Beyond the Wheel Lyrics
Between your house and home
There is a churning storm
Of hailing burning bones
Little, tiny pawn
In the profit gain
Tiny baby grows
Is he doing what he can
To make a proper home, home
By overturning other stones, stones
Father, mighty man
Loves his little boys, boys
Shows them how to kill
To save his precious stones, stones
It steers your life around
We're driving flesh and blood
Deep into the ground, ground
It steers your life around
We're driving flesh and blood
Deep into the ground, ground
damn rock musicians will say anything in interviews to throw ppl off the trail, wont they bucketheaded?
the wheel is considered (one of) the oldest (and influential) of human inventions; a testament to human intellect. Chris is saying, we have moved far beyond the wheel: we use our intellectual power to find ways to fight and crush each other. The song speaks of WAR: "churning storm/Of hailing burning bones".
"tiny baby" is the innocent victim in all this, unaware of what happens in the world around him... but "tiny baby grows" to be the adult involved in fighting for profit. The Man - "Is he doing what he can/by overturning other stones" - is he fighting other people to make Mother's life more comfortable? Whats worse, he shows his sons how to fight so he doesnt have to do it - does this smack of governments sending armies, or am i crazy?
"The wheel" has steered human life around, we now use our knowledge "driving flesh and blood/Deep into the ground"
What a voice, what a range, over 3 octaves! too bad he can't sing like that anymore. and what a riff, what a solo.. And i agree with rock_hawk too, the placing of the song between 665 and 667 suggests apocalyptic overtones (perhaps war-induced) - AND IT DOESN'T FUCKING DISAPPOINT!
Spot on interpretation, except Cornell's voice is now back, and better then ever!!!
Spot on interpretation, except Cornell's voice is now back, and better then ever!!!
@SFy65B2G5rKbzps5acdHwQe6 - Comment delayed, but... By Jove, I think you've f*cking nailed it...or something like that.
@SFy65B2G5rKbzps5acdHwQe6 - Comment delayed, but... By Jove, I think you've f*cking nailed it...or something like that.
@SFy65B2G5rKbzps5acdHwQe6 yeah it was, at least by 2011 youtube performances
@SFy65B2G5rKbzps5acdHwQe6 yeah it was, at least by 2011 youtube performances
I love this song, especially the live version. It pretty much makes every other band's attempts to sound like doomladen harbingers of the devil look like cartoons. Here's my take on the meaning:
As noted by rock_hawk the placing of the song between 665 and 667 suggest this is the devil's song. So what does the old bastard have to tell us?
In the first verse we are reminded that waiting for us beyond our journey along life's road lies Hell. "The road between your house and home" is a very clever way of describing life as a journey. In a simple sense life's road involves leaving the house where we were born to find our own home, our own place in the world. In a more religious sense (hey, its the Devil speaking!) the house is our material incarnation, our body, the house of the soul. The journey of the soul through life and death is to leave this material house behind to find its true home, hopefully Heaven, or Nirvana or whatever. But the Devil claims that no matter what, beyond this road lies a churning storm of hailing burning bones: Hell. That will be our home.
Rude! Why? Well it turns out that the road is not so pleasant either...
We are born tiny babies, helpless and shaped by a world not of our choosing. We are pawns whose lives are served chasing profit. Capitalism.
We grow, become men and marry. We do what we can to make a home through work. This consists of collecting material things to build a home. The Devil taunts us by calling these 'stones' - in the long run, just a pile of worthless rocks. We worship these 'stones' (material wealth), consider them precious, and train our sons to be like us, to defend them by killing anything that threatens them. Sound familiar America?
So this is the wheel, that travels down that road, steering our lives round and round. Endlessly turning, but going nowhere but Hell. Ultimately it just crushes people, drives them into the ground...below the ground, into that churning storm of hailing bones.
Interesting interpretation but your quite off base on a few things. First of all, Soundgarden are not doomladen harbingers of Satan. They are not Satanic.
Interesting interpretation but your quite off base on a few things. First of all, Soundgarden are not doomladen harbingers of Satan. They are not Satanic.
They do not worship the Devil, unless ofc you take Cornell yelling "Jesus is my friend" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20q3Dx8RI (singing this exact song mind you) to be "Satan", which if you do, you are quite daft, or deaf.
They do not worship the Devil, unless ofc you take Cornell yelling "Jesus is my friend" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh20q3Dx8RI (singing this exact song mind you) to be "Satan", which if you do, you are quite daft, or deaf.
Secondly, God does not let evil go unpunished. The world is inherently evil, along with things of the world, because evil has been allowed...
Secondly, God does not let evil go unpunished. The world is inherently evil, along with things of the world, because evil has been allowed to corrupt it to give us humans the ability to choose. It ultimately comes down to choosing between love, and love of God (who is love, and goodness, and all that entails), or choosing what has always been done, what we do, the things you talk about actually.
It's not a message from the Devil. I don't know why would think the devil himself would be critical of himself. This makes no fucking sense.
@tautai Capitalism is a scheme of the Devil that goes back 5000 years & the accumulation of wealth is probably his end-game. Money is a snare that drives people's sinful desires & leads them down, down, down---but it's not to Goblin town---but the Lake of Fire.
@tautai Capitalism is a scheme of the Devil that goes back 5000 years & the accumulation of wealth is probably his end-game. Money is a snare that drives people's sinful desires & leads them down, down, down---but it's not to Goblin town---but the Lake of Fire.
No idea what this song is about, and I won't even try to decipher the meaning, but listening to Chris' voice jump up there and carry me into the sky by my neck is just too fucking awesome. Along with Kim Thayil's guitar riffing which sounds like the world ending. I love the intensity with which it's performed live.
Now this is the perfect description for this awesome song.
Now this is the perfect description for this awesome song.
This is one of the greatest Soundgarden songs ever, if not THEE best. Definitely one of the most underrated, along with Boot Camp and Mind Riot.
me too, but why the wheel? I dont get it
Because man made advancements and technological ideas, "far beyond" the invention of the wheel, are now essential to making a living, so we brecome violent and vicious to protect our own "stones."
Because man made advancements and technological ideas, "far beyond" the invention of the wheel, are now essential to making a living, so we brecome violent and vicious to protect our own "stones."
Ductape, you are a genius.
The song... it is... epic...
It's clear this song is about the devil and how he operates... though money and war. Arguably this is about the white man and the Rothschilds, the Illuminati its all the same thing.. the Celtic Druids.. witchcraft... ruling by the sword, murder, genocide and weaponry just as it said he would in the Bible. This song is between the two other songs titled "665" and "667" so obviously this song is 666 despite having it's own title. And the "wheel" is the treadmill that 99% of the other human beings in the world are living in.. the continuous wheel of work and slavery that Satan has constructed in this world. Of course these people operate "beyond" this wheel. They create the world or "wheel" and most people just go through their lives never knowing it or what the real truth about this world is.
The live version of this song is just amazing. Chris's range is amazing and he is the king of ad lib. I think this song is about the western world's ignorance about things that are going on in the rest of the world.
I completly agree with Trashazon