anonymous 2007-07-05 10:51:23    

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Just so you guys know, the title of the song is spelled "Rosetta Stoned." However, I didn't misspell it by accident; it is spelled "Roseta Stoned" when you put the CD in your computer and read the title. So that is why it is spelled that way on here.

anonymous 2007-07-25 01:57:20    

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Has anyone made the connection that Maynard is playing a character that is tripping so hard and talking so fast, that it seems as though he is shot up with a sedative in the hospital. After the first two verses his voice changes as if he is almost sleepy. The doctor gives him something to relax him.

This happens to be my favorite part of my favorite song by my favorite band (sorry). MJK is basically acting and singing during this song as he portrays this character who is out of his head on LSD.

Brilliant, but what else would you expect from the best band/artists to ever assemble.

anonymous 2007-07-25 08:12:09    

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I think this song is personal to Maynard in a weird way.

For him, drugs have opened his third eye. He feels he has gained personal, spiritual, etc knowledge from drug use and self-reflection. The song isn't about how he can't remember it, or forgot to write it down, it's about people's inability to understand it. He feels he cannot accurately describe in words, or even music the revelations he's experienced, and that the only way to gain them is through careful reflection, with Tool's music as a guide. The song is a "Rosetta Stone" of sorts because it tells you how you should listen to them. Not necessarily tripping balls, but attentively. He's tired of not being truly listened to. Not being taken seriously, as is the guy in the song. He KNOWS something profound is going on, its making the rest of this stupid race take him seriously that is the problem.
Throughout the song, he references several things that may make one less attentive to the music e.g. using drugs the wrong way (X, Yogi, DMT), religion (my sweaty L. Ron Hubbard upper lip/Contemplating the whole "chosen people" thingy), conspiracy theorists or alarmists in general (Area 51), pop culture (box of Krispy Kremes/stopping right at my Birkenstocks/using pop culture icons to describe the beings), TV/Movies(I hope Uncle Martin here/E.T./The Matrix)our own egos, even (in my "need to know" pose).
Maynard feels like a normal guy given an extraordinary gift that he doesn't know how to communicate to people because all of these things keep blocking his way. If we really want to understand Tool's message, we need to listen to this song to figure out what about ourselves is personally stopping us from understanding it, and use it to open our Third Eye.

anonymous 2007-08-03 13:12:31    

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I have looked at many interpretations of this song on quite a few websites. Some nonsensical ramblings, some very deep and thought provoking. What no one seems to be getting, and if you know the song this will make sense is this:
"Won't know, don't know"
Perhaps we aren't meant to know what this ones hidden meaning is...
Hmmm.

Traversez36 2007-08-18 03:03:19    

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Would it be crazy to say this song is about a DXM trip. DXM is a dissociative with hallucinogenic properties in the dark and has LSD like closed-eye visuals. Seeing aliens, being told you are the chosen one. Also being strapped to his bed: it is hard, sometimes impossible, to move on a high plateau DXM trip. Shitting the bed is also common of someone who doesn't take pure DXM and just uses cough medicine. "Dead head chemistry" it isn't that difficult to extract DXM from cough medicine. DXM also makes you feel like you have a greater sense of why you are on the earth but when you wake up in the morning you have no recollection of what happened or what you may have been told by "aliens" or some higher being. I know it sounds simple but I just believe this is what it is about. He could also have been using sudafed to balance the DXM with psuedoephedrine because you often feel like you are going to die or are dead on that shit. Some trips can last an entire day especially if you use Dextromethorphan polistirex which causes a time release, "Will I ever be coming down." A high pulse rate is another side effect of DXM "...my heart is racing..." The majority of Tool fans "overanalyze and overthink" too much that they can forget how simple somethings can be. I don't take this song to be very serious and just simply having fun. I wouldn't condone the use of DXM but I'm sure some have dabbled with it here... if not... give it a try and listen to this song and see what you think.

anonymous 2007-08-19 13:13:33    

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In the beginning of the song SHE'S got X, yogi DMT ( dimethyltriptamine - I think) and some donuts and when she talks about "deadhead chemistry" the next line says "Blotter got right on top of me", LSD. This song is twisted, hilarious, brilliant, etc. but, to me, it's about a chick named Rosetta who tripped a little too much. loved the fact that they played it at Bonnaroo! oh the irony.

Disturbed1 2007-09-01 23:02:31    

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My interpretation of this song is that the charcter is going through a sort of dream.

During the end of "lost keys" the doctor and the charcter have a conversation ( one sided but you get what I mean), in which the doctor wants to know "what happened". The character spills out all this information that, in a concious sense, never happened.

