my meaning

[pathological2]

This song is another classic "squaring-off between" song (like Undertow and H). Maynard and the snake pushing back and forth. Totally introspective. Slipping back into the gap again - the gap is the neutral place. The snake doesn't have me, neither does my heart. I just observe the storm from here. This is where I do most of my writing. "Managed to push myself away and you as well my dear". Like every other song, this is the poetry written in the third eye reality (lack of a better term).

[LabRat404]

This song is another classic "squaring-off between" song (like Undertow and H). Maynard and the snake pushing back and forth. Totally introspective. Slipping back into the gap again - the gap is the neutral place. The snake doesn't have me, neither does my heart. I just observe the storm from here. This is where I do most of my writing. "Managed to push myself away and you as well my dear". Like every other song, this is the poetry written in the third eye reality (lack of a better term).

I am very intruiged...I'm going to think as deeply as I can about this!

and I'm completely serious :-)

[pathological2]

Read my H. interpretation (the one I posted after yours). I went into great detail. I believe that Maynard's lyrics are two things: terribly deep and terribly INTROSPECTIVE. I think they are all about him and about the inside of his head. I think that they all revolve around the third eye reality/level of consciousness. And that most come from the squaring-off.

[pathological2]

Here's my line by line:

"Saw the gap again today
While you were beggin me to stay
Take care not to make me enter
Cause if I do we both may disappear"
-I saw the gap again, the neutral place. I am in the middle. This is the squaring-off between place. I get pulled to both sides - the snake's side or my true self's side. The gap is in the middle, where I can observe both sides and not be pulled in either direction. I'm telling the snake "take care not to make me enter". Cause if I (my true self) enter, the snake/the battle/this reality will no longer be necessary. We both will disappear.

"I will choke until I swallow
Choke this infant here before me
What is this but my reflection?
Who am I to judge or strke you down?
-I will suffer until I get it right. The infant before me is my reflection. In this state/pespective, I am an 'infant'. In the salival version, he says "what are you but my reflection". Who am I to judge or strike my reflection down? Or who am I to judge me or strike me down?

"But you're pushing and shoving me"
-The squaring-off between is like a game of tug and war. I get pulled to one side and then the other, and sometimes I land in the gap.

"I still love me, you pushit on me"
-The snake doesn't have me yet. I still love me. I still see parts of me in a positive light. But the snake is not quitting. It's still pushing it's negative portrait of me onto me. Still trying to push me on it's side.

"Rest your trigger on my finger
Bang my head upon the fautline
You better take care not to make me enter
Cause if I do we both may disappear"
-This is like "intolerance". We both are NOT innocent. This is your (the snake's) part. The snake rests my finger on it's trigger. (I pull it, not the snake, metaphorically speaking). But then the snake makes me think it's my fault, that it was all me (that the snake doesn't exist, one of the snake's most clever methods - convincing me that he doens't exist). But the snake better not let the true me come in, cause if I do this reality will disappear and he WILL NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO CONTROL MY WILL.

"Slipping back into the gap again
I'm alive when your touching me
Alive when you're shoving me down
But I'd trade it all for just a little piece of mind."
-I'm in the neutral place again, observing the battle. I am alive during the battle. I feel alive when I'm being pushed and shoved. I am not NUMB in this state. I can feel the life that the crook took. A part of me is awake. But I'd trade it all if I could have some peace. I would never come here again to square off if I didnt' have to. If I could have peace otherwise, I would. I would gladly not come here again to this stressful place. But as of now, it's the only way to rise out of an apathetic existence. It's the only way not to fall asleep.

"I am somewhere I don't want to be
Seeing someplace i don't want to see
Never want to see that place again"
-I've been pushed over to the snake's side. I don't want to be here.

"Saw the gap again today
While you were begging me to stay
Managed to push myself away
And you as well my dear"
-This describes the gap. The snake wanted me to stay on his side. But I pushed him away. I also pushed my true self away, too. I am in the middle, the neutral place.

"If, when I say I might fade like a sigh if I stay
You minimize my movement anyway
I must persuade you another way"
-If I say I might fade away, the snake minimizes me still, I must persuade him another way to that I may stay here. I must provide proof/evidence that I am worth something. Cause if I don't, I will die (like in "eulogy").

