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Tool - Right in Two Song Meanings

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This song is pretty good..
i think it is about how shit humans are.
pretty simple..

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-06-22 11:26:56     Rating:

Pretty cut and dry.. another of maynards great social commentaries. where did we go wrong? will we ever shed the monkey mind? the brave new world is here and now.. and we're ruining it.. cause that's what we do. and god.. ?

"Only heaven's silence for an answer.."
-Ronan Harris

Submitted by: Toolio
Added: 2006-06-25 00:10:31     Rating:

"anti-war"

...thats it.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-06-26 21:00:20     Rating:

This song is about Maynard being disgusted with war and fighting among men. The lyrics portray humans as monkeys fighting over land and creating weapons and using them against each other.

Submitted by: Zaq
Added: 2006-06-30 21:35:47     Rating:

All that is needed:
Monkeys = Humans
Eden = Earth

That is all.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-07-03 14:45:44     Rating:

Personally, "Right in two" means that us as humans are selfish beasts. Wherever we land up we have to divide what has been given "right in two". WE have been given choice and reason but yet as foolish as apes we make the wrong choice and have the complete opposite reasons to live, i.e materialism. wars. chaos. destruction. power. This song, unlike other Tool songs,has a nostalgic meloncholy to it and plays on the wrong or right emotions. Basically- its sad. very political, but sad!!!!!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-07-08 07:39:05     Rating:

This song denotes that we haven't really progressed from the beasts we were as apes, its all to do with greed, and this will never change.

Submitted by: jewstalker@yahoo.com
Added: 2006-08-01 04:46:05     Rating:

This song is claerly about how since humans obtained knowledge, they also obtained the power to choose. Since we learned to choose, we become more ignorant. It is clear proof that our knowledge will be the downfall of our existence. We learned that we can percieve things in different ways, this gives us the ability to be wrong. Since we did learn to think for ourselves, we learned viloence. And we learned that this violence can be used to destroy those who stand in the way of our beleifs. Monkey is a referance to human beings, if no one discovered that in the translation, then they need to look depper into things.And one thing I would like to say, god didn't offer knowledge for the fact of thos song. If you have read the bible, and understood it, then you would know that the serpent in the garden of eden was satan, and the apple represented knowledge. God didn't want us to obtain knowledge for this very reason.If we know things, then we have the ability to choose, if we can choose then we can choose to disbeleive god, and if noone beleives in god, then he dies, he is kept alive through our beleif in him since beleof is the way he survies. Beleif is the most powerful tool humans beings have. But our ignorance gets in the way. That's all this is.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-08-02 05:37:06     Rating:

Simply put, monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Why kill when they can just cut it right in two?
Or
why cut it in two when you can share?
Silly monkeys.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-08-28 11:05:29     Rating:

Monkeys = humans is interesting because monkeys are considered to be extremely violent compared to humans. This is due mainly to the fact they have less communication. Don't know if Tool had this in mind when they wrote the song, but it is pretty interesting.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-08-31 00:53:39     Rating:

What's interesting about this song is that the violence of monkeys is used as a metaphor for human war and violence when in fact humans are by far the most violent of all primates. And a message to everyone - monkeys are not apes and apes are not monkeys. Monkeys have tails, we apes do not.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-09-10 11:09:25     Rating:

This song is clearly about the never ending war in the middle east over Israel (the promised land/eden)
where the Arabs and the Israelis are still primitive enough to fight for a piece of land, instead of living like brothers.

'right in two' in my opinion is from the bible, where two women come to king david each claiming that a baby belongs to her. The king says "cut it right in two, and give each woman half of the baby"
one woman agrees, the other doesnt, and prefers the other woman to have the baby, just so no harm is done to it.
That woman is clearly the true mother of the baby, and king david gives her the baby.

Maynard thinks the same should be done with the land.
Cut it right in two, and see who agrees and who doesnt, see who the land truly means more to.

So far by this method it seems that the Jews care more about Israel, since they are not the one constantly bombing the promised land.

