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View Full Version : Real meanings would be awesome


this.anna
05-05-2006, 10:05 PM
Wouldn't it be fun if Tool actually released a book or website or something to that effect that revealed the real thoughts circulating in Maynard's head when he wrote these songs? That would be insanely satisfying.

oogabooga
05-05-2006, 11:08 PM
But then what?

The next logical step would be for all of us to die.

Crowl
05-06-2006, 01:09 AM
that'd take all the fun out of it

apathetic goat
05-06-2006, 04:01 AM
Exactly, Crowl. Part of what keeps me so interested in Tool is that I'm always reinterpretting or figuring out lyrics as I go along.

selectforsocietalsanity
05-06-2006, 04:05 AM
He kinda wants us to interpret the songs for ourselves.

gandhus
05-06-2006, 04:51 AM
I think all art is meant to be interpreted by the viewer/listener. Judging by these boards, if Maynard gave us all the real meanings there would be an awful lot of disappointed people out there.

this.anna
05-06-2006, 10:18 AM
Eh. I wouldn't be disappointed. On the contrary, I'd be ecstatic. Maybe I'm just one of those people who doesn't like to waste their time making things up. Interpretations are fun but it all feels very agnostic-like to me. I mean, no one will ever know for sure so until then, everyone's wrong. I know that 99% of you will probably reply with the idealistic response of "it's the personal interpretation that gives it meaning," but it really does have just one meaning (or meanings), and that belongs to the person that wrote the song. Individual meanings are nothing but your attempts to grasp at a relation between the song and your thoughts, and personally, that's meaningless to me.

this.anna
05-06-2006, 10:59 AM
P.S. How do I subscribe to threads?
(I used to be a member when I was in high school but I forgot my username along with everything else about this site - ha!)
Thanks!

Alcawhorlick
05-06-2006, 11:54 AM
that would be swell.
then I could write songs about what I thought they were about.
and make millions.

this.anna
05-06-2006, 01:32 PM
Hell yes.

Wave.Existance.Tears
05-06-2006, 01:37 PM
Eh. I wouldn't be disappointed. On the contrary, I'd be ecstatic. Maybe I'm just one of those people who doesn't like to waste their time making things up. Interpretations are fun but it all feels very agnostic-like to me. I mean, no one will ever know for sure so until then, everyone's wrong. I know that 99% of you will probably reply with the idealistic response of "it's the personal interpretation that gives it meaning," but it really does have just one meaning (or meanings), and that belongs to the person that wrote the song. Individual meanings are nothing but your attempts to grasp at a relation between the song and your thoughts, and personally, that's meaningless to me.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

First off, welcome back to the site.

Secondly, if you remember about how TDNers generally are, I would to see how you fit in...most of us are pretentious assholes, and the ones that aren't hang out in our TDN slums, a la the Bin.

Wave.Existance.Tears
05-06-2006, 01:49 PM
Well, I did that back in the day, and probably will now.

Before, I was generally hated in both camps, but most likely because Im an asshole...?

WitlessLiar
05-06-2006, 04:53 PM
Wouldn't it be fun if Tool actually released a book or website or something to that effect that revealed the real thoughts circulating in Maynard's head when he wrote these songs? That would be insanely satisfying.

Apparently you haven't read the little quote that you click before entering this.

He said he doesn't want to spoonfeed us. I was upset at this back in 2003 when I started to like them, but then I thought about it.

Poetically speaking, there is no right or wrong answer. Ambiguity allows us to use the lyrics in whatever context we want to inspire us the most. Just because it isn't what he had in mind doesn't make it incorrect or worse than the original meaning. Some of these songs have been overanalyzed and I think some of the meanings are much better than what was probably intended.

This would be insanely disappointed and would make the value of the lyrics plummet in my opinion. The mysteriousness of the lyrics make them that much more powerful.

Crowl
05-07-2006, 12:06 PM
Apparently you haven't read the little quote that you click before entering this.

