Tool: Prison Sex Meaning
Song Released: 1994
Prison Sex Lyrics
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there's a youtube video from a Tool concert in Montreal, 11-29-1996 and this is what Maynard states..from the horses mouth:
'this song, seemed to cause a little controversy up here...this songs about recognizing, identify, the cycle of abuse within yourself. It's the first step of the process, realization, identifying. The next step is to work through it, but this song is about the first step in that process which is recognizing' -
Despite the songs title it is not about 'prison sex'.
The most common interpretation is that of child abuse, more of a sexual nature and how if abused as a child, the victim then becomes the assailant, with a need to know how his attacker felt and inflict that pain upon another.
'Prison' simply refers to loss of freedom and lack of control. Watch the video and it centers around a figure who's legs have been pinned upon the wall-he cannot move freely. -
Come on people! I have to agree with whoever said people tend to overcomplicate things.
"Got my hands down, and my head down, and my eyes closed, my throats wide open"
"Release in sodomy, the one sweet moment I'm whole"
"Shit, blood, and come on my hands"
You'd have to REALLY push imagination to think this is about religion -or anything else for that matter- other than someone who has been raped and has anally raped someone else...
The rest of literary figures making reference to religion (lamb, martyr, do unto others...) is purely Maynard as can be read/heard in many many other Tool and APC songs. -
Well the thing is we are trapped in a society dominated by organized religion IE the Prison, and we are raped by ideas that people say we have to accept as Fact IE the sex, and some seem to enjoy going to church, they accept it as gospel, just as a man who is raped in prison often becomes a homosexual. One is around it so much, it assimilates with their mindset. and we are nearly unable to run from all this, it is everywhere, and more and more people are brainwashed and assimilated. "Question authority, think for yourself".
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Many of you seem to get it, how it works.connects on many levels (which is what good writing (literature of any genre) does.
But don't ignore the title so much--'prison sex' is not just a reference to the type of sex forced upon a victim, but also implies that sex, and the sexual patterns imprinted upon us (first as victim, and later as attacker) are a prison in themselves. because of his own victimization and trauma he is now STUCK in a pattern that he knows is wrong, but, like a prison, it is inescapable.
The prison is figurative, not literal. the sex, while literal, is also symbolic of a religious experience---the rapture of being dominated by god, who, incidentally, when you are a child is often your parent. Until we are old enough to comprehend god, our parents are our only gods.
Duh. -
Definitely a cycle. The beginning interpretation is oral sex, or abuse. "I've got my hands bound,
my head down, my eyes closed,
and my throat wide open."
Then it goes "Do unto others what has been done to you."
People will feel that way sometimes because they are so angered in themselves. So then it says "You're breathing so I guess you're still alive
even if signs seem to tell me otherwise.
Won't you come just a bit closer,
close enough so I can smell you," COMPLETELY turning everything around. What was previously said about this happening to them is now the actions they are doing. BEING THE ABUSED...THEN BECOMING THE ABUSER. -
I think this song is about cycles. As in, the cycle of the abused coming full circle to become the abuser. It could have something to do with sex ... but more metaphorically than the physical side of it. Maybe more like rape ... but metaphorically. Metaphorical rape is overpowerment, taking something sacred from someone. Maybe that's what happened in this song.
Anyway ... long story short, I think that this particular song is about the cycle of child abuse and how the child in turn becomes the abuser later in life. -
The cycle of child abuse, yes Maynard was abused by his father. In psychology, the theory goes that victims of abuse sometimes have unreleased anger and tend to abuse their own children and become the abuser instead of the victim.
"Do unto others, what has been done to me,
Do unto others, what has been done to you?"
why am I being abused?... why? where you also abused? is that what fate awaits me?
even see some of the interpretations for H. It goes together nicely -
While Maynard might or might no have been sexually abused as a child, I think that this song is a metaphor for the vicious cycle that vengeful people endure.
"Got your hands bound, your head down,
your eyes closed.
You look so precious now."
**I don't think that he LITERALLY means that he's raping someone else...I think its a metaphor for how he's getting revenge on someone else. He's explaining the kind of pain he wants to put on this person, and he is FIGURATIVELY bounding and gagging them.
Basically, when this *bad situation* occurred (be it rape or whatever), he probably felt that he was metaphorically being raped, not ACTUALLY being raped. He probably felt that his emotions and mind were being raped. and the part about the blood shit and cum...I think its just part of the whole metaphor that he is creating in this song.
Whether or not he was abused as a child, I don't think that he wrote the song to talk about being raped and how he wants to seek revenge on another by raping them...that would be too obvious for Maynard. -
The extremely big anonymous post above is me btw... I'd also like to say that the whole song could be a symbol for how we all abuse each other and perpetuate the anger by taking it out on other people... It would be very like MJK/Tool to write a sick twisted story expressed in a song, and still have it applied to the whole of society.
later days compadres! -
It's not about drug or alcohol abuse.
It's about child abuse. Child rape, as the above says. A man rapes his son, and his son grows up and is trapped in his mind, hence prison, and perhaps wants to have sex with boys or children himself. So this prison sex is his own issues effecting him sexually with children, get it? In coming full circle, he's got back at the man who raped him as he raped the child.
but...
it could really be about prison sex. A young man got thrown into prison, and bubba decided to give it to him. Then later he rapes another man.
But since the main vocalist was (ALLEGEDLY!!!)sexually abused by his father, it is probably about his own abuse, and his struggle against that abuse. I just pray he himself has not indulged in hurting any child. The cycle would just continue then. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Although all the interpretations I have read seem very reasonable, I will have to disagree. I believe this song has to do with the struggles one has with drug addiction. I believe this song is a dialogue between a drug of choice and the addict. Think about this interpretation while you listen to the song again and tell me what you think in the morning. Peace and be the change you want to see in the world.
-Sureal Jasani
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