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Old 04-10-2003, 05:20 PM   #1
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Take my hand?....AEnema?

Hello all. This is somewhat of a continuation of a previous thread I have done in the socialize bit. I have been thinking about Tools songs “under a different light”, and Stinkfist is one of the songs which has been given a new understanding in my mind (to go along with all the other ones). This message may be a little long, but I couldn’t leave anything out. I hope there is something here which another may find interesting.

Something has to change.
Un-deniable dilemma.
Boredom's not a burden
Anyone should bear.

I think this part can be interpreted as Tool suggesting that the general or POPular music nowadays has to change, or someone (ie Tool) has to come around to help all of us who are bored and tired of the same shallow crap being dispersed onto our steps. Just the thought of having to deal with, or bear this ignorance is un-palatable.

Constant over stimu-lation numbs me
and I wouldn't have
It any other way.

This is the OGT. They know what Tool have to offer and they would not want their music any other way.

It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To feel, to breathe, to know I'm alive.

A more aggressive/fanatical fan explaining how the music of Tool becomes so entwined in our veins and minds, that we need to listen to their albums to feel alive, and nothing else can match them. I know that I need to listen to some Tool everyday, just so that my brain doesn’t follow the theme for the RATM song Bullet in The Head.

Finger deep within the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Relax, turn around and take my hand.

Tool observing how the listener begins to delve into the more layered meanings of their songs. Once you get to the first level of understanding, I have assumed something along the lines of realizing the whole lachrymology thing and the theories behind it. Maynard suggests that we all do a bit of cleansing, so relax, turn around and, well, lets just say allow this procedure to happen.

I can help you change
Tired moments into pleasure.
Say the word and we'll be
Well upon our way.

Once again, this can be interpreted as the members of Tool suggesting that they can help us change tired moments into pleasure. Can this change be connected to 46+2? This bit seems to justify how Tool are open for anyone to venture into their world of understanding and evolution. They encourage this change and all we have to do is say the word, and they’ll be well upon their way.

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
Till you will not have me any other way.

I have interpreted this part as the first time a listener starts to really listen to Tools music. This involves the ideas of dealing with these past traumatic experiences and the cleansing notion. The idea of confronting certain historical data from ones mind, especially the ones buried deep within, could probably be compared to the excruciating pain of a fisting! But after this initial confrontation, I believe that dealing with tough issues in ones mind becomes easier and easier with time (ie- just like a task, do it once and it gets easier every time).

It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To feel, to breathe, to know I'm alive.

Back to the re-affirmation of the OGT. Almost as if they are saying to the listener who hasn’t quite grasped it. Letting them know how passionate the fans of Tool are about the music and how it really gets into their blood.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline.
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to.
Relax. Slip away.

Now it becomes a little more interesting. I have interpreted this part as that fan who hasn’t grasped their music (yet), and has begun to look deeper into their music, but apparently found nothing. Tool suggest that it is painful, but you will get used to it. Although this fan tries to relax, the ideas slip away from them and they become uninterested again.

Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be.
Desensitized to everything.
What became of subtlety?

This is the part which I believe, in this understanding of the song anyway, where Tool almost feel sorry for that particular listener. They have been lost into that world where humans are just consumers. No thought needed, just cash. Everything is laid out perfectly on a plate for everyone and there is no time, nor the resources, for over-stimulation of the original kind. The band asks “what became of subtlety?”

How can it mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

The lost listener answers the previous question with this statement. Which is fair enough. I mean, if they seem to see no deeper meanings or beneficial characteristics of Tools music, why shouldn’t they go somewhere else.

I'll keep digging till
I feel something.

This is not only the reply of the OGT to this listener, but also, for those fans, if there is a part of a song which is some-what lost on them, these lines are the motivational force for continuing to work out what the hell Tool are talking about, or at the very least, help in trying to understand from their own life experiences. As I believe this is the BIG line in the song, it is the basis for all of Tools music. There is no coincidences. Every bit of every one of their songs has been recorded for a reason. If you keep digging, you WILL find something.

Elbow deep inside the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Shoulder deep within the borderline.
Relax. Turn around and take my hand.

The listener now has been motivated and all of a sudden, they are shoulder deep. Tool, and the original Tool fan, have helped this listener to grasp these ideas and theories, which, in turn, will eventually add to the group of humans who, with all of the theories behind Tool, will have a good chance of stepping into the next level of evolution.

Now, this is just one random interpretation. This is by no means my total understanding of this track. I have thought about the lyrics with reference to the desensitization of the public to the media, addiction to drugs, fisting and they all work well. This is just another understanding.

Take care
Andy
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Last edited by Mehhico; 04-10-2003 at 05:38 PM..
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Old 04-13-2003, 06:17 PM   #2
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finally a positive way of looking at this song. I had an idea similar to this, and i liked it cause it wasnt negative like most interpretations of this song seem to be to me.

good post


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Old 04-16-2003, 03:22 PM   #3
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My thoughts

I don't think Tool is writing this about popular music. I think it is actually very personal. I figure it's partially about change-positive, spiritual change that may involve going so far into negativity that you come out the other side. Hold on...that could also be attributed to 46 and 2. Creepy. I didn't even think of that till now...
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Old 04-16-2003, 06:24 PM   #4
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It is talking about humans becoming desensitized and always needing more, as in larger doses of whatever.

http://www.cdicarlo.com/paper_04maynard.htm

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Old 04-16-2003, 07:51 PM   #5
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I think I did go off the track a little bit. The main point I want to get across is that I don't think it is a coincidence that the album is called AEnema and the first track is called Stinkfist. It just makes too much sense to me, by the descriptions in the song, that it can be interpreted as some sort of a guide to the theories behind (ha! - behind!) AEnema.

