Tool: Vicarious Meaning
Song Released: 2006
Vicarious Lyrics
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...
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"Do we a species feel the need to watch death on television? Tragedy transfixes man and makes for better t.v ratings; any news station knows this to be a fact. If they show the story of a person slaughtering their family verses the story of a person doing great good the story of the slaughter will have higher ratings than the story of a random act of kindness. This universal truth is one that is addressed by Tool in their song “Vicarious”, the video imagery and symbolism combined with the lyrical content convey a powerful message that “the universe is hostile so impersonal devour to survive / So it is, so it’s always been” (lines 31, 32). We feed off of other misery, whether we like to admit it or not. Everyone finds their self engorged in a news story about a kidnapping, war, floods, and various other horrific events. The amount of money those types of movies, books, and various other media sources verses the amount of money that self help books and positive media bring in is proof of that.
All people throughout history have been fascinated by war and death, “neither brave nor bold nor the brightest of stories told / we won’t give pause till the blood is flowing” (20,21). Our history, fiction, poem books and art reflect that. All great stories be they fiction or non-fiction have tragedy in them. Eager Allen Poe, Stephen King, and Shakespeare are several examples of epic writers whom stories would have been lacking without the great plot twist of tragedy. Mankind loves to watch the world fall apart around them, safely from their living rooms, “I need to watch things die from a good safe distance / Vicariously I live while the whole world dies”. It is a psychological need deep with people enabling them to be feel better about their own miserable lives, by comparing their selves to the people suffering they realize their life is not so horrible. We watch and wait rather than do something to stop or change the horrible events, on some level not only do we want it to have a horrible ending but also we need for it to be a tragic story.
The imagery in the video tales the story of a translucent humanoid with flickering skin which is reminiscent of the old television screen strips, standing transfixed watching the glowing boxes while the world around him is being destroyed. He is held captive by the glowing boxes symbolizing the hold the television has on mankind. The skin on this creature symbolize that not only is he enraptured by the television he is becoming what he is seeing on the television. As he is held captive by the horrific images on the screen you can see monsters within him come out of his eyes, the monsters or eye creatures eventually metamorphosis into the huge creature with tentacles that are destroying the humanoid’s world. The humanoid can do nothing, and at one point begins to shake till he reaches out to touch the television, as if getting his addiction fix and reassuring himself that the television is still there. By doing nothing and watching in fascination this creature is not only allowing the destruction of his world but is enabling it to happen. As he watches the glowing boxes his pupils start to resemble the sun in this land, a black hole surrounded by a fiery ring, fire has long symbolized destruction and death. At the end of the video they show a close up of the pupil than pan out further and further till you can see the whole earth, it is than that you realize that the earth also has the same eye as the humanoid. This symbolizes how man does nothing but watch the destruction of this planet and the people within destroy each other, people feel as though they can not stop the horrible events and stay glued to the tv screen, all the while not realizing that by doing so we enable it to happen. We watch so much violence on television that we are desensitized to the point where it seems normal to here about a mother drowning her own child or a bomb going off in a building.
The video clearly ties in with the lyrics to this song, when one pays attention to the story of the creatures depicted in the video combined with the lyrics one can begin to see the deeper meaning involved. They work together to convey the message that even though we want to believe in the goodness of man and desire it to be true. However on a deep level we are memorized by horrific events, the deeper the suffering the better the story, “Incredulous at best your desire to believe in angles in the hearts of men” (28). Though we want to believe in the greater good of man the fact that there are so many willing hurt one another and the others are willing to watch it and not do a thing to stop it that proves that we are not as good as we want to believe. If people had angles in their hearts they would never be able to stand by and idly watch the world die, they would have to do something to stop it or die trying.
