When Tool's Lateralus came out a few years back, there was much talk about how intense it was going to be, how it was going to be all about building tension and sudden release. I ran out and scarfed up a copy shortly after the stores opened the day it was released, then drove across town to see my parents - a 40 minute drive that gave me an opportunity to hear about half of the album each way. Midway through my journey, I stopped to get a drink at a convenience store, pausing the CD as I shut off my truck. When I got back in, I unpaused it, accidently fumbling against a few buttons on the interface of my CD player, but was soon bathed in the atmospheric intro to the song "Parabola," the cleverly titled "Parabol."
As "Parabol" played, it would cycle through some gently strummed guitar with singer Maynard James Keenan on top for about two minutes, and then a heavily distorted guitar would swell in from silence - and then stop, jumping right back to the gently strummed guitar. "Man," I thought, about 5 minutes into this, "they weren't kidding when they said 'tension and release.'" This was some intense stuff - I just knew any moment now that swelling guitar was going to break into a driving, pounding, scraping rhythm. But it never did - it was just tension and tension and tension, the only release being a mild one at the end of that guitar swell. Being a big fan of ambient music, I was used to Eno pulling stuff like this, but this wasn't Eno, it was Tool - there has to be a payoff here somewhere, right?
By the time I got to my parents house, I'd been listening to this song for a good 12 minutes or so, patiently waiting for that payoff, and certain I would most likely choose to skip this very long, very minimalist track in the future. And then when I hit pause again moments before removing the CD, a thought occured to me - did I hit a button back there at the Circle K? I looked over the interface and immediately spied the problem. Unwittingly, I'd placed the just-starting track 6, "Parabol," on repeat, and had been listening to a simple two minute intro far longer than Tool ever intended. Repeat unpushed, "Parabol" flowed seamlessly into "Parabola," but that intro track was never the same to me again. Forever spoiled by 12 minutes of "what could have been," the payoff of even a great track like "Parabola" just couldn't match up to my expectations. I felt gypped - and it wasn't even the band's fault.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
my favorite version of Mannish Boy used to be the one on The Band's Last Waltz record..until Hard Again came out...it's a killer.
2 - Rodney Welch
"Mannish Boy" was well known a Muddy Waters classic long before Hard Again -- it dates from 1955 and may even have been where the Rolling Stones got their name. That album was an effort to introduce Waters to a new audience, but a lot of those who heard it would have already been way familiar with it. I think the whoops at the end of the song have more to do with the fact that Johnny Winter and his fellow musicians are playing with an idol, and the idol is more than happy to be connecting with all that youthful energy. It brings out the best in both, and the rest of the record is just as good, especially "Crosseyed Cat."
3 - HW Saxton
Muddy Waters wrote "Mannish Boy" after
hearing Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man". Which
in itself was modeled (partly)on Muddy's
1954 hit "Hoochie Coochie Man".
Muddy heard Bo doing the tune at one of
Bo's first Chess sessions and he really
liked the tune. He couldn't convince Mr.
Leonard Chess to "give" him the tune or
not release Bo's recording so he wrote
"Mannish Boy" as a sort of answer tune.
The version on "Hard Again" is alright.
Muddy's voice in particular is in great
form. Can't beat the original though for
ambience, energy and sheer blues raunch.