doug galecawitz
12-14-2002, 07:53 AM
I've said it before I'll say it again, I don't believe TOOL songs are written for any specific meaning, that they are purposely written ambiguiously so that the listener or reader is left to project themselves or their experiences and opinions onto the song. If there are any actual specific meanings in the songs they by nature can only truly be understood by the artist/writter. The ideas for songs meaning I display here and elsewhere I don't actually believe. In fact one could say that they (the opinions) are actually closer to a reflection of me than of the song. That said, I'll move on.
At the heart of this song lies the commonly percieved notion of censorship, made overtly obvious in the line "I can't say what I want to" The idea being that censorship, be it open stalinesque style form of censorship, church censorship, or the ever more sly term political correctness, is unbending and without humor. We've all heard the stereotype of militant feminists having no sense of humor. Wheteher you want to think of censorship as good or bad is of no matter as the song itself only takes a nuetral, though somewhat humored anti-censorship, stance. Being that the song was written in the early 90's at the height of the political correctness movement I'll assume for the moment that it is addressing this particular idea. Political correctness and it's advocates have assumed the position of lord and censor over a nation that has mainly lost it's moral grounding to it's own culture (or lack thereof as some might argue). With this movement came a wave of sly censorship that made racist jokes, sexism, gay jokes, anti-children jokes and other unpopular views in our so-called modern society a liability. Suddenly you could be fired, sued, and censored just for off hand comments or jokes in poor taste. The central idea was still the same as any form of censorship: unpopular views must be silenced. The title of the song hush may be the political telling the others to hush. On the other hand it maybe the backlash from political correctness telling them to hush. Either way it's one group of people placing higher value on their own values.
Another possible meaning hidden within the text of Hush maybe a verbal assult on the way the recording industry works to control it's artists. When the line is spoken "people tell me what to say, think, and play" It could be an insiders view of how record executives who have nothing to do with the music itself extort control over the final product. Since most of the recording industry is controlled by corporations (today it's controlled almost entirely by media conglomorates which are in turn owned by mega-conglomorates) they are usually trying to turn that difficult corner where art meets commerce. The struggle for the artist is to turn out a product which is original and bears artistic merit, where as someone like Ted Turner only sees dollar signs. Big business likes to take safe bets and following standard formula of what already sells is usually a safe bet. (That is why music becomes popular in genres at a time, ie punk, disco, new wave, hair metal, grunge, pop, nu metal, and most recently the return of garage rock.) Once again the core of this entire argument boils down to a conflict of intrests. Could it be Maynard saying that the recording industry wants him to be more accesible to the mainstream and is telling TOOL what they will and will not play? Unlikely, but imagine if it is true what we might be missing out on then.
Yet another idea could be pushing the idea of honesty and how humor blurs the line between what is said, felt, and meant. Just because you make a misogynistic joke does not make you a misogynist. When one preaches (as TOOL often seems to do) the natural reaction for some is to start obeying and believing TOOL the way Catholics believe in the church. The problem is that TOOL themselves may not even believe what it is their preaching, while some of us may cast off our normal beliefs in favor of supposed enlightenment. The quandry in the song lies in whether the song is about Maynard joking, or Maynard joking about the song. I often get the idea that agood percentage of TOOL fans who themselves are very intelligent have simply replaced religon with Toolology or Toolism. The danger comes in knowing that we can't know whether Tool is manipulating the beliefs of thier fans out of honesty or just to see if they can. Even the bands name could be brought into the argument. Who is the TOOL, the band themselves, or the fans. And to whom are they tools of? And is there a good or bad connotation in the use of the word TOOL?
Finally on a personal level the song seems not so much emotional charged as it is cerebrally over charged. No doubt there are probably several meanings worth discussion that I have simply skipped over or not thought of in all my laziness. Maybe the song is telling me and all the other arm chair philosophers to shut up and enjoy the music. Wouldn't that be novel?
At the heart of this song lies the commonly percieved notion of censorship, made overtly obvious in the line "I can't say what I want to" The idea being that censorship, be it open stalinesque style form of censorship, church censorship, or the ever more sly term political correctness, is unbending and without humor. We've all heard the stereotype of militant feminists having no sense of humor. Wheteher you want to think of censorship as good or bad is of no matter as the song itself only takes a nuetral, though somewhat humored anti-censorship, stance. Being that the song was written in the early 90's at the height of the political correctness movement I'll assume for the moment that it is addressing this particular idea. Political correctness and it's advocates have assumed the position of lord and censor over a nation that has mainly lost it's moral grounding to it's own culture (or lack thereof as some might argue). With this movement came a wave of sly censorship that made racist jokes, sexism, gay jokes, anti-children jokes and other unpopular views in our so-called modern society a liability. Suddenly you could be fired, sued, and censored just for off hand comments or jokes in poor taste. The central idea was still the same as any form of censorship: unpopular views must be silenced. The title of the song hush may be the political telling the others to hush. On the other hand it maybe the backlash from political correctness telling them to hush. Either way it's one group of people placing higher value on their own values.
Another possible meaning hidden within the text of Hush maybe a verbal assult on the way the recording industry works to control it's artists. When the line is spoken "people tell me what to say, think, and play" It could be an insiders view of how record executives who have nothing to do with the music itself extort control over the final product. Since most of the recording industry is controlled by corporations (today it's controlled almost entirely by media conglomorates which are in turn owned by mega-conglomorates) they are usually trying to turn that difficult corner where art meets commerce. The struggle for the artist is to turn out a product which is original and bears artistic merit, where as someone like Ted Turner only sees dollar signs. Big business likes to take safe bets and following standard formula of what already sells is usually a safe bet. (That is why music becomes popular in genres at a time, ie punk, disco, new wave, hair metal, grunge, pop, nu metal, and most recently the return of garage rock.) Once again the core of this entire argument boils down to a conflict of intrests. Could it be Maynard saying that the recording industry wants him to be more accesible to the mainstream and is telling TOOL what they will and will not play? Unlikely, but imagine if it is true what we might be missing out on then.
Yet another idea could be pushing the idea of honesty and how humor blurs the line between what is said, felt, and meant. Just because you make a misogynistic joke does not make you a misogynist. When one preaches (as TOOL often seems to do) the natural reaction for some is to start obeying and believing TOOL the way Catholics believe in the church. The problem is that TOOL themselves may not even believe what it is their preaching, while some of us may cast off our normal beliefs in favor of supposed enlightenment. The quandry in the song lies in whether the song is about Maynard joking, or Maynard joking about the song. I often get the idea that agood percentage of TOOL fans who themselves are very intelligent have simply replaced religon with Toolology or Toolism. The danger comes in knowing that we can't know whether Tool is manipulating the beliefs of thier fans out of honesty or just to see if they can. Even the bands name could be brought into the argument. Who is the TOOL, the band themselves, or the fans. And to whom are they tools of? And is there a good or bad connotation in the use of the word TOOL?
Finally on a personal level the song seems not so much emotional charged as it is cerebrally over charged. No doubt there are probably several meanings worth discussion that I have simply skipped over or not thought of in all my laziness. Maybe the song is telling me and all the other arm chair philosophers to shut up and enjoy the music. Wouldn't that be novel?