anonymous 2008-02-25 11:59:23    

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Here’s my take on Rosetta Stoned. At first I dismissed this song in favor of others on the album. Then I gave it a good listen and now I really appreciate it…this song reminds my why Tool is so great.

Okay, so it this guy goes to the outskirts of area 51 and consumes ecstasy & dmt looking to have a religious experience...the kind of mystical experience that will change your whole perspective. Much to his astonishment he does! After all, “this shit never happens to me!” Now dmt has been know to cause serious hallucinations… of the kind more intense than LSD. It is found in many plants, and native cultures have used it in shamanic practices. Anyway, aliens visit this fellow and tell him he has been chosen to give urgent message to mankind. A message of how it will all end. Real or drug induced he is convinced this is for real.

He winds up strapped to a bed in a psych ward, no longer able to remember what his extraterrestrial friends told him. Alas, he forgot his pen! He is left with the impression of the event, the sense of urgency, but the specifics of the message elude him.

The expression “shit the bed” used in the song is derived from the emptying of the bowels that occurs upon death, and typically is associated with dying or being damaged beyond repair. For example, “Bob was real ill and finally shit the bed.” Other expressions such as “took a shit” or “crapped out” have a similar etymology. “My car took as shit on me today,” is another example. Additionally, the phrase has been used when someone screwed up enormously…which is how I believe it is used in the song.

This anecdote is so enjoyably ironic because the protagonist went in search of mystical enlightenment, an encounter with the supernatural, the extraterrestrial…found it, forgot it, and now his is in the crazy-house and no one believes him. I guess it all means be careful when you go in search of aliens, you just might find them…or they may find you!
Hope this helps those who thought the song was all about shitting in their bed.

anonymous 2008-03-12 13:21:07    

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Perhaps only a few words about the name of the song. Someone said it remains a mystery to him, however looking at it from this perspective, this may just be the answer. The stone Napoleon's troops found in Egypt took a long time to decypher, and some of it remains a mystery even today. Everyone is trying to decypher Tool's song here, even though nobody (or perhaps few) knows anything about the analysis of lyrics, and neither do i.

The song itself is amazing, I can't get enough of it. And to me, the title says enough about the lyrics. They are a mystery, that is the song's purpose. Perhaps there is a hidden meaning, and it may be a lot simpler than you think, but in my opinion it will take quite a while more until someone introduces the right one.

I am no critic or anything, just telling you what I think.
Peace

anonymous 2008-03-13 17:46:06    

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Basically if you've tripped enough, you should be able to understand this song very easily

I for one can relate to it

sirstab 2008-03-14 15:14:09    

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As I see it the song has several meanings
either its a guy on drugs who thinks he sees aliens because of the drugs and since he thinks he saw them and gave him an important message he goes crazy
or its a man with a destiny to be the messenger for an apocalyptic message but since fate isn't definite he turns out to be a drugie and the aliens give him a message and he can't do anything cause he was to druged up
or every one knows that tool hates scientology and since there are references to him like the line "my sweaty l. ron hubered uper lip" it could be a shot at l ron hubered calling him a druggie not the savior or a great leader

anonymous 2008-04-01 03:21:08    

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It is obviously just someone, probably Maynard, on a trip. Seeing ET ooze out of the bottom of a flaming banana that just split the sky, well that would scare me too. I've seen enough to know that all things seen in ones mind while on a trip are person specific. Maynard has always been the advocate of a "Humans are fucking everything up" concept. All this song is doing is giving us a glimpse into Maynard's head not warning us of our ways. Not in any specific manner that is. He is just showing us what a mind-fuck drugs really are and what happens when things get too intense, like shitting the bed lol

anonymous 2008-04-03 11:59:41    

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DMT has a very specific trip.it is mentioned in the song. 1of the main hallucinations is to see an alien or holy entity many subjects claim of seeing this with a large control panel. Supposedly the controls for the universe.apparently when on DMT you must remember: "be in awe but do not focus" I shit you not.David,17

anonymous 2008-04-06 15:34:20    

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So he's the chosen one.
There's nothing to interpret.
Except for maybe his warning.
We'd better listen.

anonymous 2008-04-09 13:52:02    

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It's definitely about a bad drug trip where the user thinks he is abducted by aliens.

DMT is Dimethyltryptamine a psychedelic drug found in plants and in small quantities naturally occurring in the body

anonymous 2008-04-22 15:53:11    

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Maynard specifically mentions DMT, which is a form of LSD which was first synthesized by a scientist named Brian Hoffman (Blame Hoffman, get it?...). DMT is unique in that many users experience trips where they think they see or have contact with aliens. Also, I think that it has some meaning of how drugs are bad because the guy in the song is a vegetable, can't tell the message and shitting the bed. I figure they experimenting with it, tripped pretty hard and wrote the song.

anonymous 2008-05-12 10:32:51    

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I think saying it's about drugs at all is a total cop out. it seems to me that the song isn't really taking the whole alien thing seriously either with the ET spooning reference. The title of the song reveals a lot, because the rosetta stone translated languages for us, the song is translating on a skewed level "stoned." So basically this person is aiming for a higher purpose, and the anticipation and excitement of it has got them shitting them selves... a lot. aliens and crazy images are just a metaphor for higher purpose.

Junoblue 2008-05-31 19:15:56    

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Everything here I've read so far is good. How 'bout this: it's a joke and the punch line is: "But I forgot my pen, typical"

anonymous 2008-06-12 16:38:17    

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DMT is the drug they talk about. listen to this song on it and it will mess with you and seem like it's vvverrrrrryyy long. ;) go Maynard.

Burial 2008-06-19 11:33:38    

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This Song to me and I'm sure others who have been in such a situation, is whilst on LSD, Maynard I believe has slipped out of his regular ways tripping wise, and gone further then he has ever been, and in doing this he has had a life defining trip, where I believe he has seen and talked to this alien, and he really has been warned and told he is the chosen one,.. I really feel it is a massive LSD trip, not a bad one as such just so fucking huge that he never knew his own mind could go that far... questioning if he is actually dead, taking into account my own experiences of such a thing, even the guitar, and drums and bass, characterize and compliment the lyrics if you will, its as if they all know what Maynard's feeling , also the rhythm is how your head reacts whilst in a bad trip as such.

Not wanting to be alone and hoping that people will believe him is so relevant to the meaning of the song, meaning that even though his close friends say yes.. I believe every word, it is no consolidation to Maynard because he has witnessed such things that even though they understand and agree with him , Maynard's had such an experience that unless each of us go there ourselves, we will never truly understand what he truly felt that faithful night.

Peace.

anonymous 2008-06-24 05:06:18    

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I have been reading a lot of what every body is interpreting out of this song I beleive that this story is actually about dr. Hoffman who first used dmt on his patients. I think that in the intro one of the patient he gave the dmt to is coming down, so he is asking him questions to see how the drug has affected him.as for the rest of the story, it is just the hallucination the poor guy got from being given the drug and by the story it sounds like he got a lot of it. as for when he woke up and started talking he was just retelling his story then slowly started forgetting it. I have friends who do heavy drug like this and they always tell me about the crazy things that happen to them even if they never even left the room.