[QUOTE=Shadius]Edit: Oh, I was pleasently suprised to hear Passive in the movie Constantine, one of my favourite APC songs. The movie itself was actually better than I thought it would be, (I had low expectations).[/QUOTE]

That movie was pretty awesome. I didn't have a clue what it was when I went to see it. I hadn't seen a trailor, commercial, or knew a thing about it. It was an awesome movie to just randomly choose to see. I wanna get the DVD when it comes out for extra footage and special effects stuff. The demon in the mirror thing was awesome looking.

[B] I believe that I have found an alternate track listing for A Perfect Circle’s album Thirteenth Step. [/B]

Just so you know, this is a long read.

After reading the explanation for the so-called Holy Grail of Tool’s album Lateralus, the much talked about alternate song order, I began thinking about other CD’s I had which told stories or had specific orders, and if there were any different hidden possibilities. Weeks after I first tried Tool’s Holy Grail, I was in this thread, writing my own personal thoughts on A Perfect Circle’s album Thirteenth Step. I saw each track as another drug addict’s story, not as one particular person’s journey through addiction. I had read other interpretations online, some of which said that Thirteenth Step focused on one drug addict’s life. I didn’t feel this was possible, though. For the album to describe one man, the tracks would have to be in a different listing, in a chronological order of sorts. So I thought about each song’s lyrics and how they could be applied to the story of one man, a character who I call the Addict.

Just for good measure, here is Thirteenth Step’s original song order:
1. The Package
2. Weak and Powerless
3. The Noose
4. Blue
5. Vanishing
6. A Stranger
7. The Outsider
8. Crimes
9. The Nurse Who Loved Me
10. Pet
11. Lullaby
12. Gravity

Thus, I began to deconstruct the album as a whole. Instead of rearranging the album by connected the music, drawing spirals and parabolas, and using the Fibonacci Sequence, this alternate version of Thirteenth Step would be connected through the lyrics. Some tracks would stay in their general locations. Gravity and Pet would obviously appear in the second half, while The Package and Vanishing would remain in the first half, all judging by the meanings I had come up with for each song on the album.

Lullaby, I decided, would come first. A segue/extending ending from the preceding song Pet, it had a restless, dream like feeling to it. The only real words in the song, “Go back to sleep”, displayed a state of insomnia. The Addict was restless, and can’t bring himself to settle down. He needs a fix. Next would obviously come The Package, which describes the actual steps that the Addict must take in order to receive a parcel of drugs. Basically, he must lie, cheat, and steal. “Lie to get what I crave”. Having obtained his drug supply, the Addict immediately gets high. Whatever track listing that you personally follow, it can be immediately discerned that Vanishing describes the act of utilizing the drug. It’s trance-inducing quality and repeated lyrics draw listeners into the mindset of the Addict, who is under the influence. “Vanish, vanish into the air / Slowly disappear / Never really here” describe the actual mental state the Addict has while getting high.

Next, he decides to share his drugs with someone. A friend, possibly. They use the drugs together, but the Addict, once again under the influence, can only sit and watch as his female friend has a fatal overdose, told of in the chorus: “Call it aftermath, she’s turning blue / Such a lovely color for you / Call it aftermath, she’s turning blue / While I just sit and stare at you”. This is the key song in the Addict’s life to come. Because of his female friend’s death, the Addict is caught with his supply of drugs and sentenced to prison. The Addict’s jail sentence takes place in crimes, where other inmates (actually the voices of Billy, Jeordie, and Josh,) are heard around him. Overcome with anger, the Addict does the only thing he knows: he counts to ten. Counting to ten, which I stated in my previous evaluation of Thirteenth Step, is a common practice in anger management courses. In order to avoid unleashing violence because of anger, people are supposed to stop and count to ten. As the anger in the Addict’s voice increases while he counts, we have just learned something about him. He’s already been through rehabilitation programs, judging by his knowledge of the count-to-ten rule. He has a history of violence, and this raises the question of whether or not the Addict has previously hurt, or even killed, others in order to obtain his supplies of drugs.

Now out of prison, the Addict is on some form of probation. Therefore, he is unable to pull his normal moves and receive a new supply of drugs. Without them, he goes through withdrawal syndrome and states of shock, as his body must now cope without them. This is why Weak and Powerless comes next, a song that describes a drug user admitting his addiction to himself: “Desperate and ravenous / I’m so weak and powerless over you”. People around him watch his literal desperation, and he is outcasted in the song The Outsider. The speaker here is someone close to the Addict, striving to understand why the Addict has “Given into all these / Reckless dark desires”. Angry at his self-destructive, drug-related behavior, the speaker here simply does not want to watch the Addict kill himself, and therefore gives up hope on him.

