Lateralis and Fibonacci (the genius of Tool)

Ok, it seems like there is a lot of tool-fans around here. So I'll just try and post a little something I read once, as some of you might not be aware of it. Even if you dont like Tool, you ought to read this... impressive stuff :-P well, I have to translate from danish so I hope it will make sense in the end anywayz. here goes...

Fibonacci was an mathematician many years ago, and came up with an infinite line of numbers.
The formula goes like this: 1+1+2+3+5+8+13+21+34+55 etc. If you draw this it will make an infinite spiral, and it can be found everywhere in nature.

Lateralis contains elements of this formula, and it is this that is so ****ing amazingly done:

Black(1)
then(1)
White are(2)
All I see(3)
In my infancy(5)
Red & Yellow then came to be(8 )
Reaching out to me(5)
Lets me see(3)
There is(2)
So(1)
Much(1)
More that(2)
Beckons me(3)
To look through to these(5)
Infinite possibilities(8 )
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine(13)
Drawn beyond the lines of reason(8 )
Push the envelope(5)
Watch it bend(3)

Notice it matches the melody/rythm, it is no coincidence.
One more thing... if Fibonaccis formula is continued; 1+1+2+3+5+8+13+21+34+55+89+144+233+377+610+987
I've read that the songs original name was 987, but was later changed. In addition, before Maynard starts to sing the music goes in 987 beat, meaning 9/4, 8/4, 7/4...

if that is not musical brilliance... 8)

Spiral out!!

:tunes:

ohh yeah baby.

do you know the story behind 46 & 2?

hmm, I'm pretty sure that I do but for some reason I have no idea what it is right now :? :lol:

so please, do tell...

oh, and while we are at it... stinkfist is NOT about fisting :shock: :lol: remember I heard a lot of rumours about that some years ago. dunno if they still exists though

there are 23 chromosomes per each sex of person. so you add both the male and female together and get 46 (23+23=46). 46 is reached through 2 aspects. hence forty-six & 2. 46 & 2 is ahead of you... you're binded to your genes... but they don't control you.

as for stinkfist there are a couple theories...

one being drugs and having to take it to the next level... ie. finger deep then knuckle deep then elbow deep.

you could also say the same about a destructive relationship... you keep trying to fix it but you keep getting deeper in it... and it only hurts you.

to me stinkfist is about a problem with something in your life. just like many problems, at first you're finger deep... not much so it doesn't bother you very much... but the more and more this problem comes around it grows more intense, you become knuckle deep... soon it gets to be shoulder deep and you're totally immersed in your problem. the song is about numbing yourself to the world or that problem. reason being maynard says "how can this mean anything to me...when i really don't feel a thing at all." he's telling himself he doesn't feel anymore, he's making himself numb to his problems, and to the world. this is the first step in becoming your "ultimate" self (becoming the person of wisdom and knowledge you were always meant to be). a lot of people don't reach this stage because they don't know how to unlock the secrets supposedly built into their instincts...numbness is the first stage, reason being why stinkfist is number 1 on the CD then the CD progresses to an ultimate realization when you “pry open your third eye.”

if any of you non-toolians are interested here are the lyrics.

Stinkfist

Quote:

---

Something has to change.
Un-deniable dilemma.
Boredom's not a burden
Anyone should bear.

Constant over stimu-lation numbs me
and I wouldn't have
It any other way.

It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To feel, to breathe, to know I'm alive.

Finger deep within the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Relax, turn around and take my hand.

I can help you change
Tired moments into pleasure.
Say the word and we'll be
Well upon our way.

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
Till you will not have me any other way.

It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To feel, to breathe, to know I'm alive.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline.
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to.
Relax. Slip away.

Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be.
Desensitized to everything.
What became of subtlety?

How can it mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

I'll keep digging till
I feel something.

Elbow deep inside the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Shoulder deep within the borderline.
Relax. Turn around and take my hand.[/b]

---

then again, it could also be about fisting a chick. :shock:

all open to inturpretation... that's why i love it so.

I like your interpretation... that's one of the things I love about maynards lyrics. It can mean a lot of different things to different people. As long as it means something...
I found an old interview from ´96 where he talks a little about some of the songs:

AQ: What inspired 'Stinkfist?'

MJK: A guy named Stinkfist. He's a very good friend of Danny's. It's a
tribute to him, because he very much embraced life whole-heartedly, a
go-getter. That's how he got the name Stinkfist, because he was the kind
of guy who got his hands dirty. He wasn't afraid. He just kind of
grabbed life by the throat. The imagery of the song is kind of like
stepping through a portal like in the movie Stargate, where James Spader
is standing in front of the portal, a little afraid of what was going to
happen. He's excited as he puts his hand through the portal, he steps
through and it's a whole differrent reality. It's a whole different
perspective or way of seeing things. Every sense just lit up and he was
completely overwhelmed by feeling this way.

