The thought occurred to me all of a sudden while listening to Binaural on the way home from work yesterday. It's an idea I have toyed with ever since it came out given the "one uninvited chromosome" line, but I always felt the lyrics were far too cryptic to sustain that theory. But then yesterday I thought well, maybe that's the point.

Discuss. (if it hasn't been discussed to death already and I'm late to the party)

I remember reading somewhere on this board a similar opinion. At times it makes sense, and at other times it doesn't. I see the song more about drug use, but I suppose there is no wrong interpretation about a creative work.

Second part of that post is a given.

But yeah I've always thought it was about drug use too. Like Jeff wrote it about Mike or something? But I'm starting to like the MR theory again. It feels like a song trying to describe something undescribable. A feeling of being lost without having the ability to communicate, even though there are people and things around you.

It fits in with the general themes of the album too. Binaural, perhaps more than any of their other albums, is about the human condition, and specifically, the contrast between depths of what it feels like down here, and how fleeting it all is overall scheme of things.

i've also leaned towards the drug addiction theme, and an uninvited chromosone makes someone an addict. but your mental retardation angle is interesting...

but you know what really is mentally retarded? your avatar... (if it's green bay that is)

go vikes!

"don't feel like home, he's a little out..." "...something maybe two-tone..."

I've often felt that this song could be about a person who has Down's Syndrome; but, that line also makes me wonder if the song might not be about someone transgender. A chromosome opposite to what you feel yourself to actually be would be very uninvited, after all.

An "uninvited" chromosome, referring to the receipt of 47, rather than 46 chromosomes from our parents, causes mental retardation in most cases where the recipient of the extra chromosome actually makes it to birth, and is not spontaneously aborted.

Correlating addiction with genetics, one would refer to a particular gene sequence that was either inherited from parents or mutated to give someone an inclination towards addiction. (Though, I'm not positive that geneticists have actually located any specific genes yet, I believe most would contend that such genes are a part of our genome.)

Down syndrome is caused by receiving an extra, or a third, chromosome 21, referred to as trisomy 21.

(not gonna make a stab at the interpretation... just throwing some info out there that might help with your own.)

i think this is a very simple song about a person who feels a bit distant from his or her family, perhaps one who's rejected by his or her family, and had to leave, but still longs for a home, which himself may not even realize. This is supported by both "don't feel like home, he's a little out," and "one uninvited chromosome" which is a metaphor for the person himself, who's not welcomed by his family and/or society, as in a chromosome not invited by cells, body.

this paves a dangerous road toward us resembling hardcore TOOL fans

I think the truth is that hardcore PJ fans are not all that far behind harcore Tool fans in their wackiness.

Do they have Maynard's Bitches?

I've always interpreted each stanza of the song to be describing a different scenerio were "it's nothing as it seems." It's like "Low Light," it's a set of evocative lyrics trying to set a mood written around a pharse, this time "nothing as it seems" and the mood is foreboding or lonely and distant whereas Low Light was calm and peace.

wouldn't it be adam's bitches?

i'm afraid to know what Maynard would do to them

[quote="shades-go-down"]The thought occurred to me all of a sudden while listening to Binaural on the way home from work yesterday. It's an idea I have toyed with ever since it came out given the "one uninvited chromosome" line, but I always felt the lyrics were far too cryptic to sustain that theory. But then yesterday I thought well, maybe that's the point.

Discuss. (if it hasn't been discussed to death already and I'm late to the party)[/quote


not a big fan of this song...slows momentum at a show

Jeff lyrics are quite open.

A song doesn't have to be bad just because it kills the momentum at a concert. "Thumbing My Way" seems to be a bit of a setlist killer too, but as a song on an album, they're both top notch in my book.




Indeed... we've already got a bunch of interesting ideas on this thread alone. These lyrics remind me a lot of Cornell circa Superunknown.

this thread is making me want to listen to binaural... *gets headphones out*

It's about feeling like you don't belong.

so far you can relate all of these responses to the song. Its all about the individual, and their state of mind, who interprets the song.