He said he doesn't want to spoonfeed us. I was upset at this back in 2003 when I started to like them, but then I thought about it.

Poetically speaking, there is no right or wrong answer. Ambiguity allows us to use the lyrics in whatever context we want to inspire us the most. Just because it isn't what he had in mind doesn't make it incorrect or worse than the original meaning. Some of these songs have been overanalyzed and I think some of the meanings are much better than what was probably intended.

This would be insanely disappointed and would make the value of the lyrics plummet in my opinion. The mysteriousness of the lyrics make them that much more powerful.

word

this.anna
03-12-2007, 01:42 PM
I know, I know.
And even if Maynard himself sat down and told me precisely what each song was about, I probably wouldn't understand it anyway.

Esurient4Truth
03-12-2007, 01:45 PM
10 bucks says Maynard probably comes to this site and laughs at us for being such fricken' idiots when it comes to song meanings. Another 10 bucks says that we have never truly solved any of his puzzles. And to complete a 30 dollar circuit, 10 dollars says that perhaps an up and coming Tool DVD, perhaps some behind the scenes may answer some questions about songs (like A Perfect Circle did with aMOTION, a bonus segment was included where Maynard talked about the song meanings among other things).

Pardon me if I come up angry. To smooth the shock, here's a smile :-)

Cheesegreater
03-13-2007, 07:30 AM
I agree with you on all those bets. I think he doesn't have to spoonfeed us, I just wish he'd kind point people in the right direction sometimes. He knows his songs are cryptic, and Lateralus has tickled my curious fancy for a long time, I just wish he could reaffirm some theories or let people in on a little of his genius. Doing your own research on art is fun, but sometimes you just want to hear the artists talk about it.

I mean painters do that all the time. "I used bright colors to bring out.." "Notice my use of diagonal lines drawing close to the focal point..." ect. ect. I would love to hear that kind of stuff not only from Maynard but from every single member. They all do great work and I'd like to what inspired Justin's killer bass-lines in his songs and why Danny chose certain rhythyms and changes for particular parts of the song. I would love for them come up with stuff like that... You can find lil tid-bits here and there, but they like to tease us. They never go too in depth in their interviews. Don't know why. Maybe they just always feel like whoever interviews them won't understand their concepts or wouldn't let them explain things like they want to. I don't know, but I would love to have the artists talk more about their work.

jevons
03-13-2007, 07:35 AM
Why would he laugh? Compare the tangents here to the Britney Shears (see how clever i can be?) point-on-a-very-big-grid. The point is named "Lonely, numb."

At least we're trying, that is one thing you can always count on from children, that they try.

Inner_Eulogy
03-13-2007, 09:38 AM
Eh. but it really does have just one meaning (or meanings), and that belongs to the person that wrote the song.

This I totally agree with and I too, would be extremely curious to know exactly what Maynard meant each of the songs to mean and what they were written about. Each song would still individually mean what it does to me in my own way but I'd still be curious as hell to know what it meant to him from his perspective as well.

I think it'd be the doom of this website though, no more debates over what this or that might mean.

Cheesegreater
03-13-2007, 10:38 PM
This I totally agree with and I too, would be extremely curious to know exactly what Maynard meant each of the songs to mean and what they were written about. Each song would still individually mean what it does to me in my own way but I'd still be curious as hell to know what it meant to him from his perspective as well.

I think it'd be the doom of this website though, no more debates over what this or that might mean.

To this I say "I praying for rain and I prayin' for tidal waves. I wanna see tdn give way. Watch him flush all the bickering away."

