like the time Dave floated away?

[Alcawhorlick]

is that what he's saying?

think that's a reference to Space Oddity?
makes sense to me.

[autumnleigh]

http://www.toolband.com/news/index.html

Check out the newsletter.

And then I saw Dave. At first I thought it was just a mirage, but there he was in his van with the Phish sticker, door beads, and embroidered tapestries. I recognized him by his frizzy hair, dressed in a tie-dye tee, Baja hoodie and hemp pants, with the familiar Birkenstocks, kicking the hackiesack...

And now, Dave, too, was dialing in wave-lengths. But I had to wonder whether or not if he ever managed to separate the true vibrations from the discords if someone would have to change him like a baby.

[Alcawhorlick]

Oh.
Yeah, I guess I remember seeing that too.

[smeefsmeef]

"ET OR A TESTS ON D"
Could it mean extraterrestrial or acid tests on Dave?

[hbynoe]

alex grey mentioned last night
that this was in reference to a friend of the band who went to
area 51 and shat himself on acid in his sleeping bag

[Satival Tributary]

Dave is clearly Australian.

http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=46182

[M.Luther]

"ET OR A TESTS ON D"
Could it mean extraterrestrial or acid tests on Dave?

the line is
"got me seeing E mother fucking T"

[mturi]

"ET OR A TESTS ON D"
Could it mean extraterrestrial or acid tests on Dave?

Yeah i was thinking the same thing, i assume your getting that from the newsletter stuff?

This will be my first post, so I dont know if anyone else brought this up already, but I think also worth noting is that within the same newsletter- the last picture of the big rock has "Tool 10,000 Days" written on it.

After that there is also a quote talking about about "...was it time to finally understand now that the Giant Rock had split in two" I'm wondering if this could connect to the song "right in two" and possibly the great message that the narrator from rosetta (Dave?) wanted to give.

Also I don't know if anyone interpretted the title (rosetta stone + stoned) to meaning the deciphering of a (extraterrestrial) message while being high

[JE Mack]

i thought he said "they" but i think you're right that he says "dave". however, that means the song can't be about dave since the narrator of the story/song (not really maynard) says what is happening is like the time dave floated away. so i wonder who is supposed to be telling the story in the song.

and i guess "stoned' doesn't just refer to drug use but also to being stoned as in attacked by people throwing stones at you. in that sense the title is perfect. drugs-->opening up mind-->to message about humanity/the earth-->ridiculed for claiming anything happened-->failure to deliver the message

i like your idea about "Right in Two" Mturi. Does tool really put clues in their newsletter like that though? i don't follow that kind of news.

[mturi]

i don't have much to base the "right in two" thing on other than the hypothetical, but blair who writes all the tool newsletters actively buries clues throughout postings. such as pre-emptively posting clues to track titles/release dates/song content/etc. for the new album months before they came out (ex. january's http://www.toolband.com/news/letter/2006_01.php).

[awaking]

last night alex grey said the song is about a friend of the band named Dave. like has been mentioned a few times. he also said the guy was only in his sleeping bag out by area 51 tripping.. and woke up finding out he shit himself. he meant shit himself like literely SHIT, not messing up with the whole pen thing. im not sure if he says dave there in the song tho.

[mturi]

I haven't heard the name Dave in the lyrics, but if you haven't been following the newsletters- on the official Tool site Blair cryptically hinted earlier that the "terrible secret" a new song speaks of is "A or ET tests on D" with D refering to Dave who drives a Van. Months later, in the most recent newletter he shows that this rearanges to "Rosetta Stoned" and at the end of the newsletters story he talks about being able to recognize the hippy Dave by the Phish sticker on his van. I think it's safe to assume the "Tool 10,000 Days" graffiti hidden on the rocks was photoshopped on for a reason, because Blair complains about the graffiti that's at the site w/o acknowledging any Tool related ones, and this was posted before the album came out (unlikely a fan would have gotten to it already).

[jtb]

I would imagine that he put the UFO in the top left of that same picture for a reason.. not just to be cute.

I strongly believe there is some way to decipher this song giving a completely new meaning to it. I mean blair said it talks about "a terrible secret", which of course I suppose he could be talking about dave shitting himself at Area 51 but I doubt it.

In fact I would bet this song has more depth to it than any other song Tool has ever written.

[Hanover_Fist]

is that what he's saying?

think that's a reference to Space Oddity?
makes sense to me.

I agree that's the lyric. However, I wouldn't say the reference is to Bowie's Space Oddity: It's about all of the trippy stuff Dave Bowman sees at the end of the movie 2001 A Space Oddysey as he floats away into the monolith.

[Alcawhorlick]

I agree that's the lyric. However, I wouldn't say the reference is to Bowie's Space Oddity: It's about all of the trippy stuff Dave Bowman sees at the end of the movie 2001 A Space Oddysey as he floats away into the monolith.

hmm
I thought I read somewhere that space oddity was a parody/reference to space oddysey.

[Hanover_Fist]

I agree that Space Oddity has it's similarities and may refer to 2001. Just that Space Oddity's all "Ground control to Major Tom" while 2001 has a Dave actually floating away :)

[moneyisevil]

hmmm this is all very interesting....the more i think about the whole dave situation blair posted and what alex grey said im thinking this song is just ripping on this dude dave for shittin the bed