John Holland
07-26-2004, 10:36 PM
The figure told of in Tool's "Eulogy" is NOT Jesus Christ. Here I make my case :
One must first analyze previous and present lyrical forrays into the topic of Christianity from Maynard, not just Tool but A Perfect Circle as well.
In "Opiate", Maynard has prefaced live versions of this song with "Ever heard of Buddha? Jesus? Krishna? all these guys had good ideas, but we've got agents running around trying to make a buck off them. This song is about those agents."
This song actually mentions Jesus in the lyrics. So does "Sober", but of course this can be interpreted, at the most, as faith failing the believer to relieve oneself of strive and affliction, if we are to interpret the song on faith-based premises. "Judith" also mentioned Christ, but Maynard had established that "When I mean, 'fuck your god', I don't mean THE God".
And also, Maynard strikes me as far too intelligent to simply resort to a "Fuck you!" attitude regarding the life of Jesus. Especially after being pegged, inappropriately, after two albums (Opiate and Undertow ) as being one of Christ's detractors within the rock arena. Not to say he would cave into any kind of pressure ( he certainly has'nt ), but he is'nt one to incessantly and needlessly repeat himself.
"He had a lot of nothing to say" would imply that Jesus's philosophy ( as much as we can argue that love for your fellow man was not a new idea ) , from Maynard's point of view was completely empty. Which, given Maynard's intelligence, I'm sure he's equipped to arrive at a better opinion.
I can't say who the song is actually about. Danney Carey said in one interview it was about L. Ron Hubbard, but this may be as true as Adam Jones saying Tool is about lachrymology ( and we all know that's a prank ).
I'm new to the TDN message board, so if this point of view has been expressed previously, then give me my requisite tounge lashing. I hope it was fruitful.
One must first analyze previous and present lyrical forrays into the topic of Christianity from Maynard, not just Tool but A Perfect Circle as well.
In "Opiate", Maynard has prefaced live versions of this song with "Ever heard of Buddha? Jesus? Krishna? all these guys had good ideas, but we've got agents running around trying to make a buck off them. This song is about those agents."
This song actually mentions Jesus in the lyrics. So does "Sober", but of course this can be interpreted, at the most, as faith failing the believer to relieve oneself of strive and affliction, if we are to interpret the song on faith-based premises. "Judith" also mentioned Christ, but Maynard had established that "When I mean, 'fuck your god', I don't mean THE God".
And also, Maynard strikes me as far too intelligent to simply resort to a "Fuck you!" attitude regarding the life of Jesus. Especially after being pegged, inappropriately, after two albums (Opiate and Undertow ) as being one of Christ's detractors within the rock arena. Not to say he would cave into any kind of pressure ( he certainly has'nt ), but he is'nt one to incessantly and needlessly repeat himself.
"He had a lot of nothing to say" would imply that Jesus's philosophy ( as much as we can argue that love for your fellow man was not a new idea ) , from Maynard's point of view was completely empty. Which, given Maynard's intelligence, I'm sure he's equipped to arrive at a better opinion.
I can't say who the song is actually about. Danney Carey said in one interview it was about L. Ron Hubbard, but this may be as true as Adam Jones saying Tool is about lachrymology ( and we all know that's a prank ).
I'm new to the TDN message board, so if this point of view has been expressed previously, then give me my requisite tounge lashing. I hope it was fruitful.