Problem with song deconstruction

[win]

I just wanted to note that every thread on the meaning of this song that I have read for the last few weeks goes like this: "This song is about hypocracy [insert several pointed lines from the song here]. In America one of the biggest/most obvious hypocracies is [insert political cleavage (war in iraq, war on drugs, privacy violations) here]. Thats what I think."

I'm sorry, but that doesn't help at all. Everyone's logic is interchangable and thus not comparable. This is the one song I am really lost to what it is about (granted hypocracy but it seems to be acout a specific person/event/action). Any different ideas out there?

[bogsnarth]

like most of maynard's most inscrutable lines, it's probably about something very specific from his life..

i mean, take for example the commentary on 3 libras from the APC dvd.. i had my own interpretation of that song, which i took to basically be an unrequited love song.. but he said it was about some people who didn't really appreciate him as a friend and were just glomming onto him because he was a rock star, who all happened to be libras.. but their were 7 of them, and he called the song 3 libras so they could all try to figure out which ones of them it was about.

then again, maybe he completely made that up.

[win]

like most of maynard's most inscrutable lines, it's probably about something very specific from his life..

i mean, take for example the commentary on 3 libras from the APC dvd.. i had my own interpretation of that song, which i took to basically be an unrequited love song.. but he said it was about some people who didn't really appreciate him as a friend and were just glomming onto him because he was a rock star, who all happened to be libras.. but their were 7 of them, and he called the song 3 libras so they could all try to figure out which ones of them it was about.

then again, maybe he completely made that up.

point taken

[Bukkhead]

Are you talking about deconstruction, explication, or explanation? Those who say it's about some particular hypocritical politician are attempting to explain the song. Those who are using lines from the song to build a profile for a kind of theme are explicating it. (I, for example, have tried to explicate it to show a theme of religious hypocricy). And those who are using various (unintended) connotations of the song to show how it could be about something totally divergent form the author's intent are deconstructing it.

I think an attempt at deconstruction would yield some amazing results. Tool's lyrics are often so rich and multi-textured, while at the same time vague enough without being merely ambiguous. Go to work!

-JE

[third_eye77]

I posted a similar thread. I believe the song is aimed at a particular person who MJK knows personally.