed in the light of the fact that it will only be for a while.)
Now that was getting a bit wishy-washy so I put the cap on it. Close parenthesis.
Here's the thing...
Restlessness. Why? Why not be at peace? We've had years of mischief. Is that not enough? Apparently not. After these weeks of thrift the energy once again gets the best of me. But it's a continuous struggle. Sometimes I get crazy (just like you I do). And yet.... Is there ever a time when the state of sleeping willingly leaves my mind?
There's a compulsion that acts outside of a natural ebb and flow. This isn't the tide coming and going... This is lightning striking in a forest, starting a blaze that will make way and nurture a wave of new growth. Wildfire, followed by the luscious frantic swarming green, finally settling into the peaceful sylvan serene... Only to begin again.
We are creatures. We LIVE, we MUST live. It is the definitive state of us. But that state exists in contrast. Our mortality looms, of course. We are only creatures for a while and the cold hard fact of our end is the frame in which we must view our life. We will meet that end, it is our fate, it is our destination, it is what our entire life is leading to. It is the result of life. And so it is easy to skip ahead. Stop living for a bit. Rest, relax, take it easy. Now there's nothing wrong with enjoying the serenity of a peaceful moment in a beautiful world, but don't linger...
I land on Earth's hard face. No legs could keep that pace. Highly frustrated want to feel elated.
But, don't buy the fear. Don't by that, my dear. The things you love, you must keep near. Carry on and you won't feel withdrawn, even if you're coming down.
Sometimes it's wearable. Sometimes it's bearable.
I careen towards balance 'til the glass is full.
Life is hard. Life is frantic and stressful. But, life is beautiful. But more urgently: life is a limited time offer. So no matter how difficult it gets to appreciate what's going on don't you dare stop. Because, the good comes on the heels of the bad and we're just creatures, just creatures for a while. And that's what I learn from this beautiful anthem every time I hear it.
PS: Of course.......... it can hardly be done justice without the music. ;-} You'll have to see to that yourself, though.
Ravious: This link should suffice. Just head to "Media" >> "Music Videos" and scroll down to Creatures.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Out of Context
I was spun into wonder today as to why it is that songs I love from albums I love sound so much cooler as singles on the radio. I think in large part it's the fact that that thing I love is being broadcasted to my fellow wanderers so that they may share in the experience that had such a notable impression on me. I like to share. *ahem*
But, I think it's also something to do with the fact that on the album the work is soaking in a sea of itself. I may thoroughly enjoy a track but the more I enjoy each of the tracks the less any of them "pop". On the radio, however, these orchestral orcas are rising out of an ocean of dirty dull dishwater. Such brilliance lusters all the more when in contrast and out of context.
Audioslave is a good example of this. On the radio they wake you up and shake you up out of drooling on yourself from another goddamned bland whine-fest from some kids wearing black nail polish. On the album, however, the songs tend to bleed together and produce a kind of burnout from overstimulation.
What set me off on this subject today, however, was hearing The Pot from Tool's new album 10,000 Days on the radio. No one can scream and still be singing as beautifully as Maynard. This song is a vicious lashing of fury. Of course what I find most awe-inspiring about Tool (and A Perfect Circle for that matter) and what leads me to start tossing around words like genius is their ability to not simply call upon but CONJURE emotions in the listener. Everything about the structure of the songs: the pace, the rhythm, the melodies, the intensity, and especially the vocals, are a thousand tiny fingers punching the critical keys in your neural receptors in just the right sequence to illicit the desired response.
What does The Pot conjure? As I said certainly a righteous fury, but also shame. This song is a scolding, and it's so masterfully constructed as to make you genuinely feel like you deserve it. And... In a way we all do. Even if we don't it does a world of good to be MINDFUL of the crimes we owe our world to. Awareness is the only medicine for the world's meta-diseases.
The album is full of indictment. Every song has a bitter or at least lamentatious angle and it's a beautiful experience. But it's also exhausting if you really go into it for the long haul. Despite the varied sounds, it remains thematically of one context. And each track is like an invigorating act of mortification that one volunteers for.
On the radio, however, it plays differently. It plays more like a scenario where some guy in a crazy cool jacket walks into your convenience store, drags you out back, and at gunpoint and under threat of execution convinces you to go back to community college.
BRISK! To say the least, this song rocks... Hard.
But, I think it's also something to do with the fact that on the album the work is soaking in a sea of itself. I may thoroughly enjoy a track but the more I enjoy each of the tracks the less any of them "pop". On the radio, however, these orchestral orcas are rising out of an ocean of dirty dull dishwater. Such brilliance lusters all the more when in contrast and out of context.
Audioslave is a good example of this. On the radio they wake you up and shake you up out of drooling on yourself from another goddamned bland whine-fest from some kids wearing black nail polish. On the album, however, the songs tend to bleed together and produce a kind of burnout from overstimulation.
What set me off on this subject today, however, was hearing The Pot from Tool's new album 10,000 Days on the radio. No one can scream and still be singing as beautifully as Maynard. This song is a vicious lashing of fury. Of course what I find most awe-inspiring about Tool (and A Perfect Circle for that matter) and what leads me to start tossing around words like genius is their ability to not simply call upon but CONJURE emotions in the listener. Everything about the structure of the songs: the pace, the rhythm, the melodies, the intensity, and especially the vocals, are a thousand tiny fingers punching the critical keys in your neural receptors in just the right sequence to illicit the desired response.
What does The Pot conjure? As I said certainly a righteous fury, but also shame. This song is a scolding, and it's so masterfully constructed as to make you genuinely feel like you deserve it. And... In a way we all do. Even if we don't it does a world of good to be MINDFUL of the crimes we owe our world to. Awareness is the only medicine for the world's meta-diseases.
The album is full of indictment. Every song has a bitter or at least lamentatious angle and it's a beautiful experience. But it's also exhausting if you really go into it for the long haul. Despite the varied sounds, it remains thematically of one context. And each track is like an invigorating act of mortification that one volunteers for.
On the radio, however, it plays differently. It plays more like a scenario where some guy in a crazy cool jacket walks into your convenience store, drags you out back, and at gunpoint and under threat of execution convinces you to go back to community college.
BRISK! To say the least, this song rocks... Hard.
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