"Vicarious" is a song by the American rock band

Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

. The song is the lead single released from their fourth full-length studio album '' 10,000 Days''. Debuting on Maynard James Keenan's 42nd birthday, April 17, 2006 on commercial radio, the seven-minute song debuted on the '' Billboard''

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-play ...

and

Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" ...

charts both at number two. It received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 49th Annual

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

Overview

The song features a 5/4 riff and describes the vicarious thrill the public receives from living through others in the media eye. The song reached no. 2 on both the Mainstream Rock and

charts. In the June 12, 2008 issue of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine, the song was ranked number 100 on the list of top 100 guitar songs of all time.

Music video

The DVD released on December 18, 2007 contains an extended version of the much-delayed video counterpart for the song. 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 undergoing a solar eclipse, with the Sun's outer corona visible. Two glass-like walls appear in front of the humanoid which show multiple reflections of him. An insect-like creature comes and walks on the humanoid and the glass-like walls. Two fish-like creatures emerge from the main humanoid's eyes. One of them enters into the eclipse while the other enters into an eye appearing on the hand of one of the humanoids. The insect-like creature 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 a fetus is shown gestating in the head. The video's setting then changes to a dimension showing an infinite number of heads interconnected with burning spheres underneath (identical to Alex Grey's work ''Net of Being''). Eventually, another humanoid - with the fish-like creatures emanating from his eyes, and his torso trailing into a ghostly tail - enters into one of the burning spheres and it releases a long fiery arm which goes into an eye of one of the heads and then emerges from the hand on the eye of the main humanoid in the desert. The glass walls then shatter, the insect-like creature starts spraying particles, 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 a single eye appearing in the clouds on an Earth-like planet. The Tool venue in

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was launched in North A ...

bears a lot of elements from the scene involving the multiple god heads and spheres of energy.

Personnel

* Maynard James Keenan —

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Adam Jones —

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Justin Chancellor — bass *

Danny Carey Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician who is the drummer for the progressive metal band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carole Kin ...

—

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Chart performance

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicarious (Tool Song) 2006 songs 2006 singles Tool (band) songs Songs written by Maynard James Keenan Songs written by Danny Carey Songs written by Justin Chancellor Songs written by Adam Jones (musician) Songs about television Songs about the media Animated music videos Volcano Entertainment singles