Thomas

Album: Mer de Noms (2000)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is about the Doubting Thomas from the Bible, who's begging for forgiveness because he didn't believe until he saw Jesus resurrected and alive. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Ukash - Vratislavia, Poland

Comments: 7

  • Jp from UkThey wouldnt want to be seen taking a direction in their music would they (Tess)? That would mean admitting belief. It would be good if they did, but sales might suffer unfortunately. Of course there are similarities woven throughout history. An event occurs - and various individuals begin various different interpretations about it (look at the tower of Babel in the bible). The underlying message is how we should be treating each other. Tool takes the perspective of the individual trying to follow the system in this day and age, and how utterly wasteful and dead-ended that is. Perfect Circle takes the perspective of the individual trying to see the bigger picture of truth. Faith is a funny thing, when humanistic thinking is controlling our desires for what we can see in front of us - what is not seen is not believed, but what is not seen is the substance of everything. Maybe the reference to the third eye, is referring to what needs to be opened so that the way can be seen.
  • Daniel from Adelaide, SaHe's comparing himself to Thomas, asking for a higher power to show him the way to forgiveness for allowing what happened to his mother
  • Cel from Philadelphia, PaThis song is about Thomas and Jesus from the Bible. Thomas didn't believe Jesus was alive until he saw him and he felt as if he needed to be forgiven for doubting.
  • Dan from Santa Clarita, Caalright, maybe this will set things straight. The album is much like, dare i compare and break everything i value, the Tool song "Eulogy". its not songs about the bible, its songs using something familiar and written down as a comparison for real events. APC seems to be a theme band, as Mer De Noms is a list of historic names used to reference a series of real events. Thirteenth Step is an album entirely about drug abuse through the eyes of the User, a Bystander, and the drug itself, and eMOTIVE is about piece and anti bush political propaganda.
  • Tess from Harvey, LaOkay... this whole album isn't about bible stories... though the bible may have some similarities to these songs... If these songs were to correspond with a piece of literature... the "stories" can be found throughout history in many different cultures...


    MAYNARD:
    We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle. A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.

    Many of the song titles on Mer des Noms (French for "Sea of Names") are actually names of real or mythological people. A lot of the names of the songs are actually people I do know in real life and some elements of their lives seem to be the same as elements in the lives or stories of mythological figures. A lot of names in America and Europe have their roots in Latin and Greek words. A lot of them go back to archetypes and their stories.

    It's amazing, isn't it? If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common.... Most religious stories and mythologies have some sort of similar root, some sort of global archetypes. There are hundreds of myths that are talking about virgin births or murder. It's really hard to find out what happened first: Was it something that happened to people in their lives and it got turned into a myth, or was there a myth and people tried to copy it somehow?

    http://www.nyrock.com/interviews/2000/apc_int.asp
  • Patch from Bangor, MeIf this song is about Thomas from the bible Maynard/Billy feel as though Thomas and Jesus owe forgivness to each other, which I find strange yet interesting.
  • Ian from New York, NyThis whole album is filled with bible stories.
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