Sequel to "Prison Sex"

[]v[edusa]

This is long, but you really can’t expect Tool song explanations to be short and simple.

First I’ll talk about Intermission. Intermission is very cheerful. Some people, like myself, like to dance to that song. It’s a song that makes me feel like a little kid again.

But then, jimmy starts playing and it starts to sound a lot more serious and I no longer have that kid like feeling anymore. I believe Tool added Intermission to the album for a few reasons:

1) A joke, a break, an intermission in the middle of the album. It’s a time for you to take a break from the adult like seriousness in life and be more joyous like you were when you were a child.

2) It’s the intro to jimmy, but why??

Let’s start with the name of the song, “jimmy”. Obviously Maynards real name is Jimmy (James). In this song the “j” is lower cased referring that it’s more then about him, but him as a child or better yet, his inner child (divine child).

Maynard said that jimmy was a sequel to Prison Sex, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7H0l8zW1tw, so hear out what Prison Sex is about. Here is my view on Prison Sex http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?p=1867526. Mainly, “I think the over all message [of Prison Sex] is to notice that whatever abuse you did get as a child wasn’t your fault and that you should realize the damage that was done to your inner child before you become like the abuser.” We now know that Prison Sex is about realizing the damaged inner child. With that in mind, here’s my view on jimmy and its connection with Prison Sex:

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

The face of stability I think is referring to his inner child or the divine child. When we were kids fooling around and playing with a lot of imagination, our inner child was completely alive and present. Your entire world changes once the inner child is scarred, neglected, or ignored from growing up. It is then sitting inside trapped. If the inner child is wounded from abuse then everything seems 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 home.

You can look at this in a few different ways but mainly he was eleven when his mother got paralyzed. This means that he must become more responsible and grown up. Not only did his inner child get wounded but it also could have gotten “neglected”. He then loses his connection with his true inner child. So now the inner child is inside just waiting for Maynard to free him again. Home is a place that you feel most comfortable being around, what better place then a place that exists within yourself and brings you to discovering your true self. I think the inner child sits in this home.

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

I think at this point in the song certain things were reminding him of the inner child or were bringing back memories. Possibly the good memories before he got scarred from abuse.

He was too scarred to realize
You were the voice that’s been calling me back home.

He’s talking about the wounded [inner] child part of him now. The inner child is calling to him to connect once again, fix the wounds.

Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering [wandering?]...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
Eleven I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.

Maynard lost touch with his inner child when the inner child got scarred from child abuse. This is probably why he says “dead ohio sky”, as in the atmosphere, when he was a child in Ohio, wasn’t really “Pleasant Ville” like. So the inner child has been waiting for himself to be awakened again. When Maynard left his childhood into adulthood with the wounded inner child, he was sleeping as in he lost the connection with the inner child, his true self. He now notices the inner child again and is working on heading back home by fixing the scars left on the inner child.

(I wish that I could see you
Turn and run to play
Dreams are fading
Carry my ancient soul
Carry me into the light)?
Hold your light, eleven,
lead me through each fatal memory,
hold your light where I can see

He wants the inner child back and running. He hopes to get over those horrible memories of the past that scarred his life. He’s asking eleven to hold the “light” its giving off so that he can work through all the wounds to head home.

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

The inner child can guild and help. So eleven’s helping him get through his wounds and through other things to cure the self. He’s starting to remember, inch by inch, the inner child, his true self.

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

Well…. He has the desire to heal himself so that one day eleven and him will reunite.

Hold your light,
Eleven. Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory
'till one and one are one, eleven,
So glow, child, glow.

I seriously think he’s saying one eleven as in 111. Maynard talks about 46 and 2 earlier on the album. 46 and 2 is the third level of consciousness. Since 11 consists of 2 ones it can be associated with duality just like the 3 1’s in 111 can be associated with the next unity consciousness, the 3rd reality. So he hopes that 11 will evolve into 111 and they are united. Whether it is 1 and 1 are 1... 11 or 1 and 1 (11) are 111, he still has hopes of him and his inner child reuniting.

I'm heading back home.

In Prison Sex, he noticed the wounds of the inner child, he saw what the problem was and in jimmy he is trying to get through all the wounds so that he could head back home and find the inner child that he lost through abuse. This is a message for us to notice the scarred inner child and work our way back home.

… Be like a child while listening to this album… to any Tool album really.

EDIT: minor error.

[Clutch_The_Cornerstone]

Very Intelligent post. Very nice read. I thank you for your time for making me understand what this song is about from your point of view and most of the time your point of view seems to be the correct one. Thanks.

P.S. I am liking your new avatar its very medusa like haha. Have a nice day. Cheers

[DON IOTAE]

holy shit, that was long.

