Weezer: Undone (The Sweater Song) Meaning

Song Released: 1994

Undone (The Sweater Song) Lyrics

[Matt:] Hey bra, how we doin' man?
[Karl:] All right.
[Matt:] It's been a while man, life's so rad!
This band's my favorite man, don't ya love 'em?
[Karl:] Yeah.
[Matt:] Aw man, you want a beer?
[Karl:] All right.
[Matt:] Aw man, this is...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   ryan

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   Feb 13th 2006 !⃝

   I would say that this is a song about a guy who's social life is unraveling because of a single girl. Notice his complete indifference in the beginning when his friends are talking to him. Whether he be with this girl or only longing for her, she means so much to him and can affect him so easily that she barely needs to do anything and he is profoundly affected by it both socially, mentally, and physically. Hence, "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this string as I walk away." Even in public this breakdown shows.
   
   Then, later in the song, we can see his indifference toward the representation of the attractive, lonely, girl. No other girl can take his eyes or his thoughts off of the one who he is truly fixated on.
   
   Lastly, he is telling the girl whom he is fixated on that he basically just wants to get along with her, but that it is also kind of good/satisfying in a way to see her in the same situation/agony that he has been in. Hence, "I don't want to destroy your tank-top. Let's be friends and just walk away. It's good to see you lying there in your Superman skivvies lying on the floor (lying on the floor)."
   
   That is my take on it anyway.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   photonerd81

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   Oct 9th 2005 !⃝

   While it was originally written about the sweater (specifically), the actual idea behind the song is a relationship that's falling apart, but they value each other and want to just walk away and try to still be friends.
   
   The end part shows us that...
   "I don't want to destroy your tank-top"
   Let's be friends and just walk away.
   Hate to see you lyin' there in your Superman skivvies
   Lying on the floor, I've come undone."
   
   Coming undone is obviously an allegory for something falling apart.
3. anonymous

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   Mar 30th 2021 !⃝

   I heard the sphincter line too! Perhaps rivers was alluding this superman skivvies line about ruining the other singers sphincter through a subtle backmasked scream from the inside of a closet fashioned into a bootlegged booth? Perhaps not. Perhaps Kurt Cobain said it right in all Apologies when he explained "everyone is gay?" Perhaps not, perhaps those who disagree with Kurt's thought are the gayest of em all, just hate living a life in sexual secrecy, suppressing inner feelings toward even themselves. Perhaps not however.
4. anonymous

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   Jun 30th 2019 !⃝

   In the background while listening at a low but clear volume i heard if u want to destroy my sphincter... blablabla... watch me unravel as i sit and spin lying on the floor ive come im done so that was two dudes not one singing about an experience they may or may not have shared hey its possible and the chick is someone that he easily dismissed cause he had no interest in her. Who knows if he gave her a ride or not? I dont yet cause im only referring to a part and yet its so compelling already... Weezer?
5. anonymous

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   Nov 19th 2017 !⃝

   I believe he has so much anxiety and can't cope.
6. emily.moore.3705

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   Nov 1st 2012 !⃝

   This is about Rivers coming quite literally undone, in the emotional sense. He is becoming more depressed and no one seems to notice. That is what I read somewhere, I believe he said it somewhere in an interview.
7. anonymous

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   Feb 8th 2010 !⃝

   I think that this song, like Korn's "Coming Undone" is an analogy for suicide. The characters life is falling apart one thread at a time. he says "Ive come undone" meaning he as lost all his motivation and will to keep going on. This song also shows that depression happens to anybody and the people around them might not notice it.
8. anonymous

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   Oct 23rd 2009 !⃝

   This song is about a guy who looses his virginity in an unmeaningful way and regrets it. (Drunk, at a party after a show with a random girl.) Then he doesn't want to do the same thing to someone else when he's in a position to do so.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. gophergetterz

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   Apr 30th 2007 !⃝

   I agree that it's about a guy who's socially awkward.
   
   The lyrics: "oh no, it go, it gone, bye bye..." remind me of a person who is uncomfortable and can't find the right words.
10. anonymous

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    Nov 20th 2006 !⃝

    When asked if the song was about a girl in a recent interview, Rivers denied this and said that is was a song about existence in general.
    
    There isn't a whole lot of intended meaning in this song, lyrically, beyond this; it's all in what people in general take away from it after hearing it. Great riffs though. riff! riff!
11. anonymous

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    Nov 9th 2006 !⃝

    Its just about a guy whose socially akward and can't fuction well with other people.
    
    I don't know how several of the other posts have brought up a girl. I don't know where they got that out of the song.
    
    I think its just him being frustrated with the silly social protocols that many people use and don't think anything of it. For example, girls and guys being obnoxiously flirtatious instead of being open with their feelings toward each other. Also, the people around him making such a big deal about really silly things like partys and beer.
12. mia91

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    Jul 3rd 2006 !⃝

    I think Ryan basically has this song cracked. I've never noticed the indifference from the beginning spoken part as opposed to the rest of the song (mostly the end). In the spoken part the second guy obviously has something else on him mind to be talking to his buddy that way, but is it a girl? My guess is yes. I say yes for one main reason at the end of the song he mentions a tank top, girls wear tank tops, and not many other things do. It seems as though this girl has (though not on purpose) stripped his emotions and unravelled him, much like a sweater.
13. rockstar_mulatto

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    May 24th 2006 !⃝

    I think this song is about how people or a specific someone keeps picking him apart... until the point where he becomes undone.
    
    They might be doing it gradually...slowly... like the unraveling of a sweater.
14. anonymous

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    Dec 17th 2005 !⃝

    photonerd81's interpretation is good, but I'm not sure where all this River-left-a-razor-in-his-pocket-stuff is comming from--this is straight from Rivers' blog on MySpace:
    
    It was in my English class that I heard the analogy of the unraveling sweater. Dr. Eisenstein used the image to demonstrate the effectiveness of focused thesis statement in an essay. “All I have to do is hold a single thread in your sweater and it will unravel as you walk away.”
15. anonymous

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    Sep 26th 2005 !⃝

    Rivers wrote this about his favorite sweater which was ruined in the wash when he accidentally left a small razor in the pocket.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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