The Mollusk

I'll be the first. This song rocks. Nice little story. I wonder if the trinity is the holy trinity??

It's actually "Kind sir, it’s a mollusk I found". Also, I'm too lazy to transcribe it, but this is missing the short spoken word bit, which makes the song for me (mainly because I love that while supposedly "there are three things that spur the mollusk from the sand", really only one of them is actually mentioned).

The vaginal thing is an interesting tack, but I don't think there's any more to it than gently poking fun at 60's psych/folk lyrical pretensions (the loping backing music and the spoken bit seem like they might be a nod to Donovan's similarly aquatic-themed "Atlantis").

It's actually "Kind sir, it’s a mollusk I found". Also, I'm too lazy to transcribe it, but this is missing the short spoken word bit, which makes the song for me (mainly because I love that while supposedly "there are three things that spur the mollusk from the sand", really only one of them is actually mentioned).

The vaginal thing is an interesting tack, but I don't think there's any more to it than gently poking fun at 60's psych/folk lyrical pretensions (the loping backing music and the spoken bit seem like they might be a nod to Donovan's similarly aquatic-themed "Atlantis").

Yeah, destroyalltacos is correct, and the lyrics posted here are wrong.

I think this song begins the ocean-theme of The Mollusk (the album, that is) very nicely. My all time favorite Ween album, and this is one of my favorite songs.

I actually have heard the vagina thing before. But as far as these lyrics go... I really don't see how that theory fits in any way. To me, the lyrics seem to symbolize some sort of enlightenment, whether it be through drugs or meditation or what have you.

On Wikipedia I read that the whole Mollusk album was made to poke fun at the sea shanty genre. It is the only song I've heard by them so I cant comment on any others. My personal interpretation, this is going to sound weired, is the song could be about discovering something ancient and beautiful. Mollusks are considered a primitive form of life, so we normally don't think of them gazing in wonder or knowing of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The little boy, by finding and enjoying the mollusk has awakened his ability to wonder and love God, a primordial connection all have.

WarmPBR, it's not "Bring for the mollusk cast unto me". That doesn't even make sense. It's "Bring FORTH the mollusk cast unto me". If you're going to correct, correct correctly. ;-)

This might seem kind of obvious, but I think there's a possibility that this song is about the album itself. Ween rented out a house on the beach in New Jersey and stayed there for weeks to write until they finished the album. The little boy I think represents Ween, finding the Mollusk through inspiration by the sea: "does it emulate the ocean sound?" Yes, this album does.

The second verse is the tough part though, here's my best stab at it: "does it speaketh of the Trinity" I believe asks if this album feels divinely inspired. Because it is based on a creation of God (the sea) and because it includes some very grandiose music, I would say yes again, this album does (the exuberant synth solo near the end of this song is a good example of what sounds to me like divinely inspired music, it is an aural rendering of the beauty, joy, and wonder of life).

"Casting light at the sun with it's wandering eye" is the toughest nut to crack, my only guess is that the sun is almost like a God to men because it provides the light and energy to make life possible, and so the Mollusk is a reciprocal creation of that light, casting a reflection of life using music back at the life-giving creator.

The" three things that spur the Mollusk from the sand" is also a tough one, as the song only lists one, the "waking of all creatures that live on the land." I think this might be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the supposed "awakening" or "enlightenment" the listener will experience upon hearing the album. Ween probably doesn't actually believe that their music is as profound as all that, but given that this song is sort of a take-off of ELP, who came across as enormously self-important back in the prog era, I think this is part of the joke. Ween generally likes to screw with our heads for the sake of humor, so to leave the other two things unspoken is not a huge departure from their modus operandi, and makes the joke of mocking the pretentiousness of prog even funnier. If I had to guess what the other two parts of the Trinity are, it's Gene and Dean (making the Trinity Gene, Dean, and the listener).

The "wandering eye" could either refer to Ween's predilection towards emulating a diverse array of genres, or maybe just suggests that Dean and Gene are horn dogs (which wouldn't be a huge surprise if you consider the subject the subject matter of many of their songs).

Some of this analysis is potentially way off-base but this is the only way I can make sense of it. Who knows, it could mean nothing whatsoever.

Aw damn I knew I was going to screw something up. No edit option, lame. I meant that Gene, Dean, and the listener are the "three things that spur the Mollusk from the sand" (i.e. create the impetus to make the album in the first place), not the Trinity (though that could be a subsidiary reference also).

I think the meaning of this song is closely related to the other songs of the album, which is to do with the illusive search for truth and higher meaning. When optained in a dreamlike state (like when under the influence of hallucinogenics) it tends to dissolve in the daylight of awake perception. Thus when the mollusk is about to reveal the trinity it ends up looking back to the sea with it's wandering eye (sea=unknown, eye=consciousness)

i always thought the kid said 'cancer, tomorrows guffaw' but yeah, the real lyrics make way more sense that that. killer song