Counterpoint carryover from Rosetta

[ataraxia77]

Hang with me for a second and see if you catch what I'm saying...(also pardon my few posts- I've been in here for years reading) The melody from Rosetta Stoned during "Overwhelmed as one would be..." directly maps onto the melody of the beginning of Right in Two- easy test: try humming that R.Stoned bit in time with Right in Two. Any thoughts on meaning?
Got cut short-- let me elucidate.
This album contains several allusions to previous songs on other albums (see Paraflux's post about his overall interpretation), particularly this song. People have complained about this song being too straightforward or religious for their perception of what Tool should be producing. Also, I've read a lot about how random and schizophrenic and funny Rosetta Stoned seems. The different ideas implicit in this trio of songs (Rosetta Stoned, Intension, Right in Two) are more explicitly linked together, IMO, with this musical overlay. There are a few ideas I just want to put on the table that occurred after noticing this counterpoint (two melodies together that form a beautiful harmony, for lack of a more accurate musical definition).
First, the blend caused by musically tying the two songs together would imply that the messages of the song should be thought of together, perhaps with Intension as a second bridge. Perhaps together, a more transcendent interpretation each/both songs can be obtained. Maybe Rosetta Stoned isn't as purely trippy as it appears (that seems to be an idea within the song amplified by this link), and maybe Right in Two has a different dimension to ponder as well.
Some have already mentioned how Lipan Conjuring/Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned are linked, and some have mentioned that the 10000 days/Wings combo is capped by Lipan Conj. I think that this musical link between RS & RiT indicates that the chain extends further, and that the whole album's message, as disjointed as originally may have been thought, should be taken as a whole (or perhaps an indication of a whole which is still to be achieved). Let's hear what you think.

[4degrees_under_fire]

You bring up some fairly interesting points, ataraxia. At this moment, I don't have much to say about it, but I'll keep what you've just put out in mind during this next listen. But here's what I do have to say thus far after having the album for a week and a half:

Kind of like you, lately I've been thinking that this is more of an album-wide message, rather than a song-by-song deal. I actually began to gather that sometime over the past couple of days when it suddenly occurred to me that the message in Vicarious is, in a sense, carried on into Right in Two. Reading the lyrics and listening to the songs individually, I noticed how similar they are lyrically. The main difference that I can point out at this moment is that Vicarious seems to be more about accepting what we are, while Right in Two appears to be expressing sorrow for it. Thinking about it now, it is also heard throughout the entirety of WfM and during Intension. From what I can tell, Tool did a similar thing with Lateralus between The Grudge and Schism, but when it spans across quite litterally the entire album, it kinda makes you wonder... Of course, I may be wrong, but hey- I'm just expressing my opinion here. In any case, I'll be keeping an ear out for what you mentioned.

[Alistair_Carson]

Finally, some newcomers that don't reserve their first 20 posts for "TOOL IZ THA SHIT ON ROESSTA SATONED CUZ ITS RLLY BOUT LSDDDDDDDD"

[HallsOfMandos]

The feeling I tend to get from listening to Lost Keys -> Rosetta -> Intension -> Right in Two is that it is actually one theme. The freak out that accompanies the main char from Rosetta losing the message he received blends into Intension where you hear strains of Eon Blue - a calming effect, sounds like coming to terms and beginning to remember. Musically, the transition from Rosetta through to Right in Two sounds (to be) like a remembering where Right in Two is supposed to paint a picture for you of what it was that had been forgotten in Rosetta.

My $0.02

[slamminsalmon]

towards the end of right in two they touch on a little tid bit of rosetta too.

[PriceisRight]

Since they have been using sterioscopic images, maybe it is the same for the album.

Blending the two songs together gives a new way of listening to the same things.

I could see these songs being together.

[4degrees_under_fire]

Since they have been using sterioscopic images, maybe it is the same for the album.

Blending the two songs together gives a new way of listening to the same things.

I could see these songs being together.

I don't think that there is any "seeing" involved. LK, RS, Intension, and RiT do seem to flow together. Working from LK, the final line has Dr. Watson asking the man to "tell me everything." After a couple of moments, the guy then says "Alrighty then, picture this if you will," and proceeds to talk about what happened, something that we can speculate he saw whilst tripping. Intension may very well be what he saw, with RiT being a continuation of that.

Looking at the album as a whole, however, reveals to me that Intension and RiT have messages carried over from Vicarious and Jambi, only told from a slightly different point of view, presumably from the guy in RS.

[Drunkard]

I agree. Rosetta Stoned is about Maynard's frustration with his former pluralistic pagan way of seeing things. It essientally just led to jibberish and nonsense. In Right in Two, he is seeing the world clearly through Christianity. He sees that man is inherently sinful and it is only through God that he can do good.

[PriceisRight]

Could this be maynards conversion?!?

bum Bum BUM!!!

[4degrees_under_fire]

I don't know if this album is showing MJK's conversion to Christianity, but the message in a lot of songs seem to emulate that point, especially WfM, Intolerance and RiT. Looking at the lyrics for RS, parts of the imagery also seem to express this thought. Whether or not it's true, however, is a different matter altogether and one which we can only speculate upon (for those of us who don't personally know him, of course, which is the vast majority of the people here, I will assume).

[ataraxia77]

Here's what I think is going on with these two songs:
Our free will and reason have not lead to the unity we should be seeking. These gifts are commonly thought to be enough to lead us to the next level (e.g. RS- contemplating the meaning of the whole chosen people thing=using reason, logic; RiT-blessed with reason, this is what they choose/all confused), but they're not enough; in RS- the dude didn't gain any new insight from his own thinking- the ET (or drugs, or insert your favorite symbol here) are what gave him the 'message'. RiT shares the result of what happens when we rely solely on those methods (monkey killing monkey, dividing it, being confused), and says that if the repugnant creature would only look to heaven, there would be more given to it (parallel: RS- the sky split wide open- never expected to see it in a place like this= looking to heaven but not realizing it was so close). Continuing this, the dude in the desert obtained a message, but then lost it. Similarly, RiT speaks of our continual tug of war and loss of the message that had been given to us in the beginning (eden reference, they're dividing the one into two and regressing from the progress they had) These parallels are there, and that's only lyrically. I think the musical tie-ins are just as significant, grafting in previous messages.
I'm not going to dictate what the aliens/drugs/angels/heaven/God references all specifically mean. I have my beliefs. I think it's sufficient for my point to set them all equal to signifying some external source of answers beyond our own reasoning or everyday methods. Unless we start looking there to the higher ordered things, or continue searching there, we're missing the point and ending up right back in 'vicarious' with no progression.

[DON IOTAE]

Remember that shit that Blair (that annoying fellow from toolband.com) posted a while back in a newsletter, in reference to a visit he made to the recording studio? He said something like, "they were playing two different songs in different places, but the melodies melded together..." or sumpin. I'm sure that that's the new layer to be discovered in 10k days.

[rightin2]

Thank you for the interesting thread. I think the album comes in overlapping groupings as had been mentioned, its feels like a journey. I think that he's definitley telling us, telling the world to look outside itself. Ataxaria is right in not dictating the specific meaning of the references to God etc, the great thing is you can interpret them yourselves and each song individually - but the general message is there for everyone.