Toad the Wet Sprocket was formed in 1986 at San Marcos High School just outside of Santa Barbara, California, when singer-songwriter Glen Phillips was just a 14-year-old freshman, and the other members were 17-year-old juniors. The band drew its name from the Eric Idle monologue "Rock Notes" on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album from 1980. Their first public appearance was at an open-microphone talent contest in September 1986 (which they lost).
Toad the Wet Sprocket's first album came out in 1989. Named Bread and Circus, it was their first effort for Columbia Records, who had signed them out of high school. The album spawned the singles "Way Away" and "One Little Girl," which made the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, but did not receive much attention.
The follow-up, Pale, was released in 1990 and saw their sound mature. Featuring the singles "Jam" and the Modern Rock Chart hit "Come Back Down," the album was still not a massive success.
The band finally achieved fame with their third album, Fear (released in 1991), which became the band's first RIAA certified platinum album. Also, the singles "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" reached the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1994, after years of heavy touring, the band released their follow-up to Fear, Dulcinea. This album spawned the hit singles "Fall Down", which reached #1 on the US Modern Rock charts as well as #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart, as well as "Something's Always Wrong", which also charted. This album was also certified platinum by the RIAA.
A compilation album of b-sides and rarities, In Light Syrup, was released in 1995; it included the single "Good Intentions", which was featured on the soundtrack for the television show Friends. Largely due to the strength of the single, this compilation was certified as a gold album in 2001.
The release of Coil in 1997 acted much like a follow up to 1994's Dulcinea. Featuring a more electric, rock sound, it contained the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock hit "Come Down", as well as the radio hit "Crazy Life" (which did not chart). The album, despite the success of "Come Down" as a single, failed to reach any sales benchmarks.
Toad the Wet Sprocket formally broke up in July 1998, citing creative differences. Since breaking up, the band performed together in 2002 at a Rape Crisis Center benefit and opened up for Counting Crows. In 2006 they began touring the United States as a band in small-venue, short-run tours each summer.
In 2009, bassist Dean Dinning said Toad the Wet Sprocket was now something each member considered an active project, and though they had not released a new studio album since 1997 and only did small summer tours, they no longer considered themselves "broken up". In May 2010, the band gathered at a California studio to begin re-recording some of their older hits for licensing reasons. Columbia Records owns the masters to the band's albums. Therefore, the band makes little money from them, so to be able to make a living off their own talent again, they made these re-recordings with the goal of having them used in film and TV.
On December 7, 2010, Toad the Wet Sprocket released their first new studio track in 11 years. The holiday track "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas", a cover of a Sam Phillips original, was posted on their official site, available via Bandcamp, for free download just in time for the holidays, along with a new message on their site: "We're that band that did 'Walk on the Ocean', 'All I Want', 'Something's Always Wrong', and "Fall Down'. The one with the weird name. We're back from a long slumber and look forward to saying hello some time. Keep in touch…" The band had recently signed a deal with Primary Wave to handle their back catalog and any future releases, and on December 11, 2010, the band mentioned, both on stage and in an offstage YouTube interview, that they are currently writing songs for their first new studio album since 1997's Coil. In addition, they began playing two new songs, "Friendly Fire" and "The Moment", which were being worked on for the new album.
On April 12, 2011, Toad the Wet Sprocket released a new greatest hits album titled All You Want in digital and disc form via their official website. The 11-track CD includes brand new studio versions of their hits. The band does not have access to some of the versions they did for Columbia Records in the '90s. However, they did regain full control of the songs from their first two albums, and they planned to re-release them in remastered form on their own label, Abe's Records, following the release of their upcoming studio album.
On March 22, 2013, it was announced via Toad the Wet Sprocket's Facebook page that recording of the new album had been completed. The album was produced and mixed by Mikal Blue at Revolver Studios in Thousand Oaks, California. On June 5, 2013, the band announced the first new single in 16 years on Rolling Stone's website titled "New Constellation". An album of the same name was released on the band's own Abe's Records on October 15, 2013. The band marketed the new album via the crowdsourcing website Kickstarter. The band initially set a fundraising goal of $50,000, expecting it to take about two months to raise that amount. Instead, fans contributed more than $50,000 in less than 20 hours. When the Kickstarter campaign finally came to a close, they had raised a total of $264,762.
In 2014, Toad the Wet Sprocket resumed touring and opened a number of shows for Counting Crows. They showcased some of the new material from New Constellation, the Kickstarter-funded album, including "California Wasted" and the album's title track while playing a number of their earlier hits. During summer 2015, the band went on tour with fellow '90s acts Smash Mouth and Tonic. The band released an EP called Architect of the Ruin on June 16, 2015.
