Weezer – Undone - The Sweater Song

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  General Comment:i think the beauty of this song is it can mean many things

  Flag NYRmark62on September 20, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I'm tired of reading crap about this song. Here is what it REALLY is about! In 1992 a song called The Sweater by Meryn Caddell came out. It was about a girl who borrows a sweater from a boy on a camping trip. The girl spends hours with the sweater after getting home and develops an attraction for the boy. She wears it to school and another girl gives her a note saying the boy just wants his sweater back. The girl takes it off and noticing it is 100% polyester considers outing the boy as a cheapskate.
  
  KROQ the alternative FM station played that song a LOT as they have a habit of doing. Weezer made a demo of Undone as an answer to the song and sent it to the station as a joke. The songs got played back to back quite a few times. Weezer got signed to Elektra in 1993 and the rest is history.

  Flag GedofMyazon July 13, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:The guys in Weezer apparently have smoked a lot of weed.
  So I always assumed this song was about the weird social cocoon you find yourself in when you go to a party where everybody's drunk, but you're completely stoned. The short lines “I'm me – Me be – Goddamn - I am” represents disjointed existential thinking. The singer finds his 'center' of self assurance in the fact that he is, he can, and he can sing. In this manner, he avoids stoned paranoia, and is content to just chill out. However in this situation some people, especially drunk people, will find it funny to try and disturb a drug user. The sweater is therefore the comfy high the singer is enjoying at the party, but this could potentially be ruined by others. The ease with which this is possible is represented by the simplicity of pulling a thread while he walks away. Later on the singer mentions that after unraveling his sweater, he'll be naked, and I take this to mean his ego will be fragile.
  
  The relevance of the tank top and superman skivvies I thought was the dress of the antagonist who seeks to ruin the singer's vibe. There's hope of a peaceful resolution in that the singer doesn't want to “destroy your tank-top” (ruin his good time) and they should just be friends and walk away. The superman skivvies seems like something a 'lad' (or 'frat-boy' in the US I'd imagine) would wear to a party but be embarrassed of when he passes out drunk and his friends steal his trousers (for a joke). At the end of the song, the negative consequences of both drugs are mirrored when “Lying on the floor, I've come undone” is repeated.
  
  Of course, it could still be about a relationship, but being Weezer I'm not so sure.

  Flag onetwothreefourfiveon June 28, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:you're all wrong, i guess you have to be a musician to get it. the first verse is about his confidence as a performer, hes saying i'm here, listen to me, see my talent. the second verse is him over-thinking what hes doing, he thinks and he sinks and he dies, metaphorically, meaning he lost his concentration and his skill momentarily. its something any performer knows, you have to feel what you're doing, not think about what you're doing, or else you lose it. the sweater is just a metaphor for his focus and his persona, and being naked is a metaphor for his embarrassment. maybe the person holding the thread is a metaphor for a situation where if he focuses too much on what other people think of him while hes performing then he will start coming undone.

  Flagged wickkiddaon June 16, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's about seeing old friends with whom you no longer identify with. You walk away, no remorse, they see you for the human-hater you are. Everyone wins, which is why it's funny. Man I hate everyone right now. Is that coloring my interpretation?

  Flag smashinashwinon January 27, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I believe this song is about Lies.
  Being cought up in a lie so you become so comfortable that you don't believe it is wrong, or a lie, or whatever.
  I believe that whoever is "pulling the string" has cought onto a loose end of the lie, and that as his "sweater" unravels, he starts to reel in discomfort at the reality that he has set up for himself.
  
  With lies this strong and tangled, Reality can be pretty scary. and, it can also give the illusion of being as covered up and comfortable as a sweater.

  Flag jazzymatazzon January 02, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Personally I feel its about pretenses. For example, Weezer is known for their distinctive look/dress. And to some people, that's who they are. Their image. Some people are shallow and only associate with who they approve of and fits their personal idea of who they want to associate with If you strip away the clothing (or really the impression of a person....not who they really are), its the same person. They haven't really changed. But change that for some people, and they'd walk away from the same person they'd otherwise maybe be willing to consider. He's saying he isn't the glasses, the sweater, the outside shell so to speak, and neither is anybody else, but to some people, they're shallow enough to think that way...or not think is probably more accurate.
  
  Just a thought....

  Flag patsfanmasson May 19, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I can definitely see the relationship take on this song. The sweater being the heart and the thread being the soul. "Lying on the floor i come undone." Meaning I am just laying here and now i have become non-existant. You have taken everything away from me hence the term being naked.

  Flag friscodrummeron October 13, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I do indeed know what Rivers said about this song, so I guess that being that he wrote this song, he is the ultimate "song analyzer" but I still love to analyze this song. I think it is really about mental illness, or at least someone trying to hide their mental illness. The sweater is their comfort object, and it keeps the rest of the world from knowing about the mental illness of the character in the song. And people gradually remove bits and pieces of his sweater until it is fully gone and everyone recognizes it, or the character himself takes it apart by his mental illness gradually getting worse. And the sweater is fully gone when he gets diagnosed. Dig?
  And the parts like "I don't want to destroy your tank top" or the "Superman skivvies" line shows that while some people are clinging on to a "thread" and not going insane from the pressures of day to day life, they aren't letting anybody destroy their comfort object, and aren't destroying it themselves by revealing their near-insanity. The main character recognizes that these people have problems as well and doesn't want to destroy their comfort object because he realizes how painful it is when people do that to him.

  Flag coolstorybro123on October 09, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's sad....is that bad? lol

  Flag theguardiandemonon August 11, 2010   Link

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