The human watching these events may feel like they are better than the ones committing them “Don’t look at me like I’m a monster / Frown out your one face but with the other you / stare like a junkie into the tv” (9, 10, 11), but they on a deep level are just as sick and twisted as the ones committing these acts because they do nothing to stop them. The creatures come out of the humanoid in the video and we realize that these eye creatures are the massive creatures destroying the world; this is clearly a message that the great nameless evil destructive forces at play in our world would be ourselves not anything else. People are quick to place the blame on others, and to say that they would never be the cause of horrible events but if watch them and do nothing are we not as bad as the people committing these acts? If we were not so enthralled by these events than maybe people would not feel the need to commit them, from childhood we watch death and destruction of television some of which is committed by our favorite cartoon characters; for example Tom and Jerry, Pokemon, Superman, X-Men this list is endless and can not be listed for the vast magnitude, we allow our children to watch these from birth and some characters like Superman are revered as great examples of how a person should act. However all throughout these shows is violence, by allowing our children to watch not only them but any violence on tv we are teaching them that it is acceptable to behave in this manner. We act according to the behaviors we see in the people around us but by the images we see depicted by our favorite characters, it only makes sense that violence is growing in epic proportion for we are becoming what we see everyday. "
KMT -
We are all addicted to the pain, suffering and death of anyone or anything aslong as were not close to it physicly, emotionaly or mentaly.
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It's about how people like violence. All the other stuff you guys talk about is what leads us all to this conclusion.
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This is an awesome song - it provides a narrator's
view of "violence as a spectator sport", or violence
voyeurism. It also speaks to the sedentary nature
of today's average person. They would rather vicariously
participate (e.g. TV) than to really participate (sports,
music, etc.)
I think he is telling you to get off of your lazy arses
and do something other than watch the world go by. -
In its most basic I think it means people get a thrill from watching death. Take horror movies as an example. And look at the news. Compare how much positive news is reported compared to negative news like murders and deaths.
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Jewstalker is 100% correct. anyone who denies it is fucking retarded. Maynard is singing through god's point of view. n each and every song has a theme of god running through it. only god can watch and understand exactly what everyone is going through. However I don't think Maynard is saying god is evil. and to those of you who say there are no references to god on the album, HOW THE FUCK HAVE YOU LISTENED TO ROSETTA STONED AND NOT FUCKING UNDERSTOOD THAT THERE IS A DIRECT REFERENCE TO GOD IN THERE? asstards... but I digress. each song has a spiritual side to it. and tool writes all of their music to have many hidden meanings, Maynard didn't just happened to write vicarious as a "double sided sword" every tool song is intended to have hidden meanings and this album is highly spiritual as well as a very emotional album, especially for Maynard.
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this song is pointing out that nowadays we all need tragedy we feed off of it. the fact that we are sadened by death and lies but we are sucked into movies and stories incorporating so much of it. maynard is saying that we feed off of others drama through the media because we are too afraid to experiance it for ourselves. also he points out the fact that almost all stories movies anything has conflict death tragedy something. there is not many if any that is just a happy ending all throughout.
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Vicariously I
Live while the whole world dies - this does not mean feeling equal as others do, even though the word vicarious alone as itself may mean equal. If you think about the whole albums perspective and looking through gods eyes and a higher spiritual calling.
So think of things in a diff. perspective if i were a higher power, and if i was to look at the lyrics through my eyes as god.
Vicarious Baptism- or baptism for the dead- in which someone who is living is baptized for someone who is 6 feet under.
So if Maynard was to say Vicariously i live while the whole world dies. That would mean he is the higher power baptizing those he watches die. And this supports the line before \"Cause I need to watch things die
From a distance.\" Everyone\'s perspective of god is that he is miles above us in heaven.
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I don't know if it's the song that gave me the idea or what, this isn't really an interpretation, but more of an enlightenment I got from the song.
When he says, "Cause 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. "
My interpretation is that he's talking about God.
In most of the major religions God is depicted as omnipotent and eternal. In other words he can't die.
So in order for him to die, he has to experience death vicariously through our lives. In effect we are created out of God's need to experience death.
