Lyrics for Stinkfist as interpreted by implode

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

It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive

Finger deep within the borderline
Show me that you love me and that we belong together
Relax, turn around and take my hand

I can help you change
Tired moments into pleasure
Say the word and we'll be
Well upon our way

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
'til you will not want me any other way

It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive

Knuckle deep inside the borderline
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to
Relax, slip away

Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be
Desensitized to everything
What became of subtlety?

How can it mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

I'll keep digging 'til
I feel something

Elbow deep inside the borderline
Show me that you love me and that we belong together
Shoulder deep within the borderline
Relax, turn around and take my hand

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 315 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
treestump
12-15-2001

Rated 0 
Well if taken literally this song is about fisting but if you look deeper it can also be about how people quickly become bored and numb so they always must keep trying new things to remain interested

Another meaning is that it can be about letting someone close to you only to have them betray you (This might hurt a little but its somehting you'll get used to)

Log in to reply
Makoe
01-22-2002

Rated 0 
As Treestump began to point out, I have thought that this song was about desensitisation.
People get involved or addicted to certain things, living in a cold and numb bubble of existance, ultimately missing out on life.

Log in to reply
Babyeater
01-22-2002

Rated 0 
If I might take it a little further... the song is about how things must escalate more and more to keep from the boredom monotony brings. The fisting metaphor is familiar to what Tool does with their magical powers. An underlying theme would ask the question if you trust your loved one to go the limits with them. Do you trust someone sticking their fingers...

Log in to reply
PunKinDrubliC
02-07-2002

Rated +1 
I always thought it was about heroin use, because I guess you would feel a bit numb after using that and the more you had the more you wanted as in this part:
It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive




Log in to reply
Harry Manback
02-07-2002

Rated 0 
It's a love song, pure and simple! 'Show Me That You Love Me And That We Belong Together' A Love song! Maynard is also lamenting the fact that many people take love for granted eg one-night stands when he says 'Something kind of sad about the way that things have come to be. Desensitised to everything. What became of subtlety?"

Log in to reply
marnues
02-09-2002

Rated 0 
love song pure and simple?
it could be interpreted as a love song, but there's no such thing as a tool song that is pure and simple

Log in to reply
Poptarts047
02-11-2002

Rated 0 
i think its about pooping

Log in to reply
xon0
02-17-2002

Rated 0 
i thought of the song as someone being addicted to something and trying to quit.

Log in to reply
Faith
02-18-2002

Rated +1 
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 POV 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.



Log in to reply
Achilles_Libertine
03-19-2002

Rated 0 
Well everyone has alot of diverse opinions here but really this song is in the style of being in the footstep of a person who embraced life to it's extremes (Finger, Shoulder, Elbow). Since the song's title is called stinkfist it's obvious he got his hands dirty from all sorts of things tangible and untangible. This person who Maynard is talking about embraces life to it's fullest but still is digging deeper to find something more meaningful.

Log in to reply
Achilles_Libertine
03-19-2002

Rated 0 
hmmm a rather sensual interpretation Faith

Log in to reply
Trofa11
03-31-2002

Rated -1 
Most of you people are fucking faggots!!! Where the hell did you get this fisting idea??? It's about a bloody drug addiction you fucking gutterminded, tunnelvisioned wankers!!!

Log in to reply
1 Reply
Trofa11
03-31-2002

Rated 0 
That last comment was not from trofa, it was from Damien.

Log in to reply
Trofa11
03-31-2002

Rated 0 
it is obviously referring to the 'coming of age' of a drug addiction and exactly how it begins and eventually does take over ones life. The satisfaction of drug use is mocked to a degree that suggests tool is opposed to the use of drugs and that it defers one away from reality.

Log in to reply
NeverGreen
04-05-2002

Rated 0 
I think this is about anal fisting... most of the lyrics back this up!
i wont state the obvious ones ("finger/knuckle"), but there are others that many people dont notice,
Relax, turn around and take my hand,

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
'til you will not want me any other way

This may hurt a little butt

I'll keep digging 'til
I feel something

pretty self explanitory ;)

xxxx*xxxxx
NeverGreen


Log in to reply
ibelieve
04-13-2002

Rated 0 
stinkfist is not about getting fisted up the ass, just like rape me (nirvana) is not about getting literally raped...awesome song though. Was "the" song of my highschool in 1996, lots of memories.

Log in to reply
therymz
04-13-2002

Rated 0 
DUUUUUUUDES ....... Stinkfist is about all the stuff our minds are exposed to by the media in modern society. We see so much stuff on tv that its desensetized us to reality. To get our kicks now we need something more.

All the stuff we see around us should repulse us(the pain caused by the fisting). But it doesent because we're used to it.

