Rue the Whirl
Running time	6:39
Appears on	MHTRTC

Comments

• Describing the influence of nature on their art, Mike and Marcus related the following story to Virgin Megaweb about the production of "Rue the Whirl":

There's this track on the album called "Rue the Whirl", where you can hear birds singing. What happened was that I was listening to the track, and, oddly, I could hear birds singing. Then I realized that the window was open in the studio, and since the birdsong went so well with the music, we recorded it to capture the feel of what we experienced listening with the window open. (Virgin Megaweb Magazine, 1998).

• In a 1998 Interview with the now defunct Space Bachelor:

That's a simple track. It has a predominate woodwind riff, ascending over and over, which puts you in a trance, but there are some evolving textures in there which may or may not be obvious at first, such as birds and water. It has similar hypnotizing effect to something like the melodies you hear from a rusty swing, needed to be oiled or machinery on a journey, or even a windscreen wiper, the noise it makes over and over. The surrounding environment is continuously moving. I think it works well because everybody wants to rue the whirl.

• [Ken Stewart] - this might be a distortion of the phrase "rule the world". See the French language interview (on the links page) for more on this; the studio window was open when BoC listened to this track; the birdsong they heard outside went so well with the music that they recorded it and added it to the track.
• [Goatmancods] - suggests that Rue the Whirl might express regret over how quickly childhood passes by in the whirl of time.
• It is likely that "Rue the Whirl" refers to a philosophical belief held by Greek atomists. Referred to in a play by Aristophanes called The Clouds in which the term "Whirl is King" appears; "Are we immersing ourselves far too deep into the land where Whirl is King, and slowly becoming distracted citizens of that sadly confused and confusing domain?" Whirl referring to a state where all is in flux, and where disruptive forces interrupt traditional power structures. Also referenced in an editorial by Walter Kalpakgian called The Ladder of Knowledge and The Ascent to Wisdom in Boethius" in which Mitchell argues that; "Boethius feels that, as the ancient atomists thought, "Whirl is King": the forces of chance and chaos rule supreme over law and divine providence." So it is likely that BOC is saying by using the word Rue that they bitterly regret something that has to do with a change in forces that dictate new law, order, and or traditional power structures.

Samples / Lyrics

• Similar drumloop as in "Twoism".

Trivia

• Rue the Whirl is featured in a 2007 Mercedes-Benz C class television advertisement.
• The track title Rue the Whirl was probably inspired by the same sample used in "From One Source All Things Depend". At 0:56, a child describes God as someone who "rues the whirl"
• The first 20 seconds of the Flying Lotus track "shafiq evil man remix final" is very similar to the reversed section at the end of Rue the Whirl.
• Rue the Whirl was featured in a scene in the TV series "Spaced".