you're not being very useful by reading this, are you...
anyway, the term is an oxymoron. there is no such thing as a "useful idiot." why there is a track titled "useful idiot" comprised of a minute of static is beyond me. maybe they got inspired from all of snoop dogg's between-song interludes, but couldn't come up with anything conclusive
__________________ "Have you ever transcended space and time?" "Yes....no....time, not space....no, i have no idea what you're talking about."
I think it's more than that. I think that if you drop acid, and play the vinyl version of this song really slow and then really fast, then really slow and really fast backwards it sounds a whole lot like gin & juice.
There is such a thing as a useful idiot. Like Boxer in George Orwelle's Animal Farm, though not useful to himself he is useful to anyone who can take advantage of him, until he outlives his usefullness at which point he is thrown away. I believe it was even a term used to describe hardworking orthodox communists.
The minute of static? If you have AEnema on vinal, you'll get the subtle joke. The sound of the track is that of a record when all the songs have been played, and the needle is just running around the inside of the disc. Useful idiot concludes side A of AEnema vinal, so a person hears the sound, jumps up to flip the disc over, and finds the last track still running.
A useful idiot can also be used when you talk about people that were used as a scapegoat or the like. For example, the bombing in Oklahoma City, Timothy McVeigh was the one convicted of a crime, even though there were five other bombs reported to have been in the building. He was useful in the sense that he distracted attention away from the rest of the questions that had arisen in the aftermath.
I think that the term could be applied to members of the military that just blindly follow the orders of their superiors. If this guy is willing to go out and risk his life while we sit here and make decisions, he may as well be called a useful idiot.
Anyway, the song serves as a nice break in betwenn H. and Forty-Six & 2.
Originally posted by Roach
The minute of static? If you have AEnema on vinal, you'll get the subtle joke. The sound of the track is that of a record when all the songs have been played, and the needle is just running around the inside of the disc. Useful idiot concludes side A of AEnema vinal, so a person hears the sound, jumps up to flip the disc over, and finds the last track still running.
Hahaha. That gag has to get any "vinyl enthusiast" Tool fans at least once.
Not to pay out Tool's respect for fans, but it does make you wonder the possibility of a hidden sarcastic message behind the ol' "Get them thinking the side is finished - but its infact still going" gag. We'll never know.
Tool inspired by Snoop Dogg???????????!!!!!!!!! come on people think a little deeper than that! a lot of artists do little tracks like that in between songs. lots of rap artists do it, korn does it...so on a so forth. but to compare tool to snoop dogg is just down right nasty. i hope i never see anything like that posted on this page ever again. And if you drop acid you can make any song sound like anything so that statement was completely irrelivent.
yeah, well useful idiot could be the term for tools fans.
most tool fans on here are idiots, not because they buy the records and listen to them. but because they buy them and overanalyze them. therefore making the fans "idiots" and "useful" because they bought the record to give the band a chance to make money, go on tour, get new equipment, do new things, record new records.
sorry, but that could be all there is to it.
__________________ -<-:[\/] e x a h J o l L |\|]:->-
Stupid asshole noob, digging up old threads, nobody likes you, yadda yadda yadda...
i dont care that i brought back a old thread. you dont like it, then eat shit and fuck urself in the ear. I am about to start a new thread specificly about uptight little bitches like you who dont like it when someone brings a old thread bak.
I will huant all old threads. so fuck off.
saying something like "dont bring old threads back" is like saying "dont breathe" or its like being an asshole who likes to wsate his time and waste electricity being a little bitch. go suck your moms cock, its the only thing ur good at.
__________________ -<-:[\/] e x a h J o l L |\|]:->-
i dont care that i brought back a old thread. you dont like it, then eat shit and fuck urself in the ear. I am about to start a new thread specificly about uptight little bitches like you who dont like it when someone brings a old thread bak.
I will huant all old threads. so fuck off.
saying something like "dont bring old threads back" is like saying "dont breathe" or its like being an asshole who likes to wsate his time and waste electricity being a little bitch. go suck your moms cock, its the only thing ur good at.
besides, the only difference is you huant this fuckin forum with more than 2,000 posts. you have no life. Im having a hard time breathing because there are so many assholes like you taking up all the good oxygen. fuck off
__________________ -<-:[\/] e x a h J o l L |\|]:->-
yeah, well useful idiot could be the term for tools fans.
most tool fans on here are idiots, not because they buy the records and listen to them. but because they buy them and overanalyze them. therefore making the fans "idiots" and "useful" because they bought the record to give the band a chance to make money, go on tour, get new equipment, do new things, record new records.
sorry, but that could be all there is to it.
