I guess if i sat and dialed in to this song (w/ lyrics of course, i'm sorry but you're a very talented listener if you can understand every lyric of this song) for a couple of hours i could "probably" get into it, i just don't see it though. i think the concept is cool, kind of a continuation of sorts from "faaip de oiad", i don't know if anyone else feels the same way i do, but i'd definitley like to hear from some people who really enjoy this track. Also, anyone seen this played live, i think tool could've picked something else off the new album,right now i could seriously do without this track when i see them in a week.

dude I fucking love this song... tool music has always taken awhile to sink in to me because it's like so different and complex that i can't understand what they're doing at first. it took me like 6 months before I really liked the songs pushit and H off Ænima.

Dude what got me really into the song was the climax somewhere around 8 mins into it... "overwhelmed as one would be placed in my position... such a heavy burden now to be.. the one... for to bear and brind to all the details of our ending ... to write it down for all to see BUT I FORGOT MY PEN Shit (my bad?) again. typical. "

it's so hilarious, but at the same time it's serious... Kinda making fun of like himself and all kinds of people who act like martyrs and like their life is such a heavy burden (narcissistic views and how arrogant about themselves most people are.

anyway dude and just the fucking guitar and time changes, hard hitting bass, and just the atmosphere of the sound ... grinding guitars matching the grinding drone of "strapped down, my bed, feet cold, eyes red.... "

yeah well, i love this song. almost brings strange tears to my eyes.

i didnt like the spoken part until i had listened several times and actually could tell what he wa saying
but yeah the climax really got me in to it, as well as the little breakdown right before the climax with all those weird drums
its just an incredibly intricate song

LOVE this song! Bottom line!

This song is just another book in the ever-lasting saga of Tool, if you will. The chapters within this song are so phenomenal. This song sonically takes me to a place like no other place I have ever been. I'm not taking lyrically, either. It is easily one of my favorite Tool songs, after Pushit. During my first week with the 10kD album, I'd listen to it while in bed with my head phones, eyes closed. With each new chapter (as I call them), my being was spinning off toward different directions, however all radiating from my center...I know how lame this sounds. Its seriously the first Tool song to do that to me.

I've been a fan since '96, after hearing Stinkfist on the radio. When Lateralus came out, I had just had a baby and was tied up with all that entails. I didn't even see them when they toured that album. I didn't get to connect with it fully until three years later...blah blah blah.. So in essence, 10kD is the first album I was genuinely anticipating as a rabid Tool fan. I love this piece [the whole 10KD album] to death. When I discovered that gem, Rosetta Stoned, it quickly surfaced as my favorite Tool album.

It's a very bloated song, if they'd have cut out the first 6 minutes and replaced it with a decent 3 minutes worth, then that whole section between 7 and 8 minutes (the mad danny carey 4-way independence bit), and then the climax into 'Overwhelmed as one would be', and you'd have a masterpiece on your hands. Unfortunately, Tool think this album contains their best songwriting, but I think this song is quite bloated and lumbering for the most part.

This thread makes me want to listen to the song.

By far my favorite song on this record. I guarantee you its Danny hardest song to play. Hey.......hey.....he he he he hey. I cant stop listening to it.

My ears miss tis song... bad.

Must go listen now.

Well, I'll tell you one thing. If you saw this performed live (and since the lyrics have been released...see Toolband for the August newsletter), you'd have a much deeper appreciation for it. In my opinion, it is the BEST thing they've ever done, as it contains just about every element of their music all wrapped into one (kinda like Pushit). But live...man...it's almost too much to take.

'Every element of their music wrapped into one.'

Well, when you take all their most famous riffs and mush them into one 11 minute slug, I'm not suprised that it sounds alot a Tool amalgamation.

Seeing it live didn't make any difference about my appreciation of the song.

The music between the first "God DAMN...SHIT THE BED" and "Overwhelmed as one would be...." is UNREAL... i love this song Its a toss up between Lost Keys/Rosetta and Wings/10000 days as the best two-fer on the album.

People need to less focused on the lyrics and more on the music and composition. Tool fans especially.

Amen brother.


Maynard has said in interviews, that he writes melodies first and considers his voice an instrument. I also seem to recall him talking about vocals being needed to sell an album now a days something something somethig.

No offense, but it would have been nice had you gotten the lyrics correct.

"Born to bear and read to all the details of our ending, to write it down for all the world to see. But I forgot my pen. Shit the bed again. Typical."

On topic: This is perhaps my favorite song on the album. The climax, as FloZthx, is the best part of the song. Not only do I like the climax, but I also like the outro guitar riff. Pure fucking pwnage.

the drums are amazing in the song and when the bass/drum breakdown and then the haramonic guitar solo solo kicks in it is possibliy one of the best tool moments. So many good changes occur in this song moving it to a different angle on the theme and it just kicks ass. And it is sweet how it ends at 11:11, gives it mystery aspect of tool. But don't take the song to seroiusly just enjoy it.

I still am of this opinion. It seems to lack the elegance that all the other songs on 10,000 days have, and on Lateralus. Perhaps I will view it in new light when I hear it live.

I think that's meant to be though.

To me, "Lost Keys/Rosetta"is like the anti-'Third Eye'. Where 3rd Eye was about gaining enlightenment through hallucinatory experiences, rosetta is about not being able to handle, make sense and get a grip on what you're goig through.

In Alex Grey's book Albert Hoffman describes LSD as his problem child cuz many people take it as a party drug when in reality it has SO much bigger potential. So in essence, you could say the keys to unlock enlightenment where lost because of Hoffman...

and then the reference to the Rosetta Stone (the artifact to decrypt hieroglyphs & important messages) is dumbed down to 'Stoned' so as to point at lost potential again.

Could've been but wasn't...

Don't the riffs sound a bit like 3rd Eye's but LESS arranged? First thing I remember thinking when I heard the song was: "Sounds like a messy Third Eye!"
I think that's part of the point.

It's incredibly boring live.

I love it. One of the band most theatrical songs i reckon. It sort of moves thru a few different acts. Musically the riffs are all so familiar, they just change subtly throughout into slight variations of themselves. The way the vocals are layered so it sounds really fast when actually it isnt, gives it that frantic, scattered sort of feel. The four guys shift between time sig's so that sometimes everyone is almost out of sync, then they fall back in line together. Classic dry wit and humour in the pop culture references and Maynard using a character to tell a story let you take the song as just a funny acid trip if you like, or you can get into it more deeply and look at the metaphors and layers of meaning behind the lyrics and the idea of someone very ordinary being gifted the burden of delivering a serious message. I think the whole thing is just really well crafted.

pushit and this=loads, and me dancing funny, with myself--and my dog smirkin

Rossetta Stoned is such a great song! when i saw them play it live sept. 2nd oh man i wen't crazy! moshed around on the lawn with my buddys smoking a joint.. it was incredible! infact there is not 1 tool song i don't like... i like them all!!!

Im hanging to see it live next January in Melbs.

Well....

I have to disagree with a lot of you. I recently saw this song live. As a result, I like it less. When I first heard the record, it kinda freaked me out (and save your breath on the whole "give it time to sink in"). I listened to it faithfully and it became one of my favorite songs on the record. I was stoked to see it live, especially with its placement before Wings 1 & 2. The combination of Rosetta Stoned, Wings 1 & 2, and Lateralus was stunning. But Rosetta Stoned was the weakest part for me.

I'm not saying I hate the song. But my appreciation for it has gone down. Watching them peform it on Friday left a bad taste in my mouth. It just didn't work. I lost interest in it. The spoken word parts came out awful live, no one could hear him speaking. It just seems very drawn out and as one person said "bloated." I often skip the song now on the record.

But as I said, I don't hate it. It's not their worst song, I just don't think it's as great as a lot of people build it up to be now. It's actually the only thing I've found so far that I don't like about 10,000 Days as a whole. Which isn't bad really, I'd give the song about a 7/10 which isn't really that devastating, as opposed to say "Hooker W/ a Penis" which gets about a 5/10.