The character then, still in his sub-concious state realizes no one will beileve him. The character then wakes up,and truely beileves that his dream was real happenings. He tries to remeber "what they said", but doesn't know and won't know.

anonymous 2007-10-05 10:29:08    

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In the opening lines, Maynard refers to Yogi DMT. DMT as many know, is a very powerful hallucinogen. It is much more potent than acid and although lasts for a very short time, is a very intense trip. From studies, it has become evident that contact with supposed Supernatural forces are experienced during the trip. Majority of people experience alien encounters, so it is almost inevitable that this persons trip would have a supernatural encounter. I think in this song, Maynard is explaining someones trip (possibly his own) and it is an escape for him. The whole album I feel relates to his mother and this song is about his attempts to escape his sorrow. But it all falls apart as he realizes it is only a temporary measure.

paja713 2007-10-05 19:51:40    

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Its not about a chick named Rosetta, idiot. the title refers to the Rosetta Stone. The irony of the title and song is that the Rosetta Stone had every character in many languages that made it possible for that one guy to read the dead language of Egypt; and the song is about a person being told something extremely important by an alien life form created by an intense acid/DMT trip, but isn't able to remember what he was told the next day. So its kind of like being told the meaning of life and not remembering it the next day. Its not about Scientology, and its definitely not about some girl named Rosetta.

anonymous 2007-10-05 22:12:45    

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Maybe this song is simply about communication.

Obviously, the person in the song is confused about what he saw. He obviously saw something, but can't communicate it. Who knows what he saw, but he's confused.

Maybe he's relating authority to this (which includes organized religion), the fact that we are led to believe anything.

Really though, with an abstract poem as such, only the writer will know the true meaning. All we can do is guess.

anonymous 2007-10-16 17:52:14    

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My interpretation of this song is that the protagonist in the story has a really insane trip, which everyone seems to agree on. Regardless of how he has it (i.e. which drugs he has taken, although I like the theory of 3 drugs fitting with the Rosetta stone).

So what I want to add is that the person who had the trip actually believes he is the chosen one. Believes he is special in some way because he changed how his mind works. This is dangerous as it will lead you to think that the drug is the enlightenment and not your brain which has by the way been refined by thousands and thousands of generations through evolution (and if your stupid enough to believe a religion, through intelligent design). This insignificant person believes aliens would contact him, give him the message even though he admits himself that he is unimportant and has accomplished nothing. So if you live in this world (thinking the trip had consequence outside your mind) the drugs will destroy your potential by letting you think you are already the greatest person, actually believing your better than others because of your drug experiences.

Personally I have felt this feeling while tripping on LSD, that the world is my construction, that everything I think is right. Never had an alien abduction experience but imagine it would make this feeling more intense as the world would actually then be your construction.

So it scares me that most people commenting about this song think it's portraying tripping in a good way, which I think Tool believes is true but this is showing how it is dangerous and why people get screwed by it.

The person is in my opinion obviously not Maynard because of the simple language he uses and the pop culture references.

It's supposed to show how other people laugh at you for taking your trips so seriously.

On another note, after listening to this song for ages and finally deciding to read the lyrics I just couldn't stop laughing, they are hilarious.

Sorry for the long post, and it probably doesn't even make sense. So hard for non artists like me to convey what they are thinking in such an elaborate way. If this song has no deeper meaning then it is contradictory to the title, and they always leave clues such as the title to the track. It's been bugging me though, Lost Keys, seems like it's saying there's something that we are not seeing needed to decode this song. (The Rosetta Stone was only fully decoded when they used a key from a different hieroglyphic writing which they knew the meaning of which appeared on the stone (I think it was a name) ) Tried looking at the Wiki article about the stone just before posting but got pretty much nothing.

AMAZING SONG :)

anonymous 2007-10-16 18:01:37    

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My

I.know.the.truth 2007-10-18 22:38:39    

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The guy is crazy, the words he speak make sense to him, the doctor asked him if he could tell him everything....the words make no sense but, you have to think like a crazy person in the mental institution...

nataS 2007-12-17 17:34:43    

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This is a song about a DMT trip. DMT is an illegal smokable hallucinogen that lasts for about 20 minutes. When people do psychedelic drugs, they think of prolific shit, but usually kick themselves for forgetting it. I guess Maynard wrote one down

Castor 2007-12-22 06:54:20    

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I don't think this song is about Maynard, just a metaphorical person. He thinks that because he is nobody that nothing important could happen to him but when it does he becomes "overwhelmed as one would be placed in my position..." He has discovered how truly dangerous mediocrity is because that left him unprepared for the responsibility he is given "...but I forgot my pen shit the bed again, typical" He is afraid of failure because he has been mediocre his whole life, and for the first time he cares and it scares him.