That's the stupidest thing i've ever heard...
...who's going to go out and buy an album to analyze it ?...
i think people get albums because they i dunno...like the music you[slur removed, people can think whatever the fuck they want to, including you]
I just wanted to point out that "Useful Idiot" isn't an oxymoron.
Oxymoron is defined as a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a "deafening silence" and a "mournful optimist". "Useful" and "Idiot" are neither incongruous, nor contradictory.
Quote:
use·ful Audio pronunciation of "Useful" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ysfl)
adj.
1. Having a beneficial use; serviceable: a useful kitchen gadget.
2. Being of practical use: a useful job; useful members of society.
Quote:
id·i·ot Audio pronunciation of "Idiot" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-t)
n.
1. A foolish or stupid person.
2. A person of profound mental retardation having a mental age below three years and generally being unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
The two words don't relate in any way. When combined, (as in "Useful Idiot"), they mean a stupid person with qualities worth taking advantage of, who is too stupid to know it's being done.
Oh, and Tool fans didn't spend their entire life analyzing Tool songs untill after ÆNIMA was released.
Oh, and Tool fans didn't spend their entire life analyzing Tool songs untill after ÆNIMA was released.
An excellent point. Opiate and Undertow are straight forward rock albums. Tool would not have a song for their fans to "overanalyze" at this point in their careers. This song must have another meaning.
As stated in the FAQ (I think), "Useful Idiot" is a translated term originating from the old soviet regime. They liked useful idiots, the individuals so blinded devoted to the Mother Country that they were easily manipulated (much like the republican party base). But if you look at what vinyl is a kick-back to, you may see the idea. The draw to vinyl is a draw to the 50's and 60's when, low and behold, most people (up until the protest movements) were, indeed, useful idiots. Aenima seems to be an album about change, and all of the even-numbered songs seem to represent people and ideas that need to change, or are satirical swipes at those who need to change. "Useful Idiot" seems to be a satirical swipe at the Traditionalist movement, those who think that we need to go back to the 50's when father knew best and the world was ignorantly simpler.
Many people make a great deal of fuss about "anyone can think anything they want" and whatever. But it's important to note that an opinion isn't worth squat. You can think whatever you want about anything, but if you can't back it up with logical analyses and a clear pragmatic process, your opinion is of little value. There is something to be said of gaining some personal experience from Tool's albums, but not at the expense of trying to tell everyone else that that's how it is, without having done your footwork.
__________________ I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens - George H.W. Bush
As stated in the FAQ (I think), "Useful Idiot" is a translated term originating from the old soviet regime. They liked useful idiots, the individuals so blinded devoted to the Mother Country that they were easily manipulated (much like the republican party base). But if you look at what vinyl is a kick-back to, you may see the idea. The draw to vinyl is a draw to the 50's and 60's when, low and behold, most people (up until the protest movements) were, indeed, useful idiots. Aenima seems to be an album about change, and all of the even-numbered songs seem to represent people and ideas that need to change, or are satirical swipes at those who need to change. "Useful Idiot" seems to be a satirical swipe at the Traditionalist movement, those who think that we need to go back to the 50's when father knew best and the world was ignorantly simpler.
Many people make a great deal of fuss about "anyone can think anything they want" and whatever. But it's important to note that an opinion isn't worth squat. You can think whatever you want about anything, but if you can't back it up with logical analyses and a clear pragmatic process, your opinion is of little value. There is something to be said of gaining some personal experience from Tool's albums, but not at the expense of trying to tell everyone else that that's how it is, without having done your footwork.
Idiot Savant. Stalin, Lenin, Marx, Engels. Having said that, of course there is not such a thing as a useful idiot. Although I'm quite partial to the occasional window-licker.
The minute of static? If you have AEnema on vinal, you'll get the subtle joke. The sound of the track is that of a record when all the songs have been played, and the needle is just running around the inside of the disc. Useful idiot concludes side A of AEnema vinal, so a person hears the sound, jumps up to flip the disc over, and finds the last track still running.
i didnt read the link but i completely agree. the idiot is vinyl. technology has rendered it so. it is useful insofar as the pause after these first tracks is breather before flipping the record over and hearing the first notes of to 46 and 2.
outdated as it may be, it serves a purpose. if you have ever heard this pause, you would know it right away, and this is it.
