In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
What was it like to see
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?
Eleven and she was gone
Eleven is when we waved good-bye
Eleven is standing still (waiting for me)
Waiting for me to free him
By coming home
Moving me with a sound
Opening me within a gesture
Drawing me down and in (showing me where it all began)
Showing me where it all began
Eleven
He was too scarred to realize
You were the voice that's been calling me back home
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, I'm
So glad that I have found you
I am wide awake and heading home
I wish that I could see you
Turn and run to play
Dreams are fading
Carry my ancient soul, carry me into the light
Aim your body heavenly
Enduring a memory
I'll come to your light
Hold your light
Hold your light where I can see it
High
Hold your light, eleven
Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory
I'll move to heal
As soon as pain allows so we can
Reunite and both move on together
Hold your light, eleven
Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory until
One and one are one, eleven
So glow, child, glow
I'm heading back home
The face of your own stability
Suddenly look away
Leaving you with the dead and hopeless?
Eleven and she was gone
Eleven is when we waved good-bye
Eleven is standing still (waiting for me)
Waiting for me to free him
By coming home
Moving me with a sound
Opening me within a gesture
Drawing me down and in (showing me where it all began)
Showing me where it all began
Eleven
He was too scarred to realize
You were the voice that's been calling me back home
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, I'm
So glad that I have found you
I am wide awake and heading home
I wish that I could see you
Turn and run to play
Dreams are fading
Carry my ancient soul, carry me into the light
Aim your body heavenly
Enduring a memory
I'll come to your light
Hold your light
Hold your light where I can see it
High
Hold your light, eleven
Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory
I'll move to heal
As soon as pain allows so we can
Reunite and both move on together
Hold your light, eleven
Lead me through each gentle step by step
By inch by loaded memory until
One and one are one, eleven
So glow, child, glow
I'm heading back home
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can't put any truth to it specifically but the feeling i get from the lyrics over tools whole discography is a general darkness and anger to begin with in undertow and opiate with a sense of tension between anger and happiness and an overwhelming feeling of being lost while having such strong direction. lateralus has more of a feel of realisation of contradictions, prime example grudge - whoever's right or wrong holding a grudge helps no one... aenima feels like the flushing out of the darkness within. realising lack of self control and desensitising just leads to wanting more(stinkfist) hating the martyr within (eulogy), stepping thru shadows(46 and 2)- this all makes me think of one realising he's missed seeing the world in a way he used to before he started being so hateful and cynical towards the world. so when i here the song to me it's about being in a state of confusion about the misdirection of ones life philosophies and wanting to reconnect with the view held as a child, that part of yourself was always there holding a light that you denied and he's wanting you to return, now i'm heading 'home' to my own self that i've ignored and repressed for so long, reconnecting, one and one is one, eleven... i don't know maynards life story but my interpretation of jimmy agrees with my own so that's what i think of when i listen to it, but i wasn't 11 so i think of 11 being two halves of a whole number, one and one can be one together in eleven...