AQ: People have a very graphic interpretation of 'Stinkfist.' I don't
know what your intention was, but it's ovbbiously stirred up a lot of
controversy. Is the general interpretation what you had in mind or are
people off base?

MJK: I think that there's many meanings that we really strive for within
the music. There's layers of interpretation. If people want to think
it's about fist-fucking, that's fine. That's where they're at. But if
they really look at it and really look at us and who we are, they'll
understand that we go a little deeper than some write-off song about
fist-fucking. Now they'll dig a little deeper, trying to find out what's
really going.

AQ: Like you mentioned, it's a portal to a variety of experiences.
You're riddled with controversy on this album as in 'Hooker with a
Penis.' What inspired that one?

MJK: That song is again taken literally for what is, which is the fear
that some kid thinks that we sold out. You and I both know that that's
such a silly term, so it goes a lot deeper than that. The album is about
evolution and change and that's one of the songs where that really came
together.

AQ: The Third Eye is a visual theme that runs throughout your albums.
On Aenima, it also takes the form of a song.

MJK: The Third Eye goes back a long way. It's what a comedian friend of
ours Bill Hicks talked about.

----------------------------------------------

I can post the entire interview if you would like to read the rest

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Bardo

I can post the entire interview if you would like to read the rest

---

i sure would.

heh, thought so... It's just a bit long, so I wouldn't post it all if you'd already read it. but here goes:


Interview with Maynard James Keenan (1996)


This is from Aquarian, a NJ music and politics magazine.

title: Tool: Things Are Going to Work Out
author: Robert Makin

AQ: What do you think of Hollywood?

MJK: It has its pros and cons.

AQ: Judging by the song, 'Anema,' and the artwork underneath where the
CD rests, which depicts the collapse of the San Andreas fault, it seems
like Tool wouldn't mind if it was washed away.

MJK: Change is coming from everywhere.

AQ: I guess there's not much we can do about seismic changes, but there
is something we can do about human behavior. If the band is a tool, what
purpose does it serve?

MJK: Provide ideas and opportunities that people in our demographic
don't usually get. It just comes down to what matters. I think people
get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way,
but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind. It's a
foundation that we're talking about. The Hatfields and the McCoys shoot
each other for a reason but they don't even know why.

AQ: I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the band, that you are
angry and negative. While that may be true of the music, is it true of
the band members?

MJK: Well, whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying
to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative.
Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much
of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is
denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker
areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal
should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider
every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.

AQ: So in order to not be apathetic, we need to be empathetic.

MJK: Right.

AQ: Does the music serve as a release that enables you to remain
peaceful and positive?

MJK: Music is definitely a higher form of language. It definitely cuts
right straight to the bone without you having to explain it a lot of
times. It moves things on a body level, an emotional level.

AQ: You sound like such a soft-spoken, peaceful person, but when you get
onstage, you're like, totally different.

MJK: There's a lot of energy up there. The sound, itself, is a
movement. If you allow it to enter your body, your body will move with
that music. If you allow it.

AQ: The other dichotomy is that Tool sound very machine-like, yet you
seem like a very spiritual person.

MJK: I don't think we sound machine-like. I think we may be like a
clock. So is the universe. The universe has patterns that pretty much
chime right in with each other.

AQ: So at this point in time, Tool sounds like you do, but at the next
point on the clock, you may sound fairly different?

MJK: Yeah. We just grow with what the four of us are doing at that
time.

AQ: You seem like four very different people that come together as a
unified whole.

MJK: We're not all coming from a spiritual standpoint. I tend to take
off on the metaphysical aspects of things. Adam tends to ground it in
his nonbelief of almost everything. It's like a bridge basically.

AQ: Kind of like yin and yang?

MJK: Yeah.

AQ: When you do get angry, what pisses you off the most?

MJK: A lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. Driving in L.A., the
decisions that people make on the highway toward each other is just so
enraging. It's such an example of people not understanding their
connection with each other.

AQ: Where do you feel that connection has its basis?

MJK: Light and Sound. Everything we see is energy, light and vibration.
The entire universe is operating on just a big frequency. Everything
you perceive, that's coming into your eye is just a combination of shape
and light. We are all of the same substance. Any religion that you can
dig up will tell you that. Every person who's had a spiritual moment
will tell you that. People who aren't into organized religions or even
cultish religions, some kid sittting on the corner taking acid at a Dead
show will tell you that. That's our connection.

AQ: It's really refreshing to see a band attempting to open young
people's minds.

MJK: Well, I think it's just where we're at at this point in time. Next
year, we may not be commenting on these things. If you think of the big
picture, it doesn't really matter, because I think that things are going
to work out anyway. It's going to be okay. It doesn't really matter
what you believe or what you're into. Everybody's having their
experiences and they have a right to those experiences. It's all just
one great big dance anyway.