Now, after the pounding onslaught of The Oustider, arguably the album's heaviest song, comes the soft, eerie, beautiful A Stranger. Now, the acoustic guitar is even more startling than it was after originally following Vanishing. After The Outsider, it is a humbling moment. Here, A Stranger feels like the Addict’s response to the person speaking to him in The Outsider. “…I formulate denials / Of your affect on me”. The Addict is lying to this person, trying to deny the fact that he is helpless to his addiction. However, this is no use, as the Addict checks in, or is forcibly checked in, to a rehabilitation program/clinic/hospital. There, the Addict is medicated and possibly given some extreme forms of therapy: “Say hello to the shrinking in your head / You can’t see it but you know it’s there, so don’t neglect it”. Also, as he begins to lose his mind, the Addict envisions love between he and one of the nurses.

Next is Gravity. Originally the album’s closing song, Gravity tells the story of a drug addict who has managed to successfully recover. And somehow, in some way, the Addict himself recovers, and leaves the hospital. The dream-like music of The Nurse Who Loved Me is carried on into Gravity, but is more refined and structured here. The Addict has taken his life back at last, and has returned down to Earth. However, the drug use, withdrawal, and subsequent rehabilitation took a vast toll on his body and his mind. The Addict, now a weak shell of a man, will never be the same again.

In The Noose, he is visited by an old friend. I believe the speaker in The Noose is the same person who spoke in The Outsider. The speaker is happy to find that the Addict has managed to recover from his drug addiction, and acknowledges this to him: “So glad to see you well / Overcome and completely silent now / With heaven’s help / You cast your demons out”. However, the speaker wonders how the Addict will atone for the crimes he committed before being incarcerated. This now solidifies the Addict’s past as a violent person, hinted at by the counting in Crimes. Even though he is now no longer actually addicted, the Addict has still broken laws, and possibly killed people. Suddenly, his problems have come around again, and essentially bitten him in the [color=white]a[/color]ss. “Your halo slipping down to choke you now”. By the end of this song, the Addict’s future is uncertain.

Pet now begins, the last song in this new order. This is where Thirteenth Step differs the most. Originally, it ended with Gravity, a signal of hope and a regaining of life for a former addict. Here, Pet ends the album in a grim way. His mind has never fully recovered from the insane state he was in during The Nurse Who Loved Me. He begins to imagine the lure of drugs that caused his addiction in the first place. The drugs promise the Addict many things: they won’t “let the boogeyman come” and will keep him safe from “pain, and truth, and choice, and other poison devils”. Once again, a key phrase reappears: “Go back to sleep”, words first heard in Lullaby when the Addict decided to leave for a fix. “Stay with me / Safe and ignorant / Just stay with me”. Now, the album opens and closes with the same words: “Go back to sleep”. As hard as he tries, the Addict cannot go back to sleep. He needs what he has always needed, one more fix. Whether or not he throws his life away and does get a new drug supply is left unanswered. However, the ending is, at best, bittersweet. The Addict is left with a choice: to stay clean, or to basically go back to the starting point, where he was at the very beginning.

This new order has changed the track listing to 11, 1, 5, 4, 8, 2, 7, 6, 9, 12, 3, 10.
1. Lullaby
2. The Package
3. Vanishing
4. Blue
5. Crimes
6. Weak and Powerless
7. The Outsider
8. A Stranger
9. The Nurse Who Loved Me
10. Gravity
11. The Noose
12. Pet

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and you enjoy trying this new order for yourself even more. Maybe I have thought too deeply into it. Maybe not. Either way, Thirteenth Step is a d[color=white]a[/color]mn fine album, and one of my favorites of all time.

– – Dan / BlindWriting

Whoa, I'll give that order a spin. That must have been hard work :thumb:

I'll give the new order a spin to. :)

One thing I'm not sure about though is having #11 as number 1... I find that to be a bit strange.

I personally just like the pre mixed 'Lullaby' into ' Pet' working. When they supported the Dftones, they played the former, then linke dit in well with the opening riff.

I've neglected APC for a while. I may have to set up that ordered playlist soon

I haven't played the new order yet, but wow...sounds like someone definetly took the time to think that out...

