Tool: Jimmy Meaning

Jimmy Lyrics

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...

1. anonymous

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   Mar 14th 2008 !⃝

   I agree with the whole "Eleven" being part of his childhood and his mother having a stroke. I was bored one day, and figured out the whole 10,000 days thing, it's actually 27 years, 4 months, 21 days. pretty nifty.
   I also agree with the interconnection between H./jimmy/10,000 days, but I believe there is a fourth element to this coagulation. I first noticed it when someone mentioned the "Sweet Gravity" in H. Talking of Maynard being like his father, but if you look at it, the song "Gravity" by A Perfect Circle, another Maynard band, there are some parabolas...
   
   "I fell again
   Like a baby unable to stand on my own
   Tail in hand
   Dizzy and clearly unable to
   Just let this go
   
   I am surrendering to the gravity and the unknown
   Catch me, heal me, lift me back up to the sun
   I choose to live"
   
   I don't know, it might not be related at all to the other three. Also, there's "Judith" and "Wings for Marie" which are kind of a duh when it comes to them being about his mother. The first time I heard the song "Gravity," my initial reaction was that it was about drugs, but upon further pondering I thought perhaps it could be alluding to the loss of his mother; "like a baby unable to stand on my own." And it could play into the youthful innocence depicted in "jimmy" when it comes to the "surrendering to the gravity and the unknown." There's always the "what if..." factor, and this is all total speculation, my reasoning could be way off, all the way in B.F.E, but this was my take on it anyhow. Sorry for posting on one song and totally rambling on about a wholly different one, especially if they turn out to not be connected at all...
   thanks for hearing me out!
   -K. Harrison,
   X, OH
2. anonymous

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   Dec 26th 2007 !⃝

   Omg, when he say eleven he MEANS when he's eleven years old!!! good god.
3. anonymous

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   Nov 21st 2007 !⃝

   Dont laugh...
   
   There are an amazing number of references and theories out there in relation to occurances of 11:11.
   
   See Synchronicity, String Thoery, Astrology, Numerology, the Bible.
   
   "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."
   
   11:11 is said to be a pre-encoded trigger placed in our cellular memory banks prior to our descent into matter which when activated, signifies that our time of completion and ascension is near.
4. I.know.the.truth

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   Oct 18th 2007 !⃝

   Its not my interprtation, no it isn ot about maynards childhood, he was at a party...a couple that was together for a long time was there as well, later in the night, everyone heard gunshots...the man killed his g/f, shot her 11 times and 11th shot is the one that finally killed her

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Oct 8th 2007 !⃝

   Duality of the Universe
   
   = 1 + 1.
   
   makes 11.
   
   And that is not bad math.
   
   Reconciliation of opposites = unity = transcendence = love
6. Nirgendwer

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   Aug 28th 2007 !⃝

   Ok check this out:
   
   11 x 11 = 121
   111 x 111 = 12321
   1111 x 1111 = 1234321
   11111 x 11111 = 123454321
   111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
   1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
   11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
   111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321
   
   ...
7. Nirgendwer

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   Aug 27th 2007 !⃝

   It's about a boy named jimmy who can't count yet and thinks that 1 + 1 = 11
   the kid sees it as simple as it can be seen and the result is much higher than it would be for a person "using" maths
   1 and 1 are suddenly more than it would be for an older person, who'd "make" 2 out of it...
   
   the numbers represent thoughts, everything imaginated, fantasy (numbers only exist on human minds) and maths is education, which trains your way of thinking, so that it fits into society. everybody's result for 1 + 1 would be 2... Thanks maths.
   but "uninformed" kids have still the chance to get other results, they haven't got maths as a tidying, but limiting regulator in their head.
   also they don't know what is "true" and what is "false"... In our heads 11 is a "wrong" result, but on a kid's mind it's unvalued... no inner judge, no wrong, no right...
   
   for naive people (who think 1 + 1 = 11) the world is a lot bigger, more scary and also exciting...
   