O.G.T.92
03-14-2007, 12:23 AM
Eh. I wouldn't be disappointed. On the contrary, I'd be ecstatic. Maybe I'm just one of those people who doesn't like to waste their time making things up. Interpretations are fun but it all feels very agnostic-like to me. I mean, no one will ever know for sure so until then, everyone's wrong. I know that 99% of you will probably reply with the idealistic response of "it's the personal interpretation that gives it meaning," but it really does have just one meaning (or meanings), and that belongs to the person that wrote the song. Individual meanings are nothing but your attempts to grasp at a relation between the song and your thoughts, and personally, that's meaningless to me.

Couldn't disagree with you more. If the band decided to explain what the songs mean to them, it would rob us of what they mean to us. It's terrific that a song is great to you for different reasons than why it is great to me. This makes TOOL unique from all the other one-dimensional bands out there right now that dont make people think, and their songs are forgotten in a year.

HelenA
03-14-2007, 12:24 AM
Oops - posted too late: replying to Cheesegreater's post (how do you guys come up with these names?):

Nah - its all good - be careful what you wish for! I agree with Truth - I bet he does come here and laugh at us - but he would give us a grudging respect for trying SO hard (after all we are very trying). It would be a compliment - and lots of discussion here is very thoughtful.

It would be SO interesting to find out what they were thinking - but it would be a bit sad too.

O.G.T.92
03-14-2007, 12:42 AM
Does anyone go back to the undertow threads and post "what's he saying" posts?
I like my words better than the ones maynard uses and i'll use 'em if I want to.
This way the music really does belong to the fans.
Reveals ruin everything.

(But I am guilty of reading official lyrics)

HelenA
03-14-2007, 02:03 AM
I love that spirograph website - I used to have the real thing when I was little and it is so cool!

Inner_Eulogy
03-14-2007, 09:51 AM
Couldn't disagree with you more. If the band decided to explain what the songs mean to them, it would rob us of what they mean to us. It's terrific that a song is great to you for different reasons than why it is great to me. This makes TOOL unique from all the other one-dimensional bands out there right now that dont make people think, and their songs are forgotten in a year.

Well for someone's mind that apprently couldn't handle the extreme pressure of 2 ideals to one thing. My god the havoc!! I agree that not knowing does add to the mystery and intrigue, however, if you can't handle knowing the true meanings as well as what it still means to you then I suppose you start exercising your brain cells or lack thereof.

this.anna
03-14-2007, 12:05 PM
Well for someone's mind that apprently couldn't handle the extreme pressure of 2 ideals to one thing. My god the havoc!! I agree that not knowing does add to the mystery and intrigue, however, if you can't handle knowing the true meanings as well as what it still means to you then I suppose you start exercising your brain cells or lack thereof.

But I think that might be asking too much, actually. I think it's kind of a normal human thing to be able to relate less to something when you know its steadfast meaning and can't bend it to fit around your own situation.

Inner_Eulogy
03-14-2007, 01:10 PM
But I think that might be asking too much, actually. I think it's kind of a normal human thing to be able to relate less to something when you know its steadfast meaning and can't bend it to fit around your own situation.

Well, whatever....I'd still be content in knowing the actual meanings and it wouldn't diminish my appreciate one bit.

O.G.T.92
03-14-2007, 09:17 PM
Well for someone's mind that apprently couldn't handle the extreme pressure of 2 ideals to one thing. My god the havoc!! I agree that not knowing does add to the mystery and intrigue, however, if you can't handle knowing the true meanings as well as what it still means to you then I suppose you start exercising your brain cells or lack thereof.


I agree it would be interesting to know what was going through maynard's head when writing, I just think it's unnecessary. And on every thread someone would start with "ok, this is what the song means to me".... and some guy would always reply with "that's not what it's about, maynard said....". Most of the songs share multiple meanings for me, and I address them depending on how i'm feeling at the time. I don't see how preferring not to know means my brain needs excercise.
I would think the opposite to be more accurate.

Inner_Eulogy
03-15-2007, 09:19 AM
And on every thread someone would start with "ok, this is what the song means to me".... and some guy would always reply with "that's not what it's about, maynard said....".

LOL, I already do that