"Weak and Powerless" is the first single by the

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

A Perfect Circle A Perfect Circle is an American Rock music, rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool (band), Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle released three of their ...

, from their second album, ''

Thirteenth Step ''Thirteenth Step'' is the second studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle, released on September 16, 2003. The album sold well, charting at the number 2 position on the ''Billboard'' 200 in its premiere week, selling over 231,000 co ...

'', and is also their highest charting single, reaching #1 on both the

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" ...

and

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 ...

, the band's first number-one hit. This song was featured in the movie ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

''.

Remixes

One of the most prominent aspects of "Weak and Powerless" is its various layers of clean guitars and vocals, which build the relatively soft yet highly active verse into a powerful chorus. A

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

of the song was made, entitled "Weak and Powerless (Tilling My Grave Mix)" and featuring instrumentation by

Danny Lohner Daniel Patrick Lohner, frequently known as Renholdër, is an American musician and record producer best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Ni ...

Wes Borland Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is the guitarist and backing vocalist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial rock band Black Light Burn ...

, and Josh Eustis. This version is significantly heavier than the album version and was featured in the soundtrack to ''

''. Borland told Cleveland Radio station 100.7 The Buzzard in an interview at the time of the soundtrack's promotion that he and Lohner wrote the remix by putting the song up in

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

and stripping away everything but Maynard's vocals, leaving the three of them to write new music around the vocals.

Official versions

* "Weak And Powerless" - 3:15 * "Weak And Powerless" (Tilling My Grave Mix) - 3:04

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, directed by the

Brothers Strause Greg and Colin Strause, known professionally as The Brothers Strause, are American film directors, producers and special effects artists. They are known for directing the 2007 film '' Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' and the 2010 film ''Skyline.'' ...

, features a nude woman with long, white hair, as seen in various artwork for the album, crawling through the woods, collecting various reptiles, and throwing them into an

amblypygi Amblypygi is an order of arachnids also known as whip-spiders or tailless whip-scorpions, not to be confused with whip-scorpions or vinegaroons that belong to the related order Thelyphonida. The name "amblypygid" means "blunt tail", a referen ...

-filled pit. The commentary by

Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool (band), Tool, A Perfe ...

provided for the video stated the model's name as Tonya, a woman who had never done this type of work before. There are two versions of the video; edited and unedited. In the unedited version the woman's breast and pelvic areas are clearly visible. These areas of the body are darkened and blurred for the television version and the scenes are sped up. Various camera and computer effects are used throughout the video. The video saw significant airplay upon release and is included on the '' aMOTION''

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

/ CD. The end of the video features a barely audible

shampoo Shampoo () is a hair care product, typically in the form of a viscous liquid, that is formulated to be used for cleaning (scalp) hair. Less commonly, it is available in solid bar format. (" Dry shampoo" is a separate product.) Shampoo is use ...

commercial.

Track listing

;US single ;Canadian and European single ;7" single

Chart performance

References

External links

Music video
2003 singles A Perfect Circle songs Songs written by Maynard James Keenan Songs written by Billy Howerdel 2003 songs Virgin Records singles {{2000s-metal-song-stub