My view about Right in Two

[The Sky]

My view-This song is about the current state of affairs in the United States. Our country is run by crazy religious freaks who don't make decisions rationally. They send us off to war for a piece of land. They aren't fighting the war, they are on the sidelines. They are confused, puzzled, and baffled because they are dipshits who don't know anything about history or other cultures.


angels on the sideline
baffled and confused
father blessed them all with reason
and this is what they choose
monkey killing monkey killing monkey
over a piece of other ground


angels on the sideline(very religious George W. Bush and his goons)
baffled and confused(Saddam no ties to 9/11? NO WMDS? We have to reconstruct Iraq? They have Sunnis and Shiites? People in Iraq actually don't want us there?)
father blessed them all with reason(can be either God or George Bush Senior because without him, George II probably wouldn't be president)
and this is what they choose(They choose war)
monkey killing monkey killing monkey(war)
over a piece of other ground(Iraq)

[phishman1]

it is true. The first words that come to my mind when I see George W. Bush are "baffled" and "confused"...

[ChaseA17]

its a very interesting take on the evolution of man IMO. It is an in depth look at the violent nature of man and i think it can be (as well as many other songs on this album) misinterperated for a comment on current political issues. This album speaks volumes and is much deeper than what has been in the news the last five years...

[Athanatizein]

its a very interesting take on the evolution of man IMO. It is an in depth look at the violent nature of man and i think it can be (as well as many other songs on this album) misinterperated for a comment on current political issues. This album speaks volumes and is much deeper than what has been in the news the last five years...

Combined with Intension the evolutionary aspect seems quite clear in my eyes too.

[Lasciveous-Coitus]

My view-This song is about the current state of affairs in the United States. Our country is run by crazy religious freaks who don't make decisions rationally. They send us off to war for a piece of land. They aren't fighting the war, they are on the sidelines. They are confused, puzzled, and baffled because they are dipshits who don't know anything about history or other cultures.


angels on the sideline
baffled and confused
father blessed them all with reason
and this is what they choose
monkey killing monkey killing monkey
over a piece of other ground


angels on the sideline(very religious George W. Bush and his goons)
baffled and confused(Saddam no ties to 9/11? NO WMDS? We have to reconstruct Iraq? They have Sunnis and Shiites? People in Iraq actually don't want us there?)
father blessed them all with reason(can be either God or George Bush Senior because without him, George II probably wouldn't be president)
and this is what they choose(They choose war)
monkey killing monkey killing monkey(war)
over a piece of other ground(Iraq)


Uh...No not really, why does every song gotta be about Iraq? Seriously, this song is taking a broader perspective of humanity. Instead of rambling on with your Bush theories...do something productive with your life.

[tomatoms]

TOOL is timeless. even moreso than led zepplin, or pink floyd. their music has messages that could have been relevant to people listening 1000 years ago. or 1000 years into the future.

there will come a time when those who think with their hearts, who live with love, will be separated from humans that are cold, uncaring, and contently ignorant. they will be pulled apart, right in two. Thats what i jam thinking about at the end of the song. we certainly don't want people to build any more fences. The beginning is somewhat plainly descriptive of people in constant beligerence, making battles where there would be none if we knew the virtues of sharing. (Eden has enough to go around.)

[insaner]

agreed. this is about the human race in general.

[ChaseA17]

TOOL is timeless. even moreso than led zepplin, or pink floyd. their music has messages that could have been relevant to people listening 1000 years ago. or 1000 years into the future.

there will come a time when those who think with their hearts, who live with love, will be separated from humans that are cold, uncaring, and contently ignorant. they will be pulled apart, right in two. Thats what i jam thinking about at the end of the song. we certainly don't want people to build any more fences. The beginning is somewhat plainly descriptive of people in constant beligerence, making battles where there would be none if we knew the virtues of sharing. (Eden has enough to go around.)

Well said. Tool's music has always struck a chord with me as being a collection of timeless masterpieces that focus on the spectrum of human emotions. It is unfair to the music and the hard work that has gone into making it to write it off as a comment on the modern day. Maybe quoting some APC songs would be more relevant for that, but we are talking about Tool. Their songs, as therefore mentioned, will make sense to people who may hear it in the future compared to some of the shit that is played on the radio today. It seriously makes me sick the things that pass as music these days and the way people cannot look beyond an "artists" face and into the shallowness of their musical structure and lyrics. But that is for a whole other discussion.

[Staticfactory]

Maynard makes one comment about this album being more 'political'...

It really doesn't surprise me that people are trying to make G.W. Bush/War in Iraq parallels - it's on the brain and so many bands have been doing it since 9/11 that it's almost reflex to assume such a thing.

However, 'political' is not a word with a one-fold meaning.

(used with a sing. or pl. verb) The often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society.

n 1: social relations involving authority or power. (Thanks dictionary.com)

It would have made more sense for Maynard to say that this album is more 'sociological', in my opinion.

The way I hear it, this song in particular outlines the nature/heritage of conflict -- whether it be with the self or with 'others'. I'm not sure how many of you listen to Pushit and hear a struggle with duality; the nature of One trying to break free of the Ego (that which gives us the sense of separation from all things) but that is how I've come to know it over the years. I hear a strong parallel to this theme in 'Right in Two'.

When I listen to 'Right in Two' I hear the prequel to Pushit -- a look at the very beginning of humanity and the curiosity that surrounds how we came to find such a struggle. I think this verse outlines this idea quite eloquently:

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

This verse lends the idea of the fall from grace that was outlined in the story of "Adam and Eve" -- where the fundamentals (reason/choice) of human nature provided too much of a struggle to remain in harmony with the 'One' and ultimately gave birth to duality (eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge [of good and evil]). With the birth of Ego came greed, envy [insert 'deadly sin' here]... From One, right in two.

The rest of this song, to me, illustrates the conflicts that follow this initial 'division' from 'God' both internally and externally -- how lost we've become after falling from the garden.

The thing that really gets me about this song is how vulnerable the vocals sound, in the third person, witnessing everything falling apart and just wondering why it happened this way. I now understand why Danny said "This is our blues album."