My opinion is the all and everything and will forever be flawless. ;-)

I saw them twice during this tour..HA

Isn't that a rhetorical statement? Love IS having patience and reasoning. Not to mention if anybody took the time to listen to any live recordings of the song you would know it's "benched along"

Nuh uh! Mine is!

Poo poo head!

So's your face!

I know I am but what are you!

I'm rubber glue!

Nanny nanny foo foo!

Bounce and stick to you!

I fling poo!

My inner eulogy is correct.

On the sideline...

Benched along with...

Sports reference...

Game of life...

Oooo...Maynard said that Angels are "ridin' the pine"!

the angles are refering to so called 'fake' love lacking both ot the above so they are tired of it and in their minds picturing love with paitence and reason

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLvrxEuni50 7:49

this song could easily be about the holy war. If you think about it and are familiar with the biblical account of isaac and ishmael (spelling?) it goes back to those two splitting the holy nations each one's descendants believing they are the chosen ones of god. just an idea fuck if they are willing to fight this war over something as trivial as god they will fight over anything.

what i mean is there are two nations involved hince..........right in two

I highly doubt they see God as trivial.

There's no such thing as a rhetorical statement, Inner. Rhetorical questions on the other hand are different.

You really shouldn't say that people who don't see it your way "obviously haven't listened to live versions." Listening to a few live versions cemented my belief it was "picture love with patience and reason."

That's neither here nor there. The fact is, someone's wrong. If it's me, fine. If it's you, fine.

The point is, everyone is in a little state of denial with the lyrics. Those who say it's benched along act as if it couldn't possibly be 'picture love,' and vice versa. The fact simple fact is, both could be right. After all, they're both the same amount of syllables. The line is under the influence of heavy distortion. The vocals are obviously not predominant in the mix. With all these factors in mind, it's absurd to act as if these lines couldn't be one OR the other.

I believe it's 'picture love,' others believe it's 'benched along.' That doesn't mean that I or the others have not listened to it closely enough, of enough times, it simply means that we've drawn different conclusions from the same material.

I still say it 'picture love' until my grave. ;)

All that video did was reaffirm my belief in "benched". Even if I turn out to be wrong, it just makes more sense than "picture love". I mean, why would you say you're "on the sideline again, picture love with patience and reason" I mean, those are like 2 totally different statements and ideas. It makes PERFECT sense though to say "on the sideline (like in football), BENCHED along with patience and reason". Basically saying the coach took patience and reason and sat them out the game on the sideline, then they sat the angels there right next to them. It's a metaphor. He's making a point like "how the fuck do you expect to win if you sat out all your star players"

HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT NOT MAKE SENSE TO YOU PEOPLE?!?

Again, I have to agree with my inner eulogy. Been doing that too much lately, I don't want to die soon!

Anyway, benched just makes more sense from a lyrical stand point. Taken out of the context of the song and viewed simply as a poem, benched fits where as picture doesn't.

The angels are on the sideline (not playing), benched along with love and reason. Meaning love and reason aren't playing either. Meaning that the situation is absent of angels, love, and reason which is very bad. If the angels aren't playing, why would I picture love and reason? I'm more concerned with why the heck the angels aren't playing and it is catostrophic if love and reason aren't playing either.

Without these 3 in the game, I guess I'd just use my thumbs to forge and blade and start beatin fools down yo!

Father gave us free will and now we're all confused. Wait...what?

Exactly.....wait a minute, isn't that exactly what I just said but reworded???

Yes it is!

I am incapable of original thought and I also have an addiction to blatent plagiarism so...

I just figured they weren't getting it after I already said what you said I said in the beginning...or was it the end of the middle...

LMAO! I concur, whatever the hell....

And while we're at it, Chicago really is a beautiful city.

The Sears tower is quite impressive.

Tall and phallic.

Like Tool.

does anyone else, other than the few who are with me on the lyrics, know about tool writing in metephors sidelines could stand for somthing else and i really dont see how benched along with patience and reason makes sense it needs to be refering to somthing in the same sentence or mor distingushed so picture love is just better IMO

im sticking with benched i just dont see picture at all making sense i cant wait till official lyrics come out sheesh

Anyone still think it's "been so long with patience and reason"?

LMAO!! I gotta try and keep this going......

At this point, everyone's gonna disagree with that.

I'm actually glad this debate is still going on. Now I don't really care much anymore what the lyrics really are. It will be "benched along" to me, always. I'm not so adamant about finding out what all the lyrics are to any song because no one will know for sure. It makes no difference, we're all so stubborn.

LMAO....this is true. My thoughts exactly.

:)

This really cracks me up guys. Every time I come in here I get a good laugh.

