THUMBS UP!! I totally agree with you!

SALUD!

Way to try and find faults with this song. Do us all a favor and cancel your membership.

Rosetta Stoned IS NOT Third Eye. They are two completely different songs. What an assinie statement.

They're obviously not two *completely* different songs, are they? Being as one has the riff from the other in it, of course.

And I didn't have to *try* to find faults with the song, they jumped out and urinated all over me while I was attempting to enjoy the new Tool album. I'd be much happier if they'd stop doing that, but it seems to be the hip new thing this year judging by the reactions from all the kids...

why you would define third eye as a "good trip" is beyond me...

finding out everything around you is a dream and you a part of an infinite string of possibilities doesnt seem very assuring to me...or maynard for that matter...


third eye is BY FAR more powerful than rosetta stoned (altho i do like this song, as well as the whole 10 000 days cd as a whole)....


i can guarentee the pple saying rosetta stoned is better have NOT seen third eye live...because if they had seen it live, they would know better.

I have seen "Third Eye" live, and it was the highlight of my life at the time. However, I would much rather see "Rosetta Stoned" live for the first time, than "Third Eye" for the second time.

Rosetta Stoned would rule live without any vocal effects, but it will never happen (probably).

I'm seeing Tool on May 15th at the Fox Theater in Detroit. I really hope that they play "Rosetta Soned."

If they don't, that's fine. They could play "Sober" eleven times, and it would still be the greatest moment of my life.

Third Eye is probably my second favorite Tool song, but right now, I'm really feeling RS.

tuzi - I think it's funny how you say 'nonsensical' then quantify it in terms of such a simple number as 11. There's nothing complex about it. You have trouble counting to 11 or what?

third eye

someone give this man a medal. My thoughts exactly

Instead of choosing between the 2 I think Tool should play Third Eye which then goes into Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned. How cool would that be?

This is a tough one, It is hard to compare the two except in length. When the two album versions are compared, I would prolly have to go with Rosetta Stoned, but come on, How can it compare to the version of Third Eye on Salival? When Maynard busts out those dual mics man, that is the shit.

11/8 IS cooler than 12/8 though...

I can't get over how funny your post is...

"They took this and this and did this and this and this and this and this and this to it. They didn't write anything new."

Holy hell. It'd be EASIER to write something new than to do what you're suggested TooL did to come up with Rosetta Stoned.

Only if you stick Faaip de Oied between Third Eye and Lost Keys.

Third Eye never struck as that great of a song, but more like just a cool epic rock song. The second solo kicks ass definitely... but Rosetta Stoned is doing something to me now that Third Eye never did. Rosetta Stoned all the way.

Rosetta Stoned.

I really don't like Third Eye. I've tried and tried to dig this song, and for the most part I do, until they repeat, "Prying open my third eye" over and over again. I just can't...get in to this song for some reason.

It took me a long time to really get into Third Eye but when it did, it was very powerful and now is one song I make sure to definately listen through when I shove in Aenima. I think the long intro of (-) ions, unconventional timing and heavy distortion made it hard to initially get my mind around it. It took time for me to decipher what the lyrics meant to me personally, fully understand the intricacies of the musical layers on intellectual and emotional levels and also become patient enough to just feel the song to the end.

Analogously, it took me a while to feel every note and idea in Jimi Hendrix's "1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" but now that is so ingrained in my consciousness I could practically sing all the parts to you from start to finish.

I feel like Rosetta Stone could be one of those songs as well.

I was immediately put off by the initial chaos as the song begins, which made me want to listen to it again so that I could understand it and not get restrained by emotional judgement. Inch by inch it grows on me.

So ultimately, I am significantly more familiar and comfortable with Third Eye (which makes me "like" it more), but am open to what Rosetta Stone holds and will stay willing to absorb it fully.

Definately Third Eye. Reason? Bill Hicks isn't on Rosetta Stoned.

Alot of the things that people seem put off about on Third Eye are things I initially couldn't stand either. Then I came to realize the song needs it. It builds up tension, again and again, then releases it, again and again. It's an emotional rollercoaster all the way. Rosetta Stoned is nowhere near doing anything like that to me, and I've been listening to it constantly for weeks. I love the song, but the only powerful part is between 7.00-9.00, and that part is over way too quickly. Third Eye keeps it going on and on, all the way to the end. It also manage to create an ingenius balance between low/calm parts and exploding insanity that leaves you gasping for air. It's like the very definition of Tool.

