Lyrics for Pet as interpreted by OwnPersonalDemon

Pet Lyrics
Don't fret precious I'm here, step away from the window
Go back to sleep

Lay your head down child
I won't let the boogeyman come

Counting bodies like sheep
To the rhythm of the war drums

Pay no mind to the rabble
Pay no mind to the rabble

Head down, go to sleep
To the rhythm of the war drums

Pay no mind what other voices say
They don't care about you, like I do, like I do
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils,
See, they don't give a fuck about you, like I do.

Just stay with me, safe and ignorant,
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep

Lay your head down child
I won't let the boogeyman come
Count the bodies like sheep
To the rhythm of the war drums

Pay no mind to the rabble
Pay no mind to the rabble

Head down, go to sleep to the rhythm of the war drums

I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and all your demons

I'll be the one to protect you from
A will to survive and a voice of reason

I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and your choices son
They're one in the same
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself

Swayin to the rhythm of the new world order and
Count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums

The boogeymen are coming
The boogeymen are coming

Keep your head down, go to sleep, to the rhythm of the war drums

Stay with me
Safe and ignorant
Just stay with me
Hold you and protect you from the other ones
The evil ones
Don't love you son,
Go back to sleep


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ObsessiveTendencies
04-09-2004

Rated 0 
Hmm. I think this song is about the current state of our country and the war. I can picture Bush singing this to us, asking us to pay no mind to what's going on in the war, and to not bother asking questions-- he'll take care of us, right?
*Cough* sure.... It points out how today's society is asleep, ignorant, and pretty much unaware of what's happening around us. We just kinda go with it and assume it's all for the best.

"... Pay no mind to the rabble..." --would refer to people trying to speak out about what's going on in order to help everyone else see it as well, but we're told to not listen to them.

"...Your enemies and your choices son
They're one in the same
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself..." -- The speaker asking: Why endanger yourself by risking a bad choice? Let me decide for you, and keep you safe

At first I thought this song was a father (or mother) talking to their child, trying to comfort them and maybe sheltering them a little too much. Kinda gets into the whole "overprotected" thing, but yeah, I'll try and steer away from that subject for now. But the line that changed my mind was "... Swayin to the rhythm of the New World Order..." I dunno, makes sense to me, anyway :)

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1 Reply
slickvic
04-09-2004

Rated -2 
nice long explanantion, but u are so off it hurts to read that poor explanation, it is about his addiction talking to him, trust me the entire album is about addiction not war not girls, not his fater or son, heroin, smack gear, u get the drift

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3 Replies
ObsessiveTendencies
04-09-2004

Rated 0 
I guess that works, too-- The song being sung by the drug to the user.

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deep_and_down
04-10-2004

Rated 0 
jesus.. this is by far the easiest apc song to "get", and although i can almost maybe see where you're coming from with your "addiction" explanation, ObsessiveTendencies is, in my eyes, right. Every metaphor points to the explanation he gave (which was, btw, well-done). The obvious parent - child relationship is there, but with all the metaphors pointing towards (and im going with america here), Bush taking away choice to keep you safe, taking away vision, thought, reason, even a will to survive. and its frighteningly true, and sick that so many people are blind to it. and a fantastic song, he really gets into it at "swinging to the rhythm of the new world order and".. sounds power-hungry!

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marku2003
04-11-2004

Rated 0 
i agree completely with obsessivetendencies and deep and down. the very first time i heard this song listening to the album when i first bought it, i thought it was talking about how america has been lulled to sleep by george w. bush and his cronies. i could also almost believe that it's a drug singing to it's user, except the parts that ruin that theory are the lines "swaying to the rhythm of a new world order and..." and "count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums" and most especially "the boogeymen are coming" (which is my very favorite part of the whole song) which to me refers to bush overhyping the terrorist threat

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marku2003
04-11-2004

Rated 0 
.