Anyway, Inner, I know you're pretty adamant. Here's the thing I am to. Now the person who most adamant has nothing to do with what the lyrics come out to be in the end.

Also the logic you're using isn't entirely flawless. You seem to think that since the opening clause is "Angels on the sideline again," the following prepositional statement HAS to be about sports because the word sideline is mentioned. THINK about that for a minute.

For instance, I can be enjoying a cup of coffee and picturing something that has fuck all to do with that cup of coffee. "Angels on the sideline again, picture love with patience and reason."

Okay, for you sports fans out there: The angels are picturing the strategy that we need to use in order to end this 'tug of war.'

Oh well, I've made my case clear.

This is such a non-issue. God benched the angels, and in doing so also benched their immortality and their knowledge of the "divine truth" of reality.

.

....not really....

lol

Spiral out......KEEP this thread GOING....

LMAO!!

:)

I think the lyrics can be ‘benched along’ AND ‘picture love’, depending on the perspective or perception you choose.

From an ego perspective, the ‘angels in the hearts of men’ are surely benched, along with patience and reason (Vicarious lyrics).

From a perception of Unity, ascended angels are certainly picturing us (Love) with patience and reason.

Maynard refers to this perception of Unity in 10,000 Days when he sings:

Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance
Burden of proof tossed upon the believers
You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence
Judith Marie, unconditional one


Judith is ‘picturing’ (or seeing) Maynard’s holiness, even as he denies it himself and fights his own internal battles.

Ascended angels have no ego and witness the world with a Unified Mind. Any ego concept of separation or duality (two sides) would be inconceivable.

They are eternal and beyond time (been too long).

They would not be uncertain (puzzled, baffled, confused) because they see the bigger picture.

And they are never inactive (sidelined, benched).

They would definitely not be entertained (amused) by our state of war.

In every moment, ascended angels picture (or intentionally see) our divinity (Love) while we divide and cut it in two to play tug of war with ourselves and ‘others’.

Our monkey mind (ego) and angel mind (divinity) are IN TENSION in the game of two sides.

Choose to bench your inner angel to the sidelines and then 'wonder' when division and war will end,

Or, choose to lift an eye to Heaven and play in the holy garden as One.

Holy shit, I can't believe I'm posting here.

So this is my first real post on this board ever. I posted a few on the tour threads for shows I went to, but never on the main board. Anyway, hello all!

I've been lurking for a while, and the Right in Two lyrics thread kind of compelled me to post. There have been some great suggestions on here for my personal lyrics I've compiled, and...well..some shit too. But that's par for the course.

I should also add that what prompted me to post was that I'm a little high right now and thought it funny that one of the clearest lyrics to me on this song has not been said by anybody on this board, at least as far as I can tell. I'm high, so if I ramble a bit, I apologize in advance :).

I also apologize if this has been said before, but I've checked this thread for many months and I don't think it has. If it has, please say so.

Let me just start out by saying that I am all for personal exploration and personal interpretation of songs and Maynard's lyrics. But I think that one of the things plaguing any growth in terms of discovering these lyrics is a kind of over-bias that some bring as to what they want the lyrics to be. I guess that's normal, but still, it seems like it is stifling any progress here, at least until the 'nard releases these lyrics. Also, after seeing some of the harshness on some sections of the board, I hope that nobody takes personal offense when I criticize some of the suggestions made about the lyrics here.

Aiight? Aiight.

I am most concerned with the "chorus" and of course, the "Fight..." section. It feels strange "defending" these things, and "putting my cards on the table" regarding lyrics of a rock band, but hey, whatever :).

After listening to the youtube recordings (there are only like 4 complete RiT videos on there), I am about as sure as I can be that Maynard is saying "Cutting our love right in two." At first I hated that lyric, but I've grown to see it's beauty in relation to the song. I could be wrong, of course, but in my mind it's pretty set in stone.

I am here to talk about the Fight breakdown. Here's what I did:

I listened to those youtube clips, and I took one and tried to figure out the lyrics on it. I believe that I used this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLvrxEuni50

and another for the second line of this section (forgot which video).

But I took that one and deciphered that section nearly completely. It is about as sure as one can get. Now, obviously, Maynard changes his lyrics around live, especially during those sections of songs where he rattles off a list of various things (like in 46&2 and Aenema), and RiT is no different. Whether it's because he forgets them or likes some new variation, who knows. What I'm trying to say is that while they are different, figuring out his different live lyrics can definitely help inform the album lyrics.

Here are the ones I found live. And they make a motherload of sense:

"Fight til they die over sun, over sky.
They fight til they die over ground, over sea.

