This song is a true work of art, something that the band want it to be seen as annd someting that i think is the most beautiful song ever written. Does anyone care if it is just under 10 minutes long?

3 Replies

i love this song. and i dont want to sound like a ....
but the title is LateralUs ... it was a printing mistake.
I read it at toolband.com several weeks ago.

1 Reply

yes i know but it was writte on the cd like that and they didn't change Anemia did they?

from what i've been told by a few people is that when the band titles a song the same as the CD, they change the spelling of the song on the track listing. the same thing happens with the cd "Aenima" and the song "Aenema" I don't know if that's right, but it's what i've been told.

I totally agree. This song is amazing!

to me this song represents a look at industrialisation and how technology could take over the human race. the title of the song "Lateralus" is broken down to "Lateral-Us" like neffe mentioned. "Lateral" means side of, and so the title can be named "Side Of Us". This song is one of their very best.

1 Reply

To me, the song is simply about appriciating life for what it is, and enjoying it. Lets take a look...

"Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see."
Anyone else notice that the colors mentioned are the traditional "skin tones?" What does that have to do with it? I'm not sure.

"As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend."
In other words, open your eyes to other possibilities... what you don't see. What you can't see.

"Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines."
Don't think... feel. Don't stay within the boundaries of society. This song means a LOT to me... so much that I can't put it into words.

"Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come"
Take things as they are.

"I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human."
Like I said... its about appriciating life.

"With my feet upon the ground I lose myself
between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
I feel it move across my skin.
I'm reaching up and reaching out,
I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been."
Extra sensory... senses. Sense your enviornment. Simple, yet so very complex. Branch out... SPIRAL out.

2 Replies

Hey guys, awesome interpretations so far. Again this is everyone's THOUGHTS, so if I seem to dis anyone or anything by what I say, nothin bad intended. I think it's great seein what other people think. Anyway, on to the interpretation.
To begin with, I wanna clear up an earlier post. Colsy said the title was pronounced "Lateral-Us" (A mistake i made too for a long time) but it's really pronounced "Ladder-alice" (say it and it makes sense, i found this in the FAQ from toolshed.net). Instead of "Side of Us", i think the song deals with lateral parts (the bigger picture, as maynard put it). Anyway, it deals with the ability to have a physical life, as well as a spiritual one (In whatever god you chose to believe in).
"Black then white are all i see in my infancy" (at birth and early on you only see what's plain to the human eye, the physical side of life)
"Red and yellow came to be, reaching out for me" (how spiritual feelings creep up after sometime, and almost seem to make you realize a new side of life)

To keep from breaking down every line in the song (like i did on "the grudge") i'll just say that the next section deals with testing spiritual life (pushin that envelope, watching it bend, almost to see how far it will go). spiritual life takes you 'beyond the lines of reason'.

Yet he retracts these statements by talking about "OVER thinking, and OVER analyzing" (saying that there is a balance in spirit and body, don't push either ot the extreme, because you'll become separate humans, leading a LATERAL life)
Then he speaks about reaching out to embrace the random.... possibly spiritual meaning saying that he holds on to a belief hoping that he can eventually find truth in it.
The next part seems to be my strongest point of backing. he speaks about how he has the desire to do all of these wonderful (spiritual and physical) things, and he sums it all up by saying
"swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human" (think about it... the lateral lives of body and spirit NEVER have to each other, they can stay completely separate, but he longs to bring them together, to SPIRAL them, and make such a connection to feel DIVINE but remain a HUMAN.)

Next he backs my statement again. He speaks of 'keeping his feet on the ground', yet he also talks about an enlightenment of somekind 'opening wide to suck it in and feeling it move across his skin'.
He wants that connection of body and spirit, as everyone does. He'll continue to connect the 2 to push the boundaries and enlighten himself
"Spiral out, keep going...."

And interpretation is now done, thanks for botherin to read this terribly long post (as are all of mine, sorry bout that). Anyway, continue writin posts, i love to read em, and again this is only my opinion. Later...

i love this song so much.....at the peak of the song towards the end i get tingles up my spine everytime i hear it.....one of tools best....

