About 2 weeks before the AEnima CD came out, I was in Tower Records in Philadelphia and came across the album on vinyl.
After we went in the basement and dug up a record player we sat in on the floor and cranked it up. As much as a record player can be cranked up.
Useful Idiot was the last track on the first side of the first record (it was 2 records).
We were extremely high (having stopped at Wonderland also to pick up a new piece), and we couldn't figure out if there was something wrong with the record player, or the record or WTF was going on. Looking at the album jacket we're saying "Well, there's supposed to be a song here, and the needle's not riding the center, WTF is happening?!?"
It took us a little bit, ut it finally dawned on us that TOOL got us.
What suckers we were back then.
Makes you appreciate them that much more when they go to those lengths to mess with a small fraction of the people that would actually listen to this on vinyl.
Actually, if you try to sync your breathing to the pulse of the track and release your breath when Forty Six & 2 starts, it feels quite cool (mentally, that is). The breathing pace you'll experience is about that of what you feel when you are out of breath after doing something strenuous... Then Forty Six & 2 comes in to calm you down.
Nah, it's just a few seconds of random noise. And why is it called Useful Idiot?
Nobody cares.
__________________ Feel The Rhythm | Feel Connection | Feel Inspired
Fathom The Power | Witness The Beauty | Bathe In The Fountain
Swing On The Spiral
Be A Human
Anyone who listens to this horrible track for enjoyment a "useful idiot"...
I do that all the time!
__________________ “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” -- Stephen Roberts
Nah, it's just a few seconds of random noise. And why is it called Useful Idiot?
Nobody cares.
You missed the point of kirknall's post. You are a Useful Idiot if you bought the album on vinyl. Useful because Tool gets money from you, but an idiot because you splashed out to have it on vinyl.
I am fucking tired of people trying to judge these segues as if they were even intended to hold any sort of musical standing. They stand for something else, people. Does being a segue justify being called a "horrible track?" I hold that what is truly "horrible" is people's inability to see what it stands for and instead try to judge it based on musical content. If that's all you can do, then yes, it's horrible, all of the segues. Just act like you dont hear them then, if you arent willing to see what they mean.
It's pretty obvious that all it is is just Tool having fun by confusing the people who bought it on Vinyl (and to the poster who said you're an idiot for buying it in vinyl it came out in 1996, when vinyl still sort of existed in some form though admittedly not very much.) The only "question" is why the title is referring to communism and what that has to do with anything else in the segue. But, well, I don't really care either. So.
they still press albums today for one main reason - people buy them. some buy them to actually listen (like i do) and some to just collect them. albums sound just as good as cassettes and are a hell of alot cheaper than CDs. i'd love to own AEnima on record.
__________________ And so what you're saying when you say 'I understand it intellectually, but I don't get it intuitively,' or 'I don't feel it in my bones,' is that you understand it in the sense of being able to repeat a form of words.
Actually, if you try to sync your breathing to the pulse of the track and release your breath when Forty Six & 2 starts, it feels quite cool (mentally, that is). The breathing pace you'll experience is about that of what you feel when you are out of breath after doing something strenuous... Then Forty Six & 2 comes in to calm you down.
I dunno'...
I love this, the idea of getting high on Tool's music.
Whenever I listen to 46&2 I always listen to this track first. I like the way the loud (almost mechanical) sound of Useful Idiot contrasts with the smooth bass at the start.
