Tool: Disgustipated Meaning
Disgustipated Lyrics
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From the moment our ancestor, whether a fish with odd gills or a salamander like thing, walked onto the land, it was set in stone that some must kill, and some must be killed. We were herbivore to begin with, but that was no good, we were easily killed. We were forced to be strong, or be nothing but fossils. Then, be it chance or god, we gained a cruel, awesome, and great power: Thought. We picked up the bone, and struck our enemy down, then we ate.
Now we have people who say our enemy is helpless from the slaughter. But, the answer is simple: Just as that life fed on us long ago, we feed on it. So our color is red... -
This is what I believe: the first part, and the third, are the extremes;
-the first part is from the "innocent" point of view, where one shouldn't dare kill such an insignificant being, such as the carrot (yes, thus being sarcastic towards vegans and such overreacting folks). "One must not take life from anyone"
-the third part is, as many of you have said, from a killer's point of view; a complete sinner, who seems to have the opposite ideology: "One must take life from everyone"
The second part, as I see it, balances the two, explaining how life implies death, and that they are interrelated.
Of course, the three parts could show us how the killer becomes a killer, gradually.
Or it could simply emphasise the hipocrisy of the human kind, especially of those who claim that they are "sainty", and wouldn't even hurt a carrot (this sounds a bit weird).
Like in "Eulogy", one claims one thing and does another... -
well, in my opinion, the beginning was supposed to be partially sarcastic. but " this is necessary, life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on this is necessary".... in my opinion is about how animals "kill" plants and we kill animals and we kill each-other, but mostly how we kill animals (notice the farm animals in the background) so if your going to take something away from this song, take the fact that we kill animals and they do have a consciousness.
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The second part of the song was a message left on Maynard's answering machine by his landlord. I researched it for like four hours.
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Anyone care to venture into the song title and how it relates to the song? If I'm not mistaken it is a combination of the words "disgusted" and "dissipated". Interestingly enough, the song seems to have 2 parts with seemingly different meanings.
Perhaps the first part goes with disgusted, since he is hinting at disgust for things like religion, vegetarians, human nature, etc. The second part (phone message) may have something to do with the word dissipated, but I haven't come up with anything profound.
That aside, I think the interpretations of the phone message have been pretty insightful, but the serial killer one has the most merit IMO. It makes sense with the references to the goo in the beginning (blood) and the knife. Perhaps the drifters he sees are "little" because from his perspective they are far off in the distance and meaningless because they are not within his immediate presence like everything else.
Also, how everything he touches or sees becomes his does seem like the psychology of a serial killer. With this interpretation, I don't think the car he sees up the road is actually his either, because the doors are locked and it makes no reference to him being able to get in. In addition, the camera has a serial killer connotation because some have been known to take pictures of their victims.
It ends with the line "you began to walk towards them. now RED was your color. and of course, those little people out there were yours, too." Red is associated with murder (blood, evil, lust), and notice how red didn't immediately become his color when he saw the car like it did when he saw the sky and grass.
I think this monologue, in general, is more about the dark nature within human-kind that is always present no matter how we attempt to hide it (by being vegetarian, religious, etc.). This brings out the significance in "if God is our father, you thought, then Satan must be our cousin." We inherited both good and evil, which is why we are related to both God and Satan. Furthermore, everything in the story belongs to the character, representing how humans are selfish and possessive. Also notice how the character in the story is "you". The speaker is not talking about himself- he is talking about the listener,describing how all of us are (a narrative addressing us, ABOUT us).
Linking the serial killer interpretation with my overall interpretation: What would be a better metaphor for our dark nature than murder? This also connects to the first half of the song which tells us that death (or murder) is necessary for our existence. The world must be complete with yin and yang, light and dark, and Tool would like us not to ignore the presence of the dark. -
To "anonymous" that started out his/her interpretation with:
"It's difficult the interpret the specific ending part. To be completely honest...."
Your thoughts, words and way you appear to think/ thought process intrigue me. I have only read that interpretation of yours, and I have to say that I think if I got to know you more, that I would fall in love with your mind...
You´ll probably never read this anyway.
I completely agree with your interpretation by the way. Could not have said it any better..
Tool is my favorite band...and a truly amazing one at that. Serial killers´ minds are extremely fascinating and intricate, especially if you look into psychology, like I do. And to take an inside look into one though lyrics? Fantastic. Tool, you have stolen my heart yet again with a song I`ve already heard. I see it in a new light.
DISGUSTIPATED.
Anyone interested in e-mailing me, just for fun... (discussions...debating...chatting...ect...)
sethdividedby2@yahoo.com -
If you listen to this song I think if you visualize it as a killer going through his thought processes as he's getting ready to kill(the first part), as he's killing and justifying himself(the LIFE FEEDS ON LIFE part) and the silence represents him sleeping or doing something that is erased from memory because when he wakes up he certainly can't remember and possibly the two people could have been some potential people that escaped?
