Song Meanings by Band:

            Forums

     Requests

           Links

    Random Song

  Submit an
      Interpretation

Tool - Pushit Song Meanings

This is my first interpretation on the site and this is solely my opinion.
ok,

"Choke this infant here before me. What is this but my reflection? Who am I to judge and strike you down?"
The infant (I think) is us, everyone else but him that expects the best from him because that's all we've known to recieve from him. "His Reflection" Is seeing a little bit of himself in all of us. Since he does see Himself in all of us he won't judge or shun us away because (deep down believe it or not) he cares!

"But you're pushing and shoving me... You still love me and you pushit on me..."
Like I said before He feels pressured but He's not going to subside to the pressure simply because he doesn't have to.

"Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line. (You better) Take care not to make me enter.
'cause if I do we both may disappear."
(I think) He's telling us that he knows we push him and if you push me hard enough ("Take care not to make me enter") I'm going to fucking stop trying for you, then what will become of you? Who you gonna feed off of next?

"Slipping back into the gap again. I'm alive when you're touching me/alive when you're shoving me down. But i'd trade it all - for just a little peace of mind!!!"
He is kinda saying "you keep pressuring me... can't you realize it won't have an effect? Cant I just get a break?"

"You're pushin', shovin', scramblin'... Keep my feet down on the ground..."
Here Maynard says "You've pushed long enough and I'm sick of this shit."

"I am somewhere I don't wanna be. Push me somewhere I don't wanna be. Put me somewhere I don't wanna be. Seeing someplace I don't wanna see. Never wanna see that place again. Saw that gap again today while you were begging me to stay. Managed to push myself away, and you, as well, my dear. If, when I say I might fade like a sigh if I stay,
you minimize my movement anyway. I must persuade you another way."
In other words, Maynard says " you went too far and now you are going to regret it."

"There's no love in fear. Staring down the hole again.
Hands around my back again. Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come. Remember I will always love you, as I tear your fucking throat away. It will end no other way. It will end no other way."
well this verse seems to act as a father-to-son conversation where the father says "I love you son even though I'm pissed as hell and this is just one of those life lessons that sooner or later you would have been exposed to. NOW YOU WONT FUCKING DO THAT AGAIN WILL YOU?!"

thats it. My interpretation of the song. Feel free to tell me what your thoughts are about it.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-01 04:20:06     Rating:

In this song I believe Maynard is definately talking about how love is a burden especially when it takes a turn for the worse. I listened to this song recently actually I listen to this song mostly every day because even though my ex-girlfriend still loves me she is dating my best friend. So therefore I detached myself. So Pushit is about how someone still loves him but he can't be with that person because of what she's done to him in the past. :) just what I belive.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-08-01 05:10:30     Rating:

Maybe it's about someone who has a multiple personality.

The inner person inside him that is manipulating and dragging him down. A manipulator and creator of fear.

It could be about the struggle to rid himself of this 'other side'. Its hard because he's been there for soo long.

Choke this infant here before me.
What is this but my reflection?
Who am I to judge and strike you down?

Its been there since childhood. Its his reflection. How can he judge or strike himself down.

Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line.
(you better) take care not to make me enter.
'cause if I do we both may disappear

if he pulls the trigger they both die.

I'm alive when you're touching me/
alive when you're shoving me down.
But i'd trade it all - for just a little piece of mind

just wanna get rid of him.

There's no love in fear.
Staring down the hole again.
Hands around my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.
Remember I will always love you, as I tear your fucking throat away.
It will end no other way.
It will end no other way.


Feels a need to shut him up, tearing his fucking throat!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-09-20 12:27:26     Rating:

On one of Tool's tours Maynard said before playing "Pushit": "have you ever loved someone so much that you had to kill them?"
pushit is a song about a relationship between two lovers.
"saw that gap again today, while you were beggin me to stay" she is begging him to stay with her, this reveals a very grim gap/empty hole that he returns to when he falls back in love with her. They both slip back into the gap due to the fact that they bolth still love each other, even though thier relationship will never last.
"if, when I say I might fade like a sigh if I stay,
you minimize my movement anyway, i must persaude you another way"
when he tells her he knows she will eventually get bored of him, she brings him even closer. So, he must persuade her another way. That doesn't work, and the pushing and shoving continues. She pushes him, and he shoves her away. "there is no love in fear" he fears that he might fall back into that gap again.
"staring down the hole again.
Hands are on my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.
Yeah. Remember I will always love you,
as I claw your fucking throat away.
It will end no other way.
It will end no other wayyyyy!!!"
he falls back into the gap for the last time, he is fed up with loving her (as odd as that may sound) and brutally kills her because he knows it will end no other way.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-10-14 11:11:45     Rating:

I guess I take this one literally.
I think the infant is actually an infant...Note the crying
i think it is about transition (unwillingly) into fatherhood. Forced into it against his will. Doesn't want to turn into his own father, the responsibility. The loss of the person he is presently. Afraid of becoming the overweight, balding, unhappy man driving the minivan. Resents being trapped into it by the women who "loves" him. Yet still feels the bond with the baby and struggles with that.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-11-23 03:17:37     Rating:

I truly believe this is a song about a relationship gone bad. I think Maynard is speaking of a girl that he loves so much he hates her. He says "I'm alive when your touching me, alive when you're shoving me down." that to me means that she makes him feel alive in happiness and in sadness.
he also says, "you still love me, you still love me, pushit on me, pushit on me." To me that means she is forcing the hate love relationship on him no matter what the outcome.
When he says "who am I to judge or strike you down." To me that means he is just as guilty as she is when it comes to difficulty in the relationship.
This song relates to a couple of my very own relationships gone bad so I can definately relate to "I saw the gap again today... while you were begging me to stay."
Great song.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-03-01 05:38:37     Rating:

my opinion about this song... well, I think it's about his mother. He's blaming himself of her breakdown, and he's trying to clear the way, but he finds that he is unable to do it("hands are on my back again...")

