In a recorded interview with MuchMusic USA, Layne Staley stated that the lyrics are about censorship in the mass media [- Jesus is the censorship and God is the mass media. -], and "I was really really stoned when I wrote it."
Out of all the Seattle bands AIC was the one for me..They were more metal doom than grunge..Being a drummer Sean Kinney was a huge influence and Layne's vocals are legend...AIC were the first grunge band to have a gold album bc of this song a full 18 months before Nirvana blew up...RIP LAYNE and MIKE STARR I hope you found the peace you were looking for 🤘🧐✌️
Soundgarden took the grunge crown overall, for me, but AIC produced the single best album (front to back) with DIRT. Again, for me. TEN and NEVERMIND are also excellent, of course, but if you wanna hear an underrated Seattle sound check out ANYTHING the late/great Shawn Smith did. Start with the band BRAD and go from there.
your right on the money....sure as hell not grunge even they said they don't know why they were consider them that...just because of them from Seattle don't make them grunge...im mean how many grunge bands were on headbangers ball...
@@jhamler1 oh yeah def SG were sendond in line for me bc I'm a big Matt Cameron fan but I agree Dirt was the heaviest of all of them...SG got really heavy too but for down in the Dirt (lol no pun intended) gut wrenching lyrics and music just speaks to me to this day ✌️🤘🧐
Laynes voice,is just so raw and nasty! I was a Freshman in high school when this came out. Ppl were blown away by it,you heard it every where! Especially in the surfing community on the East Coast of NC
You have to check out Love Hate Love, live at the Moore. I think it's one of the best live performances ever from any band. Layne's voice is definitely showcased.
Great Group & Song, when he sings "Spit" it's actually Sh*t" but you should check the Live version from Moore Theatre from 1990. The members were Jerry Cantrell Guitar, Sean Kinney Drums, Mike Inez Bass & Layne Staley Vocals he died on 4/5/2002🙏Jerry once said it was the restrictions record companies put bands through to censor a song
Absolutely Amazing Song. Alice In Chains just Crushed It. Legendary Vocals. Absolutely Amazing Guitars & Backing Vocals. Killer Bass Lines & Drum Fills. Just an Amazing Song. My Absolute Favorite Alice In Chains Song by Far
When this song first came out and they played it at the dance club every night I went. It got stuck in my head for like 5 months. It would not go away . Lol
MAN…that guitar break was wonderful! Definitely whammy bar on that….and also sounds like wah-wah pedal effect. Also, talk-box effect on vocalizing at the beginning. I caught a very strong reference in Jerry Cantrell’s powerful guitar solo to some of Jimmy Pages sound. And to me, that’s icing on the cake of this great song.
The song is basically a fictional concept story. It came from a conversation Layne had with his record label over dinner where the executives ordered veal. Layne started thinking about the animals who are raised in crowded, factory farming facilities. This led him to thinking the only way to make people give a damn about the conditions these animals live in would be to place humans in these conditions instead. So he did. The song is about a man who'd lived his entire life in a tiny stall in a factory farm.
Part of it is true. But he used the perspective of the animal to talk about our society. The governament and the midia feeding his eyes with information formated to control how he acts and the way we think. And the one ho tries to escape the way our society is will be wasted.
I remember going to a concert in the 90s, I cant remember if it was van Halen or ac/dc, but alice in chains opened for them and I was blown away !!! My favorite group from 90s ever since !!!
Originally formed as a glam rock band Alice n' chains in the 80's by (late) singer Layne Staley, the band changed when Diamond Lie guitarist Jerry Cantrell joined and started writing the band's songs ...the name was changed to Alice In Chains, and they became a promising local band in Seattle by 1989. They were signed to Columbia Records in 1990 and recorded their debut album 'Facelift' w/ producer Dave Jerden and Jerry Cantrell wrote most of the record + lyrics which Layne sang... 'We die young' was the first single as Alice In Chains transitioned away from the big hair and trashy glam look - Alice In Chains toured relentlessly, opening for any band who would take them in 1990/ '91 ... from Poison to Slayer... Initially, people didn't get their music - it was dark, heavy and unlike anything out there. 'Man in the box' was released as a single in 1991 and made it on MTV... it was a song Jerry Cantrell had written about censorship as a songwriter - signing to a label, he felt that he was under pressure to fit a certain category ('box') so that the record label could market his music, but he wasn't going to make music that was trending... Cantrell wanted his own sound. The single was a success and 'Facelift' sold gold (half million copies) in the US and Alice In Chains also released an EP 'Sap' in 1991 w/ 4 acoustic songs. In 1992, Alice In Chains found the rock scene abruptly turn in their favor w/ the success of Nirvana, and then Pearl Jam... both from Seattle. The new sound that Alice In Chains had delivered was dubbed 'grunge rock' by the press, and their 2nd album 'Dirt' (produced by Dave Jerden again) was a huge hit, ultimately selling 4 million copies (4x platinum) in the US and their debut album 'Facelift' also surged past platinum in sales as Alice In Chains played major tours into 1993... Another semi-acoustic EP 'Jar of Flies' went to #1 on the charts in early 1994. Sadly, their career was stalled by the mid-90's because of vocalist Layne Staley's increasing drug addiction... Alice In Chains would never tour actively again w/ Layne Staley.