If you can lay down in bed, lights off, listen to Third Eye and then deny the, to me, obvious superiority of Third Eye compared to any other song of any band, then we must be listening to and liking Tool for very different reasons.

Third Eye, but RS has some eerie lyrics...

These two songs aren't even comparable.

You're suggesting it would be easier to write a new riff than:

* Move your hand a bit
* Play one note less

?!?

You're clearly not a musician. Any piece of music that gets written has more extensive development work done on it than that just in the process of writing the song. Third Eye will have had many, many more variations attempted on that riff than you hear on the finished song, and in all honesty it would surprise me not a jot if this was one of them.

As for the 11-is-cooler-than-12 argument... rubbish. Would you like to explain the order of coolness of time signatures, please? A time signature is just a different shape of canvas, what you paint on it is what grants it merit. A good painter can translate the rules of composition and visual form they understand from one shape or size of medium to another. Somebody being lazy could just guillotine off a couple of inches, utterly ruining the form of the picture. That doesn't make one shape artistically better than another, it's the method of creating inside that shape that grants the shape meaning.

In this case, that riff is considerably cooler in 12/8 and makes a lot more sense melodically. In the case of other pieces of music in 11 they certainly wouldn't sound better if you added another note on the end, it would sound redundant.

For example, there's some really cool East European music that phrases 11 as 3+2+2+2+2, and uses patterns which imply a near-constant three-over-two across the two sections, disguising where the bar lines are. That's quite cool. Just taking a comfortable 3+3+3+3 12/8 or triplet 4/4 pattern complete with stress points on the beat and then lopping off a single note is the most retarded, sophomoric approach to odd times on the planet. No culture has developed traditional rhythms that use these kind of approaches, they're the kind of thing you find happening in lame teenage prog bands. And Dream Theater.

Tool used to be better at odd-time playing than that. And they used to be better at coming up with new ideas, too.

No, I just think that the pattern in eleven is nonsensical while the one in 12/8 has internal consistency and musicality. Would Schism be better if I chopped off three notes and put it into 9/8 phrased as 2+3+2+2? Not really, because it would lose a lot of the musical meaning contained in those last three notes in each bar. Modifying art by chopping bits off is rarely an improvement if you accept that the artist knew what they were doing in the first place.

I do, but I don't accept they know what they're doing now.

Precisely -- it took me over a year to like "Third Eye;" for me, it's not about the "song," it's about the experience, and I finally figured that out. It's visceral art. RS doesn't have the same impact on me. But of course, in a year, that may change

It's way too soon to fairly judge anything on this album against the older material. The older stuff has been devoured a thousand times over by our minds. This new record is too complex to have a grasp on after a week, or even a month.

This question should be asked again in a year. Third Eye was the most amazing song the band had written at the time, and may (arguably) still hold that mantle, but Rosetta Stoned is more complex, utilizes more humor, is more gritty/vulgar, and as such seems to carry a different, more satirical element than Third Eye. This makes the songs different in powerful ways, and that distinction makes it a bit unfair to so flippantly compare them based on the simple facts that they are of similar length and that they share similar riffs.

Rosetta Stoned still needs some 'incubation" time and some sort of identity as a live piece before it is given a fair assessment, imo. Time is a revelator.

THIRD EYE ALL THE WAY!!!

both songs are excellent.

however, I see LK/RS (as well as WfM/10,000) as a culmination of a writing process that was begun with 3rd eye. I think one of the reasons most people love 3rd eye (aside from it being an truly excellent piece of music) is that it was the FIRST truly epic musical journey from tool. It is much easier for it to stand out among the rest of Œnima because (with the exception of the live pushit) it was the longest/most wandering song they had ever composed.

After lateralus, the length of these songs is now par for the course but I think they show incredible growth as musicians. It is easier to hold up the one epic among smaller, shorter, more "riffy" songs and say "look how great that is, it is so unique" than it is to say "this is just ONE great song among many" and still have it be better than the previous "one great".

my opinion: Lost Leys/Rostta Stoned = at least as good as Third Eye. Emotional, visceral song-writing at its very best.