It's all the about the insomnia. Trying to get to sleep at 2 AM and then just thinking up stuff like this.

thats pretty good, i like the ending better

i too had thought of, and written for a paper in Creative Writing about the story of the addict

except mine had no rearraging, i forget most of the details, but the clincher was the first song "Get what i came for and im out the door again" to the second song "Weak and Powerless" and a few more between, and then at the end, the choice to live on in Gravity

but, i must hand it to you, you thought about it much more than i did.

I am beginning to think that the alternate tracklists are all a big spoof. If Maynard intended for Lateralus to be out of order, he wouldn't do it again with APC. I doubt either one are intentional, but it could still very well be true. :-/

/skeptical

[QUOTE=Dr. Jake Destructo]I am beginning to think that the alternate tracklists are all a big spoof. If Maynard intended for Lateralus to be out of order, he wouldn't do it again with APC. I doubt either one are intentional, but it could still very well be true. :-/

/skeptical[/QUOTE]
I don't really think Maynard intended for Thirteenth Step to have an alternate track list. This was just my response to the claims of a one-addict story.

Whether or not Maynard intended these alternate track listings, we may never know...I highly doubt the man would tell you, even if asked him...

Good job on the alternate order. I doubt it was a purposeful thing done by the band, but nonetheless an extremely intersting and cool spin on it. I will definately try it. Your story adds up very well.

/Was praying that you would not say Pet meant he started a famly and had kids ("Lay your head down child...I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons..")

I actually have some things to add to your story that go along with it well and would help prove it, but I can't be bothered to go into it now, it's late and I'm tired.

Are there any sites similar to toolshed.down.net? Or is it just hands down better than every other site and has everything there is to have already?

[QUOTE=Sliptallica]Are there any sites similar to toolshed.down.net? Or is it just hands down better than every other site and has everything there is to have already?[/QUOTE]

I personally think it's the best, because it's comprehensive, and doesn't have that BS that what's his name posts on Toolband...

[QUOTE=Kage]I also prefer Thirteenth Step over Mer De Noms, simply because it's a more well-rounded album than Mer De Noms. Mer has some of their greatest songs, but the last half is weaker than the first half and not near as consistent (if the last half had lived up to the first half in terms of greatness, it would probably be better), whereas Thirteenth Step was very much coherent as a full album, and also included some of their best songs.[/QUOTE]

i really like the style used in thirteenth step, all the songs really appeal to me and there is still a form of anger, in songs such as pet and the outsider. Mer De Noms is a great album, but not all the songs are of the same quality.

90% of albums out today are very inconsistant in song styling. one half heavier than the other, it wasn't bad planning on apc's part, they just put the songs in that order because of how it felt to them as they were in the post production stages. i highly doubt after all maynard did with tool that he screwed up. they had a plan and went through with it. i personally like mer de noms better than thirteenth step but dont hate 13th. everything is done for a reason especially with maynard behind the console.

I didn't mean in terms of heaviness/lightness or style. It has more to do with how well the songs are writen, regardless of the style they're written in. Most of the songs on Mer de Noms had a pretty consistent feel, but I felt that a few of the latter songs on Mer De Noms seemed just a little haph-hazard and not as carefully planned out and well-executed as songs like Hollow, Magdalena, Rose, Orestes, etc.

Random, but true:

About a month ago, i was playing basketball in my gym class. My teacher usually brings disco and funk cds to play while we shoot hoops. One day he forgot his cds. i happened to have Ænima on me at the time...

How'd that work out? Did it appeal to anybody?

I've thought about bringing a Tool album to gym class...

I need to get another Tool album...

I already have Lataerus (or however you spell it). What should i get first, Aenima or Undertow?

Aenima.

[QUOTE=Shattered_Future]I need to get another Tool album...

I already have Lataerus (or however you spell it). What should i get first, Aenima or Undertow?[/QUOTE]

Ænima. Has more emotion in it than Lateralus, and has excellently crafted songs that have a heavy arty, progressive feel to them. Undertow would be very different from Lateralus. And while still a good album, it's not great like Ænima and Lateralus.

I <3 Ænima.

You can't go wrong. I'd say Aenima, but Lateralus is just as good. :thumb:

[QUOTE=Shadius]Ænima. Has more emotion in it than Lateralus, and has excellently crafted songs that have a heavy arty, progressive feel to them. Undertow would be very different from Lateralus. And while still a good album, it's not great like Ænima and Lateralus.

I <3 Ænima.[/QUOTE]

Ganna have to disagree about Ænima being more emotional then Lateralus... don't wanna get into details though.