In 2018, Toad the Wet Sprocket announced that they had reissued their albums fear and Dulcinea on a deluxe remastered vinyl LP available through their online store. The same year, they also released a limited deluxe 5-LP box set of colored vinyl for their albums fear, Dulcinea and Acoustic Dance Party.
In a January 2020 interview with ChicagoNow, Glen Phillips stated that "Toad has started recording again." In addition, he confirmed the band's first official lineup change, and that drummer Guss had left the band on good terms. Previous occasional touring member Josh Daubin replaced Guss.
On September 25, 2020, they released a new song entitled “Starting Now”, followed by another new song "Old Habits Die Hard" on October 23rd, from their upcoming album, set to be released in 2021.
There's another band with the same name:
2. Toad The Wet Sprocket was an NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) band active from the mid-70s to 1982. They released two singles, "Pete's Punk Song" and "Reaching the Sky", before their breakup. Their song, "Blues in A", was included on Metal for Muthas compilation (1980).
Inside
Toad The Wet Sprocket Lyrics
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Free my mind to understand
To run undeterred
Pull the blinders from my eyes
et me see the endless skies
And drown here where I stand
In the beauty of the land
[Chorus]
And all my life
It lay inside
For all my life
Tear this anger from my soul
Wash me clean and leave me whole
leave me higher
Work my hands to make them strong
Lift my arms to carry on
That anywhere I go
To never be alone
[Chorus]
We were always leaving
Since we started breathing
And running back no wonder
We are torn asunder
[Repeat: x2]
To give me life
The lyrics of "Inside" by Toad The Wet Sprocket express the desire to break free from emotional and mental restraints, to open up to life and experience it fully. The first verse describes this longing for liberation, asking for the heart and mind to be unshackled and for the blinders from one's eyes to be removed. The imagery of running undeterred and seeing the "endless skies" suggests a desire for vastness and expansiveness. The singer then declares a willingness to "drown" in the beauty of the land, to be fully immersed in the world and its wonders.
The chorus relates to this idea of an internal journey towards a more fulfilled life. The repeated phrase "For all my life" suggests that the realization that life lay inside has been a long time coming, perhaps something the singer has been searching for or struggling with for a while. The second verse continues this theme, expressing a need to be rid of negative emotions such as anger and to be cleansed and made whole. The lines "Work my hands to make them strong, Lift my arms to carry on" suggest a commitment to self-improvement and resilience in the face of adversity. The last line of the verse, "To never be alone", could be interpreted as both a desire for companionship and support, and an affirmation that the singer is capable of finding inner strength and solace.
The final part of the song, starting with "We were always leaving", seems to reflect on the human condition of constantly seeking and striving, and yet always feeling incomplete or "torn asunder". The repeated phrase "To give me life" is a hopeful conclusion to the song, implying that the singer's quest for freedom and self-discovery is a way of finding purpose and vitality.
Line by Line Meaning
Free my heart to feel again
Release my heart from its current state of pain and allow me to experience emotions again
Free my mind to understand
Allow my mind to comprehend and make sense of things that have been unclear
To run undeterred
Free me from any obstacles or challenges that prevent me from moving forward
Pull the blinders from my eyes
Allow me to see clearly and without any preconceived notions that may have been obstructing my view
Let me see the endless skies
Give me the opportunity to broaden my horizons and see the vastness of the world
And drown here where I stand
Allow myself to become fully immersed and captivated in the present moment
In the beauty of the land
Experience and appreciate the full beauty and splendor of nature around me
And all my life, it lay inside
All the answers, knowledge and understanding that one needs to attain has always resided within them
For all my life
Throughout my entire existence
Tear this anger from my soul
Help to alleviate the deep-seated anger within me
Wash me clean and leave me whole
Cleanse me of all impurities so I may be whole again
Leave me higher
Help elevate me and boost me up to new heights
Work my hands to make them strong
Help to strengthen my hands so I may do hard labor
Lift my arms to carry on
Assist in lifting my arms in order to keep working, pushing forward
That anywhere I go
No matter where I happen to be in life
To never be alone
To not feel abandoned or alone, to have emotional support and love in one's life
We were always leaving
We have always been journeying, leaving one place or mindset behind to progress to something new
Since we started breathing
From birth, we are always in motion and progressing forward
And running back no wonder
There is no surprise in humans' tendency to return to old patterns and habits
We are torn asunder
As a result of this endless cycle, we become fragmented and disconnected from ourselves
To give me life
To receive the gift of life and all its experiences
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Dean Dinning, Glen Richard Phillips, Randel Guss, Todd Nichols
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind