What do you think Passive means?

A Perfect Circle: Passive Meaning

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Album cover for Passive album cover

Song Released: 2005


Passive Lyrics

“Dead as dead can be,” my doctor tells me
But I just can’t believe him, ever the optimistic one
I’m sure of your ability to become my perfect enemy
Wake up and face me, don’t play dead cause maybe
Someday I will walk away and say, “You...

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  1. anonymous
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     Oct 14th 2009 !⃝

    What do you mean when has Maynard ever sung about relationships? ever heard Stinkfist or 3 Libras?

  2. anonymous
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     Aug 29th 2009 !⃝

    This song can evoke many emotions in a person and therefore can be interpreted to mean what you need it to mean. In my eyes it is about a broken relationship, for me I saw it as parents. Those that get put down a lot and made to feel like disappointments, would love to say it back to their parents I'm sure. It's about the stubbornness of some people and how they won't let their emotions show. Too many people are shut in and turned off and don't know how to express their emotions. To me it feels like the song is shaking somebody and telling them to face the facts.....and wake the fuck up......WHAT AN AWESOME SONG! I could go on but I digress.

  3. anonymous
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     Aug 3rd 2009 !⃝

    The words are literally about his mother being paralysed and unable to help him, but it also ties into dating someone who really doesn't care about you, or notice anything that goes on.

  4. anonymous
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     Jul 11th 2009 !⃝

    I think it's about a girl in a coma, and he's in deep denial. He's telling her to wake up, but the doctor knows she wont. Again, he's in denial about the whole thing. When he says, "You fucking disappoint me" he's saying she should be able to fight this. To me, it seems like he thinks she's faking it. That's just me

  5. anonymous
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     Jun 28th 2009 !⃝

    idk, maybe im not looking at it from a symbolic or poetic stand point, but to me, it just seems like someone he knew died. it sounds like this person killed themselves, and he is "disapointed" that they were so selfish to leave him like this. thats why he says "turn and face me".

    it also sounds like he is in denial that this person did this. so while the person really is dead, he refers to it as "dont play dead".

    then the line that says "someday i will walk away and say you disappoint me" means that someday he will come to grips with what happened and he will walk away from it.

    "i know that you can hear me" is just the religious thought that the dead can hear the living.

    "leaning over you here, cold and catatonic" maybe he is looking at this person at a wake or in the morgue...

    so thats how i took it. no hidden meaning, just right out in the open.

  6. pete1986
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     Jun 24th 2009 !⃝

    Its quite clear what this song is about.

    its about a relationship with a girl that is failing.
    the line "as dead as dead can be, the doctor tells me, but I just can't believe him, never the optimistic" is a metaphor with his internal struggle and is failure to come to terms with the fact that the girl doesn't seemed to bothered. The doctor is himself, his internal feelings, he knows deep down that its over but he is still in love so trys to kid himself.
    the ability to become his perfect enemy means that he will end up loathing her yet he will still love her and will be reeling over what could have been, the romantic that cannot let go.
    playing dead and not waking up to face him is him trying to say that the girl won't talk to him about the situation, it sounds desperate and frustrated which ultimately leads to the threat that he will walk away someday, but the threat appears to be hollow or else he would of done that by now. Its a song about desperately loving someone who doesn't love you back.
    leaning over her cold and catatonic and catching a brief reflection of what their relationship could have been, he sees the person he fell in love with. The implication that the girl is asleep adds a certain feeling of loneliness to the song, the feeling of being awake and so close to someone yet them being so far away. maybe also cold means coldhearted, the feeling that she doesn't really care.
    he knows deep down that there is no hope left, but yet clings to the false dream that she might care, he knows he should walk away but can't but threatens to, but then he knows he has lost. The disappointment he talks of is his disappointment in the fact that all the promises and words she must have said to him have now been broken as she is no longer in love with him, being the romantic that the guy is in this song he painted an ideal picture of their future together which has now been destroyed and he is disappointed, both him her for lying to him and in himself for letting it go this far.
    its a heartbreaking situation and although the song musically is powerful, the sadness and loneliness in the lyrics overpower the hardness of the piece. at first glance this song sounds like it's about hate, but if you listen a little closer it's about lost love and heartbreak. one of my favourite songs.

  7. anonymous
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     Dec 21st 2008 !⃝

    This song is about religion and Maynard is trying to open people eyes. Overall he is saying that there is no God. Maynard is an obvi atheist from his involvement with tool and I think it is again reflected here. Like someone above said that this is a rewrite to a tool song it shows the reflection. God doesn't exist he doesn't respond to our calls and he acts as he is dead. This just shows how Maynard feels about the beliefs in God... Its passive aggresive bullshit... He says that the idea of god is a passive aggresive being that people believe in but in reality is bullshit

  8. anonymous
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     Apr 22nd 2008 !⃝

    ShortMama234 is absolutely completely correct. Bravo.

  9. anonymous
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     Jan 10th 2008 !⃝

    This song could be about a relationship but you have to ask yourself when does Maynard ever sing about relationships?

    i think this song is about two people that don get along but should and are trying like a father and his son or something. one of them is disappointed in the other for not trying and believes that the other can be is perfect enemy.

  10. anonymous
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     Oct 21st 2007 !⃝

    Churchill.

    Its "Ever the Optimistic one" the lyrics are right on top of the page for christsake.

  11. anonymous
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     Jul 29th 2007 !⃝

    Well the guy above pretty much said it all and I agree with most of it

    but I also think that this song is about an ex whom you haven't talked to in long time......AND I MEAN A LONG TIME
    when they see each other she or he doesn't even look at them let alone talk to them (as said in "Some day I will walk away and say you disappoint me")


    "go ahead and play dead, I know that you can hear this, you fucking disappoint me" probably means that his or her ex knows that they arent talking to each other (even if they're right next to each other)but they won't do anything about it


    at the end of the song it repeats "passive aggressive bullshit" which is describing the ex once again
    the ex must be passive (she/he plays dead and/or pretends not to let their current situations such as not talking or facing each other bother them even though deep inside it does and they're not admitting it or are in denial)

    but the ex is also aggressive because in the end of being so "passive" they end up hurting themselves or being angered by what is happening now for it is too late and they have finally noticed it yet regretting the past

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