Tool is the Best American Rock Band Ever
A recent post on reddit asked: What’s the Best American Rock Band of All Time? If you scroll allll the way down to pretty much the bottom you’ll finally find the correct answer:
Here at the Buddy Book Club we don’t really specialize in the music category. To be honest we’re barely qualified to talk about the books we read. With that being said, we (just me) can definitively state that Tool is the best American Rock band of all time. I’m now going to write a blog that is way too long, that really is only for me. Sometimes you gotta write a blog for yourself, this is that blog.
First let me say I grew up in the 90’s so CCR, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Beach Boys, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, were a little before my prime. I can’t argue against any of them. On the Reddit post there were, however, a lot of responses that included Nirvana. While I do understand their influence and place in grunge music, I think they weren’t even a top 5 rock band of their era. They had 2 really good and influential albums, but I’d still go RHCP, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine, STP and Metallica well before Nirvana.
Really I’m just a huge Tool fanboy. I never get sick of their music, I can listen to it everyday. I honestly do believe they should be considered the best American Rock Band of All time because 1) Their relevance and music production across three decades 2) Their incredible talent and complex songs 3) Their originality, and willingness to go against the grain and not just produce ‘radio’ friendly music.
We give a lot of credit to artists who give the finger to the mainstream media, who say they don’t care what people think, but Tool has really always been about that life. Rarely showing their faces, or marketing themselves, releasing ‘singles’ called ‘Prison Sex’ and ‘Stinkfist’ (MTV referred to it as ‘Track #1’), and producing numerous songs that are over 10 minutes. They’ve done just about everything to not be mainstream (although they will say they ‘sold out long before we’ve ever even heard their name‘). Tool’s guiding light is the music/art. Which in many ways is similar to the Buddy Book Club (just kidding, we’d sell out in a second).
Tool’s 3 Decades of Music
Tool has 6 primary albums across 3 decades – with a lot of breaks in-between. I am often asked, ‘Buddy, if I want to get into Tool where do I start?’ First I will say, Tool isn’t a band that you’ll immediately start tapping your foot to or think ‘wow this is a catchy tune’. Even I find myself struggling to appreciate a new Tool song when I first hear it. A lot of time the length, odd time signatures, and lack of traditional song structure can make it hard to grasp what you’re listening to. But that complexity and thoughtfulness is what gives their songs staying power. I think you really appreciate Tool the more you listen to them. But to help all levels of Tool listeners I’ve made a little guide:
Best Tool Songs for New Fans
These are songs that have more traditional structure (they actually have choruses), somewhat shorter in length (for Tool standards) but still manage to show off the musical talent of all it’s members. Note, the music videos can be a little bit much so you may want to listen to just the audio first to get an appreciation for just the music.
Sober – First single off of Undertow, dark powerful song, you can feel the 90s grunge influences in this one. For all you Patriots fans out there you’ll recognize this song as one they blare at Gillette stadium.
The Pot – I think this is an easy one for new Tool fans to enjoy as it does have a pretty badass guitar/bass plus great vocals and lyrics from Maynard James Keenan . Here is a cool video of their drummer Danny Carey (the greatest drummer in the world) jumping in with a high school band to play this song (on a noticeably smaller kit).
Schism – Amazing bass line, first full album with bassist Justin Chancellor and he delivered. the first single off of what most consider their best album Lateralus, I also recommend the live version where they speed up the middle portion to make it even more epic.
Honorable Mentions: Vicarious, Parabola, Right in Two
Best Songs for Regular Tool Fans
I would say regular Tool fans are those that are general rock fans and appreciate Tool but aren’t necessarily obsessed (like some weirdos that write really long blogs about how Tool is the best rock band). Here is what I would say are the most popular amongst regular Tool fans:
Lateralus – I’d say most fans would point to this as their best overall song, they also use the Fibonacci sequence which is pretty cool.
46 & 2 – Great bass line, epic drum solo, and featured in the first Captain America trailers.
Pneuma – Epic song off their newest album, gives me “War Pigs” vibes, I also am required to post the live drum cam of Danny Carey going nuts on this song (I believe it is one of the most viewed drum videos on YouTube ever).
Honorable Mentions: Stinkfist, Ænema, Opiate
My Personal Favorite Tool Songs
This is going to be really hard to keep it to 3, there really is no right answer to this one but I’ll go with:
Jambi – I just think every person in the band crushes this song. They take you on a musical journey. You’re not strapped in and lulled to sleep with a typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus but instead you’re taken on a progressive/metal roller coaster. With each band member showing just how talented they are.
Invincible – Favorite song off the new album, a song that I still get excited to hear, even though I’ve been playing it religiously since the album was dropped (and well before that when it was just the live version). You can also check out some great versions of this song since they let the fans record this at the end of their concert.
Pushit – Looking for something a bit slower (not sure why you would since Adam Jones‘ guitar lick is unreal on this), they perform a modified version of this live from the Salival album, great version of this as well.
Honorable Mention: Stinkfist, Prison Sex, H
Best Songs for Die Hard Tool Fans
This is for fans that live and breathe Tool. Long epic journeys in music form. If you appreciate these songs, you my friend have become enlightened and your Third Eye has been opened. Speaking of…
Third Eye – This is a song I used to always skip when I was a youngster. Sweet kid, my younger self just didn’t know any better. Now, I truly understand how amazing this song is. If you want to hear Tool perform this majestic song live, where they somehow make it sound better than the studio version check the Salival version out.
Rosetta Stoned – The beginning part can turn people off, but hold on for the payoff. Lyrics on this are pretty interesting, plus this is another one that is great live.
7emptest – Coming in at almost 16 minutes, this is what intellectual people would call a masterpiece. To me 7emptest is almost a culmination of everything that makes Tool, Tool. It is an ode to some of their harder 90s song but also with the length and complexity of their newer stuff. Adam Jones never gets enough love, but this song is pretty crazy. No idea how they perform it live. It even won them a Grammy (not that they care about that).
Honorable Mentions: The Grudge, Hooker with a Penis, Descending
Tool’s Best Live Tool Songs
I’ve sprinkled a bunch of Tool’s live songs above. They are notoriously stringent about letting people record at their shows, which obviously has only made more and more people try and record. I would highly recommend seeing them live and even for new Tool fans, it is an experience. For a four person band it is incredible the type of music they are able to generate while still being able to perfect it live. A number of the links above are some of my favorite live versions but here are 3 I think that are probably most popular:
Best Individual Performance – one of the only pro shots, even though it’s from 1993 – pretty crazy. Maynard James Keenan is a bit of a character.
Best Full Concert – this is peak Maynard James Keenan vocals and another really solid recording (you can also check out how incredible his voice is here). Unfortunately they no longer play Eulogy, Prison Sex, H or Jimmy so you have to reminisce with this concert:
Closest Concert Feel – There are a few recordings from this guy, pretty good audio quality and right in the crowd – once upon a time I had a big playlist of best Tool live songs, but it’s somehow disappeared these will do for now.
Well that’s it for now, I’ve spent entirely too much time on this blog, but hopefully a few Tool fans will stumble upon this and appreciate it. If there are any live videos we need to watch or any additional thoughts feel free to reach out to, or check out our book podcast or our other blogs.