[Eight]

Thought this might help ( if it doesn't and this is on a different train of thought than sorry sweetie)

http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=74521

Ha, nice pic "medusa" finally figured you'd just go with it huh:)

[]v[edusa]

Thought this might help ( if it doesn't and this is on a different train of thought than sorry sweetie)

http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=74521

Ha, nice pic "medusa" finally figured you'd just go with it huh:)

That was only a thought that I had that someone else on the forums thought was good enough to post on the forums. I was never the biggest on it. I change my mind constantly on here. Just forget about it.

[Maz46&2]

This is long, but you really can’t expect Tool song explanations to be short and simple.

First I’ll talk about Intermission. Intermission is very cheerful. Some people, like myself, like to dance to that song. It’s a song that makes me feel like a little kid again.

But then, jimmy starts playing and it starts to sound a lot more serious and I no longer have that kid like feeling anymore. I believe Tool added Intermission to the album for a few reasons:

1) A joke, a break, an intermission in the middle of the album. It’s a time for you to take a break from the adult like seriousness in life and be more joyous like you were when you were a child.

2) It’s the intro to jimmy, but why??

Let’s start with the name of the song, “jimmy”. Obviously Maynards real name is Jimmy (James). In this song the “j” is lower cased referring that it’s more then about him, but him as a child or better yet, his inner child (divine child).

Maynard said that jimmy was a sequel to Prison Sex, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7H0l8zW1tw, so hear out what Prison Sex is about. Here is my view on Prison Sex http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?p=1867526. Mainly, “I think the over all message [of Prison Sex] is to notice that whatever abuse you did get as a child wasn’t your fault and that you should realize the damage that was done to your inner child before you become like the abuser.” We now know that Prison Sex is about realizing the damaged inner child. With that in mind, here’s my view on jimmy and its connection with Prison Sex:

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

The face of stability I think is referring to his inner child or the divine child. When we were kids fooling around and playing with a lot of imagination, our inner child was completely alive and present. Your entire world changes once the inner child is scarred, neglected, or ignored from growing up. It is then sitting inside trapped. If the inner child is wounded from abuse then everything seems 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 home.

You can look at this in a few different ways but mainly he was eleven when his mother got paralyzed. This means that he must become more responsible and grown up. Not only did his inner child get wounded but it also could have gotten “neglected”. He then loses his connection with his true inner child. So now the inner child is inside just waiting for Maynard to free him again. Home is a place that you feel most comfortable being around, what better place then a place that exists within yourself and brings you to discovering your true self. I think the inner child sits in this home.

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

I think at this point in the song certain things were reminding him of the inner child or were bringing back memories. Possibly the good memories before he got scarred from abuse.

He was too scarred to realize
You were the voice that’s been calling me back home.

He’s talking about the wounded [inner] child part of him now. The inner child is calling to him to connect once again, fix the wounds.

Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering [wandering?]...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
Eleven I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.

Maynard lost touch with his inner child when the inner child got scarred from child abuse. This is probably why he says “dead ohio sky”, as in the atmosphere, when he was a child in Ohio, wasn’t really “Pleasant Ville” like. So the inner child has been waiting for himself to be awakened again. When Maynard left his childhood into adulthood with the wounded inner child, he was sleeping as in he lost the connection with the inner child, his true self. He now notices the inner child again and is working on heading back home by fixing the scars left on the inner child.

(I wish that I could see you
Turn and run to play
Dreams are fading
Carry my ancient soul
Carry me into the light)?
Hold your light, eleven,
lead me through each fatal memory,
hold your light where I can see

He wants the inner child back and running. He hopes to get over those horrible memories of the past that scarred his life. He’s asking eleven to hold the “light” its giving off so that he can work through all the wounds to head home.

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

The inner child can guild and help. So eleven’s helping him get through his wounds and through other things to cure the self. He’s starting to remember, inch by inch, the inner child, his true self.

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

Well…. He has the desire to heal himself so that one day eleven and him will reunite.

Hold your light,
Eleven. Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory
'till one and one are one, eleven,
So glow, child, glow.

I seriously think he’s saying one eleven as in 111. Maynard talks about 46 and 2 earlier on the album. 46 and 2 is the third level of consciousness. Since 11 consists of 2 ones it can be associated with duality just like the 3 1’s in 111 can be associated with the next unity consciousness, the 3rd reality. So he hopes that 11 will evolve into 111 and they are united. Whether it is 1 and 1 are 1... 11 or 1 and 1 (11) are 111, he still has hopes of him and his inner child reuniting.

I'm heading back home.

