Beginning Lyrics

[Cold&Ugly23]

I can't for the life of me figure out what the first 5 syllables of this song are.

I understand that the lyrics say "Gone under 2 times", but I just don't see how that works.

I swear to god it sounds like he is saying,

"Jump-chop-chip-jumpin" I've...been...etc...

Anybody got any ideas?

[Windir]

gone under two times.
I've been struck dumb by a voice that
speaks from deep
beneath the cold black water.
It's twice as clear as heaven,
and twice as loud as reason.
It's deep and rich like silt on a riverbed
and just as undisturbing.
the currents mouth below me opens up around me.
suggests and beckons all while swallowing.
It surrounds and drowns and sweeps me away.

But I'm so comfortable...Too comfortable.

shut up shut up shut up shut up
shut up shut up shut up shut up
you're saturating me
So how could I let this bring me
back to my knees again again again

under for the third time.
I've been baptized by your voice.
it screams from deep beneath the endless water.
and it's half as high as heaven
and half as clear as reason.
it's cold and and black like silt on the riverbed.
But I'm so comfortable.
Far too comfortable.
Why don't you kill me,
I'm weak and numb and insignificant,
and I'm back on my knees.
lost in euphoria.
I'm back down. I'm in the undertow.
I'm helpless and awake in the undertow.
I'll die within your undertow.
It seems there's no other way out of this undertow.

Euphoria.

[Metalanarchist]

Recently I found a notebook I had in college that contained my transcriptions of the lyrics to Undertow (the CD). I recalled that I joined the TOOL fan-mail club and there was some contest involving transcribing the lyrics to the Undertow CD... of course they are not printed inside the jacket, and the band supposedly was going to read the lyrics to see which fan's submitted version most closely matched the actual things Maynard sang on the album. At least, that is what I remember. I don't think I mailed my entry, because I only got halfway through it. It was hard trying to decipher some of those lines!

Saturday Night Live watchers might know that lyricosis is a common disease among the music-loving public, in which people sing along to songs they like with completely different words, unintentionally. It's a defect between the auditory apparatus and the brain's word processing equipment. Anyway, I know the actual lyrics to Undertow (the song) now, but it's pretty funny looking back at what I thought I heard 10 years ago! I thought I'd post my garbled transcriptions here and invite anyone else who's had similar troubles to do the same!

What I thought I heard in 1993 / Actual lyrics
I’ve been stripped down by my friend / I’ve been struck dumb by a voice
Parents might be lonely / The current’s mouth below me
Just lean back and go, I’ll swallow it / Suggests and beckons all while swallowing

[Peter]

Cold&Ugly that cracks me up I have always thought the same thing about undertow, I just thought it was gibberish until I read the lyrics. I can hear "two times down" now but it took me a while. I thought he said "chew chompin" for a long time. Anyway if you listen to a live version I think it's a little easier to understand. That's my two cents. Have a good one

[Darkest Day 87]

very old post.. i know.. but it's "Two times and.." i know that for a fact.. cause.. i do..

[AllforUnity]

Haha...you people make me laugh.

[Undertolerance]

I have found no trouble in figuring out what he is saying at the very start of the song, it always to just jump right out at me. Almost as if it was really louder to me than it really is. It's sorta odd to explain but that is the best way that I can put it. As I have said many a time that this is my favorite song on the album I know it quite well. That adn by the time that I really started to form opinions about what Tool songs mean to me I was already in a band and musicalness(as it were) came to me easy, so I learned lovely little tricks for making a lyric sound like something else all together. Like I almost got my band disqualified from my high schools Battle of the Bands, because the judges thought that I was saying 'bullshit, bullshit, thats all it is to me' (as well you can guess they had rules against swearing). But I had to explain to them that I was saying 'Push it, push it, all onto me' I could not help but chuckle at what they thought I was saying.

[NOeggs23]

Yea, i think hes saying "Do some-thing!" but i used to think in pushit he was saying "And you as well, adeu" instead of "my dear" but now i can hear my dear perfectly. So, i guess the brain is just a lil fucked up thingy.

[Swim On]

I was always curious about that first lyric until I checked it here. The "gone under two times" doesn't fit, unless he's screaming faster than I can understand. Before I checked I thought it sounded something like "tip-top, yeah".

[Undertolerance]

he once again stresses different syllables as he loves to do that and he is singing it faster. just imagine that after you finish making the last sound of "two" that you immediately begin "times" and thus doing that to the whole line of lyrics, the end result. Something that soundsjustlikeoneword. =)