Title of the song

[smeefsmeef]

Rosetta Stone - egyptian decoder thingy

Stone - a rock

Stoned - wasted or attacked by people throwing rocks

Rose - a flower

etta - rymes with feta (cheese)

Anyone know where the title comes from, or what its significance is to the song?

[tempathy]

seems as though the teller is attempting to decipher a message he experienced, more or less, while on a trip.. hence rosetta stoned. it's literal in 2 meanings.imo.

[randomhero8823]

he couldnt translate the message..... he didnt have a pen... there you go! end thread. plus he was stoned (LSD)

[Freakboy2k]

The Rosetta Stone was a stone that had the same text written in 3 different languages. I can't rememebr which 3, I think one of them was egyptian... but back on topic.

I'm still not sure what connection to the Rosetta stone is, I'm still working on it. I'm thinking its got something to do with the fact that the guy was given a message. Maybe the LSD is the rosetta stone, in that it allowed him to communicate with this "ET" he talked about, allowing him to receive the message?

[praefector]

i believe there was also a story posted here somewhere about a woman named Rosetta who was stoned to death a long time ago...

[renegade46n2]

I think they just liked the way it sounded. I do.

[Boom Boom]

The message has been given to the guy by the aliens. But the guy is stoned. He is like a stoned rosetta. Rosetta Stone(d)

[m4yn4rd]

I'm still not sure what connection to the Rosetta stone is, I'm still working on it. I'm thinking its got something to do with the fact that the guy was given a message. Maybe the LSD is the rosetta stone, in that it allowed him to communicate with this "ET" he talked about, allowing him to receive the message?

I like where you're going with this... it's a logical point; the rosetta stone was meant so people could translate languages and deciefer messages in other languages. Definitley plausable.

[Dr. Jake Destructo]

LSD =/= stoned, but I suppose that in the context of this song, Maynard had to make it fit. It seems silly that after all of these intimate writings about drugs(or what could be taken as such) Maynard would go and write a song about acid in such an immature way.

Granted, I love the song already, but it still strikes me as odd.

[_colin_]

in my opinion it has to do something with the Rosetta Stone witch was used to decipher hieroglyphics and the person feels like he was the stone and he was suppose to be used to tell what the aliens or whatever where telling him but he forgot just my opinion

[rtisovec]

Rosetta stoned makes sense, becuase the Rosetta stone was used o decode or decipher the other languages. Stoned, being the drug trip. This song relates to someone coming out of a trip and trying to get all the info down before they lose it, as if they experienced something so important, that if they don't write down every nuance and go back over it, will somehow miss out on something very important, Forgot my pen=will I remember it when I return to my nondrugged state.

[The Dark Jester]

the person feels like he was the stone

This is correct, as said before the Rosetta Stone is a huge stone with Egyptian heiroglyphics, a common "vulgar" Egyptian, and Greek, written on it. This stone and others were used to decipher heiroglyphics. The song is called Rosetta Stoned because the person speaking IS the stone, he's the go between for the aliens and the rest of the human race. I think they added the -ed because it can be inferred (especially in Lost Keys(Blame Hofmann)) that the person may have been tripping on LSD. So then the question becomes did he really have an experience with aliens or was he simply tripping form the drugs? Thats why the -ed is added, to make you question whether he is a real life Rosetta Stone or if he was simply...stoned.

[lucydog]

my theory is that that the guy isnt tripping, but they think he is. the nurse is blaming hoffman (acid) for this crazy dude. it does sound like hes tripping though...

he was bombarded with divine knowledge that he wasnt ready for. sitting there, minding his buisness, eating some doughnuts. probly baked, maybe on acid, but for a guy like this its normal. then the sky rips open. if you are experienced with LSD, you would know this sort of thing doesnt happen. so hes told what he needs to do. since marijuana impares the short term memory, and he "shit the bed" when he left his pen at home, the message is lost. he was stoned (like the rock thrown at you) by the knowledge, and the truth. it sounds like he wears birkenstocks, so hes gotta be a hippie. when he tells people the story, they just think hes stoned (like he smoked a fatty) or had a bad trip or something.

[NowisMytimE]

my theory is that that the guy isnt tripping, but they think he is. the nurse is blaming hoffman (acid) for this crazy dude. it does sound like hes tripping though...

he was bombarded with divine knowledge that he wasnt ready for. sitting there, minding his buisness, eating some doughnuts. probly baked, maybe on acid, but for a guy like this its normal. then the sky rips open. if you are experienced with LSD, you would know this sort of thing doesnt happen. so hes told what he needs to do. since marijuana impares the short term memory, and he "shit the bed" when he left his pen at home, the message is lost. he was stoned (like the rock thrown at you) by the knowledge, and the truth. it sounds like he wears birkenstocks, so hes gotta be a hippie. when he tells people the story, they just think hes stoned (like he smoked a fatty) or had a bad trip or something.

If its devine knowledge wouldnt it make more sense that its coming from angels, rather than aliens?

[Elgyn]

This is just some random weird shit that I noticed. I haven't read through every thread to know if it's been mentioned but... whatever... There was a tool tribute album (http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/2916615/a/Tribute+To+Tool.htm) released in 2002, and a band called Rosetta Stone covered 4 Degrees. Pretty weird. Tool must have been aware of it.

[11Reflections11]

You know Blair touched on this in one of the newsletters on toolband but i can't recall the whole story behind it right now cause im too lazy so someone else should look that up. For me.

[Bakeup]

Follow the link below, and you will know the "'terrible' secret that one of the songs on the new album speaks of."

http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/2006_03.php

[win]

seems as though the teller is attempting to decipher a message he experienced, more or less, while on a trip.. hence rosetta stoned. it's literal in 2 meanings.imo.

agreed on all accounts