Tool: Sweat Meaning
Sweat Lyrics
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Sounds to me like past life regression. The whisper of the psychologist taking him back into a world he feels like he's lived before
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The great thing about Maynard's lyrics is that they're metaphoric and can be interpreted in many ways. My interpretation is he first refers to the "Hunter and the fisherman" in third person, then he says "I am" the Hunter and the fisherman. I think he's talking about how he observes others living off the land like our ancestors, then while he's doing work in the sun he has glimpses of his past life hunting and gathering. This thought makes him feel like he's "in a dream within a dream" and is living in purgatory, in some middle phase of reality. This thought makes him feel dizzy or like he's drowning. The concept of being "taken home" is that while in deep contemplation he knows that this reality is only a piece of the truth of our experience and death will eventually take us to the next phase of existence "home".
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This song sounds about relapse, or coming down from a high.
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i mean eternal recurrence, couldn't edit it.
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to me it's about the rebirth of life, kind of a nietzschean external recurrence. reliving the same life over and over again. coming back to this same plane of existence. to me sex is the undertone of the song not the philosophical part. if you think of it that way, sex represents rebirth and have you lose yourself in the act forgetting who you are and what you came here for.
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IMHO: this song is about an intense and long waited sexual intercourse.
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As with any tool song, the lyrics are deliberately set to mislead, but also open to interpretation. The one thing that flows strong here are the references to the poem 'dream within a dream' by Edgar Allan Poe. The poem was about a lost love and a contemplation over life and death. I think Maynard addresses this in many ways. The depth described as Edgar describes grains of sand, the day and night by EAP is Maynards sun rise and set 'hot' then "cool' as it sets. The possibility of 'deeper'referring to death as did EAP. The fisherman and hunter both looking for something. 'Must be the way you whisper' suggests the involvement of a woman driving the illusion of a dream, as suggeseted by EAP. Reference to the ocean, the same setting used by EAP when engaged in thought. And just a random thought... perhaps the reference to his difficulty remembering is referring to when one wakes up. Quite often when awaking from a dream it's hard to remember what we actually were dreaming about, if at all, but we remember that we dreamt, even sometimes wether it was good or bad, but no matter how hard you try, you can't remember the subject and it's details. It could be the awakening of conscious state from alternate conscious state. "It drags me under and takes me home' may refer to someone speaking to him and awakening him from sleep, or more so a dream that he cannot remember.
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Thought I'd point out that it seems that 'hunter' is referring to someone who searches thoroughly for something and 'fisherman' refers to someone who seeks something indirectly. "I'm a thinker and a fisherman" -- This seems to indicate that he's philosophizing for truth in a haphazard manner. I could comment on the rest of this but I think I'll leave it for you to decide ;-)
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Wow, I am coming off of 4 years of Heroin abuse. This whole album is like a rebirth from opiates. Sweat is the first withdrawal symptom. In my opinion, MJK makes his albums during some very real in intense transitional points in his life. For example, the album, the 13th step, talks a LOT about this. I have always wondered what the 13th step was. I am not there yet.
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In Keeping with the obvious Jungian tones in a lot of Tool's music I think this song is about the 'Collective Unconscious' (or Sub-Conscious). Carl Jung had a theory that basically states that we all go to the same places in our dreams. Thats why something you have never seen could seem so familiar. And the 'sweating, breathing' parts I see as the function of what is physically happening whilst this process is underway. What do ya think?
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I agree with the deja-vu ideas to a point. My take is that he's in a cycle that he can't break free of. After he gets to the end of the cycle, and begins it again, he's forgotten that it's not the first time. That's why it seems like he's been here before. It brings him home because he's used to it, and it makes him feel good about being in the situation. Probably about his addictions, like many of the songs from Tool and APC, which can be applied to ANY addiction that any one of us have. Alcohol comes to mind. You go to work, you come home, and you drink. You go to work, you come home, and you drink. After a long enough time, you no longer recall HOW you came to be where you are, it makes you dizzy to try, but you just know that it makes you better, and ready to start all over again.
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Sounds to me like his first time in bed. If the tragic and gross rumor about Maynard's childhood is true, then it could be his first time and it reminds him of that certain event. Whispers. familiarity. Sweating.
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One of the first tool shows I was at they played this song and when Maynard spoke before this song he said "our next song is about anal sex" but knowing Maynard he could be full of it..
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I don't know Tool very well, but reading these lyrics I was reminded of an epitaph I once read: ''Here lies the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea''.
It's fairly well known, and the references to the hunter and the fisherman in the song, along with those to 'sinking deeper' refer to dying, to returning to the collective human consciousness which 'war profiteer' refers to.
Perhaps the deja vu feeling (which I agree is there) is a recognition of the collective consciousness we come from and return to? -
Yeah, I think deja vu too. But I also think it's about the unseen connection between all human concious, either thru dreams or moments of deja vu.
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