Lyrics for Vicarious as interpreted by DarkAntiCrista

Vicarious Lyrics
Eye on the t.v cuz tragedy thrills me.
Whatever flavor it happens to be.
(like)
Killed by the husband...
drowned by the ocean...
Shot by his own son...
she used a poison in his tea, Then she kissed him goodbye.
That's My kinda story
It's no fun till someone dies.

Don't look at me like I am a monster.
Frown out your one face but with the other you
Stare like a junkie into the t.v.
Stare like a zombie
while the mother holds her child. Watches him die.
Hands to the sky, cryin' "why, oh why?"

Cuz I need to watch things die, from a distance.
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies.
You all need it too don't lie.

Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause till the blood is flowing.
Neither the brave nor bold nor brightest of stories told,
We won't give pause till the blood is flowing.

i need to watch things die, from a good safe distance.
Vicariously, i live while the whole world dies.
you all feel the same so why can't we just admit it?

Blood like rain come down. Drum on grave and ground.
Part Vampire, Part warrior, Carnivore, and Voyeur
Stare at the transmittal. Sing to the death rattle

Credulous at best, your desire to believe in angels in the hearts of men.
Pull your head on out your hippy haze and give a listen.
Shouldn't have to say it all again.
The universe is hostile. so Impersonal. devour to survive.
So it is. So it's always been.

We all feed on tragedy. It's like Blood to a vampire.
vicariously, I live while the whole world dies.
Much better you than i.

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Alighieri
10-08-2009

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I don't know if anybody has already asked this but does anyone know what Maynard says towards the end.
There is a background voice saying something around 5:00. And My curiosity won't let me sleep because of it. Thanks in advance.

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aZote7
10-03-2009

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this song is about much more than just being entranced by the TV... its about attaining a new level of consciousness. i havent read any of the other interps on this page, so sorry if i reiderate.

pretty much what he means when he says "vicariously i live while the whole world dies" is that he feels dis-attached from the rest of humanity, due to our 46/2 chromosome count. scientists believe that the next evolutionary jump for humans is to 48/2, which based off the patterns of our ancestors will lead to a higher level of consciousness, likely a "hive mind" sort of thing.

then when he says "you all feel the same so why dont you just admit it" he implies that he knows that everyone else feels dis-attached.

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og_tool
09-08-2009

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I think that there is a lot of hidden meaning in the song, just on another level. If you follow tool, you know that MJK gets a lot of his ideas from many of Jung's psycho/metaphysical theories. Jung talks about a "shadow self"; that part of all of us that harkens back to a more primitive time when we were animals that killed to survive. The shadow is that part of us that we connect with as we are walking through a woods say, and we come upon a baby bird on the ground (I got this from a brief overview of Jung I found on the internet - can't remember the reference), anyway we find this baby bird, a part of us naturally wants to rescue the chick and nurture it back to life. But there is that part of us that thinks just for a moment "I could crush the life out of this thing", and thrills at the prospect. Jung said the more we deny our shadow, the more evident it encrouches onto our psyche. So we deny we have this dark part of our souls, well then we start dreaming of marching through the woods stomping on baby birds. So I think that is a lot of what the song is saying, that we can't deny our shadow self, we need to just admit we are dark souls in order to identify it and deal with it.

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SpunkySkunk347
08-22-2009

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For those interested in the concept which this song presents, I recommend reading "The Birth of Tragedy" by Friedrich Nietzsche as well as Arthur Schopenhauer's "Essays and Aphorisms"...

Arthur Schopenhauer pessimisticly illustrate the idea that suffering is the only thing guaranteed in the world, so in turn it would be foolish to assume that anything besides suffering holds any true meaning. We need suffering in order to give value to the pleasure in our lives.

In the Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche (inspired by Schopenhauer) goes on to say that tragedy is actually an affirmation of life - we catalyze the tragedy in art to express and reflect the injustice and chaos which we have experienced in life, in turn relieving the burden of the suffering.

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grizadams08
08-19-2009

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Pretty basic meaning. If you read the correct lyrics at least.

It suggest there is 2 sides of us:
- The side that watches these horrible things in awe, horrified by them and saddened by them
- And the side that realizes its horrible, but yet we cant look away, and want to see more, because deep down its a sick pleasure

And all hes suggesting is all people have that instinct, whether they want to admit it or not. So he admits it, and seems like the bad guy, but the same person who judges him as bad will go home and live up to the hypocrisy.

As long as its not happening to us, we will continue watching.
Awesome song.

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CH40TICxSNIP3R
08-06-2009

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I believe this song is about how the media decencitizes us. Vicarious basically means to take in place of another. It tells of how we're amused in a sick way of the images in the media, of people dieing, and how we have no feelings towards it, as long as it isn't happening to us. That's basically all I have to say about it. It's a very powerful song, and I agree with it. Every bit.

