I was told to check out the album 10,000 Days by Tool when I told a friend about "Aenema" being my favorite song by the band. What can I say? It's another great album with another captivating album cover. And the equivalent to Aenema would be Vicarious.
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Vicarious is a must hear and a must read. I had to put the entire lyrics:
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Eye on [or I own?] the TV
'cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor it happens to be like
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"Killed by the husband.."
"Drowned by the ocean..."
"Shot by his own son.."
"She used a poison in his tea..
then she kissed him goodbye"
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That's my kind of story
It's no fun 'til someone dies.
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Don't look at me like I am a monster
Frown out your one face, but with the other
Stare like a junkie into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky, cryin' "why, oh why?"
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'Cause I need to watch things die from a distance
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all need it too - don't lie
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Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
Neither the brave nor bold
Nor brightest of stories told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
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Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so why can't we just admit it?
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Blood like rain falling down
Drum on grave and ground
part vampire, part warrior
carnivore and voyeur
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stare at the transmittal
sing to the death rattle
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la, la, la, la, la-lie
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Credulous at best
you desire to believe in
angels in the hearts of men.
but pull your head on out of your hippie haze
and give a listen
shouldnt have to say it all again
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the universe is hostile
so impersonal
devour to survive
so it is, so it's always been
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we all feed on tragedy
it's like blood to a vampire
vicariously, i live while the whole world dies
much better you than i.
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The lyrics are very bold, upfront, and terribly realistic. One word: Television. I once noticed someone wearing a t-shirt that read "Kill Your TV", how necessary to publicly don as a way of getting a very important message across and I think this song does just that. To live vicariously means to live as if you were in the place of another person, to experience somethiing by reading or hearing about or seeing it happen to someone else, and not actually experiencing it directly. We vicariously live infront of our television screens or computer screens when we see, or read about, crimes and other failings of people and society that the media chooses to portray as "reality". The media reports to us what's going on in the world in a carefully selective manner that keeps people in fear. Some of us live our lives based off of the way we interpret what we're exposed to in the news. That is how some of us vicariously live. It's really sick especially knowing that a lot of people don't and can't seem to snap out of this haze. I like how the lyrics confront the listener in saying "you all need it too don't lie" and "why can't we just admit it?" It's like we're all in denial or fearful of stepping out of the comfort zone of our thoughts and questioning the way our lives are being lived and by what standards. There's so much shit going on in the world, unnecessary wars that are deceptivily justified, and we all know this, we're told about it in the media yet we continue to stare silently, and mindlessly, like "zombies". But wait, there are people who do snap out of this haze and those are the folks (aside from people who think critically and logically) who actually experience something harmful and threatening first hand, while the rest of the world remains an audience to their experience. Sure there are crimes and other shits happening in the world that we see, hear, and read about on a daily basis but we're somewhat numb to it so long as it's "happening from a distance", so long as it's not something we, or someone near and dear to us, experience(s).
The next track is Jambi, which is another great piece both lyrically and musically; however, the songs that truly makes this album the best that it is are Wings for Marie Pt 1 and Pt 2. I have never heard anything like those two songs, they're hauntingly beautiful and touching. What makes it touching is how Maynard wrote the song in dedication to his mother who died after being paralyzed for "10,000" days. Part 2 sort of made me want to cry because the words reminded me of my own mother and how I would feel after she was gone.
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