Ruler of Everything

Ruler of Everything

Tally Hall

“Ruler of Everything” is about how, in the end, time is what controls our lives.
It depicts mankind “Juno” as they argue with Time.

Ruler of Everything was the second song written for Tally Hall, Joe wrote the song during a sleepness night caused by “The Infinite”.

Ruler of Everything first appeared on Party Boobytrap in 2003 and then on Complete Demos in 2004. The song had an alternative second verse that was later taken out completely for Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. At this point 13 did not exist or was merged with Ruler of Everything, but it still led to Hidden In The Sand like the final album version in Complete Demos.

Later in 2004, presumably Joe would experiment with this demo and add on additional overdubs, likely to be closer to what a final version would sound like. These overdubs include bells (which have the same melody than 13) and a tambourine. This version of Ruler of Everything was included in Joe’s short film The Other Way and was posted to PureVolume in the summer of 2005. The band recorded it for Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in the same year.

Later in 2007, the band would go back to the studio remix and re-record the 2005 tracks. During this time, somebody would slightly slow down the recording and it would stick.

Ruler of Everything makes use of Joe Hawley’s signature back-masking technique, as there are reversed vocal samples and reversed instruments. As well as this, the song features processed vocals that are pitched higher and lower.

In Joe’s 2006 bio, it states that the song is about time. It is believed that the line “mechanical hands” are referring to the hands of an analogue clock. This is further inferred by the line “do you like how my face disintegrates into chalk”, with the front of a watch being called a “face”. It is believed to be about how time is the “ruler of everything.”

This song would later become popular as a meme at around early 2021.