USEFUL TOOLS:

YouTube recently removed my favourite version of The Holy Gift, an album by the rock band Tool which is their album Lateralus, but with the order of the tracks restored to what fans deduce to be the proper, hidden order. This video was also tuned to A=432, a Pythagorean, classical tuning system which produces meditative states. A lifelong music student and a longtime meditator, as well as a Tool fan of considerable years, I can attest to the validity and beauty of this reinterpretation. But as tends to be the norm, this avenue of artistic experience has again been mitigated by the greed of a corporation and the utilitarian pretensions to moral authority of consumers who entirely miss the point.

The fact is that people really did put a lot of work into decoding the track list, retuning every track, and mixing them together in such a manner as to accentuate the smoothness of the transitions, layering endings and beginnings on top of one another in a serene, surreal fashion. For a corporation to remove these videos is to mitigate not only the religious quality of the music as a communal discussion but also the same work ethic which drove its initial creation, though in this case no money was being made for the effort. It may be true that neither did the record company or the band profit from their message being heard in this interpretation of its purest form. Nonetheless, the point is not for either party to hoard a reward for every individual who happens to get the sacred message that the songs (and their entire marketing) profess. True fans will make the sacrifice of their own accord, without regulation or coercion, even if only for the trippy album artwork and the satisfaction of owning a copy. True fans likewise take the time to make this version available out of respect for what they estimate to have been the hidden intent of the artists, a meaning woven into the art itself in the manner that great literature contains subtext. No one should have to be penalized for this, and to restrict it entirely is simply barbaric, since this was the version that was quite probably “meant to be heard” but, given the peculiar nature of the piece, never meant to be sold, and even if it could be marketed it would defeat the artistry of its obscurity.

Since the compiler did not pretend to own the rights, most probably making this matter clear, since the music was not available for download but could only be streamed, since the album has been in publication for nearly twenty years, since Tool remains an iconic band that continues to tour and whose hiatus has made fanatics wild about recent releases, since this fanaticism is fueled by the incredible following that not only the product but its entire mythology have produced, since this mythology must be propagated by a free internet and is only hurt by censorship, since the band’s message is one of both freedom and finding inner peace through sound, especially in the wake of hardship, since this is part of the same Renaissance Ideal for Art that informed the entire conception of Lateralus, by the band’s own admission, since the lead singer’s aversion to his fans is as incomprehensible as are his views, and since fans continue to try to comprehend him, as much out of respect as out of curiosity, and since this striving brings them to that felt need to share their findings that mystics feel, the suppression of this content must be considered mental subjugation.

At most, this attitude would only reward the ungrateful fan who would try to profit from the calculated sale of the album to privileged buyers. And who is to say that that is not the best description of the Music Industry?

No one tried to make a profit off of this. No money was made, and neither was it lost or saved. In the absence of this video, no additional advertisement has been salvaged with which the album may be marketed; rather, the most authentic form of advertisement, that of the profoundly, ecstatically satisfied customer, was compromised to an absolute extent. Those who did not know about the video were not hurt by their ignorance; those who knew of it were only offered benefit, as reflected in the comments, which were uncharacteristically both brilliant and, for the most part, kind and reverent, both towards the band and towards one another, to say nothing of the Universe Itself, which the album succeeds best in presenting, beyond even mere “representation”, once itself presented in this “illegal” form which was only illegal because the producers clearly intended for it to be hidden, beyond a reasonable doubt in light of the apparent facts. Any one who would resort now, out of desperation, to purchase the album in its incomplete form would not only be penalized for his or her devotion, but such an individual would conceivably be very rare, for most listeners who discover the video are probably all ready in possession of the original product, and those who are not yet in possession of it probably would have no intent to purchase it except by avenue of this unauthorized act of advertisement. Above all: since no money was exchanged, no one got hurt. Because it was free, it was liberating, as intended.

[({Dm.A.A.)}]