The Pot Lyrics
Who are you to wave your finger?
You must've been out your head
Eye hole deep in muddy waters
You practically raised the dead
Rob the grave to snow the cradle
Then burn the evidence down
Soapbox house of cards and glass so
Don't go tossin' your stones around
You must've been high
You must've been high
You must've been
[Bridge 1]
Foot in mouth and head up ass
So whatcha talkin' 'bout?
Difficult to dance 'round this one
'Til you pull it out, boy
You must've been so high
You must've been so high
[Verse 2]
Steal, borrow, refer, save your shady inference
Kangaroo done hung the juror with the innocent
Now you're weepin' shades of cozened indigo
Got lemon juice up in your eye
When you pissed all over my black kettle
You must've been high, high
You must've been high, high
Who are you to wave your finger? So full of it
Eye balls deep in muddy waters, fuckin' hypocrite
Liar, lawyer, mirror, show me what's the difference?
Kangaroo done hung the guilty with the innocent
Now you're weepin' shades of cozened indigo
Got lemon juice up in your eye, eye
When you pissed all over my black kettle
You must've been
[Bridge 2]
So who are you to wave your finger?
Who are you to wave your fatty fingers at me?
You must have been out your mind
Weepin' shades of indigo
Shed without a reason
Weepin' shades of indigo
[Verse 4]
Liar, lawyer, mirror for ya, what's the difference?
Kangaroo be stoned, he's guilty as the government
Now you're weepin' shades of cozened indigo
Got lemon juice up in your eye, eye
Now when you pissed all over my black kettle
You must've been high, high, high, high
Eyeballs deep in muddy waters
You're balls deep in muddy waters
Ganja? Please!
You must have been out your mind
About
“The Pot” is meticulously written to criticize hypocrisy, mainly targeting the church (Christianity) and the government.
This song comes on the heels of the titular “10,000 Days”, a song in which Maynard calls out hypocrisy in the congregations of the church his mother attended. This song, “The Pot”, can be seen to, in this context, be a response to his own calling out of hypocrisy as hypocrisy – in the words of the common idiom, “The pot calling the kettle black.” The black kettle is also referenced here to show how the so called God-men killed innocent natives and Chief Black Kettle in the Cheyenne tribe.
On the track, Maynard also changes his vocal style dramatically from that of the prior track “10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)”, suggesting the appearance of another narrator.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Maynard James Keenan:
To me that’s one of the examples of some of our earlier energy blending perfectly with our more mature energy and kind of nods to our influences over the years. I feel like we really kind of struggle to make sure that all four of us shine as best we can on everything we do to exhaustion. But I feel like this one is one of the one’s that felt, not effortless, but fresh and conscious, consciously effortless, if that makes sense. It just captures that vibe that I think, if you’re gonna play a song for people to kind of get them into our band, I don’t think you should start with the 27-minute one. Calm down. Don’t get all QAnon on us. Focus on “The Pot”, that will be your introduction to all the other possibilities that happen in this project.
—via BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show with Daniel P Carter (at 1:20:30)
- 1.Vicarious
- 2.Jambi
- 5.The Pot
- 9.Intension
- 10.Right in Two
- 11.Viginti Tres