Thirteenth Step
2003 | Rock
"I'll be the one to protect you from, your enemies and all your demons. -- I'll be the one to protect you from, a will to survive and a voice of reason. -- I'll be the one to protect you from, your enemies and your choices son. -- They're one in the same, I must isolate you, isolate and save you from yourself. "
Trivia
- Thirteenth Step features a wild Cover of The Nurse Who Loved Me, a song originally released by Failure on the album Fantastic Planet.Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen played with both bands.
- Thirteenth Step debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, two of the albums tracks charted at number 61 and 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
- Go do yourself a favor & look up Josh Freese' discography.
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
While the song is open to be taken in many directions, the references to war and the New World Order certainly give this an anti-state flavor. Maynard is emotive as ever. Don't go back to sleep, friends.
Sherry Voluntary
This song is from the unique perspective of the warmonger, bidding those under his spell to go back to sleep, stay in ignorance, and false safety, entranced by the war drums as they beat their savage tune. He assures you that only he can save and protect you. He sounds so reasonable, so caring. He implores you to ignore the voices of dissent, “the rabble,” as they can’t possibly care about you and your interests.He will keep you, “safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils.” And just like any abuser, seeks to isolate his victims from those who could speak peaceful reason and empower them to break the spell and throw off the yoke of the bondage of the warmonger.
Nicky P
I apparently talked about this song on my show a week before this writing. I have no recollection of this. I wonder what Nick a week before now said. I probably got on a soapbox about A Perfect Circle and my opinions of them being overrated. I will likely never know. My feelings on A Perfect Circle aside. I can say I really enjoy these lyrics. Maynard has said this entire album was about addiction so i'm curious where he was going with this particular song because on the surface it seems pretty obvious. If i were to guess probably heroin...perhaps the idea of addiction in general. I like the idea of the government being compared to a drug because it sure feels like poison to me. It's simultaneously inside your own head like a buzz and wrapping you up in it's platitudes. A warm blanket to pprotect you from everything out there. But if you look closely that warm blanket is a sheet of maggots. I take that back, there are uses for maggots, there is no use for the poison that is the government. All the same,the suggestion is enough for most people. It's always disheartening that the idea of personal responsibility and reward seem to fall on deaf ears. Why do humans seem so adverse to the idea of controling their own destiny's? I think it's a fair assessment that statism is an addiction. I think it ends up in the same destructive place as well. Do you feel like a teetotaler walking around in a world of junkies? I certainly do. But at the very least, we're here together. Anyone got some poli-narcan to wake up some sheep?