In Prison Sex, he noticed the wounds of the inner child, he saw what the problem was and in jimmy he is trying to get through all the wounds so that he could head back home and find the inner child that he lost through abuse. This is a message for us to notice the scarred inner child and work our way back home.

… Be like a child while listening to this album… to any Tool album really.

EDIT: minor error.


This is one of the best laid out interpretations I've seen for this song. You took a lot of time and thought hard about this and I think you hit the nail on the head.

[]v[edusa]

This is one of the best laid out interpretations I've seen for this song. You took a lot of time and thought hard about this and I think you hit the nail on the head.

I'm glad you can see it.

I never really think too hard. I guessed a while ago that the song was about his inner child, but when I found out that it was sequel to Prison Sex; the two songs folded together. I worked this out with someone else too. It always takes me longer to type it out, I dont care though. I like making essays on their music.

Just try not to believe everything I say because I make mistakes like everyone else.

[Eight]

That was only a thought that I had that someone else on the forums thought was good enough to post on the forums. I was never the biggest on it. I change my mind constantly on here. Just forget about it.
I can do that, just wondered. The current thread makes more sense I think anyway.
A lot easier to understand.

[tonedeftool]

Thanks for the full post! Your hint on the other thread gave me the basic picture but you've laid it out nicely here.

[]v[edusa]

Thanks for the full post! Your hint on the other thread gave me the basic picture but you've laid it out nicely here.

Awesome.

I sure hope people are understanding what I'm trying to say for Prison Sex. I found that out of all the interpretations I made that Prison Sex was the hardest to put into words so that others would not get lost or mixed up trying to understand.

[weesper]

We think along the same lines when it comes to jimmy. However, as a follow-up to Prison Sex I would in fact pick Pushit since that song really deals with the fear of doing onto others what has been done to me/you - 'staring down that hole AGAIN, hands are on my back AGAIN' - and specifically how with the birth of his son (I dislike writing his name here on the forum since I really think it's not our territory) all those feelings resurfaced that had seemingly been put to rest so long ago (see the long interlude in Pushit). See also the crying newborn after Pushit. Still, your interpretation of jimmy is I think damn close to the core of it all.

[weesper]

I just noticed how the last post was my 111th post ... on jimmy!

Damn you MJK for screwing with my little solipsistic universe

[]v[edusa]

We think along the same lines when it comes to jimmy. However, as a follow-up to Prison Sex I would in fact pick Pushit since that song really deals with the fear of doing onto others what has been done to me/you - 'staring down that hole AGAIN, hands are on my back AGAIN' - and specifically how with the birth of his son (I dislike writing his name here on the forum since I really think it's not our territory) all those feelings resurfaced that had seemingly been put to rest so long ago (see the long interlude in Pushit). See also the crying newborn after Pushit. Still, your interpretation of jimmy is I think damn close to the core of it all.

I think the baby crying may refer to his inner child. I also think "choke this infant here before me" is referring to his inner child as well. Maynard already said that jimmy was a sequel to prison sex. The birth of his son is reminding him of his own inner child as well.

I don't really see a connection with prison sex to pushit. The gap in pushit is, what i believe, the bottom or even a place where his false ego takes over. Hes been in that place before so thats why he says "again". He is in a better and higher place now and he doesn't want to go back into that gap. Actually I think I really can say it now that I'm pretty sure what pushit means: pushit is about people he knows and/or his fans pushing him into the gap and causing him to lose patience. If Tool slips into the gap then tool and tools fans would disappear. People would start to lose respect for the band.

I noticed that the first night (for this tour) in San Diego Maynard was getting really pissed off because of how rude some of the fans were. He wasnt singing his best and started slipping into the gap. So the next night in San Diego Maynard said, "Anyone here from LA? Well this is san di-fucken-ego, hope you left your egos at home, no VIPS here!" and then he played pushit and had a much better night, I think Tool played it to remind themselves that the gap isnt where they want to be and to dedicate the song to the rude fans from the other night.

[hobbitcore]

I don't think it's a sequel per se...Maynard says Prison Sex is about recognizing the cycles of abuse and the next step is something something and that's what Jimmy is about...they're connected but to call it a sequel is too black and white, I think.

[weesper]

I think the baby crying may refer to his inner child. I also think "choke this infant here before me" is referring to his inner child as well. Maynard already said that jimmy was a sequel to prison sex. The birth of his son is reminding him of his own inner child as well. etc etc.

Hfffmmm sigh... It took me a while to gather the energy to reply to your post. As always I lay no claim to the true intention of MJK, but to call this song -so central to Tool's output- a message to his fans...

As I've said in this thread previously, in my opinion this song is about the abuse that MJK suffered from.

