photonerd81 October 9th, 2005 06:51PM  
While it was originally written about the sweater (specifically), the actual idea behind the song is a relationship that's falling apart, but they value each other and want to just walk away and try to still be friends.

The end part shows us that...
"I don't want to destroy your tank-top"
Let's be friends and just walk away.
Hate to see you lyin' there in your Superman skivvies
Lying on the floor, I've come undone."

Coming undone is obviously an allegory for something falling apart.

anonymous December 17th, 2005 12:45AM  
photonerd81's interpretation is good, but I'm not sure where all this River-left-a-razor-in-his-pocket-stuff is comming from--this is straight from Rivers' blog on MySpace:

It was in my English class that I heard the analogy of the unraveling sweater. Dr. Eisenstein used the image to demonstrate the effectiveness of focused thesis statement in an essay. “All I have to do is hold a single thread in your sweater and it will unravel as you walk away.”

ryan February 13th, 2006 07:08PM  
I would say that this is a song about a guy who's social life is unraveling because of a single girl. Notice his complete indifference in the beginning when his friends are talking to him. Whether he be with this girl or only longing for her, she means so much to him and can affect him so easily that she barely needs to do anything and he is profoundly affected by it both socially, mentally, and physically. Hence, "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this string as I walk away." Even in public this breakdown shows.

Then, later in the song, we can see his indifference toward the representation of the attractive, lonely, girl. No other girl can take his eyes or his thoughts off of the one who he is truly fixated on.

Lastly, he is telling the girl whom he is fixated on that he basically just wants to get along with her, but that it is also kind of good/satisfying in a way to see her in the same situation/agony that he has been in. Hence, "I don't want to destroy your tank-top. Let's be friends and just walk away. It's good to see you lying there in your Superman skivvies lying on the floor (lying on the floor)."

That is my take on it anyway.

rockstar_mulatto May 24th, 2006 04:55PM  
I think this song is about how people or a specific someone keeps picking him apart... until the point where he becomes undone.

They might be doing it gradually...slowly... like the unraveling of a sweater.

mia91 July 3rd, 2006 08:29AM  
I think Ryan basically has this song cracked. I've never noticed the indifference from the beginning spoken part as opposed to the rest of the song (mostly the end). In the spoken part the second guy obviously has something else on him mind to be talking to his buddy that way, but is it a girl? My guess is yes. I say yes for one main reason at the end of the song he mentions a tank top, girls wear tank tops, and not many other things do. It seems as though this girl has (though not on purpose) stripped his emotions and unravelled him, much like a sweater.

anonymous November 9th, 2006 04:30PM  
Its just about a guy whose socially akward and can't fuction well with other people.

I don't know how several of the other posts have brought up a girl. I don't know where they got that out of the song.

I think its just him being frustrated with the silly social protocols that many people use and don't think anything of it. For example, girls and guys being obnoxiously flirtatious instead of being open with their feelings toward each other. Also, the people around him making such a big deal about really silly things like partys and beer.

anonymous November 20th, 2006 06:24PM  
When asked if the song was about a girl in a recent interview, Rivers denied this and said that is was a song about existence in general.

There isn't a whole lot of intended meaning in this song, lyrically, beyond this; it's all in what people in general take away from it after hearing it. Great riffs though. riff! riff!

gophergetterz April 30th, 2007 08:32PM  
I agree that it's about a guy who's socially awkward.

The lyrics: "oh no, it go, it gone, bye bye..." remind me of a person who is uncomfortable and can't find the right words.

anonymous October 23rd, 2009 11:09PM  
This song is about a guy who looses his virginity in an unmeaningful way and regrets it. (Drunk, at a party after a show with a random girl.) Then he doesn't want to do the same thing to someone else when he's in a position to do so.

anonymous February 8th, 2010 12:04AM  
I think that this song, like Korn's "Coming Undone" is an analogy for suicide. The characters life is falling apart one thread at a time. he says "Ive come undone" meaning he as lost all his motivation and will to keep going on. This song also shows that depression happens to anybody and the people around them might not notice it.