I know it sounds like a crazy idea, but it kind of goes with my ideas that we are all one consciousness experiencing a subjective life.
In other words we are God and God is us. -
I feel like this song is all about the government and how we are sucked into the political world through war and death and lies by our political leaders. I just watched the music video and some of you are talking about how shows like CSI and stuff suck us in and how we enjoy watching other people die..they didn't show freakin Horatio Caine solving a murder case, they show a skyline of a burning city in an eye as the world turning behind it as a pupil. I think it's more about how our society has been brainwashed into seeing the world through our corrupted government's policies and greed. Think about it. If we didn't have war and death and all this other nonsense, what would they have to do? How would they be making their money? It's not about enjoying seeing death and how we are bored so we watch others tragedies, that's gross. It's about how we have become so reliant on the government to step in and save the day when really they are the ones creating the monsters of the world we live in.
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I agree with the top interpretation, but I also feel like the song is about the American obsession with violence, it is constantly what is on the TV, news, Internet, pretty much everywhere. I think that they are touching on the fact that Americans watch violence constantly and basically give it the monetary support that it needs, but they will not get involved because they think that it's immoral/bad (I need to watch things die from a distance)
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This song may seem like its all about violence, but it actually speaks about people hiding their feelings. Ever wonder why people always watch the news, and follow the story of someone possibly being killed, having lots of suspense put onto them? Well, everyone (maybe not EVERYONE) has a dark side to themselves in which the news gives them a vicarious thrill of seeing deaths to others, hence the name Vicarious. The part where it says Part... vampire, part... warrior. Carnivore, and Voyuer. Stare, at the... Transmittal. Sing to the... death raaatle!refers to being thrilled, yet at the same time, saddened. Vampire means thrilled, warrior means fighting to save them (those trying to save the victim), carnivore means the perpetrator in a murderous way, voyuer measn the perpetrador in a... well... awkward way, "stare at the transmittal" means waiting and watching for the result of the story, and "sing to the death rattle" means the mourning of the victim's family. The part where it says 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 its always beeeeeeen....
refers to the true meaning of the song. It means that we all have a conscience for a REASON. "Credulous at best your desire to believe in angels in the hearts of men..."
means that people believe that angels reside in our hearts, and that human error and evil is not our fault by our emotions, but rather by posesson of evil beings such as demons. "Pull your head on out Your hippy haze and give a listen, shouldn't have to say it all again..." means that this is VERY untrue. Emotions are the cause of everthingin this world. Even structres and building were made from emotions. If the archetect was in an angry mood, do you think he'd keep working? If he were REALLY angry, then no, of course. Can you see where I'm getting at? EXACTLY. "The universe is hostile, so impersonal... Devour to survive, so it is, so its always been...." means that emotions can lead one to uncertainty, and can cause hostility anywhere, at anytime. A conscience is meant to help us all understand the difference between good and evil. Hostility can cause a chain effect, and can put pressure on others whose emotions do NOT revolve around an aggravating situation. Like peer pressure with smoking. Devour to survive is supposed to mean that people who do not listen to their conscience fend for themselves, and them ALONE. The song proves a lesson: Trust your conscience, and always follow good... -
I will try to say this as simple as I can by relating each and everyone of you to the song
when you are watching the news and see tragedy, you are immediately thinking about how horrible it is, but you still crave to see the whole story, every bit, you subliminal mind loves death, as nature intended, witch is why your are hooked on watching tragedies
if you don't get what I mean think of it this way, you hate death yes, but the subliminal mind, witch is basically what not you but your brain alone thinks, sort of like instincts, likes death because its not "it" that's dieing
"vicariously i, live while the whole world dies, better you than i" supports this, you are not supposed to relate it to yourself, your are supposed to relate it to your subliminal mind, its like a song the subliminal mind likes and gets but you don't necessarily like or get it, or at least that's my thoughts on the song, think about it -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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