Everything is right for the most part except the beginning, Alice n chains was Layne’s band, Jerry had started his own band with Sean and the mike joined then Layne eventually joined and they even performed under the diamond lie name for a small period of time, eventually they were looking to change the name and since Alice n chains was a dead band Layne just altered the name a bit and they became Alice In Chains and the rest is history. Jerry never joined Alice n chains or any version of that band, he had his own band which Layne was the final member to join after Jerry kept hounding him about it
@@puppetmaster8551 You are correct and the guys auditioned the worst of the worst in front of Layne for lead singer when he finally gave up and joined them. Another amusing story is that when they were looking for a bass player Jerry had played previously with Mike Starr but told Sean he didn't know how to get a hold of him. Sean told him that he could get a hold of him because he was dating his sister.
BEST drop of the day across the board! Little advice... don't expect to peg the lyrics of a great song within the first minutes of any song, you miss the vibe first trying to decipher artists' words right out the gate, and the music speaks just as loud.
I was blown away after Layne passed at how much Jerry actually did on vocals. Hes a huge part to take nothing away from Layne. The great thing about great writers is a song can mean something to them an something completely different to who ever is listening. You can make it your own depending on how its interpreted. You guys should look at Pearl Jam's Jeremy if want want a song with intense an intense message.
Jerry is the man and his vocals from the Layne era are definitely under appreciated. I love Layne but Jerry was always the creative lead behind the band since he was their primary songwriter their entire history, vocally his contributions are underrated but songwriting he was the main guy their whole history
Yooooo great choice. Rock band 2 in middle school introduced me to this song and it’s been one of my favorites since. Layne Staley’s vocals during the 3rd chorus still give me chills
Phenomenal musicianship at the peak of their careers. Jerry Cantrell is an amazing guitarist and Layne Stanley had incredible vocal power. Tragic that Layne pretty much killed himself with drugs. He was writing about being censored, or boxed in, by religious organizations that hated what he had to say. He talks about empathizing with a dog who gets beat. Very raw and personal song , but I feel like he was deflecting blame quite often for his own self-destruction. It really doesn't matter now whether he had something important to say or not, we just have to appreciate his incredible vocals.
Layne was a very disturbed and sad man. And ultimately became a recluse, despite others in the band trying to re-engage him in the music.I believe he died in a sort of a slo-mo suicide by drugs. It's pretty apparent lyrically, though you seemed to have trouble. He was aware of his own almost helpless self- destruction. The last performance filmed, he was clearly fragile and pale, and wearing shades. I believe he died from heroin overdose, although I could be mistaken about the drug. Jerry Cantrell on lead guitar. Gee, folks. A man at war with himself. A very sad story, but not really covert or hard to grasp.
I have to say, I always thought this was referencing censorship but what you said about asking to be shown the light and the flip side being the other side is sew my eyes shut keep me in the dark. That really hit home with me
AIC is awesome. You should listen to Them Bones, Sea of Sorrow, dam that river or bleed the freak. If you want their new singer try check my brain to compare
The concept of the song was censorship, per Layne. This was the first video of the Seattle Big 4 that MTV played. It was so different than anything at that time!! Layne is one of the best singers of my generation!! He could make you feel the song! RIP Layne & Mike!
To her point about the guitar sound... Here they're using a wawa pedal and a voice box. Both very popular tools used by many guitar greats including Jimmy Hendrix, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), and Mick Mars (Motley Crue). You can see Richie using the voice box on the music video for Living On A Prayer, and Mick on Kickstart My Heart. The wawa pedal usually goes hand in hand with the voice box, and it is also used by itself especially in blues and rock. In this case they are being used together as the guitarist mimics with his voice what he plays on guitar but the sound travels through a plastic tube in to an effects box creating most of the effect that is then amplified. 😊❤️🤘🤘 Edit: The wawa pedal is heard clearly on the lead solo.
It's pretty much about censorship. I'm the man in the box. At least that's what I get from it. The big 4 out of Seattle from the grunge scene was Alice, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Soundgarden comes in a very close second and could take number one at any time, but Alice is just Alice. The other two are good, but not on the same level. I think that it's their harmonies that just edge Soundgarden for me as a band, even though I may like Cornell just a smidge better vocally. Again, both bands could be number one on any given day depending on my mood🤷♂️
It's about the censorship in the record industry at the time they were coming up. “I started writing about censorship,” Staley explained. “Around the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went home and wrote about government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf.”
Among many others, I was the man in the box from 89-96. Later, created my own box. Still working on it. I would also recommend "Voodoo" by Godsmack(video).
