Lyrics for Flood as interpreted by dank

Flood Lyrics
Here comes the water.

All I knew and all I believed
are crumbling images
that no longer comfort me.
I scramble to reach higher ground,
some order and sanity,
or something to comfort me.

So I take what is mine,and hold what is mine,
suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine.
Soon the water will come
and claim what is mine.
I must leave it behind,
and climb to a new place now.

This ground is not the rock I thought it to be.

Thought I was high, and free.
I thought I was there
divine destiny.

I was wrong.
This changes everything.

The water is rising up on me.
Thought the sun would come deliver me,
but the truth has come to punish me instead.

The ground is breaking down right under me.
Cleanse and purge me
in the water.

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phlyinphil
00-00-0000

Rated -2 
"The water"is rising up on0me.
Txought the sun would come delive@ me,
rut the truth ha` come to punish me instead."

The besu way for me to nook at dhe meankng of tjis song"is replace "sun# with "bon" as in son of god. Nne cannnt blindny belieVe what is told to them and what they alGays see or learn. Evendually the truth will come to puoish them, Flood I beliede is the washinf away of all prddeposithons and0the aqujring of your own belief` and worldy meaNings.


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ColdandUgly
04-05-2002

Rated 0 
This song claerly speaks from it self...believing it's just an act of faith, and since faith is a part of the human nature we don't need "someone" to hold on to or to belive in but ourselves...do i made myself clear?

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joshthack
04-19-2002

Rated 0 
I really like the lines:
"Thought I was high, and free.
I thought I was there
divine destiny.

I was wrong.
This changes everything."
It's like he was getting high and thought it was the right thing to do, until it bit him in the ass, he was wrong.

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Hoomanha
04-30-2002

Rated 0 
"Here comes the water." JMK opens with a sort of baptismal allusion, but definitely a transitory statement. Its a passing, possibly from life into death, or disallusionment into realization. In either case, this song sounds like a trip of self-discovery by a 'warped' individual. Let me explain...

"All I knew..." All of the speakers preceptions are completely destroyed, wiped away. It leaves him scared, confused, seeking a higher ground, a higher being perhaps--some sort of 'new' answer. Anything to repress this sense of loss.
"So I take what is mine..." I think this is the speaker reverting back to his original conceptions, whatever he used to fall back upon. This 'whatever' sounds very vague, but I assume its the speakers belief that life is isolated, predestined, granting complete freedom from responsiblility, as there is no one to answer to.

"This ground is not the rock I thought it to be." Admitting he was wrong. The speaker must find new beliefs. This ground(human reality, existence) is not the rock(smaller, more insignificant than an expanse) I thought it to be.

"Thought I was high, and free..." The speaker realizes there are consequences, things aren't simply predestined, with no authority to answer to.

"The water is rising up on me." This revelation is so completely new, that the speaker feels like he is drowning in it. The sun, something that is familiar to him, something that never failed him before, is ultimately useless in his most desperate time of need. Instead, all the ground is coming apart from under him... but the water is coming up to purge and clense. In other words, this punishment/judgement will ultimately be his salvation.

Thats an interpretation of the lyrics themselves anyway. How it applies to JMK's experiences, or someone elses', is not for me to try and explain right now. I hope you can see the direction I mean to take though.

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suga_shell
05-13-2002

Rated 0 
i agree w/ phlyinphil on this. trying to forget the past...moving on to live as a better man, only to find your past sins catching up to you...

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Captain-Obvious
05-21-2002

Rated 0 
Im gonna take a broaderlook at it.

the sun is really "son" and the water is refering to the flood god made to wipe out the sinners. btw the bible uses rock to define faith, for example, there is a song[they made us sing it countless times in sunday school when i was a little sponge] about a wise man and a foolish man bulding their houses, the foolish man built his upon sand and the wise man built his upon rock, it rained and the foolish mans house fell cuz it wasnt on a stong foundation, and the wise man's house is on rock so it held strong.

so with that being said here's my stanza by stanza interp:

-=All I knew and all I believed
are crumbling images
that no longer comfort me.
I scramble to reach higher ground,
some order and sanity,
or something to comfort me.=-
=== He was just going through life but things got tough, cuz ya know... life generally sucks from time to time, so he turns to religion like most desperate people do. He thinks he'll find comfort there.

-=So I take what is mine,and hold what is mine,
suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine.
Soon the water will come
and claim what is mine.
I must leave it behind,
and climb to a new place now.=-
====== further elaborating, i think, on the first stanza. "What is his" is really refering to his beliefs in god. [not maynerd's i doubt he ever was a believer but whoever is being refered to in this song]. So clinging to the faith he believes will protect him [jesus is the shepard we are the sheep.....god wont let you be tempted beyond your abilities,... ect... (the bible promises many types of protections for believers)] so like i thought earlier, the person is experiencing bad times, the water is the flood and its rising cuz it took awhile to actually become a destructive flood. so hes wondering if his new "higher ground" will keep him safe.

