Eulogy.

[Dr Vagynilbyrne]

My personal opinion and thoughts on this song is that it is indeed a eulogy, and somewhat of a comedic one. Instead of being serious or being about religious figures, it seems more appropriate to point to the legendary Bill Hicks.

Bill did take a stand on every little thing. Bill did speak very loudly his thoughts on everything, and held back nothing.

The reason that this is something of a comedic eulogy towards Bill, at least in my eyes, is the tone and lyrical content is probably the sort of eulogy that Bill would've wanted for his funeral.

It also coincides with the leaflet notes that show a painting of Bill operating on an elephant man-looking guy that looks to me as resembling Maynard.

In a lot of ways, this entire album seems to me as being a sort of biography, or continuation of Bill's stand up performances.

[Satan]

If this is about Bill Hicks, Tool didnt like him nearly as much as Third Eye would lead you to believe. This Eulogy is satirical. Main point here is that "He had a lot of NOTHING to say." It may not be about religious figures, or at least not a specific one, but it is definitely about the idolization of people. It could be about Tool themselves, if it wasn't for the nothing to say, unless of course the so-called "message" in their lyrics is pure bull and another one of those Tool-y thing that must be taken with a grain of salt. You want to identify with Tool, you identify with their music and message, they are SO LOUD! and we like them that way, but in the end you become the hooker with a penis (if you've got one), you buy their new record, you follow blindly, maybe their next album may not be so great but won't you still buy it? I think maybe Hicks was greater than Tool ever could hope to represent. "Squeegee your fucking third eye!!!!!" Of course, their music does rock, at least for now, but we all need to take Kabir's advice and take them with a grain of salt, or probably several grains. Ah, delicious, tasty salt. Satan has spoken, Tool is great and Hicks is great, none shall ever know which is greater for the latter is dead, rockin' and surfing on the lake of fire. Have a nice day.

[jung46and2]

the "he" in Eulogy is a very broad one at that. of course you can tie in the obvious religion and all that. i've always looked at Eulogy as being about fans in music or anyone "following the crowd". especially the lines:

"standing above the crowd, he had a voice that was strong and loud, i swallowed his facade cause i'm so eager to identify..."

"someone prepared to lead the way, someone who would die for me... will you now?"

i look at those types of people who worship bands. the ones who dress up in the stereotypical "goth "punk" or whatever these days, to look just like their favorite band. they become a part of it, and have no identity of themselves.

Curt Cobain... Marilyn Manson... the list goes on to these so called rock "gods" w/ these "followings".

[Burning Eden]

haha It's very ironic that I am here on a Tool message board, interpreting their songs, listening to their music, and then you bring up fans that worship bands... It seems that is the last thing that Tool wants to become, an idol. But we all like to search out people to look up to, "someone to lead the way". Being a fan of Tool, you can't talk about the stereotyped "goths and punks" because that would be hypocritical. Satan is right... we buy Tool's albums and listen to their music. We become the "fans" that you talk about. By saying that other music fans and "followers" have no identity, you are labeling yourself too. I'm not trying to put you down, I'm just trying to help you look at it from a different perspective.

[Phosphorescence]

well what youre implying then is that we all have this incredible devotion to tool , which some of us really dont , i know i dont. i dont worship them i just find myself curious at some of the concepts the explore in their music and writings.
what jung46and2 was talking about im sure was those dirty kids that dress in all black with their stupid slipknot sweatshirts and their spiked bracelets and all of that nonsense , all that stuff maynard kind of hints at in Ænima .



just a thought

[Dr Vagynilbyrne]

