i was sitting around one day listening to both aenima and lateralus and i discovered something that might make sense concerining the meanings of both albums as a whole. i think that both albums are concept albums that more or less tell a story. first of all, its no mystery that the band is on a spiritual journey. u can definately see an evolution in their music but these last two albums in particular are set up in such a way that if one takes the necessary steps to decipher all the meanings u can definately see a progressing idea that culminates in disposition/reflection/triad. lets start out by analysing aenima. aenima is an album about cleansing, a starting over if you will. itss also about reuniting with maynard's anima (the jungian term). one maynard can successfully reunite with his feminine self he can become complete but before he can become complete he has to cleanse himself of all impurities. this is why stinkfist is the best song to start the album with. stinkfist is a song about earthly pleasures and about how they dont bring us true happiness. whether it be drugs, sex, money, power, or whatever one may be addicted to it never brings everlasting happiness because it takes more and more to achieve a desirable state. and i think that maynard realizes this in the song. the fact that he sees nothing wrong with this is clearly evident in the song "how can this mean anything if i really dont feel any pain at all?" but something happens that ruins his preconceptions. in the song eulogy he watches as someone who he idolized and followed betray him. obviously this person tells him that he will die for him because he is selfless and he is doign what he is doing for the greater good. once this person backs out of his promise. this obviously has a profound impact upon maynard because he realizes that doing something to please the ego like not sacrificing yourself so that you may live is not right. it causes pain. so he tries to change his habits, he tries to distance himsefl from whatever it is he is attached to (which is what he was singing about in stinkfist). in h he reflects upon what it is he is doing to himself. this addiction (this pleasing of the ego) is slowly killing him and by the end of the song he sounds hopeless. he would like to escape this cycle of death and rebirth ('i have died, i will die, its alright, i dont mind") but he feels hopeless. 46&2 is when he begins his spiritual journey. this song's message is clearly that maynard will do whatever it takes to overcome pain and suffering. he sincerely wants change. im going to skip over hooker with a penis because i think that this song and ticks and leeches are the only two that dont fit the scheme of things and oddly enough these two songs carry a similar message. they are both statements to the fans about this is waht they are going to do and if u dont like it then just fuck off. plus i love the point that hooker with a penis makes. it does it brililiantly and harshly. ok, so now maynard wants to change so where does he begin. well he starts to think of his feminine side, a side that left him when he was 11. something must have happened then that turned him into a cold, rational, and consequently negatve person. i have met many people like this and as much as i like them they are so close minded and wont accept anything supernatural to exist. if anyone prescribes to the belief of the yin and the yang then this song (jimmy) must make sense because in order for us to be complete we need to have an equal amount of both. so hes seeking that side to show him the way so he can reunite with her so he can be himself again. in pushit, maynard battles the thing he that is tempting him one last time. he is still trying to break through the barriers of the ego. the ego is his reflection and it is pushing him down instead of lifting him up which is what the ego does. the ego weighs someone down. he gives in temporarily and returns to the gap which is where he was in stinkfist and he just does not want to be there. at the end he has to tear his ego's throat away so he doesnt have to listen to it tempt him. so now hes almost there but after fixing himself he takes a look around L.A. and realizes how lost everyone is. hes at this point where it makes him angry to see how people dont see the true reality and how people are lost in things that dont matter and it pisses him off. not only does that piss him off but he feels as if mother nature is getting the raw end of the deal. he believes that mother nature needs to cleanses the earth of her impurities just like he has in order to start over anew because as far as he sees it in this song everything is hopeless. after he reflects about the larger scale he returns back to his self and continues on his spiritual voyage by eating shrooms. i have had so many mystical experiences on shrooms i cant even begin to call them drugs. now its time for third eye which is the most mysterious song on the cd but the one that is so important because it is the culmination of the cd. it is the epitome of all that came before. this is where he is finally reunited with his other half. the other half finally comes out and tells him how much he missed him. the webs and the dew are finally cleared from his eyes and he can see clearly now the true reality of everything and what is important in life. as for the little poetic trip in the middle of the song he begins to put together himself again and realizes what he could have been if he had not lost that other part of him when he was 11. his other half exclaims im so glad its over but then asks "why are u running" as if he reaches what hes always wanted to reach but it fades away. but by the end of the song the two are successfully reunited forever and maynard's last words are "so glad to see you once again (his other half) i thought that u were hiding (he had to dig deeper to pull it out), and u thought that i had run away chasing the tail of dogma (he has seperated himself from religion), and the last part of the song he says "and u thought that i had run away tracing the trail of smoke and reason" because has also seperated himself from reason and is now willing to accept anything as possible because if someone lives their lives according soley to reason then they are going to be very unhappy in life. this is how hedonists think and thats what maynard was at the beginning of the cd. the theme carries over to lateralus which is actually much more a series of messsages and parables if u will that he has learned on his continuing spiritual journey. its actually really interesting to note that manyard has his foray into a perfect circle in between these two cds which i have interpreted as his feminine side coming out to express what it feels. lateralus starts out with the grudge where he shows that forgiveness is the way to go because nothing good comes out of stubborness. it just drags u down and if u think about it it is true. on the patient u can still see that he is having problems