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TheTwoStevieJew
04-11-2004

Rated 0 
It's about people who overprotect their pets. What people, and what pets are questions left to the individual to determine. Regardless, this is my favorite song off of the second album.

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spikebaylor
04-13-2004

Rated 0 
to everyone who says that one opinion is right or wrong.. remember any other tool or apc song.. they always have more than one meaning. On this one... i see obsessive's idea, but i could see the addiction just cuz it fits with the theme of the album

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slickvic
04-15-2004

Rated 0 
alright listen guys i cant blam eu for not seing it as clear as i do and imnot bragging because it was the most horriblie expierence ive gone through but ima recovering heroin addict and i will bet my life that this song is being sung by his drug to the user, it is so obvious to me . and also the albym is called the 13th step and every song on there is direectly related with addiction, nothign else and expecially not bush, ILL be the one to protect u from ur will to survive and ur choices son, ur addiction does exactly that it consumes u, i could sit and decode every singgle line for u but think about it as ur addiction, speaking, mocking the user,

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gwyllgi
04-23-2004

Rated 0 
i'm going with the government/pet/parent theory, here... addiction just doesn't fit some of the lines... new world order? war drums? come on. there's a lot of political stuff thrown into this song. i think in general it's just about someone who's overprotected and perhaps a bit of a servant to someone/something else.... but it's more the government angle than an addiction.

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urasividiots
04-24-2004

Rated 0 
The New World Order is a concept created within the boundaries of the UN. It is an international body of government that theoretically will rule the world eventually. This song is about that. The two origional perpetrators of the New World Order? Joe Stalin and Adolf Hitler. We see it now in the European Union and the UN. People fear freedom in that it creates violence (look at the current situation in the Middle East). Violent Authoritarian rulers beat the war drums and people mindlessly follow. Freedom is the enemy in this New World Order. The UN and the EU breed ignorance and blind faith in their non-policies. Fear that. Not Bush. Fear China...

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Harry_Manback
05-02-2004

Rated 0 
Best song on the album hands down. Who cares about the meaning? I'll probably get a lot of shit for saying that though. Anyhoo, I'll stick with my simplest and first thought of the meaning: that it's about an overprotective parent who just wants to keep their child 'protected' from the world. Maybe also, it could be about Maynard's worries about his own son. Perhaps he acknowledges that there are terrible things in the world but he can't keep his son locked up from these forever; he has to experience these things or at least know about them. However, he wishes he could keep him safe in a cupboard or something not as extreme, because as a father he doesn't want his son to get hurt by anyone or anything. Ok, tell me to shut up.

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Fezilla
05-07-2004

Rated 0 
The first thing that came to my mind from the song was a song about God, I understand that APC and Tool are two different bands, however, Tool has several songs about God and religion in general, thus perhaps Maynard relayed it into an APC song? The thing about the 'count the bodys like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums' could be a reference to the crusades or just a religious person trying to conform others aggressively, and everything else seems to fit perfectly, "I'll protect you from your enemies and your choices son", Tool has a re-occuring theme of how religion destroys all chance of choice and general reason in any one person's life, to quote one of the members, "To be religious is one thing, but to have a religion organized out by others and laid upon you is another.", just, yeah, I think the general theme of the song is God telling one of his followers to be blind and follow him unquestioningly.

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lazy gun
05-10-2004

Rated 0 
Maynard said himself in Revolver magazine, that the line "counting bodies like sheep to the rythm of the war drums" was political, I'm not sure if the rest of the song is too, but I bet it is

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Riot0315
05-15-2004

Rated 0 
maynard james keenan never tells you what the songs are about - he wants you to make a decision yourself.

Tool is a different band from A Perfect Circle. And the theme of the album is that of a 12-step program *the 13th step, get it?*



what song is it on the album? 10 out of 12. Look at the progression of the themes of the songs and make your own decision.

"One of the best things about the 12 Steps is they give us the way to heal. The 10th Step even gives us a way to heal almost instantly." - about taking responsibility for your mistakes.