If you read the book "Nothing in this book is true, but it's exactly how things are" you'll know exactly what this song is about. It's about sacred geometry and evolving to our next level of consciousness. That's just my opinion though.

Definitely sounds like it has something to do with racial issues to me... or trying to break through mental boundries or walls of ignorance and see what's on the other side. He's reaching out to something that he can barely touch or fathom... trying to understand what makes us human and still being human at the same time. Yet, as he tries to explore with his spiritual senses, he gets lost in his physical mind.
This is an amazing song... I can't begin to understand all he's trying to say.

I think that Maynard is again speaking about inner-self.
Growth. Things in life are simple, sometimes too simple
and then we see that thing or things that opens our eyes
to a little more. This leads to question ourselves and our environment. With this in mind, we must not let ourselves
take it so far that we miss out on opportunities and lose touch with our own intuitions. Like in all things there must be balance. The light of the moon when it's dark and the shade of a tree when it's bright.
It's obvious that Maynard is embracing these feelings or flags (red & yellow being colors to caution or alert.) that
come up causing him to question and grow. He is embracing his will and believes that it will cause him to encounter more in life. Take things for what they are, not what they appear to be....

good god you people write alot

A lot of good points have been made thus far, but there’s a few things I want to touch on. Many people interpret Maynard based on writings he has recommended. While I haven’t read many of his selected works, I feel his lyrics can be interpreted without a great deal of side research—particularly in Lateralus. So I’ll continue into the song…
We are born into the world with no real sense of the world. We start seeing things in black and white, good and bad, 1 or 0. But as we become more aware of ourselves and the world around us, we see these distinct lines blur, new colors, new concepts, are all out there, waiting to be understood, and adapted into our own lives. This is an eternal concept, starting ages ago for our ancestors, and will be for ages. We are here to stretch our own minds.

“Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.”
This is a key theme in the song. It can be interpreted many ways. I fist saw it as stating that over thinking, over analyzing is what differentiates the body from the mind. The eye is not aware it is an eye, but the brain is. That’s the difference. Thus, we are different from every other species of being we know of, in that we are aware, evolve, and grow.
But that’s not the only way to interpret it. Looking at further lines, leads me to believe that he is saying that over-thinking, over-analyzing is what creates a void between thought and action. Generally more contemplative people have a tendency to be more timid, a sociological concept that many may be familiar with. Thus, we must somehow seek the inspiration to act on our ideas. Rather than the usual black and white conversation, we must seek the strength to be open and honest about our ideas, our opinions, to leave ourselves vulnerable.

He continues to stress the need for inspiration. Here it seems like Maynard is writing in retrospection—reliving the agonies he must have had before he began writing, and exposing his ideas to the public. To reach out and be new, be bold, be daring. Bewilderment is a sense of detachment from explanation, to have something new to contemplate—something new to consider.

He then reverts out of retrospection. I feel the desire to… followed by imagery that is incredibly poetic, and powerful, from sadness to elation. Maynard then states, “to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be a human.” I still don’t know if I understand this line—but it is essential. From some reflection, he is essentially saying that we should continue to evolve, change, think, act, live, and love, to our fullest—become Godlike, or Christ-like if that image is clearer. Maynard is emphasizing this urge throughout the song, because it is difficult. So many things in society are constructed to block us from this goal. We want to be open, honest, and loving, but in a society filled with cynicism and hate, we need courage and desire to be the best people we can be.

“With my feet upon the ground I lose myself between the sounds…” Maynard states that he is just as much a part of Human kind as anyone else. He is open to the world around him, and welcomes everything it has to offer, good or bad. Maynard claims he is living by example, and compels us all to do the same. Following our drives may just take humanity where no one has been. After all, Maynard is not singing to Baby Boomers, or Soccer Moms, he is singing to societies youth. By living our lives, we set examples for others, and future generations, so by living a life of better humanity, we can improve society for later generations.

That’s all I can say for Lateralus now. By walking through that song again I realized myself some new things in the song. I think there is so much meaning in Lateralus that it will never be simply explained, I think it is designed for contemplation.