Expletives. Man In The Box" is written from the perspective of a calf in a box waiting to be slaughtered. The censorship aspect of the song is basically indecipherable and would probably be lost entirely if not for the fact that Staley mentioned it in some interviews
I saw them for the first time in 92 open up on the Clash of the Titans tour with Slayer,Anthrax and Megadeath.. they got booed till they played that song haha
Hi great reaction!👍🏻👍🏻I strongly recommend you guys watch Alice in chains Love, Hate Love Live at The Moore! It's one of the best, if not the best, vocal performance from Layne. I promise both of you will be very impressed! Anyway, keep up the great work💙
Ironically part of the the meaning of this song is about censorship, which this version has been. "Man In The Box" deals with censorship, with animal cruelty used as a metaphor. The "man in the box" is like a veal calf trapped in confinement. The song was inspired by lead singer Layne Staley's impressions of both censorship and meat consumption, but saying the song is "about" either of those things would be stretching the facts. Staley didn't like it when musicians got political because he didn't feel they (including himself) should be preaching about things they weren't qualified to elaborate on. The final lyrics for "Man In The Box" are rather opaque, but Staley did explain the meaning. The song started out being about censorship alone, but then Staley and AIC went to dinner with some Columbia Records executives. Some of the executives were vegetarians, and the conversation turned to the way calves were raised in tiny boxes to be slaughtered for veal. As explained in Alice In Chains: The Untold Story by David De Sola, Staley incorporated thoughts inspired by that conversation into the song he was working on. In its final version, "Man In The Box" is written from the perspective of a calf in a box waiting to be slaughtered. The censorship aspect of the song is basically indecipherable and would probably be lost entirely if not for the fact that Staley mentioned it in some interviews. Source: Songfacts
What's it mean ? Years ago, our bread delivery man would walk in, more than once, while this was on, & tell me a lot of "dancers"😁 dance to this song. Oh, so you mean the lyrics are "I'm the man who loves box"
This song's origins start with a lunch the band had with some A&R woman who was a vegan (no animal byproducts of ANY kind), who proceeded to tell them how animals were penned up in small crates and killed for steak, etc. So, Layne wrote Man in the Box from the perspective of a penned up calf. It was loosely based around Layne's idea of media censorship. Sean Kinney (the drummer) said it was about veal. LOL. Layne met Jerry Cantrell ONE TIME, found out he had no family in the area, he had little money left and Layne (drunkenly) offered Jerry a place to live, money, food, clothes, guitars and gear he needed, Layne set Jerry up with a life that could NOT fail unless Jerry let it happen. He set him up with a band when he gave Jerry the number to Sean Kinney's girlfriend and found out that the girlfriend was Mike Starr's sister. He encouraged Jerry to sing more because after all they were Jerry's lyrics, Jerry should sing them. I'm sure Jerry would have made it on his own without Layne, but it would have been the long scenic route to get there. Jerry wrote Rooster about his father's experiences in Vietnam and when Jerry saw his dad in the audience at one of their shows, Jerry asked Layne (and the guys) to play Rooster and they did. It was the first time Jerry's dad heard Jerry's music and knew that his son understood him through that song. It brought Jerry and his dad closer together. And Layne had a vital part in that reunion. (Meanwhile Layne's own biological father was an opportunist who showed back up in Layne's life AFTER Layne got famous and had money and did drugs with Layne.) Phil Staley was NOT the father Layne expected when he came back into his life. Layne had tried rehab 13 times, but he could never completely give it up. He tried quitting cold turkey on two of the last attempts at rehab, but that didn't work either. Mad Season is made up of Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and John Baker Saunders and they all went through rehab. They all got together and dragged Layne out of his condo, got him excited about doing ABOVE album, thinking if he was creative he wouldn't want the drugs, and for the length of time it took to do that, Layne was excited about the project, but it didn't curb his drug habit. Layne wrote the lyrics to the songs he sang on the ABOVE album and he drew the cover art for the album. Layne was an amazing singer. Very few singers sound better live than they do in a studio version. Layne was one of the few. From what I’ve read and researched, heroin is the worst drug to be addicted to. You don’t want to do anything other than be there and nodding out. The fact that he agreed to do the KISS shows and performed them like he did shows the strength he had. From what I read, when you have the level of addiction Layne had, it is incredibly difficult to function at the intensity of performing a stage show in front of an audience as well as he did. He could have stayed home and stayed high, but Jerry wanted to do the shows. Somewhere, somehow Layne found the strength to do those shows despite what his addiction wanted him to do even though he survived an overdose after the last KISS show in Kansas City, Missouri, became a recluse, and the addiction got him in the end. Mike Starr was the last one to see him on April 4, 2002, for all anyone knows and what I took from that was that while Layne was telling Mike that he (Layne) was sick, he still tried to get Mike to give up his own prescription drug habit. After that, no one noticed he had died because he never answered the phone nor opened the door. It took inactivity over the span of two weeks for his ACCOUNTANT to notice something was wrong and called Susan Silver who called Layne's mother to alert her to the situation who then called 911. He died on April 5, 2002, but his body wasn't discovered until April 19, 2002. And to pour salt in the wound, MTV (and the music industry) has more or less blackballed Layne (and yet, they laud over Kurt Cobain every April 5th, because Kurt was the "face of grunge", meanwhile Layne gets a "by the way"). The Grammys went so far as to invite Jerry, Mike and Sean to the Grammy show in 2003 and then refused to put Layne's picture up in the memorial of the musicians who died in 2002. (Or they "forgot" to) which pissed Jerry, Mike and Sean off and they walked out on the show. At the age of 34 (when he died), he looked more like an 80-year-old man. He knew he screwed up, between the drugs and his own depression and then his former fiancee dying, Layne just couldn't find a way to dig himself out of his own mess and at the end with his teeth problems and organs failing on him, he gave up trying. He lost sight of who his true friends were and who was using him. He was never going to give up the drugs. Instead, he tried to attain the same high he felt the first time he did drugs and could never achieve it. Layne's story is more tragic and haunting because you can actually watch and hear him deteriorate over the 12 year span: from the mild use of drugs in 1990 all the way through 1996 when he was deep into a heroin addiction to dropping to 90 pounds by 1998 to 86 pounds when he died in 2002. Layne wrote songs that gave a normal person insight into the mind and journey of an addict. The pain and depression he endured to write the most brutally honest lyrics a musician could write concerning his feelings on his own addiction and the emotional and physical strength he had to perform those songs live when all he wanted to do was curl away and lose himself in the drug haze I can’t imagine what it was like for him. He was hounded by the press about his addiction. He was ridiculed for his addiction. The music industry blackballed him for his addiction. The Grammys forgot about him when he died. As far as MTV and Rolling Stone were concerned he’s just another addicted singer. They don’t want to acknowledge his contributions to music. Layne Staley deserved better than what he received from the people around him who he thought mattered. He wrote about things with maturity and knowledge well beyond his years. He didn’t deserve to be turned into tabloid cannon fodder by the press. Layne was so much more than his drug addiction. He was able to come up with lyrics and harmonies off the top of his head. He stacked his own vocals. He knew enough to know that Jerry Cantrell was playing with the wrong people and gave him contact info for Sean Kinney and Mike Starr. He wrote the lyrics for the songs he sang on Mad Season's Above album and drew the cover art for that album. Layne was a genius in his own right. He still was able to figure things out in a snap off the top of his head. Layne just had his demons. Layne's whole situation from his drug addiction, to how he died, to how he was found only weighing 86 pounds and the drug paraphernalia, etc is tragic and haunts me when I think about it (and I didn't even know the guy personally). "Whatever dramas are going on in my life, I always find that place inside my head where I see myself as the cleanest, tallest, strongest, wisest person that I can be." -- Layne Staley "My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title." -- Layne Staley "When I tried drugs they were fucking great, and they worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me- and now I'm walking through hell and this sucks. I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them. I didn't want my fans to think heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen." -- Layne Staley
Ahh long live the grunge days! Also, this one has metal sounds to it which isn't like too farfetched to say since I'm sure they had some metal influences since grunge came after metal, in the 90s. AIC rules!
