Top Rated Interpretation

anonymous July 17th, 2006 08:32AM  

the band almost always says their songs are meaningless or about some random thing that doesn't seem to have great purpose, but if you also take a look at one of their goals, which is to help people to think for themselves, then you have to look past even their own words to find any meaning that they would have tried to plant there for us.
a lot of their songs seemed to be based off of how they feel about things.
when they say

Life is a waterfall
We're one in the river
and one again after the fall

The lyrics rush you with several meanings at once.
Life is a waterfall, what do we notice about waterfalls?
They fall downwards, so life brings us down. Isn't it true? The actual reality of the things that go on in the world, murders, rapes, death, it can really bring you down if you acknowledge them. Another thing about a waterfall is that it never exists on its own, it always has a source, like a river or a stream. So if a waterfall is the acknowledgement of the terrible things in the world and letting it bring you down, what could the river be? The time before you realize what goes on in the world, often times this is your childhood. So when we're one in the river, and we're one again after the fall, it shows we are ourselves before and after the reality if life hits us and brings us down. Is that true for everyone? No, but think about it. When we were living as children with not a worry in the world, we were ourselves. Then once we began figuring out how the world worked and what happens in the world, we probably had a time of inner conflict where we had to figure things out, and after we figured/figure it out can adjust to it and find ourselves again.

Swimming through the void
we hear the words
we lose ourselves
but we find it all?

I'm going to skip to the second line to help you understand the first later.
We hear the words, we lose ourselves but we find it all. Well when we hear the words, we are being told or educated something. Following up on the previous meaning, we are probably finding out about the reality of life. After we find out about life, we lose ourselves but we find it all, which means we are given the full picture of what's going on, so we find out about everything (or do we? that's why there's a question mark there). So this part is describing the actual fall of life.
So what is the void?
Since we are still swimming through the river of life, the void is the place right "before" the fall. It is the image of life and what we believe to be true that we are living out before we actually know, and then we "hear the words" (are educated about what really goes on in the world) and then the "fall" takes place while we deal with what we have found out.

Cause we are the ones that want to play
always want to go
But you never want to stay

and we are the ones that want to choose
always want to play
but you never want to lose.

this describes our nature during our time in the Void or before the actual fall takes place. These descriptions of who we are is what makes the fall so devastating to us.
Cause we are the ones that want to play:
we don't want to have to take things seriously, we want to just have fun and be kids, without responsibility, and living in happy ignorance.
When reality hits us, we can no longer "play" we have to "work" and "survive".
Always want to go, but you never want to stay.
Humans in general are never really satisfied, we always strive for more and we always want.
we always want to go out and try to gain what we want, but we never stay satisified with it.
When reality hits us, we can't always get what we want and sometimes we do have to try and stay with what we have.
and we are the ones that want to choose
Humans want to be in control generally, and we want to choose for ourselves and sometimes others. When reality hits us, we don't always have this kind of control and we don't always get to choose what we get or what happens to us.
we always want to play but we never want to lose
this is a given, who wants to lose at anything? but when reality hits us, what happens? we find out that sometimes we have to lose, we can't win everything.

So those lines described us in the void.

Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life.

Aerials are just things in the sky. Basically this part is saying, think big, don't think with a "small mind", think about the big picture, and it will free your life.

Life is a waterfall
we drink from the river
then we turn around and put up our walls

life is a waterfall just shows us that we are speaking of the river AFTER the fall at this point. We drink from the river, then we turn around and put up our walls. So we experience life now knowing what it is like since we are after the falls and we have experienced life, so instead of accepting it, we turn around and put up our walls. For those of you that don't know, walls in psychological terms is rejecting or blocking something out to protect yourself. In this case we are protecting ourselves against life, after tasting what it's like after gaining an understanding of it, so this stanza or whatever its called just shows us what we think of life knowing what it is now. This is probably before we are ourselves again, what we are like before we adapt to life's reality and become ourselves again.

Aerials, in the sky,
When you lose small mind,
You free your life.
Aerials, so up high,
When you free your eyes,
Eternal prize.
Aerials, in the sky,
When you lose small mind,
You free your life.
Aerials, so up high,
When you free your eyes,
Eternal prize.

This is just saying the same thing as before, think big rather than thinking with a small mind. Think of the big picture. Think as big and tall as the aerials in the sky. Adapt to life knowing what it is, now that you have gained the new understanding

thanks for reading
-ryan (look past the obvious to the truth)