AQ: The universe runs its course.

MJK: Yeah, it's going to be fine.

AQ: That's a great attitude. About the band, you're very much an
eclectic group of artists. You place a lot of importance on your entire
package: the album art and the videos. The album art for this new album
is just amazing with the moving pictures. I understand the video for
'Stinkfist' is going to be another breakthrough. Comment on the band's
artistic approach to not just the music but everything that surrounds
you.

MJK: Adam pretty much handles all the visual stuff. He's into all that
film stuff. He has his particular outlook on things, his avant garde
take on images. With Danny and my background on ritual magic, sacred
geometry, mythology and architects, we're both kind of infusing those
things into Adam's images. There's a freshness to Adam's intuitive sense
of motion and images, visuals. Then with our understanding of
transcendent and eternal archetypes, you have a very nice balance of
intuitive, intellectual imagery.

AQ: How do your different backgrounds apply to this new video?

MJK: Images just pop up, a lot like the 'Prison Sex' video. People were
terrified by that video.

AQ: The live show is really intense too. Other than the new songs, how
is that going to be different this time out?

MJK: It's a little more visual, but for the most part, it's just four
people doing this ritual dance onstage.

AQ: If I was to say you guys remind me of Pink Floyd, how would you feel
about that?

MJK: That would be a compliment I would think. They were a very
artistic band, but it's dangerous territory, because it pushes into the
prog rock territory.

AQ: I guess that's separate ground, because you have a much harder
groove. Yet on Aenima, you worked with David Botrill, who's produced
King Crimson and Peter Gabriel.

MJK: I think the most important thing is that we evolve. That's what
the album is all about. You definitely have to clear a space.

AQ: What inspired 'Stinkfist?'

MJK: A guy named Stinkfist. He's a very good friend of Danny's. It's a
tribute to him, because he very much embraced life whole-heartedly, a
go-getter. That's how he got the name Stinkfist, because he was the kind
of guy who got his hands dirty. He wasn't afraid. He just kind of
grabbed life by the throat. The imagery of the song is kind of like
stepping through a portal like in the movie Stargate, where James Spader
is standing in front of the portal, a little afraid of what was going to
happen. He's excited as he puts his hand through the portal, he steps
through and it's a whole differrent reality. It's a whole different
perspective or way of seeing things. Every sense just lit up and he was
completely overwhelmed by feeling this way.

AQ: People have a very graphic interpretation of 'Stinkfist.' I don't
know what your intention was, but it's ovbbiously stirred up a lot of
controversy. Is the general interpretation what you had in mind or are
people off base?

MJK: I think that there's many meanings that we really strive for within
the music. There's layers of interpretation. If people want to think
it's about fist-fucking, that's fine. That's where they're at. But if
they really look at it and really look at us and who we are, they'll
understand that we go a little deeper than some write-off song about
fist-fucking. Now they'll dig a little deeper, trying to find out what's
really going.

AQ: Like you mentioned, it's a portal to a variety of experiences.
You're riddled with controversy on this album as in 'Hooker with a
Penis.' What inspired that one?

MJK: That song is again taken literally for what is, which is the fear
that some kid thinks that we sold out. You and I both know that that's
such a silly term, so it goes a lot deeper than that. The album is about
evolution and change and that's one of the songs where that really came
together.

AQ: The Third Eye is a visual theme that runs throughout your albums.
On Aenima, it also takes the form of a song.

MJK: The Third Eye goes back a long way. It's what a comedian friend of
ours Bill Hicks talked about.

AQ: He often talked abbout how drugs open the Third Eye, but is it a
subject that goes beyond the use of drugs?

MJK: In his comedy, that's what he's talking about, but his underlying
context has more to do with unity and our inner connection collectively.
You literally have a third eye in your head. It's your pineal gland and
it is an eye. It focuses light.
People talk about dolphins and whales being more evolved, because they
have a better breathing element. If you do meditation, you understand
the idea of the Prana, breathing in light through the pineal gland. In
mythology, there's talk about how people used to breathe that way, but
over time, they began to breathe more through the mouth. That's the
connection that we've forgotten.

AQ: Is the use of drugs a way to enhance the Third Eye?

MJK: Drugs definitely give you an alternate perspective. Your
consciousness is like a radio frequency. If you turn the dial, all those
radio stations are there simultaneously. You can dial in to hear what
station you want to hear. Consciousness is the same way. Through
meditation, you can alter that, you can come upon an alternate reality.
Drugs is a shortcut to that. The trick is to really understand the
medium you used to get there.
Don Quixote was like that. He was a slave to peyote. He could really
get into this alternate consciousness. His guide was peyote, but he was
a slave. He couldn't get there except through that medium. There's a
lot of people on heroin writing amazing music, but it's a hard way to go,
because you sacrifice your life.