Originally posted by Satan
If this is about Bill Hicks, Tool didnt like him nearly as much as Third Eye would lead you to believe. This Eulogy is satirical. Main point here is that "He had a lot of NOTHING to say." It may not be about religious figures, or at least not a specific one, but it is definitely about the idolization of people. It could be about Tool themselves, if it wasn't for the nothing to say, unless of course the so-called "message" in their lyrics is pure bull and another one of those Tool-y thing that must be taken with a grain of salt. You want to identify with Tool, you identify with their music and message, they are SO LOUD! and we like them that way, but in the end you become the hooker with a penis (if you've got one), you buy their new record, you follow blindly, maybe their next album may not be so great but won't you still buy it? I think maybe Hicks was greater than Tool ever could hope to represent. "Squeegee your fucking third eye!!!!!" Of course, their music does rock, at least for now, but we all need to take Kabir's advice and take them with a grain of salt, or probably several grains. Ah, delicious, tasty salt. Satan has spoken, Tool is great and Hicks is great, none shall ever know which is greater for the latter is dead, rockin' and surfing on the lake of fire. Have a nice day.

Hm. Think of it more as a Roast, where people intentionally flame the person the Roast is being held for out of respect and admiration.

It also applies to how people cling to things, and when that thing passes they move along to cling to something or someone else without as much as a nod to the person that came before. "Come down, get off your fucking cross. We need the fucking space, to nail the next fool martyr."

This is what I love about Tool's music the most. The ambiguity of the lyrics along with the emotional context of the music behind them. These words are, I think, purposely left ambiguous so people can bring what's with them to interpret them for themselves. However, I also think there's a profound message from the band in each and every one of their songs.

[Gunther]

I personally have never seen eulogy as a specific attack on a particular leader or figure, but rather as a call to not get sucked in and follow someone just because they have a flashy show and well planned rhetoric to spit out.
A sort of "take care and analyze what you believe in" speech.
By all means tear my argument apart. :)

[howardsmonkey]

Am i being naive to think its simply slandering Jesus Christ?

[Kostia]

Tool is very allegorical. Like I've said before it seems more like they're trying to logically find God than to alienate him. They're eliminating what they don't approve of. Maybe you could compare it to the early Russians.

I also want to address the whole statement way back there, "Stupid goths w/ SlipKnot shirts," or whatever ignorant thing, don't you know appearance means nothing until you meet the person behind it? It tells you what they're into (or parodying if they're in a satyr mood that day). Regardless a goth is no different from a prep or a punk or a jock or an anything else. It doesn't matter. Some of my best friends are among the list of "SlipKnot fags" and I don't judge them for it, and they're good enough not to judge me for Tool. We respect each other.

Achieve a mutual respect for humanity, expose yourself to new things, grow.

[aoshi]

One thing ive noticed people who are fans of tool is their overwhelming need to look down on each other to ACT more intellegent. These people should take the insight that tool's music has given them and put it to good use.....we should be building each other up, making each other happy not breaking someone apart because they have different idea's regarding what a song is about or making fun or somone's appearence...those slipknot outfits are their defense, tey jsut dont want to be bothered

[Roach]

That's exactly what I was thinking about with Eulogy too. The lines "come down, get off... to nail the next fool martyr" do follow that theory; Jonathan Davis is worshipped, then torn down, Marilyn Manson comes next, then comes down, then Fred Durst goes up... each is a fool martyr, in that they thought they were getting up "above the crowd" to send out a message, but ultimately nothing they did changed anything.

Satan; I thought that maybe the song was about Tool as well. They've often said that people take them too seriously. But I don't think they just send out a load of bullshit messages; prehaps the song is saying that people assume that whatever Tool say must be true, BECAUSE it's Tool. In fact, many Tool songs directly contradict each other. But each new idea is a "reality tunnel" that is designed to make us think, and accept new ideas. So they don't say a lot and make us think very little, but rather they say nearly nothing and make us think a lot. There is no truth, but only our perception of the truth.

Gunther; eh, maybe. But to me anyway, the lines "Standing above the crowd, he had a voice that was strong and loud" invokes an image of a singer at a concert.

[reppy]

the thing that kept me from thinking it was about jesus was that (correct me if i'm wrong) i don't think jesus ever said he wasn't afraid to die.. quite the contrary, right?