"Staring down the hole again
Hands around my back again
Survival is my only friend
Terrified of what my come"
-I'm on the snake's side and staring down the hole. I am defeated. My hands are around my back and I'm trying to survive. I'm scared as hell of what is going to be shown to me. The snake has me and is suffocating me.

"Remember I will always love you
Till you throw your fucking throat away
This will end no other way"
-Back to Maynard: Remember my true self will always love me. As long as I can still sing, my life is not waisted or in vain. The snake will never take that from me.

This all takes place in the third eye reality.

[jak-jak]

i love you8r meaning pathological2 but at the same time IMO i think its hard to make meaning's out of alot of their songs. mainly because when your think about there songs there are so many diffrent meaning thats could be possable, and in this i beleave tool has done this so that everyone can get something out of there songs depending on how much work u want to put into going into the songs. Also, at the same time, making there fans and people of all kinds that listen to their music to think for them self's and to think outside of the box and expand their mind's.

As for the first meaning i got from Pushit was it being about abusive and bad relationship's where is shows how people in them get drawn back into them and how in the end they could lead to death of one's self or their partner. Also in the end how the abused person can turn out to abuse other people in the end.

[Life feeds on life]

i think that this song is just about sex. But only about how he loves getting sex from his lover but not "normal" sex, the kind that makes babies so to say.

The virst verse: "I will choke until I swallow...
Choke this infant here before me
What is this but my reflection?
Who am I to judge and strike you down?"
He is talking about how he doesn't want to have sex, but it's in his nature who is he to disagree with his instinct?

The Second verse: "But you're
Pushing and shoving me
You still love me and you pushit on me"
But his lover keeps pushing sex on him. He isn't saying anything to her to make her think he doesn't want to so she keeps doing it.

The third verse: "Rest your trigger on my finger,
bang my head upon the fault line
Take care not to make me enter
'cause if I do we both may disappear"
This is where he is talking about the various ways he is having sex with his lover. (Fingering, "Rest your trigger on my finger", Oral, "bang my head upon the fault line") But he doesn't want to normal sex with her. Because he will completely lose it.

The fourth verse: "But you're pushing me,
Shoving me
Pushit on me"
Again he is talking about he is still doing it anyway, she keeps making him do it.

The fifth verse: "Slipping back into the gap again
I'm alive when you're touching me,
Alive when you're shoving me down"
Here he is talking about how he is gonna lose it. But he loves it when she touches him and he loves it when he getting oral sex from her.

The sixth verse:"But i'd trade it all
For just a little bit of
Piece of mind"
He would love it if they did more then just have sex all the time, but thats all she wants to do, he would trade it all for just a little peace of mind.

The seventh verse:"Put me somewhere I don't wanna be
Seeing someplace I don't wanna see
Never wanna see that place again"
Now this is where he has got so into the oral/manual stimulation from his lover that he want to have "normal" sex with her, because he has just about lost it.

The eighth verse: "Saw that gap again today
As you were begging me to stay
Managed to push myself away,
And you, as well"
His lover wanted it again, she was begging him for it, but he managed to escape before he lost it, but in doing so pushed her away from him.

The Ninth verse: "If, when I say I may fade like a sigh if I stay,
You minimize my movement anyway,
I must persuade you another way"
But if he says anything about how he doesn't want "normal" sex then his relationship with her will just be very shallow, they'll just sit around and do nothing. But she doesn't let him do much anyway. If only he could find a way to get her to stop.

The tenth verse: "There's no love in fear"
He can't truley love her if he is afraid of her in totality.

The eleventh verse: "Staring down the hole again
Hands upon my back again
Survival is my only friend
Terrified of what may come"
She is doing it again, she wants it again, but he must escape he must not go insane, he knows what he must do to make it stop.

The final verse: "Just remember I will always love you,
Even as I tear your fucking throat away
But it will end no other way"
He has to kill her to make it stop, but he still loves her, this is the only way.

[pathological2]

I just don't see or feel this song being about a woman.