Tool: Pushit Meaning

Pushit Lyrics

I Saw the gap again today
While you were begging me to stay
Take care not to make me enter
If I do we both may disappear
..
Know that I will choke until I swallow,
Choke this infant here before me.
What is this but my reflection?
Who am I...

1. anonymous

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   May 17th 2009 !⃝

   I think it's about the stuggle one has with the idiot, monkey mind. The constant chatter.
   
   The gap is chaos, the void. An opportunity for silence, and change.
   
   Our subconscious mind is quite infantile until one begins working with it. And often times the voices that haunt us are quite childish upon examination.
   
   I think this song might even have something to do with the Gnostic idea of Archons, based upon my understanding of it.
   
   Inner demons. A mind that may be from outside our own. It never shuts up and can put us in a really bad place when we try and quiet the flow. Stopping the internal dialogue.
   
   This is the Artist's declaration to the Little Idiot mind that the time has come, the game is over. The petty voices will be stilled, and left behind - maybe.
2. Vll

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   Jan 17th 2009 !⃝

   Guitarprodigy submitted a very interesting interpretation, nicely done mate.
3. anonymous

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   Sep 9th 2008 !⃝

   Why do so many people think that TOOL only write with a metaphysical attitude towards life. "higher self, third eye, blah blah blah" If you honestly think that is the subject of this song you need to head to Sedona AZ, I hear a nice Native American fellow will sell you a pile of buffalo chips that will seriously enlighten you, dude!
   
   IMO. The "gap" is seeing the differences between someone you love and yourself. This is all about being in love with someone that doesn't love you but thinks they do because they are comfortable with having you around. They don't love you but they are addicted to your presence, and you to theirs. You know you should get away but you don't because its easy and you don't want to be alone.
   
   @Guy whose GF is with his best friend - She doesn't love you, If she did she wouldn't be with your friend,now whos the TOOL?
4. guitarprodigy

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   Sep 6th 2008 !⃝

   I think this song is written from the point of view of someone abused in a relationship (typically a woman) who eventually goes insane and kills the abuser.
   the gap referred to in the opening (and later) refers to the brink of insanity. "take care not to make me enter. If I do we both may disappear". later "slipping back into the gap again. I'm alive when you're touching me, alive when your shoving me down" she slips back into the gap during the abuse. "staring down the hole again. Hands upon my back again. Survival is my only friend. Terrified of what may come" the hole refers to this gap. Hands upon my back again(physical abuse. again) maybe the infant early in the song is a child she is pregnant with. The choking may refer to the effects on the child from the abuse. "who am I to judge or strike you down?" refers to the lowered self-esteem(or "male privelege" as it is referred to in abuse classes) she feels from her tormentor. This is also evident in the later line "but i'd trade it all for just a little piece of mind". "pushing and shoving" refers to abuse. "alive when you're touching me, alive when you're shoving me down" she is trying to voice that she is a human being, though being treated like less than that. "put me somewhere I don't want to be. Seeing some place I don't want to see. never want to see that place again." referring to "the gap" again. going insane briefly and not enjoying it. "if when I say 'i might fade like a sigh if I stay', you minimize my movement, anyway. I must persuade you another way." (if when I say you might kill me if I stay, you abuse me more, then I must change your mind for you.) "there's no love in fear"(self-explanitory)"just remember I'll always love you. even as I tear your fucking throat away. It will end no other way"(love ya', but I gotta kill ya'. This is the only way to make the abuse go away.)
   
   the abused inevitably slipped into the gap, went insane and killed the abuser.
5. anonymous

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   Aug 18th 2008 !⃝

   It's about dancing.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Mar 27th 2008 !⃝

   Well, this song, I believe to the best of my literal and vocal interpretation knowledge, is talking about premature ejaculation.
   
   If you think about it, all the words fit with this topic, even the title gives it away.
   
   Let's start quoting,
   "But you're pushing and shoving me...
   You still love me and you pushit on me... "
   
   'You still love me and you pushit on me,' clearly here, he talks about someone on his penis and how she'll keep going [sex] without stop, therefore causing him to ejaculate.
   
   "Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line.
   (You better) Take care not to make me enter.
   'cause if I do we both may disappear."
   
