iAMtheMA!

(please be unwilling to quote the following in it's entirety as it is the thread's main statement - and a lengthy one at that)


alright, i've gone through just about every toolnavy post within this track section, as i usually do before posting any of my thoughts (which in doing so prevents all the unnecessary and otherwise regurgitated shit to a minimum), but surprisingly enough NOTHING has even come close to what i've been able to put to theory in the last three to four hours (while stoned, of course). oh, and by the way, this is december 14th, 2006 - we're some 13 years or so behind! - so, i'm kinda disappointed with this particular "miss", especially since it easily kicked my ass and yet fortified MANY of my previous ideas within the album (the open-mind is still there, i simply consider THIS closer). just keep in mind that i realize there are many fine opinions and conclusions concerning this track, and this (as with the rest of 'em) is more likely to be incorrect than anything ...i do know this, so need to go there.

first off, let's define the terms; before any interpretations are discussed, we're gonna need a frame of reference, right? i've decided to go with the information translated by the hard-working OCD individuals over at tooltabs.net for the track's guitar and bass tablatures, i'm not a drummer (but i'd love to hear from the more experienced percussionists for their views), and i've chosen to go with the following lyrics (instead of toolband or toolshed's crap):



two times in i've been struck dumb by a voice
that speaks from deep beneath the endless water

it's twice as clear as heaven twice as loud as reason
even rich like silt on a riverbed and just as neverending
the current's mouth below me (yeah) opens up around me
suggests and beckons all while swallowing
surrounds and drowns and washed me away

oh but i'm so comfortable so comfortable

shut up shut up shut up shut up you're saturating me
how could i let this bring me back to my knees

third time in i've been baptized by a voice
that screams from deep beneath the cold black water

it's half as high as heaven half as clear as reason
cold and black like silt on a riverbed and just as neverending
the current's mouth below me opens up around me
suggests and beckons all while swallowing
surrounds and drowns and washed me away

oh but i'm so comfortable so comfortable

shut up shut up shut up shut up you're saturating me
how could i let it happen (???/again/to me?)
why don't you kill me i am weak and numb and insignificant
how could i let this bring me back to my knees

euphoria euphoria euphoria euphoria

i'm back down i'm in the undertow
i'm hopeless and on the way i'm in the undertow
lie dead beneath the undertow
there doesn't seem no other way out of the undertow

euphoria



so, if any of what i'm about to suggest seems "off" from what you've been hearing for all these years (or from what you've wrongly accepted as "official"), well... this is where i'm at. and i feel it'd certainly benefit each member of this collective fanbase to actually go to the effort, to understand that the lyrics i've presented above are a much more accurate variant, and those specific guitar/bass tabs have been pined over and verified from MANY live clips and quality ears. let's do this already... (i suppose i should've mentioned that this won't work for people without legs. well... no, fuck it, it doesn't mean you all don't have imaginations - jus' sway your head from side to side or something).



sooooooooo fuckin' easy, ready?
1. determine the hard beats within the song
2. find your right leg and then find your left
3. utilize your right leg to indicate the first beat
4. then your left for the second
5. right for the third, left for the fourth, and so on...
6. walk, stumble, land, and run throughout the song.
that's it. :)



i know i'm keeping is base, but try that, let it stew, and come back to me. the visuals, nay, an entire world, kinda popped out to me on the above and all-too-simple premise ...alas, if more information is said to be required of me, i'll certainly be around for whatever. but before i conclude these ramblings, notice the ritards (or slowing down of the tempo) and walk to them ...it feels like we're struggling to walk on our own, we're in the undertow again - and as all the complicated shit and "over-thinking" of this reality flies by, you're struggling now to find your own rhythm which knocks you around every which way (but as complicating as it may seem, the 5302105302060530210530103060 indeed repeats - as if it's the same old shit, over and over again).

this is another "think for yourself" theory, yeah, but more like "master your own stride". that's what i get from this song (now that i've found that tool has thrown us into it first hand ...i mean, within this medium, within their music). the track is easily within my top five now that i've gone through this revelation. let's remain humbled, though, this is the first time i've heard anything along these lines and undertow was released back in '93.

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i know, shit!

There is no spoon

I still thinks the other lyrics that I posted in the other thread are a bit more on the money

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Debbie's smiling and waving her gun...
Picking off cheerleaders one by one

iAMtheMA!

irrelevant. i've already stated that these are my terms. we can certainly go into detail how yours just don't seem to add up to the recording (maybe if i publicize my thought process in sticking with my version of the lyrics, you may understand it a little better).

edit: http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=70725 (go back here if you want to see a comparrison of the lyrical transciptions for "undertow", as done up by: iAMtheMA!, There is no spoon, and toolshed.down.net/lyrics/undertowlyrics.php). thirteen years and counting, this is fuckin' retarded...

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i know, shit!