iAMtheMA!
12-15-2006, 05:50 AM
(please be unwilling to quote the following in it's entirety as it is the thread's main statement - and a lengthy one at that)
from a flood discussion:
What does this song mean? Is it about constantly coming to grips with new realities? Or being drowned in the crap that is the world? Or just growing up? Some reference to baptism?
and this:
"i was wrong this changes everything
the water is rising up on me
thought the sun would come deliver me
but the truth has come to punish me instead"
What does THAT mean? (Has this all been covered before in times past. Lol)
good question, and i am gonna try to answer it ...but since this requires a full album interpretation, i decided that it warranted an entirely new thread.
first off, consider the possibility that "sun" could be "son". (wink!)
this is how i've been able to piece this album together thus far.
i think that since we reflect and are yet still controlled by the belief structures we've fallen to (which certainly does not limited us to whatever religions), we just keep on weakening our abilities and natural desires to understand the grand scheme, to comprehend what's beyond the restrictions of the same belief structures. and after the misinterpreted lessons of "do unto others...", we've been left to resemble a somewhat precious being, a more somber image of death ("dead as dead can be" if you will), not unlike the image of christ upon the cross. i mean, if we don't all stand for love, then what are we doing here? and then "jesus won't you fuckin' whistle something 'bout what's past and done" as if to say "what the fuck?! they're all missing the point, man - they celebrate your death in a horrible light, and then completely ignore the many teachings of your life. maybe if you could only come around again - to fix this for us all (again)." alas...
so maynard speaks up against it, he wants the world to be as one. of course we recall that the guy cannot tolerate when we "lie, cheat, and steal"; in addition to this, he feels that through the increasing and now constant reliance of time and money we are destroying that very special bridge of pure understanding. he then explains his case in prison sex (how we all appear through HIS EYES <- *important!*), and then wonders "why?", and loud enough for all of us, in sober. maynard begs us, "say you won't go". "just listen to us (see: "opiate" lyrics), take it in for what it really is - and we'll be able to overcome what's about to occur on this "cold and fated anchor" (i realize i'm crossing albums, it's the same band with the same motives/messages). i mean, "if shit adds up in the bottom" and "no one even invited us in", then... couldn't it be just as easy to accept how stupid yet belligerent ("passive aggressive"?) we've become ...and then move on? undertow (the track) suggests that we shut our mouth, submit to our current and growing atrocities, decide to fix it (this reality), and lie beneath the undertow (pressumably through meditations, and drug use*). then he tells us in the very next track (once we're "there") to "get up now and free yourselves from yourselves". basically, discover what's in all of us, 'cause it is in this appreciation that our collective essence, our oneness, is so apparent. tool indeed feels that this is paramount, or imperative, especially since the flood is coming sooner than later. the last track is basically a summary of the entire album. "this ground is not the rock i thought it would be", we must "climb to a new place now" (another reference to the meditation, me thinks). to observe examples of our convictions from more than one angle, the bonus tracks merely extracts the ideas of flood (and therefor the entire album), and put it all into a new light, or new perspectives. (and i'm sure we've noticed that the number 69 shows a possible symbol for "life feeds on life", right? i mean, if you've ever wondered why they did it that way)...
* the drug use thing is important to understand. you'll find that tool feels it important to try certain psychedelics, not so much for the high, but to understand how to get there again in sobriety - to harness your mind, i suppose. because, well, "saturn comes back around to show you everything, let's you choose what you will or will not SEE (<- *important!*), and then drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again, spits you out like a child - light and innocent".
so, just "choose to let this go".
discuss?
from a flood discussion:
What does this song mean? Is it about constantly coming to grips with new realities? Or being drowned in the crap that is the world? Or just growing up? Some reference to baptism?
and this:
"i was wrong this changes everything
the water is rising up on me
thought the sun would come deliver me
but the truth has come to punish me instead"
What does THAT mean? (Has this all been covered before in times past. Lol)
good question, and i am gonna try to answer it ...but since this requires a full album interpretation, i decided that it warranted an entirely new thread.
first off, consider the possibility that "sun" could be "son". (wink!)
this is how i've been able to piece this album together thus far.
i think that since we reflect and are yet still controlled by the belief structures we've fallen to (which certainly does not limited us to whatever religions), we just keep on weakening our abilities and natural desires to understand the grand scheme, to comprehend what's beyond the restrictions of the same belief structures. and after the misinterpreted lessons of "do unto others...", we've been left to resemble a somewhat precious being, a more somber image of death ("dead as dead can be" if you will), not unlike the image of christ upon the cross. i mean, if we don't all stand for love, then what are we doing here? and then "jesus won't you fuckin' whistle something 'bout what's past and done" as if to say "what the fuck?! they're all missing the point, man - they celebrate your death in a horrible light, and then completely ignore the many teachings of your life. maybe if you could only come around again - to fix this for us all (again)." alas...
so maynard speaks up against it, he wants the world to be as one. of course we recall that the guy cannot tolerate when we "lie, cheat, and steal"; in addition to this, he feels that through the increasing and now constant reliance of time and money we are destroying that very special bridge of pure understanding. he then explains his case in prison sex (how we all appear through HIS EYES <- *important!*), and then wonders "why?", and loud enough for all of us, in sober. maynard begs us, "say you won't go". "just listen to us (see: "opiate" lyrics), take it in for what it really is - and we'll be able to overcome what's about to occur on this "cold and fated anchor" (i realize i'm crossing albums, it's the same band with the same motives/messages). i mean, "if shit adds up in the bottom" and "no one even invited us in", then... couldn't it be just as easy to accept how stupid yet belligerent ("passive aggressive"?) we've become ...and then move on? undertow (the track) suggests that we shut our mouth, submit to our current and growing atrocities, decide to fix it (this reality), and lie beneath the undertow (pressumably through meditations, and drug use*). then he tells us in the very next track (once we're "there") to "get up now and free yourselves from yourselves". basically, discover what's in all of us, 'cause it is in this appreciation that our collective essence, our oneness, is so apparent. tool indeed feels that this is paramount, or imperative, especially since the flood is coming sooner than later. the last track is basically a summary of the entire album. "this ground is not the rock i thought it would be", we must "climb to a new place now" (another reference to the meditation, me thinks). to observe examples of our convictions from more than one angle, the bonus tracks merely extracts the ideas of flood (and therefor the entire album), and put it all into a new light, or new perspectives. (and i'm sure we've noticed that the number 69 shows a possible symbol for "life feeds on life", right? i mean, if you've ever wondered why they did it that way)...
* the drug use thing is important to understand. you'll find that tool feels it important to try certain psychedelics, not so much for the high, but to understand how to get there again in sobriety - to harness your mind, i suppose. because, well, "saturn comes back around to show you everything, let's you choose what you will or will not SEE (<- *important!*), and then drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again, spits you out like a child - light and innocent".
so, just "choose to let this go".
discuss?