I mean the title tells you what the song is about..if you're stuck in a box won't you feel limited in what you can or can't do? Sometimes a song isn't as hard to decipher as you believe that it is .
Hey guys. The Man In The Box is about censorship. When thst song came out there was a lot of it towards Metal and Rap culture and music. Most of it was being done by powerful religious lobbies, hence the image of a man in a box or cage and the religious imagery in the video.
I read in an interview that the song is about censorship, but i always thought it was about punishment. In the inferno, the punishment in hell for envy is having your eyes sewn shut.
The intended message/meaning is protest against media and government censorship. The idea is we are kept in a box not unlike a young calf being deprived a vigorous life by keeping it penned up to keep it from normal development (that's why veal is so tender). Anyway that's at the core of the imagery and the rationale for the barnyard scenes. And then obviously our eyes need to be sewed shut 'for our own protection', of course.
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Jerry Cantrell does the harmonizing backing vocals. His contributions are often overlooked. I met him in the late 90s- he's a cool dude.
He’s the primary songwriter for the band for their entire history and still somehow gets overlooked. Jerry is one of the best to ever do it
In this song alone, he does backing vocals, talk box, lead guitar/solo, and adds a wa pedal.. one of the better musicians of our generation for sure
the main guy behind all alice in chains songs. the riff master
Jerry is an extremely nice guy. Met him between Unplugged and Layne's death. (Cant remember exact year)
In a recorded interview with MuchMusic USA, Layne Staley stated that the lyrics are about censorship in the mass media [- Jesus is the censorship and God is the mass media. -], and "I was really really stoned when I wrote it."
And then leave it to the music video version of the song getting censored lol
Out of all the Seattle bands AIC was the one for me..They were more metal doom than grunge..Being a drummer Sean Kinney was a huge influence and Layne's vocals are legend...AIC were the first grunge band to have a gold album bc of this song a full 18 months before Nirvana blew up...RIP LAYNE and MIKE STARR I hope you found the peace you were looking for 🤘🧐✌️
Soundgarden took the grunge crown overall, for me, but AIC produced the single best album (front to back) with DIRT. Again, for me. TEN and NEVERMIND are also excellent, of course, but if you wanna hear an underrated Seattle sound check out ANYTHING the late/great Shawn Smith did. Start with the band BRAD and go from there.
your right on the money....sure as hell not grunge even they said they don't know why they were consider them that...just because of them from Seattle don't make them grunge...im mean how many grunge bands were on headbangers ball...
@@jhamler1 oh yeah def SG were sendond in line for me bc I'm a big Matt Cameron fan but I agree Dirt was the heaviest of all of them...SG got really heavy too but for down in the Dirt (lol no pun intended) gut wrenching lyrics and music just speaks to me to this day ✌️🤘🧐
Laynes voice,is just so raw and nasty! I was a Freshman in high school when this came out. Ppl were blown away by it,you heard it every where! Especially in the surfing community on the East Coast of NC
RIP Layne & Mike ❤
Best grunge band ever! I LOVE STALEY'S VOICE! GREAT REACTION, GUYS! GRETTINGS FROM SPAIN!
Hands-down. Then again, I wasn’t the biggest Nirvana fan in the world but I cannot stand Pearl Jam.
You have to check out Love Hate Love, live at the Moore. I think it's one of the best live performances ever from any band. Layne's voice is definitely showcased.
Absolutely! Also, MTV unplugged was exceptional. Great band.
