During this time, Staind played a show with Limp Bizkit. When Fred Durst saw the controversial cover of the group's self produced album; tormented, he tried to have the band kicked off the bill, but when he saw the band's live show, he changed his tone and befriended them. Durst later sang harmonies on the live version of Outside, which was recorded at a Family Values Tour concert in Biloxi, MS, in late October 1999. Durst went on to be one of the executive producers for Dysfunction and Break the Cycle. He also directed a few videos for the band later on, including It's Been Awhile.
Dysfunction
The band's big break came in October 1997 after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst witnessed the band open up for them at a Hartford, Connecticut show, eventually signed them to his Flip record label, and co-produced their 1999 breakthrough Dysfunction with Terry Date. Although it is supposed that the band owe a lot of success to Durst, Aaron Lewis has expressed in interviews that Durst never had much of a relationship with either the singer or the band, claiming the band 'only worked on four songs with Durst and recorded the rest of the album themselves.' [4] Staind has not been associated with Durst since he directed several videos from their 2001 follow-up. Dysfunction has sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone. The album was given mediocre reviews by critics for being "indicative of the times", but a large number of the band's fans nonetheless regard it as the group's best work. The nine-track LP (with one hidden track, "Excess Baggage") produced three singles, all of which enjoyed radio play. The most well known, "Mudshovel", (which also appeared on Tormented, spelled as "Mudshuvel"), has since become a staple of the band's live shows.
Break the Cycle
Staind toured with Limp Bizkit for the Family Values Tour during the fall of 1999, where Aaron Lewis performed their first mainstream hit "Outside" (a song he was working on at the time but had not yet finished—he finished it on the fly while performing) with Fred Durst to hundreds of waving cigarette lighters, and which set them up for their smash hit 2001 album Break the Cycle, which brought them international success (it went number 1 in both the U.S. and the UK), sold more than 7 million copies, and had first week sales of over 767,000 in the U.S. alone. The album sees the band move away from the nu metal sounds of their previous album and resort to an alternative metal sound [5] which has spawned five hit singles to date, "It's Been Awhile", (which hit the Billboard Top 10) "Fade", (which has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks and television shows), "Outside", "For You", and the acoustic ballad "Epiphany", and included a track called "Waste", devoted to two teenage fans who committed suicide shortly before the album was released. The album also received mixed critical praise; Rolling Stone magazine called them "the grim genre's most song-oriented, downright sensitive band in years" [3] while New Musical Express referred to the album as "14 tracks of parent-friendly grunge-flavoured soft rock that make Creed sound like GG Allin." [4]. 'It's Been Awhile' spent a total of 16 and 14 weeks on top of the modern and mainstream rock charts, respectively, making it one of the highest joint number 1s (30 weeks) of all time.
14 Shades of Grey
In early 2003, Staind embarked on a worldwide tour to promote the release of the follow-up to Break The Cycle, 14 Shades Of Grey, which sold two million albums and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The fourteen-track collection was the band's most mainstream yet[6], and showed Aaron Lewis writing songs about his daughter, as well as moving on with his life and forgetting his past, hence the title representing uncertainty for the future and forgiveness. The album provided two mainstream hits: the lead single "Price to Play", and "So Far Away" (which spent 14 weeks on top of the rock chart); in addition, two other singles failed to crack the Hot 100—"How About You" and "Zoey Jane"— but "How About You" was a fairly popular song on modern rock radio. Their song "Price to Play" was the official theme song of WWE's Vengeance pay-per-view event in July 2003. As well, their song "So Far Away" was featured on an episode of WWE RAW as part of a video tribute to hardcore wrestling legend Mick Foley. The band's appearance at Reading Festival during the 2003 tour had another impromptu acoustic set, this time due to equipment failure. The singles "So Far Away" and "Price to Play" came with two unreleased tracks, "Novocaine" and "Let It Out", which were released for the special edition of the group's Chapter V, which came out in late 2005. In 2003, Staind unsuccessfully sued their logo designer Jon Stainbrook in New York Federal Court (blabbermouth.net) for attempting to re-use the logo he had sold to the band. They re-opened the case in mid-2005.
Chapter V
After extensive promotions, including an appearance on Fuse TV's 7th Avenue Drop, Staind's newest album, titled Chapter V was released on August 9, 2005, and became their third consecutive number one. The album opened to sales of 185,000 and has since been certified platinum in the U.S. The first single "Right Here" has been the biggest success from the album thus far, garnering much mainstream radio play and peaking at number 1 on the mainstream rock chart. "Falling" (the video of which does not feature the band members at all) was released as the second single, followed by "Everything Changes" and "King of All Excuses." Staind have been on the road since the album came out doing live shows and promoting it for a full year, including participating in the Fall Brawl tour with P.O.D., Taproot and Flyleaf, a solo tour across Europe and a mini-promotional tour in Australia for the first time. Recent live shows have included a cover of Pantera's This Love, a tribute to Dimebag Darrell. Staind appeared on The Howard Stern Show on August 10, 2005, to promote their new album Chapter V. They performed acoustic renditions of the single Right Here and Beetlejuice's song "This is Beetle." Their rendition of "Beetle" is immensely popular with fans and listeners alike and became a staple of the show. Staind also performed a version of "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. Kevin Lofton, who does all the animation for the Howard Stern website, created a black-and-white animated video for the song. During a January 2006 Episode of WWE RAW, a tribute video to then WWE Champion Edge featured the band's song "Right Here". In early November 2005, Staind released the limited edition 2-CD/DVD set of Chapter V. The set included several rarities and fan favorites— music videos; a complete, 36-page booklet with exclusive artwork; an audio disc with an acoustic rendition of "This is Beetle"; the original, melodic rendition of "Reply"; the previously released B-side singles "Novocaine" and "Let It Out"; and live versions of "It's Been Awhile" and "Falling", among many others.
