Music - Tool Song - Jambi Album - 10,000 Days Video excerpts - The Separation Directed by - Robert Morgan Redirected by - Morgan Routt "The Separation" Can be found on the Small Gauge Trauma DVD. -Jambi I absolutely love this song, and I think I understand the meaning pretty well. The first verse is basically just saying that he's had a good life. King's mountain view, wild dream come true, treasures of flesh never few. He's saying he lives a good life, at least with respect to material possesions. Then he says he'd give it all up to stay with "you". The next verse says "the devil and his had me down". This is trying to say that he got tied up in the "dark side", or that his life had gotten on a track that he wasn't proud of. He says that "you" changed that all for him. Saying that this "you" got him back on the right track, meaning his mother? The third verse seems to be about him "praying" and "begging" to get out of the mess he was in. "Tempted the devil with my song, and got what I wanted all along." It seems like he's saying he found a way out, or maybe that he found happiness (what he wanted all along, though in different forms?), Then he says what I think is the most important line in the whole song, "Dim my eyes if they should compromise or fulcrum want and need. If I need this I might as well be gone." With the first sentence, he's saying he wants to "dim his eyes" if they cause him to "compromise or fulcrum want and need". Basically, he's saying that there's a balance between want and need, and if his eyes (greed) unbalance them, he wants to ignore them to help him stay on track. Then he says "If I need this I might as well be gone." I think he means that if the material possesions become what he needs (instead of "you") then there's no point in living anymore. "Silence legion, save your poison. Silence legion, stay out of my way." Basically, I think he's speaking to the devil and demons saying that he doesn't need them anymore because he's found what's really important to him. The whole song seems to be about being willing to give up all possessions to keep what's really important near you. In this case, I think it's his mother, though that's really up for interpretation as it doesn't seem to be clearly stated. -The Separation This is the haunting story of two people who had a very close relationship, as in they were conjoined twins. In the beginning you see how content the two are almost complete. Then the operation seperates the two, crippling one of them in more than one way. The two feel so empty inside. They make toy dolls and on accident one of the twins sews two of them together and recalls a familiar scene, and disturbingly get's an idea to fix what haunts the two for good, to feel whole again. They create the machine and the machine does nothing but destroy further what they had lost. Now left in a mangled mess the two seem to await the day that they can return to one. I thought that the video told a symbolic story version of the song Jambi and interpreted what I believe to be the meaning behind the songs lyric's I think they went together rather beautifly... -Morgasmo