If you think of the borderline as the shadow, it helps.

Of course, I may have gotten confused. This IS the Celine Dion website, isn't it?
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Old 04-21-2003, 01:49 PM   #6
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I think you took it too literaly
There was some nice thoughts in there but most was a very straightforward interpretation of the song which is without a doubt not like maynard.
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Old 04-21-2003, 07:48 PM   #7
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Cheers

Quote:
Originally posted by 1NF3ST
I think you took it too literaly
There was some nice thoughts in there but most was a very straightforward interpretation of the song which is without a doubt not like maynard.
I have come to realise this fact. It is probably too literal. I guess the reason for my enthusiasm is, when I listen to their songs and another interpretation sticks out, I tend to get excited. It just seemed to me that this was the only understanding which I had had which flowed well with the themes of the entire album.
Thanks a bunch for the replies, though. Much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Andy
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Old 04-23-2003, 07:40 AM   #8
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It was decent. I agree with Genetallia, though.
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Old 05-13-2003, 03:28 AM   #9
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WOW

well Mehhico..you never stop amazing me.....it is a good interpretation.....but i'll put you back on the ''zooming'' track..remember?
your ideas match very well and i for one dont believe in those coinsidences...what if that idea is taking the song too specifically?from one point of view (zooming in) it really could be about getting into Tool music but in a universal scale (and we both agree that M is interested in that scale throughout the record) wouldnt it be about feeling more and more in order to progress (or the other ideas ppl have posted?)?one way of feeling and opening up,getting in that vulnerable and comfortable state,is listening to Tool..so it could be pushing a listener to search deeper...but it could as well be pushing him to search deeper in other ways too..

1)stop listening to rubbish->start searching for good music
2)stop reading shit->start searching your books etc etc

so it could be a matter of perspective..

ps:id never think that song is about drugs..why does everyone take it that way?does it fit your interests?
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Old 05-13-2003, 04:20 AM   #10
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'turn around and take my hand'. take my hand, put it in yours and hold it.hold hands together.
or
'turn around and take my hand'.turn around and let me stick me fist in your ass.take it.

its ironic (not in an anus moronsett way) that a song about becoming numb to things gets played so much on the radio, by far the most played tool song.oh we play [A] tool song our radio station is SOOO alturnative.take my hand.
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Old 05-15-2003, 06:15 AM   #11
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your anus or uranus?

well..regarding tools music id go for uranus...i mean come on...it sounds to stupid to think that take my hand is once again about fist fucking........it does make sence...and the song sounds like that...but it makes a different sound in my ears.
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Old 05-17-2003, 08:17 AM   #12
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If Tool calls a song "stinkfist", it wouldn't be about anal fisting. That'd be far too obvious. Tool has a tendency to make their messages very subliminal and vauge.
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Old 05-17-2003, 04:11 PM   #13
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First of all, the song is very obviously about anal fisting. But just because it is about anal fisting doesn't mean that there aren't a whole host of other things it is about as well. A song doesn't have to have only one topic.

Secondly, and this refers to the original post, some people put this band on WAY to high of a pedistal. They aren't gods, or the only 4 enlightened people on earth, they are simply clever poets. Nothing more.
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Old 05-17-2003, 07:48 PM   #14
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I agree man, good post. Maynard himself says many a time that hes not some super god like figure, and he stress a key part that alot of people forget, that he has a sense of humor as well. Tool is just 4 guys who happen to be able to think outside the box, and write clever poetry that makes you think and reflect on yourself, so please do think and reflect on the songs, but they are only songs, and tool is only a band. Even if Maynard writes good shit.
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Old 05-18-2003, 10:46 PM   #15
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Yeah, that is a good point. But I suppose that original post can be interpreted to mean any band which does help you to think for yourself. With that, I mean, everything is not given to you on a plate, and you have to look deep into it to realise and understand the affect it has on you and your life. I think Tool do this very well, and I don't think that I am alone in saying that it is very rare to find a band nowadays who can do this, even on a small scale.

Adrenalin has put up a great idea referring to his theory on "zooming", which is where I am going with this. The initial post I put up was, quite poorly, supposed to demonstrate the numerous p.o.v.'s and ideas which some Tool fans may develope through listening to their music and opening up themselves to themselves and reflecting. The key to this is knowledge, and to do this I think we have to........

(quote from Adrenalin)
1)stop listening to rubbish->start searching for good music
2)stop reading shit->start searching your books etc etc


I dont put Tool on a pedestal, I think Tool try to get everyone onto the same level........humans. I don't like bands, or people, who think that they are superior due to whatever reason, this is just arrogance. No-one needs that. We are all a part of each other, and because of this, I don't put anyone on a pedestal.

Kind regards,
Andy
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Old 05-26-2003, 09:11 AM   #16
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due to some resent expieriences i had to post this:tool are NOT GODS!!!
few..i had to say that!

fuck,i love tool...what would seem the best way to describe their music is ''an inteligent and humorus music'' they are great artist and clever ppl,but their music works as any a good book.it is the way you see it and the way it helps you ponder on yourself that makes a great evolutionary step.listening to tool doesnt help you progress by itslef(as many in these forums think..)..the music makes you start questioning and through question comes enlightment...so (and maybe i am the first to mention this..) this forum is what really makes anyone of as clever..these discussions really help as think on tool music but in the same time on ourselves.tool music is a good start,but it wont make you take that evolutionary step if you dont go and read any good books.thats what i say at least....
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