Lyric discussion by p3nguinpi3 

The first time I really listened closely to this song I was on acid, and kept asking my RA about existance, and whether or not people actually exist. He showed me the video for this song (he owned the DVD) to help explain some things. I will say right now, that I have a completly different view than the rest of you, due to that experience.

The way I interpret this song, is when you are not questioning, you are "letting the days go by." If you don't continiously question existance, you are not doing your job as a human being. Life is about discovering who you are, and discoveries are made by inquiry. The water part of the song is the key to everything in it. Water is pure, it is the most essential part of life for all creatures. However, water is what is keeping us from discovery, it is the barrier between us and god, us and nirvana, us and serenity.

However, if you go though life without questioning what you have, and who you are, you'll still have all these great things (beautiful house, beautiful wife), as you are being held together by the water. It will always be there to support you, but at the same time it is holding you down.

I like it! - how about this: Water IS life, and what's holding us back is life its self.. perhaps he's suggesting we need to leave our physical body behind and experience something more spiritually fulfilling - maybe like an acid trip :)

the way i see it, all great songs are about drugs - even the ones that "aren't" haha

I like this. There is a little blurb in the sleeve of one of Tool's albums (I'm pretty sure aenema) that goes along with your interpretation. It kind of talks about how if a the wheels of a brain stop spinning it is technically dead. So you need to think for yourself and don't be afraid to question stuff. In other words, if we just accept everything for what it is, and don't question things or stop to think for a second, we're not really living. Just thought that was interesting. rock on.

Very intelligent interpretation of this song's lyrics and well articulated too! You've gone a tad deeper on each of my basic thoughts I have in my "more shallow" (honestly, no aquatic pun intended, let's say basic instead!!) interpretation but at least we're on the same track!!

And also, you've reminded me of how much I used to love my Acid...as I'm also sure Mr David Byrne did/does as well, after all of these years watching him perform live, in music videos and especially some of his more enigmatic comments, opinions and beliefs in his interviews!!

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