[Niaboc]

i think this song is asking people like l. ron hubbard, or falwell, or cult leaders, etc a question. (would you die for me?)

its attacking the people who use religion as a tool, the people who use religion to push their own beliefs and saying 'well jesus died a martyr for his following, lets see you do the same'.

(note: whether you believe jesus to be the son of 'god' or not, theres too much evidence for me to deny he existed as a person)

these people want all the benefits of being a christ figure..the fame, money, rich lifestyles, and ability to push their beliefs on the flock of people who are 'eager to identify'. Its simple..if you want to be like christ, get on that fucking cross and die for ME.

[suicide.machine]

I kinda like relating certain songs to myself, and this is one I can do that with...I guess to me this song is about finding out someone isn't as great as you thought they were...like you looked up to or loved them and then they do something that totally changes your opinion of them... I guess for me it reminds me of an ex-boyfriend that I was totally crazy about and I wouldn't believe anything people told me that was negative about him...when we broke up-I saw the side of him that everyone warned me about-so I guess it was like him "coming off of his cross"... I don't know if it's good or bad, but since then I haven't had anyone that I've put on a pedestal like I did that guy...anyways, I'll quit rambling...just an odd interpretation of mine about the song...

[KILLIAN]

I beleive that if we wanted to we could fit anyone into "fool martyr" spotlight, but that takes away from the fact that the song ( I beleive) demonstrates that there will always be someone with a loud voice standing on a soap box somewhere trying to sell some new shinny thing to the masses and lead people along a path to further ignorance. And the band are basically saying the same "think for yourself" don't let anyone lead you blindly, that they have been saying all along (or hinting to). Thats just what i think.

[$aturNalia$]

Has anyone here ever seen those videos or Hitler when he is speaking to a huge "mass" of nazi troups yelling with his "strong and loud" voice. anyway when i first listened to this song and the image of hitler instantly came to mind "ratting and pointing his finger" but then at the end of the song there are mentions religious things like the cross. after combining the two what i got out of the song is that organized religion is more or less a dictatorship or totalitarian form of government.

[Mark D]

this is a really good thread. First i wanna say that i dont think eulogy is a bout koRn, manson, or limp bizkit. tool wouldnt be worried bout bands like them. I definitly think it could be about jesus or hitler. Those make a shitload of sense if u think about it. Eulogy could be for both. Which is ironic because they are pretty opposite each other in most ways. Maybe it is the way Maynard intended it to be.

[Hyatir]

i dont see eulogy as being about a specific person, i couldnt relate the song to me and my life if it was about bill hicks or timothy leary or l ron hubbard, how the hell do they affect me? i think the speaker from stinkfist is the person in 4 degrees whom the speaker was trying to change, to get to open up. Now, in stinkfist the changee if you will is rejecting the imposed change from 4 degrees, and trying to find his/her own way. however he looks to a deceiver, one not necesarily out to hurt him, but who will end up doing that anyway. this is the object of the eulogy, the person referred to as "he". But, also the person referred to as "you" is the changer from 4 degrees. The lyrics alternate between "he" and "you", in a sort of split rejection of both your lures and temptations. Compare this with H and see what you come up with.

[MyShadow]

I've seen a lot of good theories about what the song is about here. This song could be rooted to many people(martyrs), but a few of them I thought were probably more likely.
The idea about the bands (KoRn, Limp Bizkit, etc.) was not a bad theory, nor were the Hitler and Bill Hicks one (I thought it was about Bill Hicks too, the first couple of times I heard it), but I tend to lean towards the theory that this song is about Jesus.
I'm not saying that it is, who knows? Besides Tool. But I think it is about Jesus because who else would die for Maynard that Maynard knows about? I'm betting not Hitler, or any of those bands, or even Bill Hicks. But Jesus supposely did for all of man, so that's my logical guess. One thing you could argue about my point is that Maynard may not have intended the song to be first-person, instead someone else could have said those words. Who knows? I'm just posting this to give someone something to read and think about it. Thanks.