Sukka_MC 2007-12-26 18:34:21    

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As you may or may not know, Tool has experimented with drugs. But what differs them from other rock/metal bands is that rather than using stupid drugs like crack they used mind expanding drugs(psychedelics) such as DMT. For example, that big star looking thing on Danny Carey's bass drum is called the unicursal hexagram and it was revealed to him in a vision he had while on DMT. DMT is the most powerful psychedelic drug known to man. In short, its the chemical in your brain excreted by your pineal gland when you sleep which causes you to have dreams. It can also be found is certain types of plants. If you want to know more about DMT go to google and type ``joe rogan DMT`` and watch the video, trust me its woth it and it will help you understand the meaning behind a lot of tools songs and especially their artwork.

So now for the meaning of the song:

This song is simply about Maynard's experience with DMT. He talks about taking it and he talks about the visions he had while on it. The alien that delivered the message is not a metaphore it is in fact what the alien said to Maynard during his 5 minute DMT trip. The part where he says SHIT THE BED is because when you smoke DMT the visions hit you so hard that you actually shit your pants. I forgot my pen is him trying to remember what happened during his trip because when you take DMT, your brain is trying to protect you from what you just saw which is why you forget most of it when you come out of it.

So contrary to what you may all believe, there is no hidden metaphore behind this song, it is just Maynard ranting in a schizophrenic state about what he saw while he was on this powerful drug. If your at all interested in DMT then trust me you want to check out that video I mentionned earlier and you will see that this is some of the most interesting shit on the planet.

Dale86 2008-01-07 04:30:51    

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It's easy to believe many of the interpretations for Rosetta Stoned. I am possibly thinking a bit too deep, as others may be, but here goes...
I think that it could have nothing to do with Maynard on a trip. He is putting himself in the shoes of the many ignorant beings or people that just frankly don't give a damn about the earth. I mean that if one of these people did go through some strange spiritual moment and was given the answer to creation or given a message that the world is in need of knowing, they wouldn't take in any of it and only take in the whole 'Woah! that was tripped out man!'.
Basically, it's talking about the mentality of the majority of the people in this world. They are either fixated in their belief or don't care what happens, as long as they don't have to see it happen. To me, it's a message to us all, that we need to look further into it and not just take it as what we see.
OR...maybe he was fucked up on a manner of drugs and had the weirdest trip of his life and simply had to share it with us.
Who knows?

RosettaStoned 2008-01-16 23:34:34    

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I believe there is a deep message to this song but I'm not sure exactly what it is yet. First of all, lipan conjuring, lost keys and rosetta stoned are all connected. I was doing some research on the lipan indians and the objective of them taking hallucinogenic, peyote is for "Religious ecstasy, visions, and communications with supernaturals are the shaman's prerogatives and validate his power and efficacy". This is exactly what Maynard says, X(religious extacy), yogi DMT (I think acid is connects with spiritual visions while dmt is known to cause communication with the supernatural). but even bigger, lost keys and rosetta stoned are both KEYS to something more important. Perhaps to other albums and songs like Faaip de Oiad or the patient. The rosetta stone was known to be very difficult to translate, so this may take a while to understand the full meaning of the song's context. Maybe we can look at some of what may appear as bullshit rambling as clues

anonymous 2008-02-24 18:44:15    

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Anyone that has ever researched DMT knows the effects and one of the many effects is speaking to extra terrestrials. I think it is one of maynards real life experiences. It says on the toolband web site that the band likes to go to the area 51 base and see if they can find anything. So obviously he has tried before no no avail. He goes back there, after knowing more than a little bit about dmt, and dose a bunch of drugs, lsd x and dmt, and describes his trip. many people who take dmt write their experiences afterwards so maybe its a section of his trip journaling.

anonymous 2008-02-24 20:56:46    

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There's probably a deeper meaning behind this song, but at the surface, it sounds like a typical DMT trip.

Many people report contact with aliens or other entities while under the effects of DMT. Also, Maynard talks much faster at the beginning of the song, which is much like a psychedelic trip. It's as if the thoughts are coming fast and many. Eventually as the song progresses, his voice becomes slower, as he's "coming down", or trying to make sense of things.

It's also clear that the person in this experience is lost as to whether they are dead or alive, which is another trait of DMT and other psychedelics.

People also claim to discover the meaning of life, and other great realizations about themselves while they're tripping, but tend to forget everything they learned once they come down.

That's just what it is on the surface. Maybe Maynard is using the idea of trying to decipher a revelation such as this into the real world, or something of that nature.