[NOTE: I don't think, for the second line, he is saying this on the version linked to above, but it was clear as day on the other video I cannot find right now. In any case, it gives an idea of what he's conceptualizing.]

They fight til they die over blood, over love.
They fight til they die over war, over lies and greed.

Cutting our love right in two"

I'd mentioned a line I thought completely obvious above, and it is the last of that part, "They fight til they die over war, over lies and greed." I have heard that since mid-2006, and it makes complete sense, much more than anything involving writing or whatever has been said on the board.

So I used these lines and looked at RiT on the album in a new light. Maynard seems to categorize what humans fight over in certain general areas of existence.

The first is over the sky and the "heavens", hence sun and sky. The second is over the ground, or our resources, hence ground and sea. The third is over our personal relationships, so blood and love. Finally, the large scale travesties of human existence: war, lies and greed.

Here is what I've deciphered on the album version so far. What I'm unsure of, I've placed a question mark after, and some of these are guesses when I can make them, others are "phonetic" guesses that I hear, but cannot discern what he's talking about:

"[They] fight til they die over wind?, over sky.

They fight over light, over prayer, over '-ell???' and 'might???...' [like power]
OR
They fight over light, over prayer, over '-ell???' and 'fight???...'

...over love, over sin, over blood.

They fight til they die over wars, over lies and greed."

The only difference here on the last line is that "wars" is plural.

Thoughts? Obviously some of this is wrong and can be tweaked, but I think it much more along the right track than previous suggestions. I'd love to hear some input!

Man, that was a great post. I don't have to agree with your interpretation to see eye to eye with what you were saying about people's 'over-bias.'

Like you said, a lot of people are making up the lyrics they want to hear. Now, if I end up being wrong with my interpretation, that's fine, and you can bet your ass I'll adjust to the corrected version of the lyrics. A lot of people here won't.

For instance, a lot of people want to hear 'live tonight AT heaven' and it wouldn't matter if Maynard himself told them it was 'lift an eye to heaven,' they'd still choose to hear what they want to hear.

I really liked the post though, makes a lot of sense. ;)

Damn, I let this slide for a few days, but decided you're just being difficult.

I made my case DAMN clear, and anyone can see that. What you meant to say is: "Aaron, I see what you're saying, but I still disagree with you."

Sorry, I had to say something. People on this thread like to act like others ideas don't make any sense. That's really pretty absurd. I may not think the lyric is 'benched along,' but I could never say it doesn't make sense.

Thanks for the input, CG, much appreciated. Definitely encouraging me to post on the other areas of this board. Fucking hell, here comes another message board to lose precious hours of my life over.

I just don't see how people get bent out of shape over something where you have to make educated guesses about something where there is a definite right and wrong as to the answer. I think it's the whole internet anonymity thing that people are still getting used to. Or maybe I'm just still spaced out and in less of a 10000 Days mood and more of a Lateralus mood. Fuck it.

I obviously have my own biases, which I hope are sufficiently out in the air enough. Anyway, I hope that post stimulates some new thoughts on the lyrics. Not looking for confirmation or rejection, but some well thought arguments as to why the lyrics are this or that (and hopefully avoiding some of the very "out there" reaching that I've seen sometimes).

Oh, and CG, after looking at the whole debate over "picture love" and "benched along", while you're certainly right that Maynard isn't adverse to mixing his metaphors in his lyrics (he does it all the time, and frightfully so on his APC ish!), from my ears at least, I think that he is keeping that one consistent with "benched along."

Like you said, you can make a case for both. But if you take a listen at that same youtube link, whatever he says at the start of that line (benched or picture) is still a bit ambiguous, but it is more clear to my ears that he's saying "along".

But in any case, I'm sure you guys have been creating arguments for 26 pages now and have exhausted the subject, so I won't belabor the point, lol. But I do agree with you on "lift an eye to heaven". Just my two cents.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT, discuss, my droogies.

Now are we talking about right angles here or what? 90 degree? 60 degree?

Whatever dude, it sounded good to me.

Well, I was joking about being flawless...in case you didn't catch that. Secondly, I never implied that it HAS to be sports related. I mean when I hear it I don't think about sports, but the analogy is definately there.

And if you wanna put it that way, it wouldn't be the angels thinking through the gameplan/strategy...it would be the coach or GOD aka BOB. He would be the one thinking over the nickel defense or blitzing. But screw it, there's no logic to it because he BENCHED all his star players....you silly monkeys

HA! I been screaming that since day one

Bingo, right and right again...I'm starting to like this guy

ill give u credit grater you hypothesis makes sense im not trying to be an asshole and start a flame war BUT im stick with my opinion of benched lol kudo 2 u bro