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What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?
Eleven and she was gone.
Eleven is when we waved good-bye.
Eleven is standing still,
Waiting for me to free him
By coming home.
Moving me with a sound.
Opening me within a gesture.
Drawing me down and in,
Showing me where it all began,
Eleven.
It took so long to realize that
You hold the light that’s been leading me back home.
Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
Hold your light,
Eleven.
Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory.
I’ll move to heal
As soon as pain allows so we can
Reunite and both move on together.
Hold your light,
Eleven. lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory
’till one and one are one, eleven,
So glow, child, glow.
I’m heading back home.
Read more lyrics about / on: memory, numb, home, together, lost, gone, lighting, leave, sleep
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Click here to write your
comments about this poem (Jimmy by
Tool
)
Bob Bobson
(3/30/2007 7:55:00 PM)
since this is one of my favourite songs i thought i'd give my interpretation of the lyrics, although they're a little ambiguous and certain lines may have more than one meaning, i'll give it my best shot. A little background first, the singer Maynard James Keenan's mother was a devout Christian and a person of good morals and when Maynard was 11 years old she suddenly had a stroke and was left paralyzed in a wheelchair. Despite spending her life devoted to God and now being disabled she never lost her faith and this became the subject of quite a few of Maynard's lyrics in Tool and his other band A Perfect Circle. Anyway I think this song is about him never getting over this incident, which left him frustrated, until he relives his memories and makes peace with what happened.
(What was it like to see
the face of your own stability
suddenly look away
leaving you with the dead and hopeless?)
This could either be Maynard in the present talking to himself as an 11 year old, his stability being his mother but i think is more likely him speaking directly to his mother of her of her disability.
...(Eleven is standing still,
waiting for me to free him by coming home.)
Here, by saying that he never moved on from what happened, that point in time is 'standing still' and the only way to free himself from it is to re-live it and make his peace.
(Moving me with a sound.
Opening me within a gesture.
Drawing me down and in,
showing me where it all began, Eleven.)
these lyrics show his nostalgic feelings for when looks back to that point in time.
(He was too scarred to realize
that you were the voice thats been calling me back home)
He was emotionally scarred by what happened and didn't want to face the voice of himslef as an eleven year old calling him back to that point to face it.
(Under a dead Ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting
defending his light, and wondering...
where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
I am so glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.)
Again he's reflecting on how he has gone so long without facing up to his frustration ('Eleven has been and will be waiting') how he's glad to have realised he needs to re-visit that point in his life to accept it.
(hold your light eleven,
lead me through each day of memories
hold your light, hold your light
hold your light where I can see it)
Now its as if he is travelling back in time through his own memories to look for that point, asking himself as an eleven year old boy to 'hold a light so i can see it' and guide him to that point
(Hold your light, Eleven.
Lead me through each gentle step by step by inch by loaded memory.
I'll move to heal
as soon as pain allows so we can
reunite and both move on together.
Hold your light, eleven.
Lead me through each gentle step by step by inch by loaded memory
'til one and one are one, eleven,
so glow, child, glow.
I'm heading back home.)
again he is talking about looking back through his memories of what happened, even though its painful, to 'find' himself as an eleven year old and move on from that time.
--
The song is supremely well written and the lyrics take a little imagination to come up with your own take on it (like most Tool lyrics) but as with all Tool lyrics it's really personal and from the heart and for that it commands respect. Hope you enjoy it
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Smiley Gladhands
(9/28/2006 5:58:00 PM)
Beautifully written. Maynard James Keenan is a saint among poets. Danny Carey is possibly the most exceptional drummer in music today. Adam Jones, legendary guitarist of Tool, most inventive and unconventional guitar player of all. Finally, but definetly not least, Justin Chancellor, the resonant bassist, who gives Tool its ethereal, spirit cleansing feel. As you can see i am infatuated with Tool, because no other band digs as deep, or rocks you on an emotional band more so than Tool. Jimmy is one of my favorites, from the 1996 album Aenima, on of Tool's greatest pieces. The song can be interpreted many ways, but i believe it to be a recollection of Maynard's childhood, in particular when he was 11 years old. This is believed to be the year when his mother, Judith, was stricken with a stroke, which left her paralyzed. I believe Maynard is speaking of a meeting in the afterlife 'Eleven has been and will be waiting'. However you look at, a great song from the best metal heads of all time, 'sides maybe Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath!
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