Prison sex II

[Lachrymologist]

Here's my interpretation of jimmy: In one live performance maynard referred to jimmy as Prison Sex II, meaning that it was a second part or a completion of the song. It another live performance, when talking about prison sex, maynard siad that there are two parts to the cycle of abuse. The first step being recognizing the problem, which is what Prison Sex is about, and the second step being working through the process, and ending it, which is what i think jimmy is about. Maynard is referring to himself at age 11, which i assume, was a time when he was being abused. He has to recognize this time, and confront it, and all the problems that he associates with it in order to be able to work through the problem and end the cycle of abuse within himself.

There is probably more details i could go into, but i am in a rush, so forgive me if i left out anything.

[Mark D]

The only way I could connect Jimmy and Prison Sex is a possible theme. You could say that both songs share a meaning that has to do with someone being taken advantage of. I dont know if that makes sense to anyone, but it does to me.

[sluice_van]

this sort of makes sense to me ... both the narrator in prison sex and the narrator in jimmy are children at the times of the songs ... maybe "11 is when she waved goodbye" is also commenting on the fact that the person who was abused in prison sex is now left without a mother. i am sure a psychologist would agree, on some level, that an older, male abuser definitely damages the victim's sense of having a father, or any other type of trustworthy adult male role model for that matter.

so it could go like this:
narrator is abused in prison sex
his mother dies in jimmy
and he is "heading home" to explore the remnants of his childhood, perhaps one final stab at making sense of what has happened to him?

it's hard to say ... the lyrics in jimmy are more vague than those of prison sex, in my opinion.

thanks for listening,
-sv

[Himself]

im not sure if this is fact or not but I have been told that Maynard's father was a priest in the church, and that he abused (raped?) Maynard as a child. These events are probably the inspiration for a lot of tool songs.

not sure about the abuse thing. if anybody knows please post a followup.