Tool: Stinkfist Meaning

Song Released: 1996

Stinkfist Lyrics

Something has to change
Undeniable dilemma
Boredom's not a burden
Anyone should bear

Constant over stimulation
Numbs me
But I would not want you any other way

Just not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I...

1. The_ox

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   Sep 6th 2006 !⃝

   I could paraphrase a post I read somewhere else that pretty sums up every thing I thought about this song, but that would seem too much like stealing. So instead ill just copy the entire thing and credit him:
   
   "the illusions to fisting...Extreme sexual activity in order to feel, the progression from a finger tip to knuckle to hand to shoulder...Hoping to banish a numbness...Requiring something shocking that you don't really want just to feel something...What does that say about a person? I think that's the point of the song.
   
   What I think is interesting is that he seems to explore both points of view here...The person being entered, the person who needs the pain to push past the numbness...And the person who needs to do the pushing, needs to force the envelope, in order to feel.
   
   The dichotomy of sado masochism...But more, I think, in an emotional and psychological sense."
   
   by "faith"
2. anonymous

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   Aug 28th 2006 !⃝

   A child being raped by there parent and the feeling that the parent gets from it and whats going through their head.

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

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   Aug 19th 2006 !⃝

   I think you're all right. Just go with whatever you think it is and it is probably correct. That is the genius of tool, they build simple songs with layered meanings that can hit home with a wide variety of audiences. Half of this stuff on here, I am sure, mjk didn't even think of...Some of it probably crossed his mind. You're all right because you're all wrong.
4. anonymous

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   Aug 1st 2006 !⃝

   Well it is stink fist and I think he is referring to god with it, as the more we go the more we sin the more were covered in shit, and like I said in the conversation on Ænima I think that we need to pull ourself out of this shit and make us a better person before its too late and our whole life, on earth, and in heaven or hell is 100% fucked up. why he reffered to anal sex I don't get, but he has a weird way of interpreting shit, and I really would like to know how he does it.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. narduzzi1120

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   Jul 19th 2006 !⃝

   Alright, this may sound far out. But its the only opinion I have that other people havent already said. But maybe Maynard is singing about religion. Using a woman to symbolize the religion and using sex to symbolize praying or religious study. He needs some kind of answer to lifes questions to "breath to feel to be alive." at the begining of the song, he knows a little bit about the religion(finger deep inside the borderline). And he's satisfied for only a while. So he tries to learn more(knuckle deep inside the borderline) and is again satisfied for only a while.
   "how can it mean anything to me, if I really don't feel anything at all? (yeah)
   i'll keep digging
   till I feel something."
   hes getting desparate and is beginning to lose faith in the religion. So he panicks and tries to make as much sense of it as he can(elbow deep inside the borderline) then finaly (shoulder deep inside the borderline). And after all this, he's still searching for something that makes sense.
6. mzombie33

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   Jun 8th 2006 !⃝

   This song represents a conversation or the relationship between God and a fading believer. The person realizes that faith can bring him great rewards, yet he yearns for something much more tangible than faith. He is desensitized by our skeptical society, and longs for desires brought to him by flesh and fancy. Whereas faith helped him to breathe, to feel, to know that he was alive, he needs something much more tangible to help him feel this way now.

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

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   May 19th 2006 !⃝

   This song is about an addiction. In this song there are two voices, one is the addict, and the other is his addiction. In this case it is about someone who is addicted to a cavity search fetish. He constantly wants more, so he keeps on digging untill he is satisfied, but its never enough.
   i think this is a medaphor for any type/kind of addiction, and is beautifully put portraying the hideousness of an addiction which can be easily found in the title: Stinkfist.
8. Mrb

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   May 18th 2006 !⃝

   Well I think given the actual nature of the album title it makes sense to have a song like Stinkfist to open the album.(AENIMA was a word invented by the band as the combining of the words Anima, Latin for "soul" and Enema, anal cleansing, to take on a new meaning..."cleansing of the soul"). Really, this track is expositional, telling us who we are and where we fit into this modern world. The term "Stinkfist" itself could be said to be a double entendre in the sense of this song. On the more obvious side of things the title suggests anal penetration with the hand and fits in with the enema side of the album title. On the other side we could interpret the "Stinkfist" as a sign of desensification. The line "This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to" is, I feel, a good example of what I'm getting at. Anything original that is presented in a society will quickly become status-quo. A shocking idea or concept can only remain so for a short period of time as we grow accustomed to what has been said or done. The track itself does well to demonstrate this as the song deals with sexual allusions rather explicitly, this is a shocking song (whether you like it or not) upon a first listen, but after repeated listenings the song has lost a lot of it's initial impact. That's not to say I don't like the song anymore, but after the coming to grips with the lyrical content of the song it no longer shocks like it used to.
9. anonymous

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   Apr 16th 2006 !⃝

   I always felt like the song was about drug addiction. It makes a lot of sense.

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

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    Mar 27th 2006 !⃝

    It is a bit of both a social aspect with all the oversaturation of our society but also specially the numbness of a love affair...that the sex they are having is completely numbing, it's not magical like one has imagined as a boy in puberty, it has become just a "need" not a "desire." ("I don't want it, I just need it.")
11. anonymous

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    Mar 24th 2006 !⃝

    This song is about drugs and becoming more, and more addicted to them.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. Zaq

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    Mar 4th 2006 !⃝

    Wow, you're serious?
    One of Tool's messages is "Think for yourself, question authority." They want to get us to think DEEPER. To get us to think for ourselves. To get us to go somewhere we have NOT been led to. The OPPOSITE of sheep to the slaughter.
    The other interpreter, Homzd, hit the nail directly on the head. This song is about society and how it has made us "desensitized to everything" by TV, the news, political scandals, our authority figures, and the way we are raised by our mother society.
13. Zaq

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    Mar 2nd 2006 !⃝

    Good GOD! You're right! Congrats.
14. Zaq

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    Feb 25th 2006 !⃝

    Somehow I think that there's more to it than that...
    Not right now, but soon, I'll submit my interpretation, and maybe others can build off of it... or argue against it... The latter is more likely...
15. anonymous

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    Feb 25th 2006 !⃝

    this song is about either fist fucking or insemenating a cow. take your pick...lol

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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