Watching live versions of this is amazing
Layne's voice just shreds
Great Group & Song, when he sings "Spit" it's actually Sh*t" but you should check the Live version from Moore Theatre from 1990. The members were Jerry Cantrell Guitar, Sean Kinney Drums, Mike Inez Bass & Layne Staley Vocals he died on 4/5/2002🙏Jerry once said it was the restrictions record companies put bands through to censor a song
Mike Inez didn't join until after Dirt. This was Mike Starr.
your absolutely right and RIP Mike
@@tedalger8925
Absolutely Amazing Song. Alice In Chains just Crushed It. Legendary Vocals. Absolutely Amazing Guitars & Backing Vocals. Killer Bass Lines & Drum Fills. Just an Amazing Song. My Absolute Favorite Alice In Chains Song by Far
When this song first came out and they played it at the dance club every night I went. It got stuck in my head for like 5 months. It would not go away . Lol
😮 Wish I were there to see these guys live during those times! RIP 🕊
MAN…that guitar break was wonderful! Definitely whammy bar on that….and also sounds like wah-wah pedal effect. Also, talk-box effect on vocalizing at the beginning. I caught a very strong reference in Jerry Cantrell’s powerful guitar solo to some of Jimmy Pages sound. And to me, that’s icing on the cake of this great song.
This was the first song from them i ever saw back when it was a new video on mtv inn the early 90s. They have been one of my fav bands ever since.
"Rain When I Die" and "Don't Follow" and a talk box was used to create the guitar effect 💚🤙
Alice in Chains Love Hate Love(Live at the Moore) or Down in a Hole(MTV Unplugged) next
Jerry delivers the nastiest riff in grunge 🔥 🎸
The song is basically a fictional concept story. It came from a conversation Layne had with his record label over dinner where the executives ordered veal. Layne started thinking about the animals who are raised in crowded, factory farming facilities. This led him to thinking the only way to make people give a damn about the conditions these animals live in would be to place humans in these conditions instead. So he did. The song is about a man who'd lived his entire life in a tiny stall in a factory farm.
Part of it is true. But he used the perspective of the animal to talk about our society. The governament and the midia feeding his eyes with information formated to control how he acts and the way we think. And the one ho tries to escape the way our society is will be wasted.
Not about the animals lol he was also high when he wrote it.
was here in Seattle when all these bands were here and this was the song that really woke me up to fact something amazing was going on
The powerful way Layne Staley belts out Jesus Christ (or JEEEEEEEYEYEYEESUS CHRIIIIIIIST) in the last chorus is outstanding.
I believe that the guitars use both a wah and a talkbox effect...
Jerry Cantrell on guitar amazing
I remember going to a concert in the 90s, I cant remember if it was van Halen or ac/dc, but alice in chains opened for them and I was blown away !!! My favorite group from 90s ever since !!!
Alice In Chains Love Hate Love live at the Moore 🤯🤯🤯🔥🔥🔥😁
I have no idea what Man in the Box about 🤷♀️
For me down in a hole is One of the best songs
Originally formed as a glam rock band Alice n' chains in the 80's by (late) singer Layne Staley, the band changed when Diamond Lie guitarist Jerry Cantrell joined and started writing the band's songs ...the name was changed to Alice In Chains, and they became a promising local band in Seattle by 1989. They were signed to Columbia Records in 1990 and recorded their debut album 'Facelift' w/ producer Dave Jerden and Jerry Cantrell wrote most of the record + lyrics which Layne sang... 'We die young' was the first single as Alice In Chains transitioned away from the big hair and trashy glam look - Alice In Chains toured relentlessly, opening for any band who would take them in 1990/ '91 ... from Poison to Slayer... Initially, people didn't get their music - it was dark, heavy and unlike anything out there.
'Man in the box' was released as a single in 1991 and made it on MTV... it was a song Jerry Cantrell had written about censorship as a songwriter - signing to a label, he felt that he was under pressure to fit a certain category ('box') so that the record label could market his music, but he wasn't going to make music that was trending... Cantrell wanted his own sound.
The single was a success and 'Facelift' sold gold (half million copies) in the US and Alice In Chains also released an EP 'Sap' in 1991 w/ 4 acoustic songs.
In 1992, Alice In Chains found the rock scene abruptly turn in their favor w/ the success of Nirvana, and then Pearl Jam... both from Seattle. The new sound that Alice In Chains had delivered was dubbed 'grunge rock' by the press, and their 2nd album 'Dirt' (produced by Dave Jerden again) was a huge hit, ultimately selling 4 million copies (4x platinum) in the US and their debut album 'Facelift' also surged past platinum in sales as Alice In Chains played major tours into 1993... Another semi-acoustic EP 'Jar of Flies' went to #1 on the charts in early 1994.
Sadly, their career was stalled by the mid-90's because of vocalist Layne Staley's increasing drug addiction... Alice In Chains would never tour actively again w/ Layne Staley.
Everything is right for the most part except the beginning, Alice n chains was Layne’s band, Jerry had started his own band with Sean and the mike joined then Layne eventually joined and they even performed under the diamond lie name for a small period of time, eventually they were looking to change the name and since Alice n chains was a dead band Layne just altered the name a bit and they became Alice In Chains and the rest is history. Jerry never joined Alice n chains or any version of that band, he had his own band which Layne was the final member to join after Jerry kept hounding him about it
@@puppetmaster8551 You are correct and the guys auditioned the worst of the worst in front of Layne for lead singer when he finally gave up and joined them. Another amusing story is that when they were looking for a bass player Jerry had played previously with Mike Starr but told Sean he didn't know how to get a hold of him. Sean told him that he could get a hold of him because he was dating his sister.
Actually,, The first song most would hear by them was,, Alice In Chains "Them Bones" & It hit HARD!!
My first intro to AIC was the song Them Bones. Another heavy tune. Give it a listen and you’ll be 4 for 4, guaranteed! 💯
Thanks for all your great reactions !❤
Our Pleasure! Thanks for watching & commenting!