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-04-17 22:20:01     Rating:

"Have you ever loved someone so much you had to kill them?" Maynard is referring to his own ego self.

"Saw the gap again today, while you were beggin' me to stay" the gap between his lower-level more primal conscious and his higher awareness."

"take care not to make me enter, if I do we both may disappear." His higher self is the realization that there is no self so his ego self will not let it enter.

"I'm alive when you're touching me, alive when you're
shoving me down." When he indulges his ego he feels more alive because he has identity, but at the same time it's an illusion of desires which control him.
"But i'd trade it all for just a little piece of
miiiiiiiiiiiiiiind" Hes trying to find his true and higher self and would trade any illusion for real peace of mind.
"I must persuade
you another waaaaaaaaay" He needs to persuade his ego-self to somehow want to give itself up but not for the sake of itself.
generally the songs about a battle within.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-07-12 20:08:01     Rating:

This is a song written from the perspective of the victim in an abusive relationship. The "gap" refers to the periods of abuse.

"Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
Never wanna see that place again."

This is when the victim realizes that the cycle has to end.
As they try to leave it triggers the violence for the last time.

"There's no love in fear...
Staring down the hole again.
Hands upon my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.

Just remember I will always love you,
Even as I tear your fucking throat away.
But it will end no other way."

This all refers to the final conflict, being forced back into the same old cycle and finally fighting back.
In other words, I will all ways love you, but know I'm going to do what I have to do to escape you and stop you.
Listen to the mood of the music as well as the lyrics, it's somber at the point of realization and escalates as the abused tries to exit them finally into violence as they defend themselves.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-08-02 21:44:31     Rating:

I believe that everyone here basically has the right idea of what this song is about. My interpretation is going to echo what everyone has interpreted about "Push It." This song is absolutely amazing. To me, it means the bitter end of a relationship.

It comes to the phase of a relationship where you love that person so much and you don't want to let them go, but you know that you are at that point to where you are at bitter extremes of emotion for that person. You literally love that person because it is comforting for now, but that person is driving you to a point of resentment and hatred for them. What are you to do! You are confused and that is where the push it comes!! This could be wrong, this is what this song has always meant to me!!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-08-31 11:34:20     Rating:

To me, this is about a person who's treated badly by somebody, and knows it. But somewhere, some way, he thinks and knows he needs it. As much as he tries to get away from it, he kind of craves it. My only real support for this is the song title.

Pushit = Push shit

As in, someone pushing shit on him.

Submitted by: suck_n_suck
Added: 2007-11-22 03:20:46     Rating:

Well I wouldn't say that what I'm saying IS the correct interpretation of the song but this is what I've read in most places...well this song is about parents/elders pushing us to accept or shoving their views onto us..."choke this infant here before me"...when a child is born, he doesn't know jack about this world...Instead of parents letting that child make up his own views through his experiences, he is forced to believe what his parents/elders believe...
"Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
Never wanna see that place again."
it wud be wiser for the elders/parents to let the child make his own point of views rather then make him walk on their own paths and shoving their own views and experiences...this way the child's movement is minimized "you minimize my movement anyway"...Maynard wants the child to experience so that he can move around and gain knowledge..but the parents minimize the child's movement by just telling him to LIKE wat they (parents) think is good and dis-like wat they think is bad

I hope I make sense..peace

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2008-01-25 21:49:45     Rating:

It kinda seems to me like its meaning is similar to prison sex's
the one about his step dad abusing him

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2008-03-27 23:33:12     Rating:

Well, this song, I believe to the best of my literal and vocal interpretation knowledge, is talking about premature ejaculation.

If you think about it, all the words fit with this topic, even the title gives it away.

Let's start quoting,
"But you're pushing and shoving me...
You still love me and you pushit on me... "

'You still love me and you pushit on me,' clearly here, he talks about someone on his penis and how she'll keep going [sex] without stop, therefore causing him to ejaculate.

"Rest your trigger on my finger, bang my head upon the fault line.
(You better) Take care not to make me enter.
'cause if I do we both may disappear."

Here, Maynard is asking for rest time. In the best possible way to state this, He is telling her to put her vagina on his finger, and from the 'bang my head upon the fault line' part, that should be self-explaining. The second line of 'taking care, not to make me enter' talks about how he doesn't want to fuck her just yet, because that explains the last line 'cause if I do we both may disappear'- aka, orgasm.

Submit your interpretation!

Discuss this group in the Tool forum

Email me when this band is updated

Back to Tool Song Meanings

Home

Users Online
Zaq
There are 15 guests and 1 registered users online.