A Perfect Circle: Weak and Powerless Meaning

Song Released: 2003

Weak and Powerless Lyrics

Tilling my own grave to keep me level
Jam another dragon down the hole
Digging to the rhythm and the echo of a solitary siren
One that pushes me along and leaves me so

Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless over you

Someone...

1. ShortMama234

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   Feb 5th 2008 !⃝

   To me, this song has to do with emptiness. It's like trying to fill a void with useless crap but nothing can pacify the hunger to feel normal. The void can be anything ... Trying to quit drugs ('white as dracula as I approach the bottom') and how the withdrawl symptoms can actually lead to demise.Or maybe it is trying to fill a void after losing someone and how no matter how one might try to keep busy, everything always goes back to that one problem that they haven't dealt with.
2. anonymous

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   Dec 8th 2007 !⃝

   Practically the whole album is about drugs or addiction.
   
   I suppose the 13th step is the final step after the 12 step process: Relapse or full recovery.
3. anonymous

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   Aug 17th 2007 !⃝

   Agreed. I think this song is about drugs. Never having a drug problem myself but from reading about everything there are too many words he uses that couldn't really mean anything else. China White for example.
   At the same time I think the song can be interpreted in many personal levels. Thats what makes music and lyrics so powerful because it explains emotions and feelings that words cannot explain on their own.
   I don't know if anyone even looks at this page anymore though. Ha
4. anonymous

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   Jun 21st 2007 !⃝

   Definitely about addiction, more specifically Heroin.
   I don't think he's digging in search of China, I think he's digging in search of China white.
5. grantq

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   Apr 13th 2007 !⃝

   i am actually in recovery from a previos heroin addiction. I attend 12 step groups, and the 13th step is kindaf a joke, or a truth , about people that have been in recovery, and new commers come in they act as if they can help them ( with sexual motives), to 13th step someone, means to try and get sex or love from a new person that knows nothing about recovery, by misleading them. This happens all the time. Maynard loves to point out the truth behind groups that claim some sort of "moralism" and show their true human nature. Such as the song "the noose", ...... people are stupid... "Im praying for rain","im praying for tidal waves","I wanna see the ground give way", "Iwanna watch it all go down" MOM please flush it all away
6. grantq

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   Apr 13th 2007 !⃝

   many could misconstrew that Maynard is talking about drugs or alchohol, or any addiction, but this song is touching on being weak and powerless over other people. The void that we all live with, expecially on being alone, paradoxically we are not alone, b/c we have ourselves, but through societal conditioning, we look externally to fill the void of loneliness, and expecially comming off a drug or alchohol addiction, one finds themselves looking towards other people(expecially intimacy) to fill the void of seperation or loniliness. This song, along with all of maynards work touches on a deeper level than most songs. APC does a perfect job expressing this emotion of void, and the hope that someone will come along to fill the void of emptiness, "So weak and powerless" over getting other people to fill this void, and the constant seeking,. THis song is PERFECTLY crafted to explain my own experiance, on a level that I could never express.
7. anonymous

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   Nov 18th 2006 !⃝

   ok. Here it is, I've thought about this forever, I think this is it.
   
   tilling my own grave to keep me level= killing himself to keep himself going (in the sense of drugs)
   
   jam another dragon down the hole = injecting, as a previous entry stated, chasing the dragon etc
   
   the drugs push him along but leave him so
   
   desperate and ravenous so weak and powerless over YOU
   (this is almost as if he is personifying drugs, i understand this as they have such power and strength its almost like the are a person)
   
   someone feed the monkey while I dig in search of china (white as dracula as I approach the bottom)=
   this is a play on words.. feed the monkey I believe is feed his addiction, and digs in search of china (downwards) but it is sung "china white" which is heroin.
   and also white signifies his pale state.
   
   "little angel go away come again someother day, the devil has my ear today ill never hear a word you say, promised I would fin a little solice and some peace of mind, whatever just as long as I don't feel so DESPERATE."
   
   little angel is the sober, responsible man in him, that occasionally makes an appearance, but the devil (drugs) has his ear today, and cos of this he will never hear a word you say (theyve taken over)
   
   PROMISED (drug addicts often make meaningless promises) he would find a little solace and some peace of mind, but WHATEVER (what does it matter if he has drugs, if he takes drugs he won't feel so. (just as long as I don't feel so)DESPERATE
8. anonymous

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   Nov 7th 2006 !⃝

   China white is a type of heroine, it is about drug addiction. It is not to deep. Just because Maynard is a lyrical genius does not mean all songs are oh so deep.
9. anonymous

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   Sep 3rd 2006 !⃝

   I read this on an article with Maynard, he said thirteenth step meant the 13 years he's gone through this little journey of his in the music biz, but you don't have to take my word on it. I think the magazine was revolver I just remember Maynard being bald with a bomb strapped to him, also he might have been naked I can't remember

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. Kinyin

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    Jun 27th 2006 !⃝

    I believe this song is about feelings.
    You know what is right for you, but you make up reasons to make your motives right.
    (little angel go away, come again some other day, the devil has my ear today, I'll never hear a word you say, promise I would find a little sollice and some piece of mind, whatever just as long as I don't feel so, desperate and ravenous)
11. Koalaberry

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    Feb 23rd 2006 !⃝

    This song is very biblical in a sense. If you watch the video on the amotion dvd, the girl in the video is supposed to be Eve. She is in the garden of Eden trying to hide from what she is obsessed with. She feels emptiness inside, and she is ashamed because she gave into temptation. Eve was told not to eat the fruit but she did. When she did, she was forsaken by God. This is the reason she is so sickly looking in the video. When she is seen throwing animals and plants into the hole in the ground, it is her trying to make up for what she did. It is her guilt eating at her as she tries to hide from her shame. This is what I got out of the song. I think this is more of a specific haiku. The video was an example of someone who was affected by these feelings in a certain way and why they were affected so. But I think on a larger scale, the song is talking about a generalized emotion known as weakness or lack of power when it comes to one's own obsessions and addictions. And by the way, whoever wrote about the twelve steps and the thirteenth step being the realization after you have healed, you were right, and thank you for seeing the album for what it truly is. And whatever moron said that counting bodies like sheep was not about george bush was completely wrong. You would have to be a moron to actually think it was about something else. If you watch the music video, it has george bush up on a Tyranny stand going through the town turning people into sheep as if they were in a cartoon. So get your facts straight before you go and make yourself look uninformed. That's all I have. Blessed Be to All of You....
12. SocialD85

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    Feb 9th 2006 !⃝

    I think this song is about having something you can't control. Its about something that become a monster, and has taken over your life.
    
    Which to me, Thirteenth Step is about. The Fall, Recuperation, Realization and New sense of self that we all go through at some point or another in our lives.
13. jewstalker@yahoo.com

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    May 10th 2005 !⃝

    The songs on "Thirteenth Step" are about struggling. "Weak and Powerless" is about struggling with an addition of any sort. On the video, the hole in the woman's stomach represents on of the energy chakras. It continues to grow more empty because she tries to fill with thing she don't really need.
    If you have any questions or comments about any song pertaining mainly to Tool and APC, contact me @ jewstalker@yahoo.com. I also have interpretaions to marilyn manson, korn, pretty much anything you throw my way. cya later.
    

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