I love this song. Anyone who's interested in the meaning of the lyrics should watch the first 15 minutes of the movie "2001: A Space Oddysey" (the one made by Stanley Kubrick, not the newer one)... It might give you some insight into the meaning of this song, as well as Tool in general.
The first 15 minutes of the movie takes place at the "Dawn of Mankind" - there are two packs of primitive humanoid apes (apparently representing our ancestors). One pack of apes is drinking at a watering hole, and then the other pack invades their territory and scares the first pack away.
Later on, the first pack of apes (the one that had been evicted from their own watering hole) encounter a strange black monolith that had suddenly appeared in the middle of their den. After being frightened at first, they all reach out an touch the smooth black monolith.
Afterwards, the first pack of apes is suddenly gifted with the curiosity of technology, and one of the apes discovers that he can use animal bones as a club to fight off the second pack of apes. Him and his posse all arm themselves with femurs from some dead animal, and proceed to beat the shit out of one of the rival apes. In doing so, they scare off the second pack of apes, and win back their watering hole.
There is no real explanation of the mysterious 'black monolith' throughout the movie, but perhaps it is merely symbolic of "technology", or simply a metaphor for the concept of a "Tool". Its presence in the minds of the apes caused them to begin thinking abstractly, such that they were able to develop their own tools.
I love this song. Anyone who's interested in the meaning of the lyrics should watch the first 15 minutes of the movie "2001: A Space Oddysey" (the one made by Stanley Kubrick, not the newer one)... It might give you some insight into the meaning of this song, as well as Tool in general.
The first 15 minutes of the movie takes place at the "Dawn of Mankind" - there are two packs of primitive humanoid apes (apparently representing our ancestors). One pack of apes is drinking at a watering hole, and then the other pack invades their territory and scares the first pack away. Later on, the first pack of apes (the one that had been evicted from their own watering hole) encounter a strange black monolith that had suddenly appeared in the middle of their den. After being frightened at first, they all reach out an touch the smooth black monolith.
Afterwards, the first pack of apes is suddenly gifted with the curiosity of technology, and one of the apes discovers that he can use animal bones as a club to fight off the second pack of apes. Him and his posse all arm themselves with femurs from some dead animal, and proceed to beat the shit out of one of the rival apes. In doing so, they scare off the second pack of apes, and win back their watering hole.
There is no real explanation of the mysterious 'black monolith' throughout the movie, but perhaps it is merely symbolic of "technology", or simply a metaphor for the concept of a "Tool". Its presence in the minds of the apes caused them to begin thinking abstractly, such that they were able to develop their own tools.