PDA

View Full Version : Interpretation of Sober.......(mine, not somebody else's)


APOCALYPSEENSABAHNUR
05-01-2006, 08:02 AM
I have been a member here for some time. I have not posted here in a while, mainly because I didn't see any topics that interested me. However, I could still (Hansel?) browse the forum and in doing so, observe the posts and comments made by others (I'm supposed to be doing homework right now.). On one such browsing, I came across a subject pertaining to the meaning of the song "Sober" and it's music video. The opinion of the author of that post was that the song was about drug addiction. They proceeded to claim that one of the (TOOL) band members had said that the song and video is all about "a guy" they (TOOL) knew who seemed to think he was more creative on drugs. Many who replied to this post seemed to agree with the author, including myself.

However, I have a theory that runs parallel with that authors interpretation; I thought/still think that video, given the time it was made, was about none other than Alice in Chains own (deceased) Layne Staley. I thought/think this because of something Maynard James Keenan (of TOOL) said when questioned about Mr. Staley's death:

(from http://www.mtv.com/bands/a/a_perfect_circle/news_feature_040122/index3.jhtml)

Keenan:......This was a very difficult task for me, because I don't know what [drug addiction] is like. I drew on the experiences of friends who have gone through recovery, and friends who will never go through recovery. Layne Staley, for example, who was an old friend.

Loder: You must have seen that coming with him, right?

Keenan: Yeah, absolutely. But there was nothing you could do, and it's very difficult to understand. Being a friend to someone like Layne, it really kind of does your head in. I don't understand it, but I do want to help other people who are on that borderline, who might hear [a song] and go, "You know what, I think I want to try to live."

I think these comments are very similar to the comments made about the "person" the song and video are "about".................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..............................................
...............................
.................
.......illedgedly

I would like to know what everyone else thinks and, perhaps, get an answer as to if my assumptions are correct.

Thank you,

APOCALYPSE

APOCALYPSEENSABAHNUR
05-01-2006, 08:17 AM
From said thread:

"I think you hit the nail on the head, freind.

I read an interview with Maynard not too long ago where he actually talked about the reason he had written "Sober". Maynard apparently has a freind who's a visual artist. He creates his art based on images he sees in his mind (like most artists). This man began using drugs in order to enhance these "visions" and his ability to find them. Maynard returned after a tour to find that this man could no longer create art if he wasn't high. His "muscle," his "third eye", if you will, had atrophied from underuse. This pissed Maynard off so much that he refused to have anything to do with the process. He wrote "Sober", apparently, almost in mourning, in a way- in anger that someone could so dash their own potential. So yes, presumably the parts of the song you referred to would be from the point of view of the substance being used. Maynard uses P.O.V. shifts pretty frequently in his writing. In "Undertow," it sounds more like it's from the point of view of the addictee."

Sorry, I am mistaken in my assumption. I clearly overlooked the detail "visual artist." I do not think this term applies to Mr. Staley (as far as I know).

However, one could see how I could come to that conclusion. All of the circumstances match up with what happened to Mr. Staley, but the only thing that does not fit is that the person in question is a visual artist ....Illedgedly. The state this person was in initially, and after Mr. Keenan returned, fits Mr. Staleys state of being in that time closely (His "third-eye" being atrophied could be taken to mean "writing ability", if not for the visual artist specification.)

Illedgedly.

APOCALYPSEENSABAHNUR
05-01-2006, 08:20 AM
P.S. Kabir was here first? I don't think so. I am 5,000+ years old.
.........beat that shit.

















....uh, yeah.....that was a bad joke. (Heh heh?)

M.Luther
05-06-2006, 02:16 PM
....uh, yeah.....that was a bad joke. (Heh heh?)


die.

APOCALYPSEENSABAHNUR
05-09-2006, 08:27 PM
Boy, your farts must smell epescially good. Not that I would ever (or have ever) smelled anybody else's or my own, just that from how smug you sound, they must smell like roses.

I bet you all drive around in little your little hybrid cars and in between sips of Maynards wine (which is probably just his piss: wouldn't know, never tried it), you take turns smelling each others assholes.

Fuck y'all

Naw, theyre not my favorite band anymore,

Fuck you Tool.

No- I waited five goddamn years for what? For fucking "monkeys".
But seriously folks:

COME ON!


Now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to get a shotguhn and blow this piece of shit CD "Right in Two".


Fuck you.

wearethestories
05-24-2006, 11:11 AM
Fuck you Tool.

No- I waited five goddamn years for what? For fucking "monkeys".
But seriously folks:

COME ON!

Now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to get a shotguhn and blow this piece of shit CD "Right in Two".

Fuck you.

a tad bitter, are we?
maybe assuming that the band was trying to come up with something that pleased you and not them?
well aren't you just the saddest little boy ever... I bet if you whine some more and wait another five years, MAD&J will feel SO bad that they'll create a new album JUST FOR YOU.

Harrymanfeet
11-08-2006, 03:13 PM
I myself am a huge fan of the work Layne Staley accomplished with both Mad Season and Alice in Chains but from wut I've heard Staley did a great deal of drawing and painting his work can be found in the CD "Above" by Mad Season and he also drew the tribal sun that became the symbol for AiC and later was ripped off by Godsmack so I suppose sum would label him a "visual artist" if that is wut u meant by visual artist

R.I.P. Layne Staley

mjkajdcjc
11-08-2006, 05:50 PM
R.I.P. Layne Staley

Great man, great man...

littlejason
11-17-2006, 02:09 PM
Great man, great man...



by the way, your icon makes me extremely happy.

mjkajdcjc
11-17-2006, 06:30 PM
by the way, your icon makes me extremely happy.

Thanks, you know where it's from right?

fretforyourfigure462
12-20-2006, 11:55 AM
Sober is a very difficult song to figure out.
I still cant' quite piece together what I think of it.