Thanks to Jim Adams, for hosting Song Lyric Sunday. Head on over to Jim’s site for all the rules and future prompts. While you’re there, have a look around. Jim does other music related posts as well as fiction.

The theme words for this week are – Fraud, Hypocrite, Phony, Pretender, Snob.

The song I picked doesn’t actually have any of these words, but I believe it conforms to the overall theme.

The song is Ænema by Tool. It’s from their second album Ænima (it’s not a typo, the album name and song name differ by one letter), released September 17, 1996. It was the third single released, and it reached number twenty-five on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in August 1997. Tool received the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for Ænema, at the 40th Grammy Awards in 1998.

According to Songfacts “This is based on a comedy routine by Bill Hicks, who hated the city of Los Angeles. He thought the people were very superficial and represented America at its worst. In his routine, which is sampled in the song, Hicks talks about California falling into the ocean and creating Arizona Bay. Hicks died of cancer in 1994; in 1997, Rykodisc released an album of Hicks’ comedy titled Arizona Bay.”

Lead singer Maynard James Keenan was a big fan of Hicks, and drew inspiration from his comedy routines, which often contained lots of social commentary. This song is generally a diatribe against celebrity culture, especially in the Hollywood/Los Angeles area. Specifically mentioned is L Ron Hubbard, who was the founder of Scientology, which is known to be practiced by some big name Hollywood actors. There is all kinds of secrecy and speculation around Scientology and whether it’s a religion, a cult or just a money making scam.

The video is kinda weird, so if you’d rather just listen to the audio it’s here too (the audio version is unedited, so go with the video version if you’re offended by words like shit or fuck).

Some say the end is near.
Some say we’ll see Armageddon soon.
Certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three-ring circus sideshow of freaks.

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call L.A.
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, see you down in Arizona Bay.

Fret for your figure
And fret for your latte
And fret for your lawsuit
And fret for your hairpiece
And fret for your Prozac
And fret for your pilot
And fret for your contract
And fret for your car.

It’s a bullshit three-ring circus sideshow of freaks.

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call L.A.
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, see you down in Arizona Bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dip shits.

And some say the end is near.
Some say we’ll see Armageddon soon.
Certainly hope we will
I sure could use a vacation from this stupid shit, silly shit, stupid shit.

One great big festering neon distraction,
I’ve a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.
Learn to swim.
Learn to swim.

‘Cause mom’s gonna fix it all soon.
Mom’s comin’ ’round to put it back the way it ought to be.

Learn to swim. [repeat]

Fuck L Ron Hubbard
And fuck all his clones.
Fuck all these gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim. [repeat]

Fuck retro anything.
Fuck your tattoos.
Fuck all you junkies
And fuck your short memory.

Learn to swim. [repeat]

Fuck smiley glad-hands
With hidden agendas.
Fuck these dysfunctional
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim. [repeat]

‘Cause I’m praying for rain
I’m praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.

Mom, please flush it all away.
I wanna see it go right in and down.
I wanna watch it go right in.
Watch you flush it all away.

Time to bring it down again.
Don’t just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.
And I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t welcome any change, my friend.

I wanna see it come down.
Bring it down
Suck it down.
Flush it down

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So, what do you think, does it fit the theme? Do you know a song that would be a better fit? I did have another song in mind also, by a band I’ve seen. We’ll see if anyone else chooses it. Thanks for stopping by!

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(Also, on the subject of concerts… I may not be around much today. Daughter and I have tickets to see Fall Out Boy, Weezer and Green Day this afternoon/evening. It’s the “Hella Mega Tour” and was supposed to happen in July 2020, but it got rescheduled cuz Kooties… Then tomorrow, Monday, the GLYSB returns! Woot Woot! So I’ll try to get caught up Monday on anything I missed Sunday. Hopefully going back to school will be an easy transition for Ben, and I can start to transition back to spamming up your comments again. I’ll be here next Sunday unless a meteor lands on me or something.)

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HUGS!!

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