Vicarious (song)

"Vicarious" is a song by American rock band Tool. The song is the first single released from their fourth full-length studio album 10,000 Days. Debuting on Maynard's 42nd birthday, April 17, 2006 on commercial radio, the seven-minute song debuted on the Billboard Alternative Songs and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts both at number two.[2] It received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.[3]

"Vicarious"
Single by Tool
from the album 10,000 Days
Released
  • April 17, 2006
  • December 18, 2007 (CD and DVD)
RecordedAugust–December 2005
GenreProgressive metal[1]
Length7:06
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Tool
Tool singles chronology
"Lateralus"
(2002)		 "Vicarious"
(2006)		 "Jambi"
(2007)
Promotional cover

Overview

The song features a 5/4 riff[4] and describes the vicarious thrill the public receives from living through others in the media eye.[5]

The song reached no. 2 on both the Mainstream Rock and Alternative Songs charts, being kept from the top spot by "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[6][7]

In the June 12, 2008 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the song was ranked number 100 on the list of top 100 guitar songs of all time.[8]

Music video

The DVD released on December 18, 2007 contains an extended version of the much-delayed video counterpart for the song.[9] The video is completely made through use of CGI, making it Tool's second full CGI video, as opposed to stop-motion animation, which the band has used in their past videos.

The video was co-directed by guitarist Adam Jones and artist Alex Grey and also features creative input from Chet Zar. Also included on the DVD are short documentaries on the making of the video and on Jones's previous work in film and television, and commentaries on the video from comedian David Cross.

The music video begins with a humanoid whose internal organs and bones are visible through a transparent skin. The humanoid is standing in the middle of a dry desert devoid of any vegetation and water. The humanoid observes a ball like object with tentacles scraping the desert floor at a distance. The Sun appears to be under going a solar eclipse in the music video with the Sun's outer corona visible. As the video progresses, two glass like walls appears right in front of the humanoid which show multiple reflections of the humanoid. An insect eventually comes and walks on the humanoid and the glass like walls. Eventually, two other humanoid appearing to look like a comets emerge from the main humanoids eyes. One of them enters into the eclipses Sun while the other enters into an eye appearing on the hand of one of the humanoids. The insect which was previously seen also releases a ball like object with tentacles similar to the one seen in the desert earlier from an eye on its back. The main humanoid then collapses and what appears to be a newly formed fetus in shown being formed in the head. The video's setting the changes to a dimension showing what appears to be an infinite amount god heads interconnected with burning spheres underneath. Eventually, one of the humanoids enters into one of the energy spheres and it releases of ray of energy which goes into an eye of one of the godhead and then emerges from the main humanoids hand's eye in the desert. The glass walls then shatter, the insect appears to get incinerated, and the sphere figure with tentacles collapses onto the desert floor. The main humanoid then appears to "transcend" with flashes of light around his body. The music video ends with an single eye appearing in the midst of two hurricanes on an unidentified Earth like planet.

The Tool venue in Guitar Hero: World Tour bears a lot of elements from the scene involving the multiple god heads and spheres of energy.

Personnel

Chart performance
Chart (2006) Peak
position
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[10] 2
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[11] 2
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (Billboard) 15

References
  1. Ezell, Brice (February 15, 2012). "The 10 Best Progressive Rock Albums of the 2000s". PopMatters. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  2. "Modern Rock Singles Chart". Billboard.com. Retrieved May 2, 2006.
  3. "SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, STONE SOUR Among GRAMMY Nominees". Blabbermouth.net. December 7, 2006. Archived from the original on September 16, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
  4. Dan Wohl (May 1, 2006). "CD Review: Tool's '10,000 Days' is worth the wait". HighBeam Research University Wire. Retrieved May 21, 2007. 'Vicarious' has everything that makes a classic Tool song: a mind-blowing 5/4 riff by Adam Jones...
  5. Theakston, Rob (2006). "Review". 10,000 Days. AllMusic. Retrieved May 2, 2006.
  6. "Mainstream Rock Songs Chart for the week of June 17, 2006". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  7. "Alternative Songs Chart for the week of May 6, 2006". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 30, 2008. Retrieved May 30, 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Retrieved 2011-01-24. "This is as arty as new metal has ever gotten. Guitarist Adam Jones' cadmium-heavy riffs are mostly in 5/4 time (with a few extra rhythmic hiccups), and he batters away at them with inhuman precision. Even though it runs long at seven minutes, the song still became a crossover hit, peaking at number two on modern-rock radio."
  9. "Tool News, 18 October 2007". Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  10. "Tool Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  11. "Tool Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
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