with the spitual journey and he has even contemplated giving up but he realizes that patience is necessary, you cant expect everything to happen all at once. it takes discipline to reach a higher level. schism is a song about the bigger picture. hes telling everyone in the world to stop dividing and start reuniting because dividing will only lead us to ruin. parabol and parabola are about life and how it is sacred to be living. but he also states that all this pain is an illusion and its just our minds making us think that pain is necessary (this is very buddhist song in my opinion). life is a very sacred thing, why else would be given the chance to live. skipping ticks and leeches which is the odd man out obviously we move on to lateralus which is a song about intuition and about how one needs to follow that more than reason because logic cant explain everything. reason has led him to miss so many oppurtunties and to miss so many amazing awe-ful things. because embedded inside of all of us is our destiny and that is where our intution comes in. if we just follow it we will arrive at our destiny which is the place we actually want to be. there are alot of people out there who follow reason and try to secure a good job when they grow older but become depressed because this job may not be what they really felt the wanted to do with thier lives. u just have to follow your heart and ride the spiral. then we come to disposition which is about how our emotions change just like the weather. if u ever sit down and think about it u begin to realize that one little thing that someone says could change our emotions drastically. our emotions are just waves that can be disturbed by anything. and finally we come to reflection whcih is actually his refleciton about what he has learned and what he knows from these two cds. at first he starts in his self-indulgent pitiful hole (stinkfist) and he slowly draws himself out until he comes to find that we are all one mind capable of all thats imagined and all conceivable. the last two words he uses are very important hope (the feminine side where anything can be considered possible) and reason (the masculine side, the side that helps us get through everday life). anything is possible if we all believe that something can happen. all in all tool sends one of the most powerful and positive messages i have ever heard. u do use their music as a tool to help u on your spiritual journey. i suggest everyone start reading a little bit into the occult and eastern philosophies and u will see the many similarities that these different tradtitions have and u will be able to sythesize a message extremely similar to tool's. by the way, its interesting to note that the reason aenima and aenema are spelled differently is because the song spelling is actually referring to an enema (a cleasing) and an anema (a nature spirit believed in by many tribal cultures)
i don't think you can dismiss "ticks and leeches" so easily.
the fact that it is the odd man out should make it stand out even
more. also, "the patient" could fit in with your grouping of
"hooker..." and "ticks..." it sounds like he is considering
stopping his music career because it drains his patience and
vitality to put up with fans like the subject of "hooker..."
the reward that he seeks in "the patient" are the positive things
he wants to inspire in people with his music but instead is met
with fans more concerned with people knowing how cool they
are for listening for Tool or pretendiing to have something
deep to say rather than really doing something with the
inspiration. he's "giving blood (his music), keeping faith" in the
fans. but if there were "no rewards to reap" from fame and
being a succesful musician, he "certainly would have walked
away by now."
and he still may.
but this is just one way to see this song and i believe that it's
important with what the song does for you, not what it means
objectively.
you've got some incredible insight, though. another thing you
might examine is the work Aleister Crowley (forgive any misspellings, por
favor) and the art and philosophy of Alex Grey (especially
a book titled something like "the purpose of art.").
also i think that it is important to think in terms of TOOL not just
MAYNARD. i'm sure there is at least some collaboration on the
song as a whole and not just each member coming up with
their own parts and making them fit.
more people should post here, this is a good string.
And yeah, Maynard said that the rest of the band creates everything, he just writes what he hears in lyric form. That's why I wish so many people would stop saying "Maynard says this" and "Maynard said that," because it's as though they aren't paying any attention to the sound of the music.
That was an excellent post Goliath. I also felt that Ticks and Leeches was an odd man out song however after looking at the music again I came to a conclusion that it would in fact be the switching of perspectives between the "I" we all experience on a regular basis and the "I" of the spirit (the other half) seems like the normal I is stuck on and distracted by anger and violence which leaves the spiritual "I" to wither and atrophy. If you notice even when the music gets calmer and barren there is still a faint screaming...its as if its showing that these things are very distant but still effect both...the anger effects the spirit (like arguing parents frightening a child) and things that effect the soul like loneleness effects the normal "I" (inthe form of depression)...take a look at this line of thinking and see if it changes your perseption of the song...TnL use to be one of my least favorite Tool songs and I couldn't see why it was placed where it was but i think looking at it in this way gives it a place.
My first visit to this board and then I get such a cool essay. We need more post like this to try to really capture the essence of what this incredible band has to offer.
There are several interesting ideas in your post that opened my eyes, since i've never dared to dig deep into Tools lyrics.
Try to dig in to the art side to, I think it'll open up even more doors..
i know that maynard is not just tool and that the messages behind their music are not soley his. the reason i used maynard was because in terms of a concept album both of these cds, in my opinion, follow the journeys of one man and since maynard is singing it just seemed appropriate. sorry for such a long post but in order for it to be understood i felt like i should explain everything. remember, this is just my opinion and i respect everyone else's just as equally. thats the great thing about music in general. everyone gets out of it what they want out of it. the idea is not to figure out what the band is saying but to find out what it means to yourself because its virtually impossible to decipher what their message is in its true form. but anyway, before this gets any longer i just wanted to apologize for using maynard and not the rest of tool in my post.