I can definitely say that after seeing it live once, I never have to see it again.

this is the funnest song for an active lister to participate in (kinda why my first nine posts on this board are within this track - and i'll keep coming back). actually, i'm trying to sing along with maynard on this one. and as hard as it may seem, i'm not that far off. things is, there's a TON of stuff to notice, and these lyrics here may be "official" but they are definitely incorrect. multiple pans (left, right, center, a talk box, etc). it's fuckin' crazy, and the point of it is for you to actually "get into it". as far as i'm concerned, if you don't like the track, then you're doing something wrong.

I'm interested to see my reaction to the live version, whether i like it more or less after the show. Its inspired mixed feelings in the concert reviews I've read.

I was in to it. I enjoyed the song, until they sang it live. It just doesn't work as well live in my opinion. It was the worst part of the evening next to Schism. Which is not really that bad considering the concert was amazing.

Just because you get it, doesn't mean no one else does. I'm well aware of the uniqueness of this song, I just don't like it nearly as much as I used to.

Personally, it sounds like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas coupled with X-Files.
The lyrics that I've read make sense of this observation.
While Fear and Loathing deals with a generation trying to come to terms with what it has been offered, X-Files is trying to push your bound of reason (and comfort) so that you may see what is there and know it for what it is.
I like this song, because to me it's like a movie, with lulls and peaks in action.
He has to bear the burden of the message and in truth he's lost some part of him in the process.
Live, it was pretty good, it threw me off at first. It's done in a much different format than the majority of their other songs so it's easy to understand why it wouldn't be liked by some.
And maybe they perform it live because they like the challenge.
Although, it might be like It's The End Of The World As We Know It from REM that by the time we do get the lyrics it would've changed a million times over.

...i... i was actually responding to the thread, not at what you said, man.




...not everything's about you.

and i was simply responding to what you said in the thread. Not everything has to be taken as an attack my friend. You stated something, I responded.

I saw it live in Vancouver and at the Gorge and I thought it was amazing both times, especially at the Gorge. Seeing it live made me like it even more.

Not necassarilly my fav tool song, but at the detroit show was easily the most intense music experience i have ever had in my life. It hits home way too much if you have eaten lsd before and definatley during seeing/hearing the song itself.

INTENSE

my greatest music experiences revolve around listening to tool's albums for the first time. seeing them for the first time was indeed awesome, but it'll mean so much more to me this friday (since i've started digging for that treasure beneath the castle, heh - ommmmmmmmmmmm). tool is to me what jesus is to everyone else (in busherica). so, i guess, listening to tool is like going to church - i'm always touched.

I really like Rosetta Stoned. It was my first love on 10k Days.

definitly NOT my least favourite song... It is so cool, with the constant changing rhythms and beats, and what a story! It actually happend to me, I shit you not!

Yeah, I actually experienced an evening quite similar to the one being told in Rosetta Stoned. ...and it's an incredible piece of music.

I don't understand how any true TOOL fan can not liek this song. It is my favorite on the 10K CD.

IT does envelope all that is great with TOOL. Great composure, excellent drumming, great riffs, pounding bass, and vocals LAST! That is TOOL, they layer the music and make you feel what they felt writing the song. This song is all that TOOL is. I would never play 46&2 or Stinkfist for a first time TOOL listener to hear. I would play something that shows off the brilliance, something like Rosetta Stoned!

I didn't like Rosetta Stoned much when I first listened to 10k Days. Now, it's one of my favorites. The lyrics are very funny/clever and the music at the end of the song is great. They played it in Detroit last Friday and they really nailed it, right down to Maynard singing into a microphone wired to a megaphone. I would rather have heard a couple of Undertow songs or one Undertow + one Opiate song in its place, though. But it was still entertaining.

I was just listening to Rosetta Stoned the other day and I finally picked up on that. Some of the riffs totally reminded me of Third Eye. I haven't listened to Third Eye much lately, but I think I might have to play them consecutively and see how they mesh.