troutp
05-07-2006, 06:08 PM
A Lyrical Analysis of Maynard's Experience with His Mother / God
Eulogy (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/aenimalyrics.php#02)
This songs suggests that Maynard is mocking Christ, telling him to "get off his fucking cross," since "not all martyrs see divinity." It proposes the idea that MJK denies the sacrifice of Christ as a payment for the sins of man, and more for his own sin of teaching lies.
Jimmy (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/aenimalyrics.php#09)
What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?
Eleven and she was gone.
Eleven is when we waved good-bye.
Eleven is standing still,
Waiting for me to free him
By coming home.
Moving me with a sound.
Opening me within a gesture.
Drawing me down and in,
Showing me where it all began,
Eleven.
Maynard is remembering his mother,his experiences with her and when she had her stroke. The mother, for most children, is God; the mother is their protector, their stability.
Judith
Maynard is angry at his mother's continued devotion to "her God, her Christ," because he let her have a stroke even though she believed, trusted, and devoted her life to him.
The Grudge (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/lateraluslyrics.php#01)
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.
"Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end." I believe this means that Maynard is telling himself to not lose hold of his former beliefs, otherwise everything he has convinced himself about God not existing would fall apart, making him start anew. He wants to be right about the lack of existance of a God, but he is also terrified of the possibility of him being wrong.
Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.
MJK wears his grudge against God on him every day of his life, as if it was his life. He is "desperate to control" everything that happens, because he wants to believe that he is the only one in control of his life. He is "unable to forgive" God for what he did to his mother, so he continues to be stubborn and devoted to his beliefs at that time.
Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone
To consume you till you choose to let this go.
Give away the stone.
Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone.
Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.
Let go.
In this verse, I believe that MJK is finally beginning to let his anger and hatred towards God be dissolved, and to start letting it go.
Coincidentally, the orbit of Saturn is roughly 10,000 days(1). Now on to TOOL's most recent album.
In Wings (1/2), Maynard is past being angry at God, and is letting his mother go without giving her trouble for believing something he thinks is a lie. He is surrounded by people (ignorant fibbers) that claim to be of faith, who fake trials and tribulations to seem more faithful, and is angered because they are nothing compared to his mother. He wants his mother, should she see God after her death, to finally recieve what he thinks she should be given for being such a devout Christian; her wings.
He lets his anger towards God and his grieving for his mother come to a rest with 10,000 days.
(1) 10,000 Days applies to many things. First, and foremost, it applies to the twenty-seven years that Judith Marie Keenan (MJK's mother, and actually MJK is James Maynard Keenan, so they have the same initials.) endured while being paralyzed and broken from her stroke whe Maynard was eleven. Second, it applies, roughly, to the length of Saturn's orbit around the sun. I think that when MJK was eleven, he first started hating God for what he did to his mother, and when he mentions Saturn in The Grudge (written 27 years after his mother's stroke?), he is letting his anger towards God come to a rest.
Any thoughts, speculations, or corrections?
Eulogy (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/aenimalyrics.php#02)
This songs suggests that Maynard is mocking Christ, telling him to "get off his fucking cross," since "not all martyrs see divinity." It proposes the idea that MJK denies the sacrifice of Christ as a payment for the sins of man, and more for his own sin of teaching lies.
Jimmy (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/aenimalyrics.php#09)
What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?
Eleven and she was gone.
Eleven is when we waved good-bye.
Eleven is standing still,
Waiting for me to free him
By coming home.
Moving me with a sound.
Opening me within a gesture.
Drawing me down and in,
Showing me where it all began,
Eleven.
Maynard is remembering his mother,his experiences with her and when she had her stroke. The mother, for most children, is God; the mother is their protector, their stability.
Judith
Maynard is angry at his mother's continued devotion to "her God, her Christ," because he let her have a stroke even though she believed, trusted, and devoted her life to him.
The Grudge (http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/lateraluslyrics.php#01)
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.
"Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Justify denials and grip 'em to the lonesome end." I believe this means that Maynard is telling himself to not lose hold of his former beliefs, otherwise everything he has convinced himself about God not existing would fall apart, making him start anew. He wants to be right about the lack of existance of a God, but he is also terrified of the possibility of him being wrong.
Wear the grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.
MJK wears his grudge against God on him every day of his life, as if it was his life. He is "desperate to control" everything that happens, because he wants to believe that he is the only one in control of his life. He is "unable to forgive" God for what he did to his mother, so he continues to be stubborn and devoted to his beliefs at that time.
Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone
To consume you till you choose to let this go.
Give away the stone.
Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone.
Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.
Let go.
In this verse, I believe that MJK is finally beginning to let his anger and hatred towards God be dissolved, and to start letting it go.
Coincidentally, the orbit of Saturn is roughly 10,000 days(1). Now on to TOOL's most recent album.
In Wings (1/2), Maynard is past being angry at God, and is letting his mother go without giving her trouble for believing something he thinks is a lie. He is surrounded by people (ignorant fibbers) that claim to be of faith, who fake trials and tribulations to seem more faithful, and is angered because they are nothing compared to his mother. He wants his mother, should she see God after her death, to finally recieve what he thinks she should be given for being such a devout Christian; her wings.
He lets his anger towards God and his grieving for his mother come to a rest with 10,000 days.
(1) 10,000 Days applies to many things. First, and foremost, it applies to the twenty-seven years that Judith Marie Keenan (MJK's mother, and actually MJK is James Maynard Keenan, so they have the same initials.) endured while being paralyzed and broken from her stroke whe Maynard was eleven. Second, it applies, roughly, to the length of Saturn's orbit around the sun. I think that when MJK was eleven, he first started hating God for what he did to his mother, and when he mentions Saturn in The Grudge (written 27 years after his mother's stroke?), he is letting his anger towards God come to a rest.
Any thoughts, speculations, or corrections?