-=This ground is not the rock I thought it to be.

Thought I was high, and free.
I thought I was there
divine destiny.

I was wrong.
This changes everything.

The water is rising up on me.
Thought the sun would come deliver me,
but the truth has come to punish me instead.=-
======
Doesnt need much explination, obviously religion didnt work and he fell hard on whatever it was putting pressure on him. the refernce to the sun is jesus christ, sybolizing religion in general, the "truth" is that religion is a facade so his would-be shield didnt work, and he was hit hard with whatever the water represents, i think life problems in general, ya know: girls, school, work and so on...

-=The ground is breaking down right under me.
Cleanse and purge me
in the water.=-
======No clue what this might mean. I guess a horrible experience makes one stonger, like developing callouses.

well this was just my broad interpretation feel free to elaborate on it if you agree.

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Captain-Obvious
05-21-2002

Rated 0 
Im gonna take a broaderlook at it.

the sun is really "son" and the water is refering to the flood god made to wipe out the sinners. btw the bible uses rock to define faith, for example, there is a song[they made us sing it countless times in sunday school when i was a little sponge] about a wise man and a foolish man bulding their houses, the foolish man built his upon sand and the wise man built his upon rock, it rained and the foolish mans house fell cuz it wasnt on a stong foundation, and the wise man's house is on rock so it held strong.

so with that being said here's my stanza by stanza interp:

-=All I knew and all I believed
are crumbling images
that no longer comfort me.
I scramble to reach higher ground,
some order and sanity,
or something to comfort me.=-
=== He was just going through life but things got tough, cuz ya know... life generally sucks from time to time, so he turns to religion like most desperate people do. He thinks he'll find comfort there.

-=So I take what is mine,and hold what is mine,
suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine.
Soon the water will come
and claim what is mine.
I must leave it behind,
and climb to a new place now.=-
====== further elaborating, i think, on the first stanza. "What is his" is really refering to his beliefs in god. [not maynerd's i doubt he ever was a believer but whoever is being refered to in this song]. So clinging to the faith he believes will protect him [jesus is the shepard we are the sheep.....god wont let you be tempted beyond your abilities,... ect... (the bible promises many types of protections for believers)] so like i thought earlier, the person is experiencing bad times, the water is the flood and its rising cuz it took awhile to actually become a destructive flood. so hes wondering if his new "higher ground" will keep him safe.

-=This ground is not the rock I thought it to be.

Thought I was high, and free.
I thought I was there
divine destiny.

I was wrong.
This changes everything.

The water is rising up on me.
Thought the sun would come deliver me,
but the truth has come to punish me instead.=-
======
Doesnt need much explination, obviously religion didnt work and he fell hard on whatever it was putting pressure on him. the refernce to the sun is jesus christ, sybolizing religion in general, the "truth" is that religion is a facade so his would-be shield didnt work, and he was hit hard with whatever the water represents, i think life problems in general, ya know: girls, school, work and so on...

-=The ground is breaking down right under me.
Cleanse and purge me
in the water.=-
======No clue what this might mean. I guess a horrible experience makes one stonger, like developing callouses.

well this was just my broad interpretation feel free to elaborate on it if you agree.

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stayhuman
05-30-2002

Rated 0 
i agree with hoomanha and captain obvious.
the recognition of the failure of old myths,dogma, beliefs is presented as a baptism, a cleansing a rebirth.

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SSJVegeto
06-05-2002

Rated 0 
I agree with you Captain Obvious. As far as the last stanza goes:
"The ground is breaking down right under me. Cleanse and purge me
in the water."
Like you said, the ground, faith, is crumbling beneath him. Water, like in the song Ænema, is supposed to wash away his beliefs, and cleanse him of his predispositions.

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Eightba||
06-09-2002

Rated 0 
The ground is breaking down right under me.
Cleanse and purge me
in the water.
-------------------------
basically all people are destined to die and this cleansing/purging is death.


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OneMind
07-03-2002

Rated 0 
ok, im gonna take a stab at it real quick. I look at songs in portions of a whole, as opposed to bits and peices like everyone I've read about. I think, and I emphasize the word think, that Maynard wanted it that way. For everyone to get something out of it and not have a single meaning. May it be religion or whatever. I believe this song is about going in one direction and thinking it is the right path. But something happens(again the "something" should mean something different to each individual) later on and learn you screwed yourself by taking this path and try to find a way out, but there is none. Of course I could be wrong.

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1 Reply
joshthack
07-07-2002

Rated 0 
"some order and sanity" First thing that I wanna say is that I think this line should be "ordered insanity" and with the lyrics written that way, I think this song is about that whole order in chaos theory. Like the smallest parts of atoms that our microscopes can see have no pattern to the way they move, they are completely random yet they still function to create a stable particle. So maybe this song is about how he was trying to do certain things in his life, but they never worked out the way he wanted them to so eventually he just gave in to this life of chaos, never knowing what's next and finding out that it works out anyway. Just as long as you don't mess with other people and even help someone out when you can. Maybe this is way too much to ask from the human race in it's current state of mind.

