Top Rated Interpretation

jeffthetool April 26th, 2006 11:29PM  

So, bored as I was and ambitious to increase my understanding of my favorite lachrymologists, I stumbled across a song interpretation of "H" by Tool. I then did the math enough to know that "jimmy" and "Prison Sex" are also players in my sordid little game of understanding. The entire event that sparked these epiphanies was the song "10,000 Days". All of this will come together if you sit back, relax and close your eyes -- wait, keep them open you need to use them to read this -- anyway this will all make sense, trust me, trust me, trust me.....

My interpretations:

jimmy is James Herbert Keenan or Maynard James Keenan – yeah, that’s his birth name. Make sense?
The "j" in the name is purposely lower case to symbolize a child.

“Eleven and she was gone.
Eleven is when we waved good-bye.
Eleven is standing still”

Maynard was born April 17, 1964, his mother died June of 2003. In aMotive (A Perfect Circle’s DVD) Maynard explains that his mother had a stroke and lived wheelchair bound and partially paralyzed until her death in June of 2003. Take 27 from 2003 and you get 1976 (when she had the stroke), take 1976 from 1964 and you get...12?!! What the hell? Wait, take 10,000 days and divide that by 365 days, that’s roughly 27.3 or 27 years and a quarter of a year. A quarter of a year is 4 months.The first quarter of a year is January through April. Therefore, if Judith Marie Keenan had a stroke between January 1 and April 16 of 1976 Maynard was still 11.
“Eleven and she was gone.
Eleven is when we waved good-bye.
Eleven is standing still”

Judith didn't physically leave Maynard but was crippled and unable to be there for him the was she always was. This could mean Maynard had to rely on his stepfather to provide for him. He suffered abuse from his stepfather and probably suffered more now that Judith couldn't be there to protect him.

“What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?”

Again, his happy stability is gone, dead and hopeless because his mom can never be the same, she’s crippled, can't protect him.

“Moving me with a sound.
Opening me within a gesture.
Drawing me down and in,
Showing me where it all began,
Eleven.”

Recalling memories that take him back to when he was eleven – now this can mean either he is remembering the day his mother was crippled or he is moving before that to happier times.

“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.”

He lived in Ravenna, Ohio. He is thinking back to his youth and innocence to when he was happy, possibly reverting back to happier times due to the trauma of the entire experience and the abuse he is suffering because Judith can't protect him from his father.

He then moves into “sleeping, lost and numb” – symptoms and suggestions of depression (sleeping) and putting up emotional barriers (lost and numb).
“So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.” – Reverting back to childhood.

“Hold your light,
Eleven.
Lead me through each gentle step by step
by inch by loaded memory.”

Telling his inner child to hold his light to lead him back to that happy childhood, getting lost in memories.

“I'll move to heal
As soon as pain allows so we can
Reunite and both move on together.”

If he can get through the pain he can start to heal, cope with his memories and move on.

“I'm heading back home.”

He’s going back inside himself to that happy place.

If you analyze "H." by Tool you will come to understand that Maynard was emotionally abused by his father (or stepfather, can't be sure which one). This could go hand in hand with "jimmy" if you consider the fact that his mother cannot protect him from the abuse he is suffering because of her condition. This may also go hand in hand with "Prison Sex" because in a live show in Quebec on 11/29/96 Maynard said "Prison Sex" was about "recognizing, identifying a cycle of abuse within yourself, that's the first step of the process -- realization, identifying. The next step is to work though it, but this song is about the first step which is recognizing." The "cycle of abuse within yourself" could be about Maynard's feelings but is probably more about his father's (or stepfather's) because his son had not yet been conceived when this album (Undertow) was released.

This is an interpretation of the song H. by Tool off of their 1996 CD Ænima. This interpretation was submitted to lyricinterpretations.com by a person known as "Zaq". This seems to make sense. It seems that this song is about Maynard and his struggle to not fall into a cycle of abuse (reminiscent of "Prison Sex"?) directed at his son Devo. Devo was born in 1995 and Ænima was released in 1996, though Devo was obviously conceived in mid to late 1994 giving plenty of time for Maynard to write this song about an unborn child "my blood before me". I also think that this song goes hand in hand with "jimmy" in describing Maynard's thoughts and feelings about himself and/or his parents. I came to this conclusion when I saw Maynard James Keenan was actually born James Herbert Keenan. So, jimmy is James when he was eleven and H. could be short for Herbert his middle name. H. Is also Devo's middle name, not initial but name, H. Isn't short for anything save for H.
Here is "Zaq's" interpretations of "H."
The snake represent Maynard's father.
The "blood before me" represents Devo, Maynard's son.
"What's coming through is alive.
What's holding up is a mirror.
But what's singing songs is a snake
Looking to turn this piss to wine."
This means the Maynard we experience in most songs is the Maynard seen in his father's mirror, the Maynard that was shaped in his father's image. But he is trying to turn all these negatives(piss) to positives(wine).
The snake behind me reminds me, how bad I could have been.
My son in front of me begs me to let my guard down, to love, to grow again.
"Venomous voice, tempts me,
Drains me, bleeds me,
Leaves me cracked and empty.
Drags me down like some sweet gravity."
The way he was treated by his father makes him feel like shit, takes his will to live away, and he is tempted to let it drag him down(because he feels worthless). It is "Sweet gravity" because it would be easy to treat his son that way, and in a way it would feel right, because it would be a release, and because his father treated him that way.
"I am too connected to you to
Slip away, to fade away.
Days away I still feel you
Touching me, changing me,
And considerately killing me."
He loves his son too much to slip and fade into what he feels he is destined to become. Even when he isn't with his son, he can still feel his son's effects on him, can still feel his son killing the snake inside of him.
"The walls came down."
The walls he had put up to protect him emotionally have come down, allowing him to love and be loved.
"And the snake is drowned and
As I look in his eyes,
My fear begins to fade
Recalling all of those times.
I could have cried then.
I should have cried then."
The snake inside him is dead, and as he watches it die, he is no longer afraid. He was so relieved that he could have cried.
"I have died
and will die.
It's all right.
I don't mind."
The snake has died, other parts of him will die, he will change, but it's okay. I don't mind.
"And considerately killing me..."
HEY, it's a POSITIVE Tool song!!!

Submitted by "Zaq" on lyricinterpretations.com

One note about the line "considerately killing me...", I think that means that parts of him are dying but they are the bad things and they are being killed considerately by love from his son and his love for his son.
I hope this makes sense, it did to me and I was perfectly "sober" when I wrote this. Oh, and sorry about all the puns and subversive references to various Tool songs, I couldn't resist.