The Tool song Maynard James Keenan regretted opening up about
The world of prog rock is elusive and confusing, but that’s what makes bands like Tool so endearing.
The first thing that you pick up about the band is their exciting use of time signatures. Frontman Maynard James Keenan said that he always knew when he started making music, he would be operating outside of the realm of standard timing and would lean into something a bit more obscure. The ideas were always there, clear even in the way that he used to breathe.
“I remember running cross country in high school, and everyone has their own breathing rhythms. It’s just supposed to be in out, right?” he said, “But I found myself running when I was in high school, and I had odd rhythms, it wasn’t just in-out-in-out rhythm, I was actually running to the steps. So if you’re going over hill or downhill, in chuckholes or whatever, my breath would follow those rhythms, which is weird.”
Of course, it’s not just the strange timing of prog rock that draws people to the genre, but also the limitless nature of the music. This applies to the way that songs are put together and also the different themes that are written about within prog rock. While a lot of artists tend to allow their music to be an extension of themselves, a lot of prog artists write about fictional elements. Songs and albums are inspired by sci-fi and fantasy, and the layered nature of the genre allows such stories to be put to music incredibly well.
For instance, Rush are an incredibly famous prog rock band, and a lot of their songs lean more into the fictional side of music which is there to be explored. Their beloved song ‘Red Barchetta’ was inspired by the book A Nice Morning Drive by Richard S Foster. However, rather than adapt the story faithfully, the band took the skeleton of its plot and built a science fiction world around it. There really is no end to the creativity that prog rock bands can inject into their music.
Of course, an artist remains an artist regardless of what genre they dabble in. While prog rock can be used as a means to tell stories, there have been instances in Maynard James Keenan’s career when he has succumbed to the original intention behind a lot of lyrics, and that is to be open and honest with those listening. This can be heard in the songs ‘Wings for Marie (Pt 1)’ and ‘10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)’. Here, Keenan left behind the traditional approach to prog and laid his heart bare for all to see.
Both of these songs follow a storyline about Keenan’s mother, and the singer accepting that she will soon pass away. In the tracks, he comes to terms with her passing and acknowledges the fact that she will certainly make it to heaven. These songs keep the complexity of Tool instrumentally, but provide a new, much more vulnerable side to the band, with beautiful lines like “Never told a lie, never took a life, but surely saved one.”
Keenan might have been able to tap into something deeply personal with this song, which no doubt was a relief at one point in time; however, he wasn’t happy that something so close to his heart was eventually open to creative interpretation. He felt people misread the tracks, and they weren’t tracks that were there to be misread. Not only that, but he also felt as though there was a lot of pressure on the band to play the song right because of how personal it was, and that was tricky to do. In the end, he regretted being so open.
“I think probably the stupidest thing I could have done on 10,000 Days was put myself out there as much as I did with the tracks ‘Wings For Marie (Pt 1)’ and ‘10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)’,” he said, “I’ll never make that mistake again. It just took too much out of me – too much emotionally, mentally, physically – all those manifestations. Those songs were exploited and misconstrued; people were flippant and dismissive. I won’t be doing that anymore. And technically, Wings is very difficult to pull off. If any one of us is off, it falls apart and makes that thing tragic, and that’s not a good song for me to have fall apart. It’s just too personal.”
