Don't fret precious, I'm here
Step away from the window, go back to sleep
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils
See, they don't give a fuck about you like I do
Count lies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep
Count lies like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep
Go back to
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go back to sleep
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons
I'll be the one to protect you from a will to survive and a voice of reason
I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices, son
They're one in the same
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself
Step away from the window, go back to sleep
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils
See, they don't give a fuck about you like I do
Count lies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep
Count lies like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps, like sheeps
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep
Go back to
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,
Go back to sleep
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
Go back to sleep
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep, like sheep (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums (Go back to sleep)
Go back to sleep
I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons
I'll be the one to protect you from a will to survive and a voice of reason
I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices, son
They're one in the same
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself
Lyrics submitted by prayingmantis84
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums Lyrics as written by Maynard Keenan Billy Howerdel
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums song meanings
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Listening to the song, I initially thought this song was about dead bodies being counted in the same sense as counting sheep while trying to go to sleep. After listening to it a couple times I then began to think that it was talking about someone keeping count of how many people they fuck. He lies and deceives the people telling them he will protect them and keep them from harm. He continues to tell them that no one gives a fuck about them like he does; making them think that he's the only one that cares about them, when in reality he's just telling them what they want to hear to get what he wants.
So, therefore, permit me to address this piece from my gut - a place very real and posessing meaning, but a place that possesses little currency in a world that weighs words for the express purpose of creating corrupted scales upon which to weigh those very words. In me, it invokes frustration with the way civilization is going. We are but the descendants of a violent, aggressive manifestation of informational organization. We are prone to war, ready to snatch each other's faces off for minor greivences. Our society has become parasitic in nature rather than synergistic. We survive in spite of each other rather than as willing, mutual beneficiaries. How disturbing! Nay, how natural! Just go to sleep. Listen to the propaganda and the advertisements. Do not be alarmed or you may realize that you're a sheep, marching off a precipace to the benefit of someone claiming to care for you. Watch or read 1984, A Handmaid's Tale, Fight Club, various footage of Jane Goodall's research, and you will now the meaning of this song better than the artist himself.
Yes, there are porn noises in the background
Yes, this song was remixed to have more political weight.
Yes, the title is too long
Thank you for your time
here the lyrics are given a political meaning. it is about how george bush would like to get the people of america to stay out of any politial business and to let him act like he pleases since he cannot defend or justify his actions anyway - because they are firstly simply not right and therefore unjustifiable and secondly because mr bush's ability to express himself is more than clumsy.
mr bush is the father singing to his son, the people of amrica. "step away from the window/go back to sleep" means don't look at what is going on outside. it is not your concern. mind your own business and go back to sleep. sleep is here seen as a state of unawareness.
the government declares this attitude to be right and necesarry to protect the people of their enemies, trheir demons and of the voice of reason, the voice that tells the truh about mr bush's highly questionable decisions.
"the death of a person is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic" - Stalin (I could be horribly wrong, but along those lines"
This is how the government blinds people from what is really going on, hiding things behind a curtain of nationalism or patriotism.
Maynard talks a lot about "sheep" and that refers to basically people following blindly, without thinking for themselves and forming their own opinion.
Read into this stanza and you can see the ironic duality within:
"I’ll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and all your demons
I'll be the one to protect you from
A will to survive and a voice of reason
I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and your choices son
One in the same,
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself"
That you'll be protected by the government in your country yet it is really your own choices and voice of reason they are blocking out. That for the price of being guarded by enemies and "demons," you lose the very own values within your self. You lose your humanity.
Many people in this country and perhaps even the world (I'm not sure) are asleep. They are turned off from their dreams, hopes, and wishes. They are numb because of prozac or a number of theraputic drugs. They have no energy because of diets such as the Atkins or other fads.
This allows more people to become faceless and under control.
I believe that is the gist of this song.
Sheep are stupid animals that can be herded together in groups, are generally indistinguishable from one another, and think nothing of it. Hence, the general public would be the sheep. The "I" in the song would refer to the government, more specifically bush, but applies in a less specific sense also. The government wants you to go back to sleep, aka a state of unawareness so that they can control you. The "I" presents choice and reason as the enemy from which it will protect you. Meanwhile, while you are asleep, the government slaughters an obscene amount in war (hence counting bodies like sheep). "Don't fret precious, I'm here" has a very patronizing tone to it, as if the government is "taking care of you", while presenting the general person as a lesser, helpless being. Lastly, the government wants to "isolate you and save you from yourself" or otherwise "save" you from your individuality and individual rational thought. The whole song once again presents a very patronizing and controlling tone while it tries to demean the "enemy". It is very sarcastic, and almost seems to poke fun at the lack of intelligence of the average person who will blindly follow a corrupt government.
This is how the government blinds people from what is really going on, hiding things behind a curtain of nationalism or patriotism.
Maynard talks a lot about "sheep" and that refers to basically people following blindly, without thinking for themselves and forming their own opinion.
Read into this stanza and you can see the ironic duality within:
"I’ll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and all your demons
I'll be the one to protect you from
A will to survive and a voice of reason
I'll be the one to protect you from
Your enemies and your choices son
One in the same,
I must isolate you
Isolate and save you from yourself"
That you'll be protected by the government in your country yet it is really your own choices and voice of reason they are blocking out. That for the price of being guarded by enemies and "demons," you lose the very own values within your self. You lose your humanity.
Many people in this country and perhaps even the world (I'm not sure) are asleep. They are turned off from their dreams, hopes, and wishes. They are numb because of prozac or a number of theraputic drugs. They have no energy because of diets such as the Atkins or other fads.
This allows more people to become faceless and under control.
I believe that is the gist of this song.
Listening to the song, I initially thought this song was about dead bodies being counted in the same sense as counting sheep while trying to go to sleep. After listening to it a couple times I then began to think that it was talking about someone keeping count of how many people they fuck. He lies and deceives the people telling them he will protect them and keep them from harm. He continues to tell them that no one gives a fuck about them like he does; making them think that he's the only one that cares about them, when in reality he's just telling them what they want to hear to get what he wants.
Isolate and save you from yourself" if taken as said from the government (which the government has alread pretty much).
of course, maynard's lyrics in both tool and apc are very vague and open to interpertation, and yours is right because you came up with it.