Log in to reply
H-bomb
04-26-2002

Rated 0 
Consider this: the song is about the relationship between artist and audience, and is open to interpretation from both view points, ie artist to audience/audience to artist. Wacky? Let me continue...
(part 1).
This relates to the struggle to maintain creativity. For the writer to entertain and for us to be entertained, for "boredom's not a burden anyone should bear."
(part 2)
Continues this idea in that this was Tool's third album and depicts the strain of expectation for the band "and i wouldn't have you any other way."
(part 3)
The need for "more" in that each new creation has to evoke and inspire greater than previous works.
(part 4)
Fisting is the metaphor of the song. The notion of delving deeper into the creative self. Conversely, from the audience standpoint, the deeper exploration into our own psyche. Each journey needing to touch further inside.
(part 5)
Hey surely your getting it by now?

Then again interpretation is personal, and i'm just a sacred cow.

Log in to reply
therymz
05-01-2002

Rated 0 
If anybody has seen the movie Fight Club(which im sure people have) and understood what the movie was about, they would realize that the movie and this song have the same message. About how all the shit in the media, the advertising, the tv shows, the violence, the sex, is desensetizing us to reality and we should wake up and see that its making us mindless drones of society.

Log in to reply
Kookkie
05-06-2002

Rated 0 
I think this song is about drug use and the song has 2 perspectives the first is from the Drug, the second from the user

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

User:
Constant over stimulation numbs me
But I would not want you any other way

It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive

Drug:
Finger deep within the borderline
Show me that you love me and that we belong together
Relax, turn around and take my hand

I can help you change
Tired moments into pleasure
Say the word and we'll be
Well upon our way

Blend and balance
Pain and comfort
Deep within you
'til you will not want me any other way

User:
It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy
I don't want it
I just need it
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive

Drug:
Knuckle deep inside the borderline
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to
Relax, slip away

User:
Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be
Desensitized to everything
What became of subtlety? ((the drug doesnt pleasure him/her anymore))

How can it mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

I'll keep digging 'til
I feel something

Drug:
Elbow deep inside the borderline
Show me that you love me and that we belong together
Shoulder deep within the borderline
Relax, turn around and take my hand

Maybe you'll think this is a bit far fetched but think about it, al signs point to yes ;)

Log in to reply
1 Reply
Mattwka
05-06-2002

Rated 0 
This is in my oppinion one one of the greatest set of lyrics in history, so far i have heard 5 beleifs on what this song means. I belive whole heartadly that this song was designed that the mind would percieve it in a number of number of ways. I really seee the drug addiction one and the love one. People will go to crazy extents for the love of another wether its right to do it or not. Some people are willing to push every phisical limit of a person to express their love. The fisting is just something to relate "phisical limits" to. Very cool song by the best band on the planet. Musicly, Lyricly, and emotionaly moving.

Log in to reply
superrstarr
05-08-2002

Rated 0 
i'm not a very deep person... so to me this song is about this guy who's like bored with sex and so he finds *ahem* new things to do. ...get my drift? =)
the best part is:
"it's not enough, i need more
nothing seems to satisfy
i don't want it, i just need it
to breathe, to feel, to know i'm alive..."

Log in to reply
Legomancer
05-11-2002

Rated 0 
Like pretty much all Tool songs there's layers of meanings that can be draw from the lyrics and all of them are probably as valid as the next but I think one possible interpretation that fits in well with Tool's overall ethos is that of the Third Eye. It's sounds kinda crazy I know, so I'll elaborate.
The basic idea behind that of the Third Eye is that there are subtle stimuli in nature to which human beings were once responsive but in the course of our evolution we became desensitized to them.
We are so deluged by media imagery and what-not that we have lost the ability to pick up on the subtle rhythms of the Earth. In losing touch with our spiritual selves (andI'm not refering to Christian idea of spirituality here) we are imprisoned by the banalities of a world devoid of spiritual depth where everything is governed by the intractable laws of physics and accepted scientific belief.
I think this is best conveyed in the lines:

Something kinda sad about
the way that things have come to be
Desensitized to everything
What became of subtlety?
How can it mean anything to me
If I really don't feel anything at all?

Of course this interpretation is probably only a small part of the overall meaning of the song.

Log in to reply
1 Reply
Harry Manback
05-17-2002

Rated 0 
Love song!!! He does sound sad when he sings 'Something kinda sad about..." I think the line "What became of subtlety?" kindda talks about how people are less subtle with their feelings. There's no courtship or wooing, people just seem to jump into bed with each other as soon as they clap eyes on each other.

Log in to reply
juvenilecokefiend
05-24-2002

Rated 0 
tool fucking rule. Who else could write a song about fistfucking as a subtle metaphor for media saturation and drug abuse without sounding completely ridiculous? Maybe Tom Waits, but he doesn't generally work with such themes.

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here