Tug of War (cut the rope in two)

[Godin]

Angels on the sidelines again, benched along with patience and reason. Angels on the side-lines again, WONDERING WHEN THIS TUG-OF-WAR WILL END. Cut it right all, right in two.

I don't think we're meant to understand what is meant by cutting something "right in two" until the very end of the song. At the very end, we're provided with a scenario where there's a "tug-of-war" that the angels are on the side-lines watching. Then we here "cut it right all, right in two".

Cut THE ROPE in two, in order to end the struggling, to take away that which we are using to struggle against each other with. If I am right, then we are left to decide for ourselves what "the rope" stands for. What, if taken away, would take with it our ability to struggle with one another?

hmm...

-Godin

[molehill]

Make sure your not still pulling though, or you all end up flat on your asses.

Nice thought though.

[Carbonatedgravy]

Hey, that's a good interpretation. Up until now the store-bought "tug-of-war" metaphor was easily my least favorite part about the song lyrically.

[spacemonkeyadb]

I don't think we're meant to understand what is meant by cutting something "right in two" until the very end of the song. At the very end, we're provided with a scenario where there's a "tug-of-war" that the angels are on the side-lines watching. Then we here "cut it right all, right in two".

Cut THE ROPE in two, in order to end the struggling, to take away that which we are using to struggle against each other with. If I am right, then we are left to decide for ourselves what "the rope" stands for. What, if taken away, would take with it our ability to struggle with one another?

Yeah, this was my very first thought on listening to the song. I just pictured God comin' on down, cutting the rope, and having everyone falling flat on their asses!

I never heard the chorus line as "cut it right all, right in two" though. Maybe something like "Cut...the rope, right in two".

What does the rope stand for? Well, I would have thought that was bloody obvious. Just follow through with the metaphor. What is the "rope" in a "tug-of-war"? It's what everybody is fighting over. So the "rope" = whatever us silly monkeys are fighting over in real life.
"Monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground" ... Picture God destroying the land we are fighting over by tsunami/flood/earthquake, etc.
If you want to stop people from struggling, you take away whatever they are fighting over.

In any case as I said, this was only my first take on the chorus line, and I have since disabused myself of this entire notion. Why? Because the earlier lyrics (such as "where there's one they're bound to divide it right in two") present the idea of division as a very negative thing, so I really don't think that the chorus line is likely to present us with further division (of the "rope") as a solution.
It would just be too confusing for the earlier parts of the song where the tug-of-war metaphor has yet to be introduced.

[Godin]

Yeah, this was my very first thought...and I have since disabused myself of this entire notion...Because the earlier lyrics (such as "where there's one they're bound to divide it right in two") present the idea of division as a very negative thing, so I really don't think that the chorus line is likely to present us with further division (of the "rope") as a solution.

Right. This occured to me as well. I also agree with you with how you suggested (but I didn't quote from you here) that the "cut it all right in two" is an appeal addressed to a higher power, like God. And, considering this, I thought the negative portrayal of cutting things in two in the beginning of the song, followed by how the chorus then advises some higher power to do just that, cut it all right in two, makes me think that MJK is saying: Do to them as they have done unto themselves. You know what I mean? Which brings me on to another point... if we don't stop farming animals for the purpose of eating them, what will stop the aliens (oh yeah, they're up there) from farming the civilization of the human race to provide for their own food? :-) I'm just playing around... but it illustrates my point about why possibly the notion of cutting things in two could first be shunned in the lyrics but then given as positive advise as to what should be done to us all. My first thoughts were that "cut it all right in two" was a call for the apocalypse... like, separate the good from the bad. Tool has always given me the impression that they are an "end of times" band... I think they resent the world and want it to end, or start over at least. :-)


It would just be too confusing for the earlier parts of the song where the tug-of-war metaphor has yet to be introduced.

Naa. It is a common dramatical trend to require the audience to reach the ending of a work, and use the information given to you at the ending to revert back to the beginning in order to understand everything in its appropriate context.

I'm not saying that therefore this understanding of the song is undoubtedly correct. I'm just saying that the "just be too confusing" thing I don't believe to be true... judging from how often artists are now requiring us viewers to see the ending of a movie and reflect back on the beginnings to reconsider, etc.