[EmbraceTdOxOmL]

Im suprised to see no one else thinks what i think about this song.

To me its a story of a group of friends who all do drugs... accept one. Hes woriied all of the time that one of his friends may die because of it. So he tries with all of his heart to get them to stop. None of them listend and they just kept on doing them. Caring about his friends lives over his own he decided to overdose with much hope in making all his friends realize that they could die from all of the drugs.

None of them stoped doing drugs.

[llewdargssor]

Originally posted by Satan
If this is about Bill Hicks, Tool didnt like him nearly as much as Third Eye would lead you to believe. This Eulogy is satirical. Main point here is that "He had a lot of NOTHING to say." It may not be about religious figures, or at least not a specific one, but it is definitely about the idolization of people. It could be about Tool themselves, if it wasn't for the nothing to say, unless of course the so-called "message" in their lyrics is pure bull and another one of those Tool-y thing that must be taken with a grain of salt. You want to identify with Tool, you identify with their music and message, they are SO LOUD! and we like them that way, but in the end you become the hooker with a penis (if you've got one), you buy their new record, you follow blindly, maybe their next album may not be so great but won't you still buy it? I think maybe Hicks was greater than Tool ever could hope to represent. "Squeegee your fucking third eye!!!!!" Of course, their music does rock, at least for now, but we all need to take Kabir's advice and take them with a grain of salt, or probably several grains. Ah, delicious, tasty salt. Satan has spoken, Tool is great and Hicks is great, none shall ever know which is greater for the latter is dead, rockin' and surfing on the lake of fire. Have a nice day.

well exactly, the bit about Bill Hicks having NOTHING to say, its just that, he took a stand on every LITTLE thing, so in a way he had NOTHING to say. but not nothing as worthless, it might just be a play on words, nothing is linked with every little thing, so having nothing to say is saying something on every little thing.

but yes, the whole song is more symbolic than specific on any one character, and symbols are only broad examples to be interptreted any which way we please, and we are doing that.

[Mark D]

Originally posted by EmbraceTdOxOmL
Im suprised to see no one else thinks what i think about this song.

To me its a story of a group of friends who all do drugs... accept one. Hes woriied all of the time that one of his friends may die because of it. So he tries with all of his heart to get them to stop. None of them listend and they just kept on doing them. Caring about his friends lives over his own he decided to overdose with much hope in making all his friends realize that they could die from all of the drugs.

None of them stoped doing drugs.

This is a good story. But I think that is all it is. I think that Eulogy is not about a group who does drugs, but hey thats your opinion and im not gonna rag on it. What i do think has to do with Tool in general. One of their main messeges is to think for yourself and not to be brainwashed by others. Question authority? Eulogy demonstrates this message by implying that these "martyrs" that try to get us to follow them are doing the right thing and have a message of their own. "He had a lot to say. He had a lot of nothing to say. We'll miss him" "He" wanted to get a point across or to convince people to follow him. He had a lot of nothing to say meaning that he had a message, but no truth behind him.

[Ghetto Boy]

I think the song is about how once people die, their words no longer matter. Hence the "he had a lot to say, he had a lot of nothing to say." After you're dead, they're just words... no one remembers what they were, no one cares what they were, so they don't matter. What really matters is your actions, the way you carry yourself, the promises you make... that's the impression you really leave on people.

I can't really say anything more about this song, which is disappointing, because it's one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard... I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about this at a time when I'm not completely wiped from work, but at the moment, that's the best you're gonna get. :\

[nenslow]

Curt Cobain... Marilyn Manson... the list goes on to these so called rock "gods" w/ these "followings".


When i first heard this song i thought Maybe..Just..Maybe it might be about Kurt i dunno why i just.. DID lol anyways
?!?nIcky?!?