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And the angel of the lord came unto me
snatching me up from my place of slumber.
And took me on high and higher still
Until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself.
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest.
And as we descended cries of impending doom rose from the soil.
One thousand nay a million voices full of fear.
And terror possessed me then.
And I begged "Angel of the Lord what are these tortured screams?"
And the angel said unto me,
"These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!
You see, Reverend Maynard,
Tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust."
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat
Like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared,
"Hear me now, I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!
Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers!"
Can I get an amen? Can I get a hallelujah? Thank you Jesus.
Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on.
This is necessary.
It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch.
You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color. You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes.
Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green.
Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this.
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty.
It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk,
waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you.
You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin."
Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors.
They were locked. It was a red car and it was new.
There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods.
You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course,
Those little people out there were yours too.
snatching me up from my place of slumber.
And took me on high and higher still
Until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself.
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest.
And as we descended cries of impending doom rose from the soil.
One thousand nay a million voices full of fear.
And terror possessed me then.
And I begged "Angel of the Lord what are these tortured screams?"
And the angel said unto me,
"These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!
You see, Reverend Maynard,
Tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust."
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat
Like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared,
"Hear me now, I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!
Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers!"
Can I get an amen? Can I get a hallelujah? Thank you Jesus.
Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on.
This is necessary.
It was daylight when you woke up in your ditch.
You looked up at your sky then.
That made blue be your color. You had your knife there with you too.
When you stood up there was goo all over your clothes.
Your hands were sticky.
You wiped them on your grass, so now your color was green.
Oh Lord, why did everything always have to keep changing like this.
You were already getting nervous again.
Your head hurt and it rang when you stood up.
Your head was almost empty.
It always hurt you when you woke up like this.
You crawled up out of your ditch onto your gravel road and began to walk,
waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you.
You can see the car parked far down the road and you walked toward it.
"If God is our Father," you thought, "then Satan must be our cousin."
Why didn't anyone else understand these important things?
You got to your car and tried all the doors.
They were locked. It was a red car and it was new.
There was an expensive leather camera case laying on the seat.
Out across your field, you could see two tiny people walking by your woods.
You began to walk towards them.
Now red was your color and, of course,
Those little people out there were yours too.
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As for the song, well, there are three portions. The first seems to be a humorous giggle mocking the use of religion in the context of a Reverend speaking to cattle, or sheep from the sounds of it. Once again, this was inspired by the look an audience gave Maynard during one of his earlier shows with the Melvins. He noted the blank expressions on their faces and began "bah-" ing at them, mocking their also subservient expressions. I would assume he uses this part to illustrate our complacent tendency to serve and observe -- blindly and almost apathetically.
The central portion, well, it's a loop-based phrase. Life cyclically feeds on life, energy in all organisms comes from the consumption of other organisms, at least multi-celled organisms, anyway, since most are too large to directly harvest and digest an adequate, carbon-based form of ATP and other vitamins and minerals directly. It's instinctual to consume for every animal, be it herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore. We consume, and we justify it all -- we feed on the idea that -- this is necessary. Everything we are doing is right and necessary to survive. As the mood darkens and gunshots are heard, our sights broaden to remember that we do more than eat genocidal quantities of carrots, we invade, burn, break, kill, and slaughter, too. In the rush of the moment, we, too, think it is necessary, we tell ourselves it is.
The last part is an eerie calm, something to unsettle you -- put you on edge. It is ended with the aforementioned story -- a short psychological tale that has no face and little explanation. A man wakes up in a daze covered in what he calls red goo with a knife, a missing camera, and a locked car. "If God is our Father, Satan must be our cousin," says the speaker, a simple note to set the closing mood of this song. This acknowledges that humankind isn't all consumptive destruction, but we are all equally capable of every cruelty Hell theoretically has to offer. As the speaker follows the two people he sees walking by "his woods," the speaker claims they are, "his too." It's an eerie way to word it, but an effective one, they are his next victims and they have invaded his space, tread too close. We don't know what has happened or what will happen, but I'm sure you all have an idea. And then the phone hangs up.
In all, I think that the song is a statement more than a story, unlike a lot of Tool songs.
and with "live feeds on...it is necessary" is probably meant its necessary to eat living thinks. live feeds on live. The carrots are an exaggerated displaying of the thinking of vegans.
The sheep sound is most definitely meant to symbolise absent minded people. absent minded people are people who put no thought into anything that they believe, they don't really think in the normal sense at all they just accept facts as facts just because the "fact" giver is credible. Examples of this would be people who go to church because they like the minister, or because there parents do, or people who hate religion as a whole because one of there friends does. The truth is if you think you can find peace and happiness by acting and believing like your neighbour does without serious thought then you are a damned fool. Well that's just my interpretation, Good songs should have many so don't bash other peoples.
Hitler was a vegetarian.
The sound effects are interesting, sheep & gunshots. Mutton anyone?
I think it is saying something about people who are "holier than thou", on a soapbox preaching something that sounds nice, but isn't feasible.
Rug sweeping until everything appears whitewashed & artificial.
Truth is:
Living kills. You breathe the air in, you are killing. You walk, you are killing. You eat, you are killing. Even if it isn't "sentient life"/that with a complex central nervous system/"feelings".
Literally, a serial killer (or figuratively, one who is trying to kill these sheep like attitudes in the world or even within himself) may see the people/ideas like sheep. While they are all about what how save things or what's wrong, what's best, etc. it's fading to sound like bleating sheep to this person & non human.
He says what they condemn is actually necessary to live.
Life is NOT always fair, clean, pretty.
The shots bring this idea, the sheep down.
Even if this is all within their own mental realization.
The awakening/rebirth.
They awaken from this dream/thought process/experience in a ditch, they don't know what has happened. Goo (coagulated blood maybe from killing this way of thinking/people/idea) covers them. WTF happened here? My eyes are open now, blue. I am growing (grass/green). Why is everything changing? Everything I touch/touch upon becomes a part of me, It is my purpose. Red is my new mission/color. I own everything, even those people & I will inflict my new mission upon them.
Seems Murder/Jesus/Alien/Epiphany/Hitler themed.
Also maybe Landlord is figurative? "people walking by your woods" You owned the woods. You were the Landlord of it all: the car, the woods, the people?
i think this song is making fun of religion and their beliefs to push religion. the preacher preaching is all a whole idea. kinda like a preacher telling the society whats wrong and right.
and then the " this is necessary" line is what the religion is saying. such as pushing their religion and trying to convert others into that religion is right.
if you notice, you can hear a new born lamb being sacrificed which shows the religion with do extreme things for the religion. when you hear the, this is necessary line, you can hear shotguns going off, which represents the people in the religion crushing all opposing thoughts to this religion.
so tool is saying religion is stupid. and it shouldnt be pushed.