Submitted by: eckoman72420
Added: 2006-09-11 04:05:57     Rating:

This song is written from a third person view of how the angels feel towards human beings and god. They can not figure out how humans can take for granted what god has blessed them with so bountifully (life, freedoms, relationships, etc.)
god gave humans the right to choose how they live their lives (which was a choice of his, not an obligation), and all humans could do in return is to become so selfish and conceited that they will kill their own kind for more material posessions, such as more land.
I think Maynard compaired humans to monkeys not to add comedy to the song, but because like monkeys, humans do what they see other humans do, they except it as acceptible behavior. By doing this, they give up god's gift of choice.
Instead of blessing others manually, we humans would rather use the knowledge god has given us for negative reasons, such as building weaponry.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-10-01 23:47:25     Rating:

This one is pretty obvious, and everyone seems to be getting it. It's all about how we humans as a race, despite all of our technological advances, are still the apes we once were.
"silly monkeys, give them thumbs, they make a club, and beat their brother down."

humans are still and more than ever bloodthirsty and primal, willing to kill their own kind over material possessions, using tools to further advance their own lives as individuals and not as a whole.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-10-10 16:18:57     Rating:

I've read and tried to self interpret many of Maynards songs, but this is the first one I will share my interpretation with others.

First I would like to point out that many of maynards songs seem to have religious themes, always very sarcastic or anti-religion.

Seeing this be the case we have to wonder if Maynard is atheist or if he believes in the devil, though I belive an atheist would not aknowledge the existence of angels if he didn't believe in them in some way.

The religious theme in this song seems to me like a taunt towards god, saying

"why did father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused."

in deep religious philosophy, some religions belive in an actual war in heaven which involved god, jesus, and lucifer as seperate beings. Lucifer and jesus were actually both asked to come up with a plan for humans.

Jesus wanted us to have choice, some to make it back to heaven (heaven being a place close to god) and others hell ( a place far from god) lucifer wanted to abolish free will so we would all make it back. Apparently god chose jesus's plan, and lucifer was cast out of heaven.

Now satan is taunting god by saying his plan was stupid, and he uses Maynard as a way of putting his message outh there.

Of course I may be reading way to much into it, but I do think Maynard has deep seeded beliefs or something that would cause him to write some of the music he writes.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-01-29 23:19:23     Rating:

i think its obvious that most of us would agree that this song is talking about man wanting to divide and conquer everything in this world...but I think it is even more specific to todays current situation of the war in Iraq..."EDEN" the birthplace of mankind according to the Bible would be in present day Iraq or formerly known as Babylon ...the cradle of civilization...
these lyrics: "How they survive so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant is a creature who would
Squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here" I think represents the religious ideology that sort of defines the middle eastern culture..doing all things in the name of ALLAH

these lyrics: "Fight over the clouds, over the earth, over sky.
Fight over life, over blood, over air and light.
Over love, over sun, over nothing.
Fight till they die. Over what? Over lies and greed"...might symbolize the U.S. motives for being in Iraq, in particular the last line.

these lyrics: "Angels on the sideline again.
Been so long with patience and reason.
Angels on the sideline again.
Wondering when this tug of war will end"...i think represents all the innocent people who have to get in the middle of all the chaos which is "war"

thats my 2 cents

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-01-30 17:13:45     Rating:

In my opinion, by listening to this song many times, and reading some of the interpretations, it is clear to me what mostly all of this song means.

As Maynard says
"Don’t these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys,
Where there’s one, you're bound to divide it,
Right in two."

For his second verse...
He talks about how Humans think not only about the resources they have upon their "own" lands, but how people search all of "eden" in order to gain more resources from their own greed. Though, we don't think of how much we really have...we just want more and more.

For his fourth verse...
"Father blessed them all with reason.
And this is what they choose.
Monkey, killing monkey, killing monkey
Over pieces of the ground."

I think of it as him saying how "father" (god) gave us this a more complex mind so we are able to think, and yet we don't use our mind to think logic, we just act. It somewhat relates to how your mother's say "Think before you speak"
When he says "Monkey, killing monkey, killing monkey. Over pieces of the ground." It's obvious that he's saying "monkeys" (humans) are killing their own brethren in order to embrace more land for their own greed.