Ænima is definitely the album you want to start off with because it eases you into the more epic progressive stuff: Third Eye and Pu****.

Eulogy is long, but its theme and choruses are easy to follow.

[QUOTE=Darkness Of Greed]Ganna have to disagree about Ænima being more emotional then Lateralus... don't wanna get into details though.[/QUOTE]

Feel free to. I love both albums, I just see Lateralus as being more calculating/spiritual than emotional, and Ænima being more emotional than calculating, generally. I'm not saying Lateralus is emotionless, it's just a different flavour.

[QUOTE=In Chains 36]Ænima is definitely the album you want to start off with because it eases you into the more epic progressive stuff: Third Eye and Pu****.

Eulogy is long, but its theme and choruses are easy to follow.[/QUOTE]

I agree, When i first started listening to Tool, I bought Lateralus. It was a little overwhelming at first, I then listened to Aenima. And i started to understand there sound more then.

[QUOTE=Remedy]I agree, When i first started listening to Tool, I bought Lateralus. It was a little overwhelming at first, I then listened to Aenima. And i started to understand there sound more then.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I'm kind of glad I started with Aenima in the first place. Then onto Lateralus, then Undertow, then Opiate.

[QUOTE=Kage]I actually have some things to add to your story that go along with it well and would help prove it, but I can't be bothered to go into it now, it's late and I'm tired.[/QUOTE]
I'd love to see them, whenever you have the time to get around it.

I started with Lateralus, and you're all right, it wasn't the right choice. I was in the record store, and my Tool freak friend wouldn't answer his phone, so I was like "the one to get has to be the one with Schism", so I did. It was a mistake. I listened to the album once, then put it away for like a month until I listened to Aenima at my friends house. Aenima is the "Tool Can-Opener" for your brain.

Strange... me and my friend were different as we bought lateralus and fell in love with it. That was the only cd I'd listen to for like the following 2 months tell we decided to buy Aenima, and even then I felt I was betraying Lateralus, though I loved Aenima.

Lateralus is still my favorite today... and not just by Tool.

Lateralus is a sheer experience...yet to listen to it in that crazy spiral order or whatever!

Aenima is awesome, at the moment H. is my favourite mainly cos of those lyrics...

I totally agree that Aenima should be listened to for weening oneself into Tool.

And err, how d'you get the "AE" symbol??

Lateralus is the best though, IMO. Aenima was just the right place to start, Lateralus just didn't click.

Lateralus is my favorite album. On iTunes it shows what you listen to the most, and how many times. The top 13 songs are Lateralus, like this:

Ticks and Leeches - 156 (I had to listen to this song over and over when I as learning to play it)
Lateralus - 94
Parabola - 89
The Grudge - 87
The Patient - 60
Schism - 59
Parabol - 58
Eon Blue Apocalypse - 57 (I have no idea how that happened)
Reflection - 54
Triad - 50
Disposition - 48
Mantra - 45
Faaip De Oiad - 32

I don't think I've ever listened to Faaip De Oiad without listening to the whole album, so I've listened to the album 32 times on my iPod. By far my favorite album.

Completely unrelated, and far more superficial and pointless, I just don't get Maynards hair at all. I really don't. :lol:

I know he's worn wigs in the past, while he's performing with Tool and APC, and on a lot of APC stuff he seems to be wearing different wigs, which is fine.

What I don't get is, back in like.. 93', he had a receeding hairline. Long hair but receeding, you know what I mean, if you've seen any really old interviews with him, or live concert footage from back then, he looks like he'll be fully bald in a few years. And in the coming years, he goes completely skinhead for Tool for a long time. Then, in an interview I have of him like ten years later, his hair is cut smart and short, he's wering elton John glasses, and his hairline isn't receeding, and it's almost certainly not a wig of any kind.

Which makes me wonder, which hairstyles of his ARE wigs, and which arn't? What's the deal? Magic hair re-growth shampoo?

He probably uses like Rogain 952,158,745,965,213. My drum teacher does. He grows his hair back down past his head in like a month and a half after shaving it bald. It's nuts.

How many fvcking tracklists have we seen in the last 20 pages?!

[QUOTE=In Chains 36]How many fvcking tracklists have we seen in the last 20 pages?![/QUOTE]

See the number I put for the Rogain power :thumb:

Question: For the Ænima tour, did they play Pu**** Live from salival, or did they play the original version for a while?

Original for a while, hence the Maynard fights fan video.