"Prison Sex" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

. Frontman

Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Pusci ...

wrote the lyrics. The song was released as their second

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from their debut studio album '' Undertow''. The song uses a modified drop-B tuning. The track features an "anti-climax" coda, in which memorable verses and choruses dissolve into an unrelated, quiet final section.

Music video

The video for "Prison Sex" was created with

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

techniques, and was directed by the band's guitarist Adam Jones (who had previous experience in art direction and animation, including work on the dinosaurs in ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...

'') and was edited by

Ken Andrews Ken Andrews (born Kenneth Andrew Doty; June 18, 1967) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Andrews was born in Seattle, Washington, and attended film school in Los Angeles before his band Failure received a record dea ...

. The video was removed from the MTV playlist due to its disturbing content. "Prison Sex" was also nominated for 1994's

MTV Music Video Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

' Best Special Effects category. The music video later showed on an episode of ''

Beavis and Butt-head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...

''. The video primarily revolves around a battered white humanoid, robotic-like doll figure trapped in a room full of cabinets that contain other humanoids, such as a caterpillar with the main humanoid's face, a jar with a wasp inside, a robotic character with a little child's face that twists and turns, and a being made out of what looks like meat and feces. During various points in the video the main character is confronted by a larger black humanoid who causes the doll to go catatonic. While catatonic, the black figure molests the doll with a paintbrush. In the beginning of the video, the black figure severs the doll's legs (even though they still move by themselves) and hangs them out of reach of the doll. By the end of the video, the doll subjects itself to the abuse by painting itself. In the final shot, it is revealed that the doll was in its own cabinet the whole time when the black figure closes the cabinet door.

Controversy

With the release of the 1993 single "Prison Sex" and its music video, directed and created by Adam Jones,

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

called the band into question by deeming the video too graphic and offensive, later running an episode of its ''

Too Much 4 Much ''Too Much 4 Much'' is a Canadian television series, which aired on MuchMusic. The series, which aired at 12:00am Eastern time,"New Much boss will tackle issues". ''Montreal Gazette'', February 27, 1993. played controversial videos which had, for ...

'' series to discuss the video.

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

stopped airing the "Prison Sex" video after a few viewings due to its symbolism depicting the sensitive subject of

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

, who wrote the lyrics, has been quite clear in concerts about his dislike for his stepfather. Before a live performance of "Prison Sex" on November 29, 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Keenan stated:

"This song is about recognizing, identifying, the cycle of abuse within yourself. That's the first step of the process: realization; identifying. The next step is to work through it. But, this song is about the first step in the process, which is recognizing."

Track listing

UK version

# "Prison Sex" # "Undertow" (live) # "Opiate" (live) # "Prison Sex" (radio edit)

German version

# "Prison Sex" # "Intolerance" (live) # "Undertow" (live) # "Opiate" (live)

Australian

# "Prison Sex" # "Intolerance" (live) # "Undertow" (live) # "Opiate" (live) # "Prison Sex" (radio edit)

Promotional radio version

# "Prison Sex" (radio edit) # "Prison Sex"

Release history

Chart performance

References

External links

The unofficial Tool FAQ
{{Authority control 1993 singles 1993 songs Animated music videos Music video controversies Obscenity controversies in music Songs about child abuse Songs about prison Songs about sexual assault Songs written by Maynard James Keenan Songs written by Danny Carey Songs written by Paul D'Amour Songs written by Adam Jones (musician) Stop-motion animated music videos Tool (band) songs Zoo Entertainment (record label) singles