Tool - The Pot (Lyrics and Meaning)

cardinalbaseballer5 | September 24, 2009

The idea of this song is not marijuana. Anyone could figure that out if you looked even an inch past the title.

This song is about hypocrisy, specifically in Kangaroo Courts. Also the government and lawmakers in general. Kangaroo Courts are just referred to in the song specifically.

Kangaroo Courts were much more popular in older times, but we still have them today. It's a court case in which the accused is considered guilty before he really gets a fair trial. Now, who is the government and the court system to say that person is guilty of a crime while they are committing a crime themselves (Who are you to wave your finger)? Hypocrites.

Kangaroo courts in the older days typically dealt with pot dealers and smokers.

All the references to eyes ("Eyehole deep in muddy waters", "Got lemon juice up in your eye", "Weeping shades of indigo") all refer to the hypocrite being blinded by something or another and not being able to see the obvious: he's a "fuckin' hypocrite".

Lemon juice makes you shut your eyes

Indigo is known to represent intuition and spiritual knowledge. The hypocrite is weeping away their intuition and knowledge, until they don't even realize their own hypocrisy.

"When you pissed all over my black kettle, you must've been high"

You're the pot calling the kettle black and putting him down for it, or "pissing" on him. And it's obviously not with straight thinking or intuition that you did this. The lyrics here could either mean literally high, or maybe "you must've been high" just means "you were being crazy and unreasonable". Or both. Hell, I don't know. Ask Maynard.

By the way, here's the definition of "cozen" ("You're weeping shades of cozened indigo"):

1. To mislead by means of a petty trick or fraud; deceive.
2. To persuade or induce to do something by cajoling or wheedling.
3. To obtain by deceit or persuasion.

Sorry this explanation is scattered, random, and hard to follow. It's because these lyrics are very vague in some areas, and they can be interpreted differently. I did my best in giving the obvious meaning of the song, and some of the probable meanings to certain lyrics. Feel free to share anything else you're thinking that I don't have :)