1 Reply

It is a song about spirituality. I don´t know wether, Maynard is practicing some meditational things, or realized these things through drugs, but most terms can be found in Zen-Buddhism.
-Black and white are Synonims for Duality (Yin and Yang)
-a main aspect in zen is:"you can´t experience the world in a whole, rationally"
-"the truth is beyond the words" or "beyond the lines of reason"
-overthinking and overanalyzing take away many possibilities for us
-in buddhism the world and god are not different things. god is the world. you can experience this through meditation. its like to bathe in the fontain. in this sense you are human and swing on the spiral of divinity
Zen is also just a word, but it points to what is within every spirituality, within every religion.
Maynard tries to describe this experience...but there is no way to describe it, you have to experience for yourselves.

This is what i think this song is about. Bare with me here next time you listen to this song think of this interpretation. And im not saying the other interpretations are wrong, but don't dismiss mine like its stupid or wrong. Anyway....here it goes

"Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend."

I believe this is Maynard telling all the fans, that he DOESN'T always see things with some deep meaning, because black and white is all he see's and he is still young. And eventually the red and yellow will come to be.

"Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines."

This is saying over analyzing the songs will separate your body from you mind. And then he is saying that these new interpretations withered his original meaning and he missed the oppurtunity to see it in that point of view. The he is finally saying that he feeds off these interpretations and uses them in his life.

The last part id like to look at is this


I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human.

He is saying finally he is embracing these interpretations, and feeling what the listener feels, in the words and the rhythm of the music and how some of the songs make you cry cause they touch you so much, and how he remembers how he was when he listened to music when he was younger. And finally he is saying "We are only human, yet you hold us up to be gods"

Anyway thats my interpretation of what has to be my favorite tool song...

Nice interpretation reverand. It's kind of ironic, a complicated song that everyone is trying to figure out the "deeper meaning" of being about how not everything is buried in deeper meanings.

Reverend, i think the bit about him saying, "stop over interpreting the songs" is completeley right I think people should stop putting the meaning of the song over the actual song and listening to it cause it sounds good not because it has a "message" fuck that for a joke.

It's just a song people. Not a holy text.

1 Reply

not a holy text? its maynard. maynard is god. thus, meaning anything maynard writes is holy :P

pertaining to the song... ive always been curious about the mention of white and black and yellow and red... and at another angle... those could be races... white (caucasian) and black (african) and yellow (asian) and red (native-american?). just my two cents... could be something like as he grows he sees different types of people? oh well. my two cents was never really worth much lol

1 Reply

this song is beautiful who cares how long it is i always have to listen to the whole damn thing. tool is so fuckin talented it amazes me

There's an interview Maynard did with a college professor that talks about how the spoken lyrics follow a mathematical formula... Here's the link...

http://www.cdicarlo.com/paper_04maynard.htm

To find out what this song is about, find out about reaching Merkaba. (and i dont mean the song merkaba)

I think that Maynard is screwing with our minds. I dont mean that tool sucks cause they are my favorite band. but i bet he is listening to people talk about his songs and giving their own opinions. he probably wrote about a tv show or somethig totally random like that. me and my friends brother think this and it makes sense, because some people think its about racism, religion, inner feelings, stuff like that. maybe he is just trying to get our minds to think below, above, and beyond all reasons.

FireKraken what are you talking about? Do you really think that maynard is a God or a Jesus figure? Don't make him out to be a dogma. That's the exact opposite of what Tool's music stands for.

Now, about the song. It has many meanings of course, this is the beauty of Tool. But I think maybe one thing it means is how a baby views the world. When a baby is born into the world he knows nothing. He observes the world with an open mind to everything. He doesn't know the purpose of things so he imagines them, because ,well, he has nothing better to do.
"Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see there is so much more
and beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn outside the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend."
This says it all, there are infinite possibilities to everything around a baby, and there is no reason. Also, a baby only sees black and white when they are born and other colors come later.

How would our lives be if we thought like this? Not seeing any limits to what we do, "to feel inspired." And to be open to all and everything that comes our way. To grow from every experience and grow beyond, what seems to be, our own limitations.
"Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come."

This song is amazing and I think Lateralus is Tool's best album.