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Tailsfan2009
07-31-2009

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Man this song kicks ass

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nirvanarox7
07-29-2009

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I think that this song is about the hypocrisies of today's society. How everyone is entertained by death, as along as it doesnt effect them.

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Elrasha
07-22-2009

Rated 0 
ok to this briannevelle.
i understand what your trying to say, but i dont agree with it, these other guys were right, im glad they caught onto it.
TOOL is called TOOL and not MAYNARD because its not just Him. all the members of tool contribute, and the lyrics are very poetic and awesome on their own, but the true tool experience and how its is meant to be heard is with the music.
k?
K!

and the song is just F@*!ing awesome!

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AKAtheRED
06-25-2009

Rated 0 
amazing song, check out the sweet music video. i love the gigantic eye inside the earth at the end.

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wrxsti06
06-24-2009

Rated 0 
This song to me is how we all sit in front of our tv and watch all of the horrible things that are happening but do not care because it does not affect us directly

"We all feed on tragedy. It's like Blood to a vampire.
vicariously, I live while the whole world dies.
Much better you than i."

This here shows how we all feed off of the tragedy and watch the world die around us and as long as it isnt us then we are fine with it

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pArArSeYcAeReNeLaMoR
06-14-2009

Rated 0 
i just love the word vicarious.

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adjectives
05-05-2009

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We all thirst for blood, we're entranced by it, it's our very basic nature and the nature of the universe, so we entertain ourselves through witnessing the sorrows of others. You want to see death, admit it.

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kjb13
04-19-2009

Rated 0 
and alot of the lyrics are wrong. dont learn these and sound stupid when you sing it. lol

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kjb13
04-19-2009

Rated 0 
wow. amazing song. im glad i found this website

"Frown out your one face but with the other you
Stare like a junkie into the t.v.
Stare like a zombie"

these lyrics seem to depict the TWO-FACED PEOPLE who sit in front of tv and watch tragedy occur to people on tv and on the news. these tv watchers think they are better off than the people on tv, yet they waste their own lives staring like a "zombie" into the tv. aint that some shit?

the message: people need to start living their own damn lives! and stop worrying about wat happens to others!

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pinnedtothepage
04-08-2009

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The universe is hostile. so Impersonal. devour to survive.
So it is. So it's always been.

screw that. this sort of thinking is why we are in such a mess, why we all believe in the capitalist system that crushes us.

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kindaman360
03-05-2009

Rated 0 
great song, tool kicks ass!!!!

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deathbringer63
02-26-2009

Rated 0 
ok, i just found this out nd realized that this has somthing to do with this song, 2 words, one group of people... the romans,think about it,they had a colasium where people paid to watch other people be eaten by lions,ripped apart,etc. SO... "vicariously the romans lived while the hole world dyed" "the romans liked to watch things die throm a distance". as fer the "eye on the TV" part, the TV could just be a metaphor or somthing. so yea, tool could be talking about the romans.

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CorpsmanAcoustic
02-18-2009

Rated 0 
What I got out of vicarious after SEVERAL listens plus the veiwing of the short cgi movie made for this song and listening to the documentry and commentary and what not I have come to the conclusion that the song is about being so hypnotized into watching tv and how everything is about destruction and death and we enjoy watching it and forget that we are apart of the world thats crumbling and what i saw in the storyline of the video was that in the end the main character who was watching this devastation over a dry lake bed eventually became the victim of the story he seemed to hypnotized by.... so in a sense we are all apart of this world and sitting back thinking that every tragedy in no way affects us or ever will is down right stupid.... thats what i took from it (pretty much all the same principles of what others have said ive or take one or two points)

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Mchael92
01-02-2009

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I'm pretty sure this is talking about our obsession with violence as human beings. Then we criticize each other about it when all of us desire and seem to enjoy the same thing. Great lyrics.


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FreshOwnage
11-08-2008

Rated 0 
sic43
Man ur right. i though the same thing, lyrics really really nest in this beauty of heavy sound Vicarious.

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JerryPRHS
10-24-2008

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I think the song is about how we kill ourselves, not with the wars like the one we are in right now, but its about the human scum that kill each other instead of focusing on a common enemy.

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totallytrue
10-24-2008

Rated 0 
Good song, all the way.

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FreshOwnage
09-19-2008

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Ah nevermind, on official lyrics says "La, la, la, la, la, la, la-lie (x4) " . Both la and lie are there :)

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FreshOwnage
09-19-2008

Rated 0 
Does he after part "Stare at the transmittal. Sing to the death rattle" he sings "Lie lie liee liee liee lie" or just "la la la la la" ... ?

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