   think like a kid and suddenly you'll discover new dimensions in your mind... remember the 11th dimension
   
   or do your maths homework...
8. anonymous

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   Jul 8th 2007 !⃝

   11 actually has to do with the fact that Maynard's mother had a stroke when he was eleven that put her in a wheelchair.
9. anonymous

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   Feb 1st 2007 !⃝

   Look, I think everyone agrees that the lyrical aspect of Tool's songwriting is most likely NOT the work of Maynard alone, but more a collaborative effort. That said, it's very conceivable that a few of the songs may be about his individual experiences, such as the Jimmy/H./10000 Days links. With something so significant to Maynard as his mother's difficult experiences, I'm sure the whole band would have embraced writing a number of songs just about Maynard's experiences with his mother.
   
   I think these type of songs are great, because they slowly let you build up an image and paint a picture of "the character of MJK", in a sense. I feel that, for me anyway, it kinda makes me understand Maynard's psyche a bit more, and it explains his general outlook on life and where he's coming from when he writes all of his songs (his share of the lyrics anyway).
10. suba_357

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    Nov 12th 2006 !⃝

    I am not gonna claim I know all about Tool, but I seroiusly doubt that Maynard is singing about his past abuse or whatever bull**** he has experienced. For another thing Maynard is not the only one who writes this stuff. Maynard just adds lyrics, so these songs are not all about him... Hard to grasp I know... If he does sing about his past he is singing about moving past that and giving his fear up to love. You guys seemed so focused on Maynard that you have seem to forget there are other band members, and no matter what you think they have a bigger part in what the song means then the lyrics do (i'm talking about the music). For most part the lyrics are an interpretation of the song by maynard, so if you want the true meaning of the song listen to the music not the lyrics.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. anonymous

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    Aug 13th 2006 !⃝

    By the way, jimmy = James, it might have been his nickname as a child...
12. anonymous

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    Aug 2nd 2006 !⃝

    When the face of your own stability suddenly slips away (is lost), the time with you and that one stops. It stays exactly how it was when it was paused. In order to resume you put one(you), and one together. Eleven.
    When one and one are one, eleven.
13. keepgoingspiralout

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    Jul 31st 2006 !⃝

    I feel pretty strongly that this is about Maynard's childhood, and that "11" is the point in time Maynard desires to be. This is when his mother whas healthy, and that's the relationship he wants back.....One with his healthy mother (home). "11" symbolizes both his age and a time when his mother was healthy.
    
    "Home" could also symbolize Maynards mom coming home from the hospital I.E she's healthy.
14. anonymous

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    Jul 17th 2006 !⃝

    When you have lost a loved one (the face of your own stability) and you are re united, would be when one and one are one (eleven).
15. skindeep1123

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    May 26th 2006 !⃝

    I have trouble believing that this is a song about his childhood. Reading the lyrics, that interpretation sounds too dramatic for Maynard's style. Personally, I don't think Maynard would make his lyrics that obvious, but I could be wrong.
    
    Maybe the reason the title of the song is lower cased, is to symbolize how it is for an infant to see the world for the first time, that he's seeing things for the first time like an infant, which runs along with the whole analogy of opening up your third eye, or crowley's 4th dimension.
    
    In the song Lateralus, supposedly the 4 colors that Maynard uses in his lyrics (black, white, red, yellow) is the order of colors we see when we're born, which could symbolize seeing things for the first time like an infant, again opening up your third eye, and so on. This seems to be a common theme in their songs.
    
    The ending lines to the song go:
    "where the hell have I been?
    Sleeping, lost, and numb.
    I'm..so glad that I have found you.
    I am wide awake and heading,
    home."
    
    This leads me to believe the above interpretation. The word "home" is used a lot. I think it's meant to represent something, and not literally his house in Ohio. One definition for home is: a place we originate, our original habitat.
    
    Maybe it could mean that we have to remember who we are, we have all these influences that mold us into someone else and we don't realize it, and that the song's general meaning might be about looking at ourselves and the world from a different perspective.
    
    Or maybe it could be about Crowley and the magick system, where he says:
    "I'm..so glad that I have found you.
    I am wide awake and heading,
    home."
    
    With 11 being a significant number in Crowley's magick. Let me know what you think.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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