First thing I heard from them and still my favorite...
BEST drop of the day across the board! Little advice... don't expect to peg the lyrics of a great song within the first minutes of any song, you miss the vibe first trying to decipher artists' words right out the gate, and the music speaks just as loud.
Then the comment will be "I can't believe you missed the meaning of the song, they told you in the first 20 seconds" 😂
LOL....True! lol@@barsandbarbells2022
I was blown away after Layne passed at how much Jerry actually did on vocals. Hes a huge part to take nothing away from Layne. The great thing about great writers is a song can mean something to them an something completely different to who ever is listening. You can make it your own depending on how its interpreted. You guys should look at Pearl Jam's Jeremy if want want a song with intense an intense message.
Jerry is the man and his vocals from the Layne era are definitely under appreciated. I love Layne but Jerry was always the creative lead behind the band since he was their primary songwriter their entire history, vocally his contributions are underrated but songwriting he was the main guy their whole history
Pearl Jam's Jeremy the official uncensored video is perhaps greatest video of all time (won the video of the year). It will get you reacting for sure.
The tempos and the volume vary, but I would say all of their songs have a somber tone...
This was their first hit, got them in the map, no debate about that!!!!
Yooooo great choice. Rock band 2 in middle school introduced me to this song and it’s been one of my favorites since. Layne Staley’s vocals during the 3rd chorus still give me chills
Phenomenal musicianship at the peak of their careers. Jerry Cantrell is an amazing guitarist and Layne Stanley had incredible vocal power. Tragic that Layne pretty much killed himself with drugs. He was writing about being censored, or boxed in, by religious organizations that hated what he had to say. He talks about empathizing with a dog who gets beat. Very raw and personal song , but I feel like he was deflecting blame quite often for his own self-destruction. It really doesn't matter now whether he had something important to say or not, we just have to appreciate his incredible vocals.
Layne was a very disturbed and sad man. And ultimately became a recluse, despite others in the band trying to re-engage him in the music.I believe he died in a sort of a slo-mo suicide by drugs. It's pretty apparent lyrically, though you seemed to have trouble. He was aware of his own almost helpless self- destruction. The last performance filmed, he was clearly fragile and pale, and wearing shades. I believe he died from heroin overdose, although I could be mistaken about the drug. Jerry Cantrell on lead guitar.
Gee, folks. A man at war with himself. A very sad story, but not really covert or hard to grasp.
I have to say, I always thought this was referencing censorship but what you said about asking to be shown the light and the flip side being the other side is sew my eyes shut keep me in the dark. That really hit home with me
From what ive read the song is essentially about the corporate music scene and how labels control musicians.
Love Alice in Chains and this is a fave song.
MTV'S Unplugged - Down In A Hole. Period.
AIC is awesome. You should listen to Them Bones, Sea of Sorrow, dam that river or bleed the freak. If you want their new singer try check my brain to compare
The concept of the song was censorship, per Layne. This was the first video of the Seattle Big 4 that MTV played. It was so different than anything at that time!! Layne is one of the best singers of my generation!! He could make you feel the song! RIP Layne & Mike!
I was lucky enough to see them open for Van Halen and it was right when the song had come out and they were just getting popular.
This is absolutely one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded.
To her point about the guitar sound...
Here they're using a wawa pedal and a voice box.
Both very popular tools used by many guitar greats including Jimmy Hendrix, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), and Mick Mars (Motley Crue).
You can see Richie using the voice box on the music video for Living On A Prayer, and Mick on Kickstart My Heart.
The wawa pedal usually goes hand in hand with the voice box, and it is also used by itself especially in blues and rock.
In this case they are being used together as the guitarist mimics with his voice what he plays on guitar but the sound travels through a plastic tube in to an effects box creating most of the effect that is then amplified.
😊❤️🤘🤘
Edit:
The wawa pedal is heard clearly on the lead solo.
You should check the Live show (all the songs) from Moore Theatre from 1990, it's a masterpiece!
You've hit on one of their best
The Man in the box is in reference to televangelists and the box being the TV 🤘🏻
It's pretty much about censorship.
I'm the man in the box.
At least that's what I get from it.
The big 4 out of Seattle from the grunge scene was Alice, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
Soundgarden comes in a very close second and could take number one at any time, but Alice is just Alice.
The other two are good, but not on the same level.
I think that it's their harmonies that just edge Soundgarden for me as a band, even though I may like Cornell just a smidge better vocally.
Again, both bands could be number one on any given day depending on my mood🤷♂️
Love Hate Love.. should be next..
It's about the censorship in the record industry at the time they were coming up. “I started writing about censorship,” Staley explained. “Around the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went home and wrote about government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf.”
Among many others, I was the man in the box from 89-96. Later, created my own box. Still working on it. I would also recommend "Voodoo" by Godsmack(video).
The song is about censorship, funny thing is, this is the censored version. Instead of pit and spit hes says shit, on the album version.
This is a great song
Expletives.
Man In The Box" is written from the perspective of a calf in a box waiting to be slaughtered. The censorship aspect of the song is basically indecipherable and would probably be lost entirely if not for the fact that Staley mentioned it in some interviews
Next up should be Nutshell & Down in a hole
You guys are great together! Love this song, glad it resonated :)
I saw them for the first time in 92 open up on the Clash of the Titans tour with Slayer,Anthrax and Megadeath.. they got booed till they played that song haha
Your thoughts on this song are on point great job
Thx Randy!