I don't get why these 2 are being compared?? Like someone else said, apples and oranges. Like saying "Jimmy" or "10,000 Days"?? I think they're both great in their own respect.

I think they are being compared because of the similarities in how they sound and because of the dramatic changes both songs take over the length of their songs.

Just like I would compare Wings for Mary Pt I & II to the Disposition/Reflection/Triad trilogy. Similar sound and time.

Third Eye > Rosetta Stoned

Third Eye will always be my first love. But damn, is R.S catching up!

Third eye, like every other song from aenima is better IMO. The guitars and vocals do not come close to the soaring heights of the aenima tracks. disappointed with the fact that MJK doesn't use his full range on any of the new songs and they just fail to hit any heights.

Nothing will ever come close to evoking the effect that Third Eye does when listened to in the dark while stoned out of your mind.

Man after reading some of the responses, Im glad i loved third eye and rosetta stoned after first listen. Didnt waste any time trying to absorb those songs and forcing myself to like them.... I loved them first spin. Id be pissed if my stupid brain robbed me of finding enjoyment in either of these songs.

I'll probably get castrated for saying this, but i consider Third Eye as more of a segue and less of a song. It just sounds like nothingness and then out of nowhere, PRYING OPEN MY THIRD EYE!!! Just my opinion.

Honestly, both songs feel like they belong together. The first time I heard Rosetta Stoned, I thought "Wow, this is like Third Eye, only heavier and more consistent." To me, Rosetta Stoned isn't a ripoff of Third Eye, it's a continuation of it. Really, listen to both songs in a row. I could be totally wrong, but I have a feeling that Third Eye/Rosetta Stoned will be continued again on another song, similar to what Dream Theater did with The Glass Prison/This Dying Soul/The Root Of All Evil.

Or maybe I'm looking into this too much. Both great songs, anyway. I would say I like both equally. Third Eye builds up more, while Rosetta Stoned pummels you again and again while constantly shifting riffs. I'd say Third Eye is the better song, though I enjoy Rosetta Stoned more, if that makes any sense.

mabye this is just me being one dimensional but perhaps third eye and rosetta stoned are the same song. but instead of thinking its them just reusing old material think it could be them letting us into the real meaning of third eye. like mabye RS is the "rosetta stone" tor TE. just a thought

The songs are a little similar. But this song is comical, Third Eye is not comical in anyway. They're both about drug abuse, so I guess they're linked in that way, but musically Third Eye is more random and follows no set melody. The only songs I liked on this album were Rosetta Stoned and The Pot, because Maynard still sang in his traditional vocal style, but I still would say Third Eye is a better song than Rosetta Stoned.

I find it funny that there are people who think that this entire song is a "joke". These are probably the same people that thought the album title, artwork, and track titles were a joke when they were officially announced. The lyrics have comical moments, but this song has musical value, obviously. Aside from the rhythmically altered riff from Third Eye, there's a lot of new stuff going on there; the drum/bass groove towards the end is sick.

Pardon me for pulling out the Hooker w/ a Penis card, but I really am OGT since the first EP and personally I feel that a large majority of Tool fans are more interested in the songs with the harder edge or (perhaps more correctly) emotionally charged lyrics (as in angry). Hense the strong feeling on the part of most of the fans I've spoken with that Aenima is a better album than Lateralus. It's interesting to me that the favorite of most posters seems to be Third Eye vs. RS when they are beyond comparison. That's like saying "I think the stories my son wrote at 5 years old are better than the ones he wrote at 20." It's as if to suggest you'd rather the band not grow and evolve spiritually, personally, and therefor musically. Bottom line, RS doesn't take itself anywhere near as seriously as TE. I personally feel that a lot of you have a hard time with Tool laughing at themselves vs. yelling at someone else.

My apologies. Re-reading it now I see that I was more influenced by reading several of what was essentially the same post over and over again (by different folks) each saying that RS sucked, worst song ever, etc. My patience was thinner than I thought.

What the hell. All I see is "XXxxXX wins by a landslide".

Its not so god damn extreme of a difference.

I find the two songs to be very, very close in quality. But one or the othe definitely doesnt win by a "landslide", thats dumb.