Tool: H. Meaning
Song Released: 1997
H. Lyrics
What's holding up is a mirror.
But what's singing songs is a snake
Looking to turn my piss to wine.
They're both totally void of hate,
But killing me just the same.
The snake behind me hisses
What my...
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The song is about a person confronting himself. The metaphor for this is the mirror in front of him because you use a mirror to look at yourself. When he looks at himself he realizes he needs to let parts of himself die and be re-born. The metaphor for this is a snake because snakes shed their skin. "My blood before me" refers to his child as the motivation for doing this. The song is both literally and figuratively about re-generation.
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This song is absolutely, positively without a doubt about either Maynard's addiction to opiates or some one he knows. The snake represents the temptation to use. Basically the song is about someone struggling with trying to stop using opiates until they finally drowned the snake. I did heroin for many years and it just makes perfect sense. This is especially obvious by the following:
I am too connected to you
To slip away, fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
After you stop using opiates you go through excruciating withdrawals for days and don't feel normal for months and in some cases never. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A SONG MORE ABOUT HEROIN!!!! A LOT OF YOU ARE LOOKING WAY TO DEEP INTO THIS!!! THE SONG IS CALLED "H" FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!!
P.S.
What was the album called before Undertow? Hmmmmmm wasn't it called OPIATE?!?!? -
i do believe tahta all the cheesee in 6the village of hate wold be much more usslffuuflf in the haal of the monkeys.
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H. means heroin. All of the imagery in the song does vaguely describe his own personal experience via metaphors and symbolism. If you read many of the other interpretations and put them all together, it makes plenty of sense. One person stated that at a concert he was saying something about a cartoonic manifestation of the elements of one's conscience, and another saying it's a love song. A few people said that it's about his dad or stepfather and his son. I think it's all of these things.
When one does heroin, they do fall in love with it. However, how could you look at your child in the grips of addiction and not feel guilt? I think when one analyzes their life, oftentimes we look back and see key moments as forks in the road, and the decisions we've made or experiences we've had landed us where we find ourselves.
Life is extremely intricate, and I think we have to be careful in our attempts to analyze or interpret another person's lyrics. I believe that if someone is truly complex, you can't look at a song like H. and say, "it's this, or it's that". I believe it centers on a relationship with heroin and all of the more grounding parts of life sort of wind in and out of that focus.
"Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity."
"Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me"
is a reference to how strong a hold H. can have on someone, even if they haven't been using. If it were a relationship with another person, one would suppose he would have said weeks, months, or years as opposed to days. Every time he gave into his addiction it's like he died a small death, which is ironic, because it could have killed him for real.
Also when one gets high enough they become more of a manifestation of the drug than themselves. The singing snake with the venomous voice is that version of himself.
It almost seems as if he clearly paints the picture of using H. as a tool to escape, put up a front, and avoid his emotions. Instead of crying he was using and putting up walls. Once he let loose the snake drowned and the walls came down. Then he recalls all of the times he used instead of just dealing with all the things in front of him. H. was simply putting him out of his misery ("considerately killing me"). -
lol, the irony, Maynard is now actually making wine :D
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Whats coming through is alive (or real)
Whats holding up is a mirror (or himself)
Whats singing songs (speaking) is a snake
looking to turn my piss to wine (or make his words believable) -
I've always heard that the title of the song is about two parallels always being connected by one small thing. And for Maynard that was him and his father. So H is more of a shape than an actual letter. I don't know for sure but this song is beautifully written and performed. Will always be one of my favorite songs ever.
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I'd say heroin... or some kind of mixture. :
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This song is about his son...Whose name is Devo H. Keenan...His middle name initial is H
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Hey zaq in my opinion I think your theory of the circle of abuse in the draging me down like some sweet gravity is wrong here. Listen I first off think that it's not "some sweet gravity" it's "sound sweet gravity" because yes he is tempted to do something but it's not abuse his son. That part is in the song but it is in the part where he says whats holding up is a mirror how he wants to be like his dad and abuse his son (the song prison sex is about this).
Back on subject I think it's about him being suicidal and him falling down first off gravity wouldn't make you fall slowly. This could be talking like how quickly you can die and how it would feel while you are falling from committing suicide and the sound it would make you feel so safe and secure. Then the sweet part would it not be very sweet to have a release from his father. In the next part "to connected to fall away" is talking about how he loves his son to much to leave him and he is the only thing that is keeping him for killing himself if you have arguments against this I'd be happy to hear them. -
All I know is this is part of his sons name devo h. keenan I beleive
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Love is a short leash. how far can you walk away from the elders as they grow weaker, from the new ones - the ones who need you, the ones you slave for and not mind that you die a million deaths to keep the new just so.
Yvonne S Bon -
Ok. The song is about heroin addiction. Firstly, the snake represents a needle. The mirror is a representation of self during a period of being clean and sober, with the snake in his hand. There is an internal battle going on here. The drugs are killing him, but being sober and not being able to escape pain is also killing him, "both totally void of hate, and killing me just the same." And he feels the urge to use coming over him like a storm, an unescapable storm. The line "days away I still feel you touching me, changing me considerately killing me" refers to the comedown, back to being clean, but he can't let go of the feeling of being high and not feeling pain. Towards the end of the song, when he speaks of all the times he has died, and will die, he is referring to turning off his brain and killing the pain, and he has decided to once again jump into the pool, so to speak. He has decided to shoot up again. "It's allright. I don't mind. I don't mind."
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Over thinking over analyzing separates my body from my mind
quit typing shit in make every song your own the song should not be about what that cocksucker Maynard has say it should about how he makes you feel in that song
email : mulhoon@hotmail.com
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