Not sure how you haven't reacted to pisces by jinjer but it's an absolute must. Jinjer - pisces live studio session is mind blowing
Check out No Excuses. Some of Alice n Chains best harmonies on that song
Great reaction. AIC is great. Try Down in a Hole and Say Goodbye Don't Follow. You can identify his depression in both.
Oh! Studio version on both. A must see is Love Hate Love live at the Moore Theater.
It’s just called don’t follow, say goodbye are obviously part of the lyrics but the song name is just don’t follow
Hi great reaction!👍🏻👍🏻I strongly recommend you guys watch Alice in chains Love, Hate Love Live at The Moore!
It's one of the best, if not the best, vocal performance from Layne. I promise both of you will be very impressed!
Anyway, keep up the great work💙
Layne Staley rules!!
Nutshell from MTV Unplugged and Down In A Hole
He literally says deny your maker. Doesn’t get any more obvious of a message than that
I like their song Your Decision. Try that one.
Think you nailed it Phil. As usual Sam's facial expressions alone are worth a view.
THEM BONES should be next
your time stamp covers the bottom half of X. It says "Man in they Boy". Just letting you know. Hope ya'll have a great holiday season!!!
Ironically part of the the meaning of this song is about censorship, which this version has been.
"Man In The Box" deals with censorship, with animal cruelty used as a metaphor. The "man in the box" is like a veal calf trapped in confinement.
The song was inspired by lead singer Layne Staley's impressions of both censorship and meat consumption, but saying the song is "about" either of those things would be stretching the facts. Staley didn't like it when musicians got political because he didn't feel they (including himself) should be preaching about things they weren't qualified to elaborate on. The final lyrics for "Man In The Box" are rather opaque, but Staley did explain the meaning.
The song started out being about censorship alone, but then Staley and AIC went to dinner with some Columbia Records executives. Some of the executives were vegetarians, and the conversation turned to the way calves were raised in tiny boxes to be slaughtered for veal.
As explained in Alice In Chains: The Untold Story by David De Sola, Staley incorporated thoughts inspired by that conversation into the song he was working on. In its final version, "Man In The Box" is written from the perspective of a calf in a box waiting to be slaughtered. The censorship aspect of the song is basically indecipherable and would probably be lost entirely if not for the fact that Staley mentioned it in some interviews.
Source: Songfacts
You should react to the Live at the Moore 1990, it’s the explicit version too. I would watch that reaction knowing you’ve already heard this version!
What's it mean ? Years ago, our bread delivery man would walk in, more than once, while this was on, & tell me a lot of "dancers"😁 dance to this song. Oh, so you mean the lyrics are "I'm the man who loves box"
You should do the whole operation Mind crime album from queensryche...it's epic
since you liked Rooster you should also check out the son Rain When I Die, it's another great AIC song.
I'm the dog who gets beat, rub my nose in shit...won't you come and save me? save me.
another good track is "We Die Young" 💯
This song's origins start with a lunch the band had with some A&R woman who was a vegan (no animal byproducts of ANY kind), who proceeded to tell them how animals were penned up in small crates and killed for steak, etc. So, Layne wrote Man in the Box from the perspective of a penned up calf. It was loosely based around Layne's idea of media censorship. Sean Kinney (the drummer) said it was about veal. LOL.
Layne met Jerry Cantrell ONE TIME, found out he had no family in the area, he had little money left and Layne (drunkenly) offered Jerry a place to live, money, food, clothes, guitars and gear he needed, Layne set Jerry up with a life that could NOT fail unless Jerry let it happen. He set him up with a band when he gave Jerry the number to Sean Kinney's girlfriend and found out that the girlfriend was Mike Starr's sister. He encouraged Jerry to sing more because after all they were Jerry's lyrics, Jerry should sing them. I'm sure Jerry would have made it on his own without Layne, but it would have been the long scenic route to get there.
Jerry wrote Rooster about his father's experiences in Vietnam and when Jerry saw his dad in the audience at one of their shows, Jerry asked Layne (and the guys) to play Rooster and they did. It was the first time Jerry's dad heard Jerry's music and knew that his son understood him through that song. It brought Jerry and his dad closer together. And Layne had a vital part in that reunion. (Meanwhile Layne's own biological father was an opportunist who showed back up in Layne's life AFTER Layne got famous and had money and did drugs with Layne.) Phil Staley was NOT the father Layne expected when he came back into his life.
Layne had tried rehab 13 times, but he could never completely give it up. He tried quitting cold turkey on two of the last attempts at rehab, but that didn't work either. Mad Season is made up of Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and John Baker Saunders and they all went through rehab. They all got together and dragged Layne out of his condo, got him excited about doing ABOVE album, thinking if he was creative he wouldn't want the drugs, and for the length of time it took to do that, Layne was excited about the project, but it didn't curb his drug habit. Layne wrote the lyrics to the songs he sang on the ABOVE album and he drew the cover art for the album.
Layne was an amazing singer. Very few singers sound better live than they do in a studio version. Layne was one of the few. From what I’ve read and researched, heroin is the worst drug to be addicted to. You don’t want to do anything other than be there and nodding out. The fact that he agreed to do the KISS shows and performed them like he did shows the strength he had. From what I read, when you have the level of addiction Layne had, it is incredibly difficult to function at the intensity of performing a stage show in front of an audience as well as he did. He could have stayed home and stayed high, but Jerry wanted to do the shows. Somewhere, somehow Layne found the strength to do those shows despite what his addiction wanted him to do even though he survived an overdose after the last KISS show in Kansas City, Missouri, became a recluse, and the addiction got him in the end.