For his fifth verse...
"Silly monkeys give them thumbs,
They forge a blade,
And where there's one they're bound to divide it,
Right in two.
Right in two."

In this, I believe he is speaking of how all we do is "give them thumbs, then forge a blade" (create weapons) to only kill each other, and it fits well because of the fact of how you use a sword and it's used to "cut" things "right in two"

For his sixth verse...
"Monkey, killing monkey, killing monkey.
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs,
They make a club.
And beat their brother down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant is a creature who would
Squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here"

I think of this as him talking about us, in our own "safe havens" just as we use our own fists "They make a club and beat their brother down." to only slaughter our own brethren as we do with swords, guns...plastic objects O_o...etc...and it talks of us being reluctant to look up toward "heaven"

Most of the song I believe goes well with what's going on now, the war in Iraq, and has a great meaning towards what we're doing now.

Well, that's my opinion on what this song means.

Submitted by: monk
Added: 2007-04-13 18:31:43     Rating:

this was written by a friend of mine who isn't necessarily a
tool fan. She heard this song though and really liked it.

without further ado; her thoughts...

i don't think the song requires much interpretation. Basically monkeys and humans share a lot of genetic material, about 98% to be precise. but what makes us different from them? they use tools (they have opposable thumbs, hence the line silly monkeys give them thumbs), they can learn language, they have social groups, they love and hate and care for their children and form bonds. So why are we in charge of this stinking little planet in the backwash of the universe?

It's a song about what makes us human. I think the angels (and who are these angels in the song who are being so patient with us?) are present as contrast to us, because they are perfect deities; however, IMHO, they don't have human problems, they can afford to be smug. I'm not sure how much I agree with the overall sentiment of the song, despite my appreciation of the term "silly monkey." Because really, is that what we aspire to, to be an angel? If so, why is that so important? Why can't we embrace our humanness in all of it's petty squabbling...it's one of the things that makes us who we are, I mean one of the things that makes us human.

So to go back to the idea of what makes us human, it is our higher level consciousness. Monkeys don't plan the future, they don't decide on a course of action other than the present. Perhaps then the song is a call to remember our humanness, to go beyond the present and realize we are something other than the ridiculousness we fight over every day. After all, as Carl Sagan says, we are made of stardust, we are formed of the whole of the universe, and frankly we may be the only creatures on this planet with a capacity to appreciate that.

I like this line: "Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here." It reminds me of a line from Dante's Inferno: "the heavens are calling you and wheel around you displaying to you their eternal beauties and still your eye is looking at the ground." I think it's from Purgatory but don't quote me on that.

Submitted by: RickOShay
Added: 2007-05-06 22:59:12     Rating:

I think you're all on the right track. This song is about human greed and ethnocentrism. It's about our inability to share. We divide everything, even our beliefs, which often leads to war.

Angels watching monkeys kill monkeys is an oxymoron. They've combined Christianity and evolution in this song to further exemplify human's lack of unity. Religion vs. atheism, or religion vs any other religion, is at the grassroots of human division.

Most wars have been about religion or territory. Stupid Monkeys!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-05-21 00:11:45     Rating:

I don't think I so say specifically about human greed and warfare, but how its naturally within us to engage in these concepts and we tend to be blind when it comes to really truly understanding how we are and work because we have so much in our hands all the time, things we are so incredibly conditioned to. we are still somewhat primitive when it comes to how we choose to live and obtain what we want or need. this song is one of my favorites. It always arouses the question in my head, a question my teacher asked me one day that just stuck in my mind like gum to my shoe. "is war necessary?" quite possibly a question that can not be answered. I think naturally we are animals that tend to destroy and consume until there is nothing left, like a horse grazing a field clean. we could try to conserve but we couldn't escape the primitive aspects of ourselves. Tool is the best. I feel tool really helped me blossom mentally and understand a handful of things.

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