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In my opinion, this song is making fun of the religious. Many people don't know, but Tool was asked to perform at a scientologist convention, and knowing maynard, he accepted. The band got set up and finally started playing for the crowd and maynard "Baaad" like a sheep at the crowd. So in my opinion, they are making fun of the religious by the sheep noises.
As for the last part, any person that has ha a fourth grade drug awareness assembly remembers them telling us that sometimes bad trips happen and the users of that drug kill people because they think they are coming after them. And if you've done drugs then you would know that you always wake up in places that you don't recognize. And you also don't think about the fact that somebody's possessions are not yours. So you walk around thinking it's all for you. And as for the Satan part, sometimes when you're on bad trips, you see Satan coaxing you to do something. It's quite scarry. -
I heard that that last part was a story or something that his former landlord left on his answering machine, but I doubt that's right. If it is, that's real creepy......
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What I wonder is the point of the sounds of the night between the first part and the second part. To me if you look at how both the first part and the 2nd part each person is asleep and the sounds are those of the night which each person could hear while asleep or blacked out. Or with the explanation of the 2nd part narrating the mind of a killer it could be represent the calm their minds may posess even though they would seem to have complete disorientation in their thinking
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This song is told from the point of view of a killer and is about how he's justifying his actions.
The last section of the song reveals that the narrator is a kiler. As slipknotkid1 said, "Serial killers in general tend to have very possessive characteristics and these feelings tend to cause them to commit the murders. They believe that even human life is their own, so they feel nothing when they take the life of another."
The whole reverend Maynard thing is a metaphor for how humans consider killing wrong, when in reality it is unavoidable, and rather stupid to try to stop it. As someone said previously, "For life to survive, thrive, and evolve, killing and death are necessary. Death is only thought of as evil by humans, and murder is a term restricted to humans. A snake eating a rat cannot be considered murder."
Humans say that murder is wrong. But if murder of another human being is wrong, then wouldn't eating carrots, intentionally killing something alive, be wrong too?
In the killer's mind, since regular people kill other living things (carrots) then killing people shouldn't be bad either. -
The alien theory to the second part of Disgustipated could hold some merit, considering the last track on Lateralus is about some freaked out scientist making a phone call about aliens and Area 51, but how about this...
I have recently read that the "Sky is Blue" part is actually a recorded message on Maynard's answering machine that his landlord left him. It does sound like someone talking through a phone, and you hear it faintly hang up at the end. But I personally think that the reason why it is full of holes and things that don't totally make sense is for us to do exactly what we are doing right now, to think about it and interpret it our own way. Maybe it is a psychopathic serial killer, maybe it has a deeper meaning, but it is well written to the point that it leaves many options open all surrounded by something dark and mysterious. It gives you just enough facts for you to visualize something, but you have to fill in the rest of the blanks. I find that pure genius. What a masterpiece.
-Michael J -
I'm not really sure of the ending of the song, but wanted to suggest another possibility.
Many refer to the narration being about a serial killer or a druggie waking up high.
The first time I heard this song, I always felt that it had something to do with the extraterrestrial. Maybe the 'goo' is really referring to goo. The camera could have been stated as out of reach to indicate that the experience couldn't be recorded. Also, I always thought that the two "little people" by the woods referred to aliens, which would also fit the deserted setting and possible abduction by aliens and subsequent goo.
This interpretation could very well be completely off-base (and probably is), but maybe someone could build on this idea and make it seem more legitimate. -
As far as letting rabbits wear glasses... carotine is supposed to be good for your eyes, at least that's what my great grandma always said at the table "eat your carrots so you don't need glasses" of course rabbits wouldn't need glasses because they eat none other than carrots right?... but in the context of the holocaust of the carrots we should let the rabbits eat glasses to save the carrots, which is seems asinine to think that we should spare carrots because they too have a consciousness. of course this is sarcastic however he is making the point that life feeds on life, we can't go without eating. Would you starve if Carrots had a consciousness?
Vegetarians... get real. This is necessary.
In an interview I read in the All-Tool issue of revolver it Maynard said they wrote this song on-stage at a Vegan Conference in LA while shooting blanks out of a shotgun and smashing cheap souvenir guitars from Tiawana. -
The song is pretty clearly poking fun at animal rights activists who preach that eating animals is bad because they have a consciousness and a soul. The second half deals with a warped sense of reality. It gives you a first person point of view of a man who blacks out and has no idea what happens until he wakes up.Then when he does he's disoriented and confused.Each color becomes his as he interacts with it.Seeing the sky touching the grass touching the red car.The camera is a metaphor for the memory of what happened while he was blacked out. It's in a locked car so he can't get to it or remember what happened.
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