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kardinal
05-16-2004

Rated 0 
I'm going to have to jump on the NWO/America/Illuminati-ish type interpretations on this song.

Everyone knows that Maynard's lyrics have several meanings, and that one is the one that means the most to me.

I saw APC live tonight here in Atlanta and they performed this song second. In the first song (Vanishing) Maynard was singing behind the curtains so that the crowd could only see his silhouette. Then when Pet started the curtains fell down and he was singing behind a life-sized cardboard cut out of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The next song was Weak and Powerless, however, after singing behind Arnold he told the crowd how he felt with the current state of affairs and promptly "renamed" Weak and Powerless to, "You're not going to fuck with us anymore" (or something very similar, I can't remember the exact name he used).

So, take that as you will.

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Clutch
05-20-2004

Rated 0 
I really appreciate all the ideas for the meaning of this song. What I think is obvious about this song is that It's father talking to son, trying to "protect" him. More than likely a metaphor for something else because Billy and Maynard aren't usually particulary straight forward and love using obvious metaphors... And out of all the interpretations I've heard, I like the drug addiction the most. It fits as one of the themes in an obviously conceptual, connected album... Ever tried to listen to the album out of order?? I cant do it. It's sounds fucked up...

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jcs006
05-20-2004

Rated 0 
Well, all these make sense, when looking at the name of the song, it almost sounds like an obsessive person trying to take over someones life or luring them into a trap. Pet sounds to me like an annoying person who is insanly obsessive.

Of course thats just an idea

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incu
05-23-2004

Rated 0 
this song uses government oppression as a metaphor for drug oppression....the govn't controls just as a drug does

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Morrissey
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
Maynard really is to music what David Lynch is to movies. Don't bother telling the world what you think, 'cause it could be one out of a thousand possible explanations.

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Dsalmiitetn
05-25-2004

Rated 0 
In my mind, this song could just as well be called "Judith II". The songs are very similar in structure and sound, (the rougher guitars in particular).
"Don't fret precious, I'm here"- God talking, telling his "child" that it is there
"Go back to sleep"- "sleep"... like the state of unawareness, lack of control, unquestioning
"I won't let the boogeyman come"- I won't let anything happen to you
"Pay no mind to what other [religions] say"
"Safe from pain, truth, and choice, and other poison devils/They don't give a fuck about you like I do"- Safe from all these things as long as you put your faith in whatever god may be, the fact god says "fuck" makes the holiness hypocritical
... go on and on and on... it parallels with God.
ObsessiveTendencies... that interpretation was good as well. God, or Bush, or advertising, or parents, or addiction... anything with control is what this song is about I guess... anything in which the "I" is the dominating piece, and the "you" is the weaker part.

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Artemisian
05-26-2004

Rated 0 
God . . . I'd only considered the overprotective parent theory, but there's certainly some evidence in favour of the political meaning. Perhaps he's representating authority figures, especially the government, as an overprotective parent?
Although the main theme of 13th Step is indeed drugs, I think this one might be an exception. It can work, but Maynard's own words and just the general feel of the song points elsewhere. The title indicates there is some demeaning mastery occuring.

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toastee
05-26-2004

Rated 0 
Saw them in concert last night and he dedicated this song to Bush. He also spoke about Janet Jackson and the FCC, and when the concert ended, the house lights came up and a not-so-nice song about the FCC came on. I tend to believe the song is purposely ambiguous as to meaning, so take what you want from it.

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1 Reply
Rob Matter
06-06-2004

Rated 0 
It definitely refers to a parent's protection, but I'm not sure the tone is necessarily criticizing. He may actually be wishful in protecting whomever he feels innocent from all the issues of the world. It is also a good theory, however, that he is speaking out against the government, and all that was previously stated here. I'm guessing the song was written too early to refer to the specific War in Iraq, though.

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Rob Matter
06-06-2004

Rated 0 
Actually, if he dedicated it to Bush, that makes it pretty obvious.

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