[swampyfool]

I still can't buy into "Cut it right all, right in two . . ." What does "Cut it right all . . ." even mean? I know this isn't the lyric-deciphering section, but it's hard for me to even consider your suggested meaning when it is based on some sort of nonsensical, jumbling of words.

[Godin]

I still can't buy into "Cut it right all, right in two . . ." What does "Cut it right all . . ." even mean? I know this isn't the lyric-deciphering section, but it's hard for me to even consider your suggested meaning when it is based on some sort of nonsensical, jumbling of words.

If the lyrics ARE "Cut it right all right in two" then I'd think it must mean "cut it steadfastly in two". If the lyric is as I've said it is, then it'd have to be a sort of slang. Let's take it apart...


Cut it right in two: I'm sure we all will agree this is grammatical.

Cut it all right in two: Diddo here. Grammatical sentence.

Cut it right all in two: A reversal of the above sentence. This is a little bit grammatically riske', but it still makes sense. People do sometimes speak like this... typically in cowboy country (which is where Maynard lives).

Cut it right all right in two: This is the same as the above gramatically riske' sentence, but now there's a "right" redundancy. "Right" is before and after "all"... the sentence would make sense if only one "right" where there, but MJK might be slangin' it by putting two of them in, just to compensate for rhythmic necessity.

I've listened as hard as I can, and this is all I can hear. It sounds to me like a westerner speaking with resolve, "Cut it right all right in two". Or maybe a southerner... Westerner or southerner... just someone who speaks with such a characteristic dialect. Maybe that explains a little bit MJK's cowboy hat and boots on stage this year.

[spacemonkeyadb]

My first thoughts were that "cut it all right in two" was a call for the apocalypse... Tool has always given me the impression that they are an "end of times" band... I think they resent the world and want it to end, or start over at least. :-)
Hmmm... I don't think Tool are really as cynical as some of their lyrics would suggest, so I don't agree with the last bit of your quote above. I think they tend to use such extreme apocalyptic ideas to convey the intensity of their emotions.


Naa. It is a common dramatical trend to require the audience to reach the ending of a work, and use the information given to you at the ending to revert back to the beginning in order to understand everything in its appropriate context.

Yeah, though here it wouldn't just change one's initial understanding, it would completely reverse it.


I'm not saying that therefore this understanding of the song is undoubtedly correct. I'm just saying that the "just be too confusing" thing I don't believe to be true
I didn't mean "too confusing" to be possible, just "too confusing" for me to personally take this to be the intended meaning.

I'd also like to say that the chorus line is one point where having Official Lyrics could conceivably make a big difference to our understanding of the song.

[lizbiz]

Good interpretation. At first I got "Cut it right, all right in two" as in 'finish it' as in Aenema, flood it all away, clean up this mess.

But now you make an interesting point. Cut it RIGHT (as in do it correctly), all right in two. End the fighting, end the tug-of-war, the angels (Judith Marie) want us to come to a peacful resolution. A MUCH more optomistic view of the song.

Shit, I don't think I'll see it the same way again. Nice.

[Godin]

At first I got "Cut it right, all right in two" as in 'finish it'...flood it all away, clean up this mess.

Me too. I've always thought that MJK plays with apocalyptic themes in his music... and that's what my first thought was with this song...

But now you make an interesting point. Cut it RIGHT (as in do it correctly), all right in two. End the fighting, end the tug-of-war, the angels (Judith Marie) want us to come to a peacful resolution. A MUCH more optomistic view of the song.

(continuing from above) ...after I considered it further, I still think it plays on the "calling on the apocalypse" type of theme. It just does so in an original way. As you said, the resolution would be peaceful if my understanding of the lyrics and their meaning was correct.

[10,000 boobies]

Maynard is a great mind.

[thirdeyecreationist]

This came to me recently....bare with me here~~~all planes/dimension are enabled initally in my expeirience by their centers (usually expancing fom there in 2, opposite directions, like Newtons laws). IE, 1st dimention (a line, or numbers) was made when 0 became something it wasnt by creating positive (and by its origninal nature) and negative---1 creates -1, ect. to infinity and negative infinity, resuting in a line. Progressively on up, all dimension, levels of reality, take your pic, have the same pattern. The big bang, in theory, contained and went out (exist actually means 'to stand apart from') from the original center, creating equal amounts of 'matter' and 'antimatter'. In all cases, what holds numbers, lines, dimensions, everything, is an elusive center, that which encompasses the whole, enables the whole, while being something higher (the whole it enables being an expression of one aspect of it).

That's a lot of stuff to get back to your topic, the rope. I never thought of it that way, "what, if taken away, would take with it our ability to struggle with one another." If we truly knew that, we would transcend, I get. It's like asking 'what's keeping us here?' which is what Tools music is increasingly becoming about, each song pointing to different parts of the answer to that question. One of the greatest ways I've found to higher consciousness is letting go, or 'taking away', removing what I am not. That might not be the spiffy answer you were looking for, but perhaps some things to comtemplate.

Nice observation, though, it does shift the meaning of the song. Gracias.


Cut THE ROPE in two, in order to end the struggling, to take away that which we are using to struggle against each other with. If I am right, then we are left to decide for ourselves what "the rope" stands for. What, if taken away, would take with it our ability to struggle with one another?

hmm...

-Godin[/QUOTE]

[Godin]

... It's like asking 'what's keeping us here?' ...what Tools music is increasingly becoming about, each song pointing to different parts of the answer to that question. One of the greatest ways I've found to higher consciousness is letting go, or 'taking away', removing what I am not.


Well, I appreciate the response. You're right, cutting the rope would be another way of "letting go" of our struggles.


I'm tempted to give my own interpretation for what the rope would be... but it would just be arbitrary. Regardless of what precisely it would be, the main point is that the notion of no longer tugging on the rope but instead just cutting it in half seems like a comically obvious solution when considered in light of the rope metaphor.

In light of this metaphor, it is illustrated that we are using something akin to an actual object to struggle against each other with (on the level of civilizations, and perhaps individual) and if we truly wished to end it there IS an obvious solution, however unsuitable to our cultural or individual pride that solution might be. (by pride, I mean for example if in the mideast the jews and arabs were to just literally cut their land in two and swallow their prideful need to have all of it each for themselves then there would be no struggling, but at the loss of their pride)

[Terry21]

The rope thing is yet another example for me that the song is about sharing.

[Godin]

The rope thing is yet another example for me that the song is about sharing.


Have you said that somewhere else? If so, or in any case, yes, well and simply put. Would you agree then that in the first parts of the song, dividing something "right in two" is portrayed negatively, and then in the main part it is portrayed as the actual solution to our problems?

I ask because me and Spacemonkeyadb were talking about this earlier, and I believe he had a hard time accepting that this ironic twist in the song was the case.

[InsolentBystander]

I think the rope is the one thing all people have in common. Perhaps that is life itself. We’re all holding on so tightly, pulling until it breaks.

[ArizonaBay]

Hmmm... I don't think Tool are really as cynical as some of their lyrics would suggest, so I don't agree with the last bit of your quote above. I think they tend to use such extreme apocalyptic ideas to convey the intensity of their emotions.

As with almost all tool stuff (even jung as i recently discovered) can be related back to ol' William Hicks , in the case of apocalypse...

"Rain forty days, please fucking rain to wash these turds off my fucking life! Wash these human wastes of flesh and bone off this planet! I pray to you, God, to kill these fucking people!"

[Terry21]

Have you said that somewhere else? If so, or in any case, yes, well and simply put. Would you agree then that in the first parts of the song, dividing something "right in two" is portrayed negatively, and then in the main part it is portrayed as the actual solution to our problems?

I ask because me and Spacemonkeyadb were talking about this earlier, and I believe he had a hard time accepting that this ironic twist in the song was the case.

Haha, yes, I said it somewhere else. But let's forget about that.

I thought it was positive in every part of the song, to divide something in two; to share with the brother. But tell me more about the "twist".

[Godin]

I thought it was positive in every part of the song, to divide something in two; to share with the brother. But tell me more about the "twist".


Well, you know what.. I always figured that "bound to divide it" had a sort of negative quality to it, as if similar to the inflection when someone says "Those idiots are bound to do the wrong thing".

The word "bound" to me reflexively brings up negative suggestions, as in its most common type of usage in the example I provided above. I'm not entirely opposed to your understanding of the song though.. "when there's one we're bound to divide it right in two" could just mean something like "we are bound to divide it in two in the sense that there is no other possible resolution to the issue other than to each take half of what we're fighting over, etc".

Yes, the song might simply be saying that we need to, or are BOUND to, share.