AQ: Do you condone the use of drugs?

MJK: Everyone has the right to their own experience, but it's a hard way
to go. It's a hard decision to make without fear of repercussions. I
don't do them. I used to do mushrooms.

AQ: Comment on how the song 'Sober' isn't about saying no to drugs.

MJK: It's saying why can't we get along? It's about unity.

AQ: This is a tough question, because it's based on rumor, based on the
images in your songs. The rumor is that you're gay. Whether you are or
not, how do you feel about people discussing that when they don't even
know you?

MJK: It doesn't bother me. I don't even think about it. If that's how
people are content, fine. I'm more interested in the big picture.

AQ: You mentioned that you feel that things will work out, but do you
feel that humankind are in those plans? Will we evolve?

MJK: Absolutely. I'm absolutely certain. We're already okay. Right
now, if you look in the inner cities, it seems like a lot of people
running around and it looks negative. But that's a big pocket of people
with an emotional release. People are definitely working out some major
shit right in front of you. It's a movement.

AQ: But on what side? It seems like there is a lot of bullshit going
on from a political standpoint.

MJK: Yeah, those people are out of control, but globally, there are a
lot of people who have their hearts in the right place. Deep down
inside, they feel compassion. Right now, it's going back to what
matters. I have no solution, so I don't know what would happen, but if,
for example, a comet crushed L.A., within 48 hours, the world
economically and politically would start collapsing, because all those
major cities are so dependent on each other. There's so much stuff going
on through the Internet, electronic banking systems, all that kind of
stuff that it would really have a huge, huge impact on the world. You
could almost say it would throw us back into the dark ages if it happened
on a big enough scale.
Then there are people who have power. Usually they have power, because
they have wealth. It's connected. If you take that away, if it's
crushed, you can go back to what really matters. That's what we have to
do, find out what really matters and go back to it and understand it.
I have faith in the end, especially in the kids that are coming up now.
There's so many changes taking place among the children of today. Kids
15 and under think about things so much differently. There's so many
earth responsible children being raised these days that by the time any
major cataclysmic event like that occurs, those are the people who will
have taken over the reins at that point and they'll have a much better
idea how to deal with it.

AQ: but they don't get credit for it.

MJK: Because they don't have any of that Associated Press shit or
whatever.

Read it all before, but great stuff. I too love how open it is to interpretation. I always fear its going to turn out to be about stuff like fisting a chick..

Have you guys listened to 'Third Eye Open' its a string symphony of Tool's music? Its pretty dope. Very Haunting.

I've heard of that formula. Apparently if you break down the rhythm of a bumble bee's buzz/wing vibrations you will get that formula. Is that what you mean when you say it can be found everywhere in nature?

Peace sensi.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by sensi
Have you guys listened to 'Third Eye Open' its a string symphony of Tool's music? Its pretty dope. Very Haunting.

---

yip. great cd.

if you liked that you should try and find a band called apocalyptica... they do metallica covers on the strings.

Fibonacci's forumula is that you start with one, and add the number behind it to get the next number, so you start with 1, and then 1 + nothing, so another 1, then 1+1 = 2, then 2+1 = 3, etc etc etc. It is connected to the golden ratio. You see it in nature as the ratio between distance in bones, fibonacci numbers in the arangements of seeds in the sunflower, beehives, etc.

I'm a huge Tool fan and I am familiar with most of this stuff.

I think Stinkfist is about de-sensitisation in the media. Nothing is shocking anymore. Its about a decay of meaning. Maynard is writing about his yearning to find something tangible and real in a world where nothing has any meaning anymore.

Tool are my favourite band. Their music is really emotional and perhaps even spiritual? I read that Carey, the drummer, used bizarre time-signatures in some of the songs to create a feeling of "timelessness" in the music. If you listen intently enough to some of the songs you may get a strange feeling, almost like a trance! In particular I've noticed "Ticks & Leeches", "Schism", and especially "Third Eye" (the part where he shouds "PRYING OPEN...." with loud drum beats), can do this.

i have a tattoo of that third eye on the bottom of my spine :)

sexy. :ohyahbaby:

have you seen maynard's tattoo on his back?

p.s. i just got salival... can't wait until it gets here... i'm about to wet myself... :shock:

Maynard's tattoo is just plain scary...

This is so cool; there are so many Tool fans on here! :D :D :D

I think its pretty funny how there is now a sudden burst of Tool threads and lovers. Its almost like it is meant to contrast all the Incubus threads/lovers there use to be(and still are, around here somewhere). I guess both are the official bands of DV(although Incubus' Brandon Boyd is a LDer so we have the advantage :P )