   Here, Maynard is asking for rest time. In the best possible way to state this, He is telling her to put her vagina on his finger, and from the 'bang my head upon the fault line' part, that should be self-explaining. The second line of 'taking care, not to make me enter' talks about how he doesn't want to fuck her just yet, because that explains the last line 'cause if I do we both may disappear'- aka, orgasm.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Jan 25th 2008 !⃝

   It kinda seems to me like its meaning is similar to prison sex's
   the one about his step dad abusing him

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. suck_n_suck

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   Nov 22nd 2007 !⃝

   Well I wouldn't say that what I'm saying IS the correct interpretation of the song but this is what I've read in most places...well this song is about parents/elders pushing us to accept or shoving their views onto us..."choke this infant here before me"...when a child is born, he doesn't know jack about this world...Instead of parents letting that child make up his own views through his experiences, he is forced to believe what his parents/elders believe...
   "Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
   Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
   Never wanna see that place again."
   it wud be wiser for the elders/parents to let the child make his own point of views rather then make him walk on their own paths and shoving their own views and experiences...this way the child's movement is minimized "you minimize my movement anyway"...Maynard wants the child to experience so that he can move around and gain knowledge..but the parents minimize the child's movement by just telling him to LIKE wat they (parents) think is good and dis-like wat they think is bad
   
   I hope I make sense..peace
9. anonymous

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   Aug 31st 2007 !⃝

   To me, this is about a person who's treated badly by somebody, and knows it. But somewhere, some way, he thinks and knows he needs it. As much as he tries to get away from it, he kind of craves it. My only real support for this is the song title.
   
   Pushit = Push shit
   
   As in, someone pushing shit on him.

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

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    Aug 2nd 2007 !⃝

    I believe that everyone here basically has the right idea of what this song is about. My interpretation is going to echo what everyone has interpreted about "Push It." This song is absolutely amazing. To me, it means the bitter end of a relationship.
    
    It comes to the phase of a relationship where you love that person so much and you don't want to let them go, but you know that you are at that point to where you are at bitter extremes of emotion for that person. You literally love that person because it is comforting for now, but that person is driving you to a point of resentment and hatred for them. What are you to do! You are confused and that is where the push it comes!! This could be wrong, this is what this song has always meant to me!!
11. anonymous

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    Jul 12th 2007 !⃝

    This is a song written from the perspective of the victim in an abusive relationship. The "gap" refers to the periods of abuse.
    
    "Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
    Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
    Never wanna see that place again."
    
    This is when the victim realizes that the cycle has to end.
    As they try to leave it triggers the violence for the last time.
    
    "There's no love in fear...
    Staring down the hole again.
    Hands upon my back again.
    Survival is my only friend.
    Terrified of what may come.
    
    Just remember I will always love you,
    Even as I tear your fucking throat away.
    But it will end no other way."
    
    This all refers to the final conflict, being forced back into the same old cycle and finally fighting back.
    In other words, I will all ways love you, but know I'm going to do what I have to do to escape you and stop you.
    Listen to the mood of the music as well as the lyrics, it's somber at the point of realization and escalates as the abused tries to exit them finally into violence as they defend themselves.
12. anonymous

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    Mar 1st 2007 !⃝

    my opinion about this song... well, I think it's about his mother. He's blaming himself of her breakdown, and he's trying to clear the way, but he finds that he is unable to do it("hands are on my back again...")

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

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    Nov 23rd 2006 !⃝

    I truly believe this is a song about a relationship gone bad. I think Maynard is speaking of a girl that he loves so much he hates her. He says "I'm alive when your touching me, alive when you're shoving me down." that to me means that she makes him feel alive in happiness and in sadness.
    he also says, "you still love me, you still love me, pushit on me, pushit on me." To me that means she is forcing the hate love relationship on him no matter what the outcome.
    When he says "who am I to judge or strike you down." To me that means he is just as guilty as she is when it comes to difficulty in the relationship.
    This song relates to a couple of my very own relationships gone bad so I can definately relate to "I saw the gap again today... while you were begging me to stay."
    Great song.
14. anonymous

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    Oct 14th 2006 !⃝

    I guess I take this one literally.
    I think the infant is actually an infant...Note the crying
    i think it is about transition (unwillingly) into fatherhood. Forced into it against his will. Doesn't want to turn into his own father, the responsibility. The loss of the person he is presently. Afraid of becoming the overweight, balding, unhappy man driving the minivan. Resents being trapped into it by the women who "loves" him. Yet still feels the bond with the baby and struggles with that.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Aug 1st 2006 !⃝

    Maybe it's about someone who has a multiple personality.
    
    The inner person inside him that is manipulating and dragging him down. A manipulator and creator of fear.
    
    It could be about the struggle to rid himself of this 'other side'. Its hard because he's been there for soo long.
    
    Choke this infant here before me.
    What is this but my reflection?
    Who am I to judge and strike you down?
    
    Its been there since childhood. Its his reflection. How can he judge or strike himself down.
    
    Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line.
    (you better) take care not to make me enter.
    'cause if I do we both may disappear
    
    if he pulls the trigger they both die.
    
    I'm alive when you're touching me/
    alive when you're shoving me down.
    But i'd trade it all - for just a little piece of mind
    
    just wanna get rid of him.
    
    There's no love in fear.
    Staring down the hole again.
    Hands around my back again.
    Survival is my only friend.
    Terrified of what may come.
    Remember I will always love you, as I tear your fucking throat away.
    It will end no other way.
    It will end no other way.
    
    
    Feels a need to shut him up, tearing his fucking throat!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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