Sober (Tool song)

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This article is about the song by Tool. For the song by Muse, see Showbiz.

"Sober"

Single by Tool
from the album Undertow
Released	1993
Format	Promo CD
Recorded	1992
Genre	Alternative, Progressive rock
Length	5:05
Label	Volcano Records
Producer(s)	Tool/Sylvia Massy
Tool singles chronology
"Prison Sex" 1993	"Sober" 1993	"Stinkfist" 1996
Alternate cover

Promo cover

"Sober" is a song on Tool's first full-length album, Undertow.

The meaning of the song is ambiguous, as the lyrics ask the question: "Why can't we not be sober?" This double negative allows for multiple interpretations, depending on which other parts of the lyrics are focused on. Adam Jones has stated in an interview that the song is about a friend of the band whose artistic expression only comes out when he is under the influence. "A lot of people give him shit for that," Jones explains. "If you become addicted and a junkie, well, that's your fault." ^[1]

The "shadow" haunting the author of the lyrics is very likely a reference to the Jungian concept of the shadow-self.

1 Writing
2 Video
3 Trivia
4 References

[edit] Writing

"Sober" was one of the earliest songs composed by its writer, Maynard James Keenan, with roots dating back to a 1987 recording on the second album by his earlier band, Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty, entitled "Waiting for the World". The song contains many lyrics from "Sober", but with a very different tune.

The song was recorded by Keenan with Tool for the first time in late 1991 on an untitled demo tape referred to as 72826.

[edit] Video

A video to "Sober" was made in 1993. It was filmed using stop motion, with characters models designed by Adam Jones and directed by Fred Stuhr. It was the first of Tool's videos to be made in stop motion, the earlier promo video for Hush being live action and featuring all four band members. However, brief flashes of the musicians can be seen near the beginning, as well as a live-action figure twitching and vibrating violently (à la the film Jacob's Ladder).

Besides being one of their first videos, it is also one of Tool's most ambiguous. Its protagonist is a small, humanoid being, who lives and sleeps in a rusty room sparsely decorated with a bed, table and chair. He happens upon a wooden box, which he opens near the beginning. Its contents are kept hidden for the majority of the video's duration, but it seems whatever it is has had adverse effects - there are repeated shots of the humanoid levitating in his chair, and his head and arm vibrating wildly. While experiencing these effects, he ventures through his living quarters and its many corridors.

The climax provides a barrage of imagery and revelations: a figure attached to a wall behind a translucent screen, a sentry of sorts wielding a mobile, robotic cannon and a wormlike, organic creature hidden within the house's pipes. At the end, the box is empty, leaving the viewer to determine its meaning.

[edit] Trivia

Staind has released an acoustic cover version of "Sober" on their 2006 compilation The Singles: 1996-2006.
Electronic duo Orbital sampled the song in "Tootled", from their DVD album The Altogether.