The Singles: 1996-2006
Staind announced that they would be performing an acoustic show in the Hiro Ballroom, New York City on September 6 and the songs played would be recorded for their upcoming "Greatest Hits" album, scheduled for a November 14 release. They played sixteen songs including three covers: Tool's Sober, Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb and Alice in Chains's Nutshell.
The title was later renamed to "The Singles" and finally "The Singles: 1996-2006". The album had most of Staind's singles (including "Everything Changes" which was recorded at the New York show), the three covers performed at the New York show and a remastered version of "Come Again", from Staind's first independent release Tormented.
It was released on November 15, 2006.
The Illusion Of Progress
On August 19, 2008, Staind released their 5th studio album (6th overall), The Illusion of Progress. A limited edition of the album was also made available to fans, which included 3 bonus tracks and a year membership in the Staind Fan Club, along with other items (the first 200 fans who pre-ordered the album through Atlantic Records received a signed copy of the album by the band). Prior to the album's release, the track "This Is It" was available for download on the iTunes store, as well as for Rock Band. The album debuted at #3 on US Billboard 200, #1 on the Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums Chart, #1 on the Top Digital Albums Chart, and also #1 on the Top Internet Albums Chart, with first week sales of 91,800 units. The first single on the album, "Believe", topped Billboard's Top 10 Modern Rock Tracks on September 05, 2008.
Not Again, the first single from Staind's self-titled seventh album was released to active radio stations on July 19, 2011 and made available for purchase on July 26, 2011. (Not Again Songfacts).
They are currently not Touring.
Open Your Eyes
Staind Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I see a man that walks alone
Distant echo of people's feet
He has no place to call his own
A shot rings out from a roof overhead
A crackhead asks for change nearby
An old man lies in an alleyway dead
A little girl lost just stands there and cries
What would you do, if it was you
Would you take everything
For granted like you do
A boy just thirteen on the corner for sale
Swallows his pride for another hit
Overpopulation there's no room in jail
But most of you don't give a shit
That your daughters are porno stars
And your sons sell death to kids
You're so lost in your little worlds
Your little worlds you'll never fix
You turn away
You turn away
You turn away
You turn away
As I walk along the streets
Soaking up the acid rain
Underneath the taxi cabs
I hear the streets cry out in vain
The lyrics of Staind's song Open Your Eyes paint a dark and somber picture of society as the singer walks through the streets. These streets that are supposed to be bustling with life instead echo with the loneliness of a man walking alone, reminding the singer of the millions of people who feel isolated and disconnected from the world. The chaos of society runs rampant through the verses as he details a tragic gunshot, panhandlers and beggars desperate for drug money, and the senseless death of an old man in an alleyway. In the midst of it all stands a little girl lost and crying with no one there to comfort her.
From there, the singer turns his attention to the viewer with the haunting question, "What would you do if it was you?" as if to make us confront the harsh reality of the verses. He laments that so many people take everything they have, such as their comfortable lives, their security, and their loved ones, for granted. Meanwhile, society is in dire straits, with drugs, poverty, and violence all rising uncontrollably. Kids as young as thirteen are selling drugs, and our daughters are in the porn industry, and yet so many of us continue to turn a blind eye towards a crumbling society that needs immediate attention. Frustrated and drained by all that he has experienced, the singer reminds us that the streets themselves are soaked with acid rain, a metaphor that reflects the poisonous inherent in society.
Overall, the lyrics are a critique of society and an appeal to its people to acknowledge the extent of the problems and take action to fix it. The song urges individuals to stop turning away and open their eyes to the issues plaguing our society.
Line by Line Meaning
As I walk along these streets
While walking down the streets
I see a man that walks alone
One sees a solitary man walking
Distant echo of people's feet
Far off sounds of people walking
He has no place to call his own
The man is homeless
A shot rings out from a roof overhead
Gunfire is heard from above
A crackhead asks for change nearby
A drug addict begs for money nearby
An old man lies in an alleyway dead
An elderly man is dead in an alley
A little girl lost just stands there and cries
A young girl who's lost is standing there crying
What would you do, if it was you
What actions would you take in a similar situation
Would you take everything
Would you take all things in life
For granted like you do
As if they are guaranteed and not valued enough
A boy just thirteen on the corner for sale
A 13-year-old boy is selling drugs on the street corner
Swallows his pride for another hit
He's consumed with addiction and sacrifices his dignity for drugs
Overpopulation there's no room in jail
The jails are overcrowded and cannot hold more inmates
But most of you don't give a shit
Most people don't care about the issue
That your daughters are porno stars
Your daughters are in the porn industry
And your sons sell death to kids
Your sons sell drugs that harm our youth
You're so lost in your little worlds
People are trapped in their own personal bubbles of existence
Your little worlds you'll never fix
These individualized worlds are never addressed or resolved
You turn away
People look away and ignore the problem
You turn away
People look away and ignore the problem
You turn away
People look away and ignore the problem
You turn away
People look away and ignore the problem
As I walk along the streets
While walking down the streets
Soaking up the acid rain
Taking in the polluted environment
Underneath the taxi cabs
Beneath the transportation vehicles
I hear the streets cry out in vain
Hearing a cry for help that goes unanswered
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HARLEY DINARDO, STEVE SLINGENEYER, MARK T. LEWIS, TOMMY SALMORIN, DERRICK HAWKINS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind