we dont know, we wont know

[wilkez]

hey team, this is my first post here so be nice. i've been reading for a few weeks catching up on stuff, so hopefully i get the right idea here...

"[We] don't know, [and we] won't know"

For some reason, i get the feeling that this line refers to "the details of our ending". when you listen to the song, you just hear "dont know, wont know" but when i read the lyrics i saw the 'we' inserted in there (and thats the official lyrics apparently). At first I thought it was just the thoughts of the character in his own how how he doesnt and wont ever know what they said to him, but with the we it feels like its maynard talking about a bigger picture.

clearly the song has something to do with the improper use of drugs. so here's my interpretation:

the song is a story being told by MJK...he's showing us how people are looking for the answers in all the wrong ways. almost mocking people who do that. and at the end, the "we dont know, we wont know" is supposed to mean "we dont know and we wont know the answers if we look for them like this". the song applies to society, or certain fans, or some bigger group of people... not just the one character in the song.

tools songs are all written from experiences they have had. i've heard a few people mention the idea of this cd being much more mature than other becuase of their age now. Maybe this song is kind of a reflection back on past times when the guys experimented more looking for answers and reason, but didnt find it with drugs. just an idea...

cheers.

ps. the vancouver show is still kicking my ass a month and a half later!

[nmayhew]

I believe that this is dead on.....good opinion

of course we don't know, won't know exactly

[dissected-detcessid]

I like this, but I always thought [we] meant Tool, and they are finally throwing off the facade of acid heads many magazines, and fans put on them.
Also I think this song along with the album is just telling us that they can't be our burning bush. Sorta trying to drop their "holier than thou" attitude that the media and their fans have made them seem.

[jonboy]

You are spot on. I think it is a reference to all the people that think that TOOL or MJK are prophets of some sort. They blatently state: WE don't know and we won't know. I think the first "we" is refering to the band and the second is refering to humanity as a whole.

[Phorty]

I like this, but I always thought [we] meant Tool, and they are finally throwing off the facade of acid heads many magazines, and fans put on them.
Also I think this song along with the album is just telling us that they can't be our burning bush. Sorta trying to drop their "holier than thou" attitude that the media and their fans have made them seem.

Ahhh , someone got it , and wouldn’t you know , so many "fans" are upset because this album isn’t as "esoteric" as Lateralus.
The other guy's right too , their not our burning bush and shouldn't be regarded to as such , think of them as a catalyst .


On an unrelated note , anyone think the "bob help me" has some connection to the metaphysical author bob frissel?
Look into his book "Nothing in the book is true" and you may find some interesting similarities.

[wilkez]

You are spot on. I think it is a reference to all the people that think that TOOL or MJK are prophets of some sort. They blatently state: WE don't know and we won't know. I think the first "we" is refering to the band and the second is refering to humanity as a whole.


i think thats what i was trying to say...you just made it easier to understand haha.

[jonboy]

On an unrelated note , anyone think the "bob help me" has some connection to the metaphysical author bob frissel?
Look into his book "Nothing in the book is true" and you may find some interesting similarities.

I thought it had something to do with Maynard saying something about god's name being misspelled and that it was actually bob. Search around. There are threads about it

Edit

http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=58232

"From 'nards MySpace blog:

"P.S. By the way. My name isn't actually GOD. It's BOB. There was a bit of a SNAFU a few thousand years and several prophets back. The angel that was delivering the "WORD" back then had an eating disorder and drooled all over the sticky note. I've been trying, with no success, to fix that ever since. These talkin monkeys are a tough crowd. Thick skulls. After a while I just gave up."
__________________

[lagimatt]

Y'all may be right, but just a thought... Not everything means something. He could just be reiterrating how bummed he is that he forgot his pen and didn't write the message down that the alien gave to him while spooning. Maybe don't know, won't know refers to the whole song being a white blotter trip and totally in his head with no real answer at all.

[lagimatt]

Could be, but I think that if he was "stealing" the lyrics, and they were wrong, his job would go to someone else pretty quickly. Quite a few people monitor the site.

^^^ Devil's Advocate in me.

[tDoXoMl]

I always thought it was more like "if we don't know already, then we're never going to get it." You know kind of fits with the whole "shouldn't have to say it all again" motif.

I personally think he's making fun of his fans for making really stupid, elaborate, but ultimately SURFACE interpretations of the music. The song is called Rosetta Stoned and it frequently alludes to past Tool songs.

Not that anybody is going to listen to me.

Also, if you haven't figured out that Blair just steals the "official" lyrics from fan websites with little to no regard for their accuracy, well...

I'm just not sure some of you really grasp how these people operate.

how is he so sure of himself?

[iAMtheMA!]

i agree with leefnaspleaf. tool does this for us, and yet we continue down our paths ...into self-destruction. all of these lyrics can say this:

"don't know, won't know"
if we don't know what tool has for us by now, we won't know.

"shouldn't have to say it all again"
tool has warned us before, but since we fucked it up...

"veil of virtue hung to hide your method
while i smile and laugh and dance and
sing your praise and glory.
...while you lie, cheat, and steal."
tool does all of this to show us a better way, yet we lie/cheat/steal.

"you crawled away from me, slipped away from me.
i tried to keep a hold, but there was nothing i could say."
...nothing he could SAY. so, it's not in the lyrics alone(?).

"my warning meant nothing.
you're dancing in quicksand."
obvious. shouldn't have to warn us all again.

"you do what you'd like to do.
lay back and let me show you another way."
an offer of hope for those of us on our human timeline.

"you'll like this, this brings us out.
you'll like this. it brings us closer
than dying and cancer and crying.
...why don't you take it all?"
a strong suggestion that all is better the tool way.

[end rant]

[Airport Mesa]

On an unrelated note , anyone think the "bob help me" has some connection to the metaphysical author bob frissel?
Look into his book "Nothing in the book is true" and you may find some interesting similarities.

I'm reading this now and that's exactly what I thought even after reading just the intro.

[ShadowLine]

i think the we dont know, we wont know refers to the message that the alien has give them, and he has forgotten. we know it is forgotten after the line 'to write it down for all the world to see, but i forgot my pen, shit the bed again, typical.'

chris
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