Mike Starr was the last one to see him on April 4, 2002, for all anyone knows and what I took from that was that while Layne was telling Mike that he (Layne) was sick, he still tried to get Mike to give up his own prescription drug habit.
After that, no one noticed he had died because he never answered the phone nor opened the door. It took inactivity over the span of two weeks for his ACCOUNTANT to notice something was wrong and called Susan Silver who called Layne's mother to alert her to the situation who then called 911. He died on April 5, 2002, but his body wasn't discovered until April 19, 2002.
And to pour salt in the wound, MTV (and the music industry) has more or less blackballed Layne (and yet, they laud over Kurt Cobain every April 5th, because Kurt was the "face of grunge", meanwhile Layne gets a "by the way"). The Grammys went so far as to invite Jerry, Mike and Sean to the Grammy show in 2003 and then refused to put Layne's picture up in the memorial of the musicians who died in 2002. (Or they "forgot" to) which pissed Jerry, Mike and Sean off and they walked out on the show.
At the age of 34 (when he died), he looked more like an 80-year-old man. He knew he screwed up, between the drugs and his own depression and then his former fiancee dying, Layne just couldn't find a way to dig himself out of his own mess and at the end with his teeth problems and organs failing on him, he gave up trying. He lost sight of who his true friends were and who was using him. He was never going to give up the drugs. Instead, he tried to attain the same high he felt the first time he did drugs and could never achieve it.
Layne's story is more tragic and haunting because you can actually watch and hear him deteriorate over the 12 year span: from the mild use of drugs in 1990 all the way through 1996 when he was deep into a heroin addiction to dropping to 90 pounds by 1998 to 86 pounds when he died in 2002.
Layne wrote songs that gave a normal person insight into the mind and journey of an addict. The pain and depression he endured to write the most brutally honest lyrics a musician could write concerning his feelings on his own addiction and the emotional and physical strength he had to perform those songs live when all he wanted to do was curl away and lose himself in the drug haze I can’t imagine what it was like for him. He was hounded by the press about his addiction. He was ridiculed for his addiction. The music industry blackballed him for his addiction. The Grammys forgot about him when he died. As far as MTV and Rolling Stone were concerned he’s just another addicted singer. They don’t want to acknowledge his contributions to music.
Layne Staley deserved better than what he received from the people around him who he thought mattered. He wrote about things with maturity and knowledge well beyond his years. He didn’t deserve to be turned into tabloid cannon fodder by the press.
Layne was so much more than his drug addiction. He was able to come up with lyrics and harmonies off the top of his head. He stacked his own vocals. He knew enough to know that Jerry Cantrell was playing with the wrong people and gave him contact info for Sean Kinney and Mike Starr. He wrote the lyrics for the songs he sang on Mad Season's Above album and drew the cover art for that album. Layne was a genius in his own right. He still was able to figure things out in a snap off the top of his head. Layne just had his demons.
Layne's whole situation from his drug addiction, to how he died, to how he was found only weighing 86 pounds and the drug paraphernalia, etc is tragic and haunts me when I think about it (and I didn't even know the guy personally).
"Whatever dramas are going on in my life, I always find that place inside my head where I see myself as the cleanest, tallest, strongest, wisest person that I can be." -- Layne Staley
"My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title." -- Layne Staley
"When I tried drugs they were fucking great, and they worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me- and now I'm walking through hell and this sucks. I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them. I didn't want my fans to think heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen." -- Layne Staley
You Should’ve done this same song but Live at The Moore Theater 🔥🤘🏽💥
Been waitin' for this🤘
I suggest checking out Nutshell and/or Rain When I Die.
I'm asking about classic country now. Y'all should listen to Claude King's Wolverton Mountain great story song.
everyone went 😳😮 when this came out
Ahh long live the grunge days! Also, this one has metal sounds to it which isn't like too farfetched to say since I'm sure they had some metal influences since grunge came after metal, in the 90s. AIC rules!
Love Hate Love live at Moore is Layne best live performance imo \m/
I mean the title tells you what the song is about..if you're stuck in a box won't you feel limited in what you can or can't do? Sometimes a song isn't as hard to decipher as you believe that it is .
Live at the Moore is the best version
go time! i was not a big AIC fan but i did really like this one!
Hey guys. The Man In The Box is about censorship. When thst song came out there was a lot of it towards Metal and Rap culture and music. Most of it was being done by powerful religious lobbies, hence the image of a man in a box or cage and the religious imagery in the video.
better do "love hate love" at the moore... that will blow your mind!!
I read in an interview that the song is about censorship, but i always thought it was about punishment. In the inferno, the punishment in hell for envy is having your eyes sewn shut.
Don’t follow is a great song!
Love them 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
No they have albums of great songs!!!
you should do Love,Hate,Love love at the MOORE by AIC
alice in chains and soundgarden best seattle group in my opinion
Alice in Chains is the best grunge band of all time.
The intended message/meaning is protest against media and government censorship. The idea is we are kept in a box not unlike a young calf being deprived a vigorous life by keeping it penned up to keep it from normal development (that's why veal is so tender). Anyway that's at the core of the imagery and the rationale for the barnyard scenes. And then obviously our eyes need to be sewed shut 'for our own protection', of course.
Good tune. If you guys want to thump, Mettalica Seattle 1989 "For Whom The Bell Tolls" Bad A**. Be cool stay safe.
Do Man in the Box live at the Moore next Layne voice was on another level compared to the studio version