Zaq September 27th, 2007 09:02PM  
The anal cavity is 4 degrees higher in temperature than the vagina. Truthfully, that is what this song is "supposed to be" about.

anonymous March 25th, 2008 11:25PM  
I agree with #1 and #3. A lot of Tool songs have 2 or more meanings (interpret as you will) I think it does have to do with exploring that part of yourself. lose yourself in the amazing moment of sex and experience something you didn't know you had in you. right along with meaning number 2. Freedom in a way. There is something in us all that is being suppressed, like a clam beneath castles. Let's go digging and see what we are really capable without fear.

anonymous July 10th, 2008 09:31PM  
Occam's razor. It is clearly the expulsion of Maynard's feelings about sodomy (the simplest explanation is usually right), however if there is a duality about it all, it might have something to do w/ the "unconditional warmth that Opiates bring. If you've been there you would Know, if not, you could not...

toolman7070 August 27th, 2008 03:06PM  
This is one of the greatest Tool songs of all time! I believe that this song could be dealing with letting yourself go and trying new things and different ways of doing things. It may look like "anal" on the surface...but with Tool, you just never know. Undertow rules!

anonymous September 24th, 2008 02:18AM  
I may have tried my hand before but will try again. I acknowledge the possibility of a dual meaning because they have done it well in other songs. I would like to focus on this meaning:

Get Up (Wake up and get off you azz, this is life you're wasting)(Stand attention)

Free yourself from yourself (You are only imprisioned and enslaved because you allow it by becoming apathetic and accepting the system . . deafeated. Because we allow it, it is itself self inflicted enslavement, and you have the ability and potential to change it)

Because locked up inside you like the calm beneath castles lies a cavern of treasure (limitless potential) and no one has been to it because it has been suppressed. You are programed to desmiss it and follow the status quo. We believe that we are ordinary and powerless.

Let's go f-ing digging ! ! !
Let's unlock all of this buried potential.

Bring that Sh-t out to take you back in. (Bring that power out in the open, don't allow anyone, yourself included, to ebb that flow)

You do what you like to do (selfserving, indulgent, numbing, distracted, gluttonous)

Lay back, relax . . Listen to me and let me show you another way. It's going to take time, but just hear me out.

I'll kill what you want me too. I'll tear apart all your misconceptions and programed beliefs and take what's left and slam it. That's how well I know another way and can show you. Fact, common sense and reason. I'll dice up any objections with a mental weave that with make your head spin, but will also make you believe what I say.

Whether you take it all (believe me) or don't, either way life is just too f-ing short to push away all I had to say. You have to acknowledge at least most of it, because it's indisputable fact, come on . . Take it in.

Take it all, come on take it. (take all my information in for what it is . . The truth)

All the way in

Let it go - (let your preconceptions and beliefs go)

Let it go in (Let what I have to say, the reality of it into an open mind)
You won't feel what you would like to feel. What I have to say is different, it's hard to believe or understand . . It's scary how we have let this happen.

Lay back and let me show your another way that humanity can exist.

I'll kill what you want me too. I'll tear apart all your misconceptions and programed beliefs and take what's left and eat it. That's how well I know another way and can show you. Fact, common sense and reason.

Whether you take it all (believe me) or don't, either way life is just too f-ing short to push away all I had to say.

Knock me down and I'll just come back running. I am so enraged and sure of my self, that you can't win this discussion which is why I wanted you to lay back and relax in the first place. Don't bother resisting.

This song is a brilliant urging for us to unlock our potential as a species and they do well to show thier deep frustration with us mingled with an almost taunting of us. Come on, let's go digging. We have no idea. Wake Up

anonymous July 10th, 2009 01:11AM  
this song is about the two years maynerd spent at west-point millitary acadamy. look at the lyrics then put yourself in the fram of mind your at a millitary acadamy.

anonymous October 21st, 2009 01:50AM  
Well, I've heard the story of how this song is about the anal cavity being 4 degrees warmer than the vaginal cavity. Lets be honest though, all Tool songs have a crazy metaphor or I hope so at least. There is also an alternate meaning that it refers to the would be school Maynard would have attended, the famous Unites States Military Academy. Well, coming from the prospective of someone who goes to West Point, this place is a f'n sh*thole! Its in the ass crack of no where and its been a miserable existence for me for the last 3 years. Even though Maynard went to the prep school because he was prior service enlisted in the army (prep school-designed to help people who need to catch up or improve their studies before coming aka Maynard being out of school awhile) he still visited the Academy and probably realized what a terrible place to be- parallel to the anal cavity. Its like living in hell, somehow I feel the four degrees refers to the temperature difference to between hell and West Point. 4 degrees is also known as the separation difference between the different classes of cadets. Pick your poison I suppose..

anonymous March 4th, 2010 09:04AM  
I think it's about patriotism about how he would kill what his country wants him to and how america won't give up (knock me down and ill come back running) and how we will win all of our fights at some point(nock you down and well it won't be long now) and it is about him trying to get higher up inot the ranks

anonymous March 15th, 2010 02:28PM  
There have been a lot of interpretations and with tool you can never know the true meaning becuase they do not give them out. Some say its becuase the anal cav. is 4 degrees warmer than the vagina. some say its becuase of west point, and some say its about the world (becuase if the world rises 4 degree's we will all die) all of them make sence and i hate to say it but the anal one makes the most sence fitting to the lyrics

convolution May 28th, 2010 11:12AM  
Proof positive that Maynard is a B.P. I hope you all are intelligent enough to decipher the acronym... Again, Maynard suffers from assfixiation as well as sexual identity and religious identity issues. Resounding themes that keep emerging through all of his works.

anonymous September 1st, 2010 02:09PM  
Ok whats with everyone saying its about sex... it could be but if you see that everyone else says it is why would you? explore you mind and find a different and logical meaning. for i do not believe maynard thinks and sings of nothing more than sex. however i don't know him so it could be possible. On to my meaning for 4 degrees. Multiple people have said something close, but what it means to me is live you life to the fullest or don't live. 4 degrees means to me, your closer to you. its like a game of hot and cold. you opening your mind to come to your fullest form of mind and body.