The song begings with those weird sounds from string instruments (celli?). I see this as an emulation of the sound of flies buzzing around a pile of shit. Before the song begins we are clearly warned of what is to come; we will see the shit up-close, so close to our face that we can hear the flies buzzing around it.

It is a well-known fact that many perpetrators of child abuse dehumanize their subjects by treating them as objects (urinating on the victim's hands, making them play with faeces or otherwise - it has been said that the cum shot in pornography is an extension of this same 'urge'). This is why the central lyric is 'put shit on me' . You may not like to admit this little wordplay since it doesnt sound all too poetic or friendly but I checked the dictionary and it doesnt list pushit as a verb.

Next, the song's architecture. It is characterized by a relatively slow beginning in which we are introduced to a narrator's (1 or more?) feelings, a long interlude and then the agrressive end. Again, in my opinion, the beginning signifies his childhood and the emotions attached, the interlude his time away from home and then the end the birth of his son when all these feelings suddenly creep up again that had laid burried for so many years.

Now listen to it. Imagine coming so close that you can smell the shit and hear those flies buzzing, how long have you been looking at it?

Next a narrator comes in. But are there 1 or 2 narrators?

I will choke until I swallow...
Choke this infant here before me.

Clearly there must be 2!

If that's the case then we must decide who says what in this play:

The first line is the victim's outcry, the next lines are the abuser's

Choke this infant here before me.
What is this but my reflection?
Who am I to judge and strike you down?

Apparently the person choking is really close to - 'the reflection' - of the abuser.

Victim's of child abuse invest a great deal of time in the why? question. This why question is very apparent next:

But you're
Pushing and shoving me.
You still love me and you pushit on me.

'How can you love me and put shit on me' to put it bluntly... Still, I have to be even more graphic. The victim near chokes because he's being pushed and shoved, apparently he has trouble breathing and there is something in his mouth 'and he will choke until he .... swallows'. I think you get the message..

Slipping back into the gap again.
I'm alive when you're touching me,
Alive when you're shoving me down.

The gap is central to the song. What is the gap and more importantly, whats on the other side? Again many victims, have foudn they cope with the abuse by slipping into another state of mind. One of the problems attached is that this compounds the feelings of shame and guilt ('it's my own mistake, I took part in it').

Put me somewhere I don't wanna be.
Seeing someplace I don't wanna see.
Never wanna see that place again.

It;s clear that that place that the victim traveled to by crawling through the gap is a place where he decides at some point never to return to (if you still think it represents his inner child..., nothing could be a bigger perversion of this metaphor).

Next we have th long interlude. The victim builds his own life, moves away from home, has relationships and learns to cope with those feelings of shame and guilt always knowing that somewhere that gap and the pile of shit on the other side is there, yet you're thinking 'it's done, it's my own private hell and I'll never ever visit it again'.

All of a sudden that lull is interrupted. Something happens that makes him slip back into that gap, back to that place something that reminds him of what happened maybe twenty years ago.

Saw that gap again today
As you were begging me to stay.
Managed to push myself away,
And you, as well.

From the cynicism here it is clear that by coping with the feelings that reemerged the narrator not only struggles not to slip back into the gap but in doing so also estranges the person next to him whom he has apparently confided in what the gap means to him.

If, when I say I may fade like a sigh if I stay,
You minimize my movement anyway,
I must persuade you another way.

The narrator is now trapped in his own web of emotions and the person standing next to him (his wife or girlfriend) clearly limits his options for going one way or the other.

There's no love in fear.

Well, there you have it. The victim cannot love the abuser because all there is is fear and likewise the narrator now fears that in what is to come there will be so much fear of his own 'inadequacy' reemerging ('do unto others what has been done to me') he is afraid that showing affection will be difficult or impossible if there is so much fear.

Staring down the hole again.
Hands upon my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.

Now try and imagine this; it is the metaphor of which the former victim of child abuse finds himself in many years later on, again in that same position (years previously on his knees, choking on something, with his hands on his back) and now by analogy in the same position because 'the events' have put him there.

Just remember I will always love you,
Even as I tear your fucking throat away.
But it will end no other way.

This comes down to the most honest explanation of the narrator's fears. Even though he loves the person so dearly, because of all the feelings reemerging and the fear of 'doing onto others what has been done to me' the cycle would continue and the victim becomes abuser out of inadequacy to show affection any other way. Affection towards whom?, well that becomes clear in the next track of course...

[]v[edusa]

*sighs back*


Maynard already said that jimmy was a sequel to prison sex.....pushit is about people he knows and/or his fans pushing him into the gap and causing him to lose patience.

Sure you can connect it to pushit, you can also connect it to H. too if you want to. I made this thread because Maynard did say that jimmy was a sequel to prison sex.

If you want to talk about pushit then please make a thread about it.