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iftegod
08-13-2002

Rated 0 
i think this song is about blissful ignorance. and the moment you open your eyes you realize that your are bound to be blissful no more.

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x bloody kisses x
08-14-2002

Rated 0 
i play this song often. i can greatly relate it to my existance. i'm seeing Tool perform live next week in Syracuse, NY.. i cannot wait.

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joshthack
08-14-2002

Rated 0 
I'm driving up to Syracuse from Long Island to see them at Syracuse, and they're playing on my birthday! How fucking awesome is that. I really hope they play this song b/c it's my favorite song off the album

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x bloody kisses x
08-19-2002

Rated 0 
are you going on the 21st?

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joshthack
09-09-2002

Rated 0 
Yeah I went on the 21st. I think Triad was the best song that they performed and of course to finish with Lateralus was just awesome.

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chino69
09-23-2002

Rated 0 
After listening to many of Tool's songs (about water, crying and cleansing) like the Grudge, Aenima, Flood, Undertow, I really imagine life as like a river. That going with the flow and believing in yourself and your faith, you can just let the waters carry you to the places you need to go.

If you try to swim against the current (ie not doing the things you are supposed to do, being lazy, or wasting your time) then you will just struggle and tire yourself out with your life and the result will be some pain and growth to get yourself back into the flow.

If you swim forth and try to rush the current,(ie push yourself too hard, make yourself feel things) you may not stop to find the things you need to find about yourself and because of that, rushing the water may cause pain and regret.

Holding on to the rock is like you're clinging and anchoring yourself thinking you know all you need to know and can stop growing. You feel you've mastered it all and can settle down comfortably. But it is not you who judges where you are in life is it? Because while you cling to your rock, people may pass you by, further developing their potential and then causing you to lose your grip, because you realize you fall behind.

It's hard to just stay with the flow of life, because it speeds up and slows down much like a tool song. You just need to believe in your senses and self, and trust in that. That is the best way to balance yourself and not swim against or too fast for the current.

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joshthack
09-23-2002

Rated 0 
You said it right there, brother. You know what's really cool? Driving in my car or walking, listening to Tool and hearing the music change every time I turn, stop, slow down, or whatever. That's when you know that you're really where you're supposed to be. Peace!

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joshthack
04-09-2003

Rated 0 
I think this song is one of their most powerful songs. I can relate to this song so much because the ground that I have been standing on has given way many times in my life. I love not listening to it for awhile then playing it and it sounds like I'm hearing it for the first time.

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egb
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
This song has a kind of biblical cataclysmic feel to it doesn't it.

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emo_bah
09-21-2004

Rated 0 
The water represents the inevitable end to everything.

The rock is cling, whether material or mental-the rock is your new car, the rock is your wife. They are illusions by virtue of their impermanence-nothing is worth clinging to because they're all going to be swallowed by the Flood (everything dies, decays or otherwise etc).

The sun is a false hope. The sun is religion or afterlife or true love or any ultimate aspiration.

The song was written in a narrative first person style that depicts a person clinging to 'rocks' whatever they may be-it's universally applicable to the karma of human beings and being 'cleansed and purged in the water' represents the Buddhist idea that we should recognize all things as impermanent and free ourselves from the karmic cycle.

To illustrate, read the song as 'I'=you, 'rock'=Your wife, 'the flood' as her eventual and inevitable death (read as the songwriter's wife has just died). It's applicable to any sort of loss.

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clown137
10-02-2004

Rated 0 
i can totally relate to this album but this song extremely, especially at this point in my life cuz of many many changes happening and many many changes happening within my self. my favourite lines are "Thought I was high, and free. thought was there divine destiny. I was wrong. This changes everything."

Basically though what i think its about is thinking uve reached a goal , uve reached a divine point within in yourself where your like "this is it, im hear, now i just need to harness my energy" but then someting in your life hits you (ie the water) andband blows your away and u realize you gotta whole lot of climbing to do b4 uve reached your standard again.
hopefully that made sence.

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Kaztor
04-08-2005

Rated 0 
This song obviously is about someone who knows he's going to die in whatever form. What makes it more obvious is that a minute of silence follows, then next is a song about religion. The killer at the end of Disgustipated might be a sect leader (Disgustipated is obviously about 'false' religion) and this might be one of his victims, if you let your darkest imaginations wander a bit.

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Charleh
05-16-2005

Rated 0 
Why does everyone start to attribute religion to song meanings. I don't even think 99% of people think about God/Jesus whoever on a day to day basis.

(excluding those nutters in the middle east)

Religion is history

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