Rosetta Stoned Lyrics

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About

Genius Annotation

In the song, a character goes through a “drug trip” in the infamous deserts of Area 51.

It’s a long, daunting occurrence especially when the aliens approach him, pick him up and tell him he is the chosen one.

The Rosetta Stone is a Ptolemaic age granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The term “Rosetta stone” has been used idiomatically to represent a crucial key to the process of decryption of encoded information, especially when a small but representative sample is recognized as the clue to understanding a larger whole.

The title of the song is a play on this term in the context of trying to “evolve” or discover and understand aliens, much like the Rosetta Stone was used to understand the ancient Egyptians, and of course being stoned/drugged out of your mind as well. It implies that drugs are this character’s Rosetta Stone, in other words his key to decoding and understanding this civilization.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What have the artists said about the song?
Genius Answer

Adam Jones:

I think the first song we wrote was “Rosetta Stoned,” and that wasn’t easy to finish. It involved a lot of trial and error and compromising with your band mates in the process of exploring every path that needed to be taken. I kind of compare it to painting. I take my time and try different colors. Or I may go back and sand a little bit to try to get a little bit of translucency. And sometimes the other guys were on the same page with me and sometimes they weren’t.

—via Loudwire

Credits
Produced By
Mastering Engineer
Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
Recorded At
O'Henry Sound Studios, Grandmaster Recorders, The Loft, Hollywood
Release Date
May 2, 2006
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