Sibling Songs?

[Warrior Alien]

I've been looking over the lyrics of both "Crawl Away" and "Pushit" lately, and while they seem very different musically, lyrically they seem to be mirrored reflections of each other in a complementing manner.

This may be a straightforward assumption, but I've always figured the two songs to be about a failing relationship, particularly a long-term one that has slowly turned to abuse. "Crawl Away"'s first verse details this relationship from the point of the abusive partner, whereas "Pushit" seems to be from the POV of the abused, especially from the second verse "Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line."

Maybe I'm taking the lyrics at too much of a literal level, but it's interesting to think of the two songs as mirror images of each other, both in lyrical perspective and music.

[mrskeenan]

well i never looked at it from that point of view, and i am not saying it's wrong, it just doesn't feel right to me. maynard really has no reason to sing about abuse, but hell you never know

[thomasknight]

maynard really has no reason to sing about abuse

I don't really understand, is this ironic?

I like the sound of the OP, one could say that the object of Crawl Away, is the subject of Pushit.

These two lines match up:

You crawled away from me.
Slipped away from me.

I tried to keep ahold,
but there was nothing I could say.

As you were begging me to stay. Managed to push myself away,

This describes the desire for seperation by one party and the desire from the other to prevent this. More lyrics show reasons for wanting seperation:

But what you want and what you need
doesn't mean fuck to me.

Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
Never wanna see that place again.

Not a direct match but evidence of one person doing to the other what they don't want to be done to them.

The next lyrics actually can be directly connected:

Because I can see your back is turning.
If I could I'd stick the knife in.

Hands upon my back again

I'm think I'm making too much of a connection between the word back appearing in both songs. When the Crawl Away lyrics are sung, I think it's connected with the times when the abused is leaving the abuser. It sounds to me like the back of the victim is being turned on the abuser so they feel they are losing their victim and must stick the knife in to keep them or at least spite them for leaving. In Pushit the same situation may be being described, but the subject is talking about how mentally he is back in the relationship rather than walking away as the subject of Crawl Away suggests:

Staring down the hole again

The victim is caught still in this relationship because he's heading mentally down this hole where he gets stuck.

Terrified of what may come

Next is a big matchup:

This is love.
This is my love for you

You still love me and you pushit on me

The abuser is describing his actions as his love, and the victim confirms this by describing the same thing. I'm assuming in Crawl Away, "this" refers to whatever is being "pushed" on the victim. Although it does sound like the victim is making a distinction between the love and the abuse, like they are saying, "You love me but yet you do this". Further evidnce shows that in fact the victim is saying that this is not love:

There's no love in fear

It's at this pont that I realise that there are far more descriptions of events in Pushit than Crawl Away. Pushit also talks about the victim enjoying it. But we don't need to look too far from Crawl Away to find the abuser's perspective of this, Prison Sex. I might go so far to say that Pushit is in fact telling the story of Prison Sex, but instead of just talking about what physical things are happening, the victim is telling the abuser why the relationship is as it is. Pushit sounds like two people caught in the cycle of abuse:

Slipping back into the gap again.
I'm alive when you're touching me,
Alive when you're shoving me down.