"Right in Two" as written by Daniel Carey, Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones and Maynard James Keenan....
Angels on the sideline
Puzzled and amused
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused
Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys
Where there's one you're bound to divide it
Right in two
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 pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys give them thumbs
They forge a blade, and where there's one they're bound to divide it
Right in two
Right in two
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys give them thumbs, they make a club
And beat their brother down
How they survive so misguided is a mystery
Repugnant is a Creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky and
Fight over life, over blood, over air and light
Over love, over sun, over another
Fight for the time, for the one, for the rise and
Angels on the sideline again
Been so long with patience and reason
Angels on the sideline again
Wondering when this tug of war will end
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Right in two
Right in two
Puzzled and amused
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused
Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys
Where there's one you're bound to divide it
Right in two
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 pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys give them thumbs
They forge a blade, and where there's one they're bound to divide it
Right in two
Right in two
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys give them thumbs, they make a club
And beat their brother down
How they survive so misguided is a mystery
Repugnant is a Creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky and
Fight over life, over blood, over air and light
Over love, over sun, over another
Fight for the time, for the one, for the rise and
Angels on the sideline again
Been so long with patience and reason
Angels on the sideline again
Wondering when this tug of war will end
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Cut and divide it all right in two
Right in two
Right in two
Lyrics submitted by Modus Ponens
"Right in Two" as written by Daniel Carey Adam Jones
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The sound begins with sticks drumming. Imagine mankind in its infancy and small groups of men battling. As the drums beat faster around 4:40 we are now in an age of larger tribes warring. At 5:24 mankind has progressed into full on organized warfare. The sound here is heavier, more complex. The guitar screeching at 6:02-6:04 transitions to a new era of battle music. The guitar is the sound of a new battle cry, more aggressive and dangerous. The sound from here on out is more industrial, the drums hit harder like artillery rounds. The guitars scream like assault rifles. At 6:45 is another transition. The industrial war machine now marches forward melodically, with calculated moves, set out to destroy everything in its path.
Anyways, that's my interpretation of the sound and I'm sticking to it. The sound from 4:00 minutes out progresses from monkeys marching to the sound of sticks hitting coconuts to the sounds of the industrial war machine of today. Tool is a band that speaks with more than just it's lyrics.
I actually imagine the beginning (around 4:00) is the rising of tension, that existed before humans started using violence as a resource. Then the first human killed his brother over some superfluous reason.
Now this becomes a way of solving things, and pretty soon everyone's fighting over everything and nothing (Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky and fight over life, over blood, over air and light, over love, over sun, over another).
And after these lines, when the song is really exploding, is probably where we just started using violence as a first resource, without thinking logically about the best solution for any problem.
And all this time Angels right beside us have had no other option but to wait on the sidelines, for the stupid mindless violence to end (which will probably never happen), unable to act.
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to live tonight in heaven,
conscious of his fleeting time here."
Seriously, how beautiful and poignant is that.
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to
lift a light to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.
Basically I interpret this as giving acknowledgment to our creator.
By attaching ourselves to stupid mundane things invented by us with no use whatsoever, we have blinded ourselves and forgot that this planet already provides us with everything we will ever need.
Yet we still fight and destroy each other for the most ridiculous things.
'Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys,'
We have everything we need here, and there's note than enough for everyone.
'Squander the abilityLifting an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here'
I think this means that we have so little time here and we don't even thoroughly enjoy it because we focus and want the wrong things. If we opened our eyes (or maybe just the third one) we would see the Paradise that has been given to us, and accept it as a blessing.
By attaching ourselves to stupid mundane things invented by us with no use whatsoever, we have blinded ourselves and forgot that this planet already provides us with everything we will ever need.
Yet we still fight and destroy each other for the most ridiculous things.
'Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys,'
We have everything we need here, and there's more than enough for everyone.
'Squander the abilityLifting an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here'
I think this means that we have so little time here and we don't even thoroughly enjoy it because we focus and want the wrong things. If we opened our eyes (or maybe just the third one) we would see the Paradise that has been given to us, and accept it as a blessing.
"Repugnant is a Creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here"
But could also look at it more simply as Positive, and negative. Concsiousness is pushing in the positive direction, while The species going towards to unconcsious is getting into the negative side. Splitting the two in two can be very important for spiritual growth. As positive surroundings and atmosphere is what helps growth while negative is what slows it down.
King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live is holding court.
The case is that of a child, and two women claim to be the mother, each saying that the child of the other died in the night, and her own live child was stolen.
The king said bring a sword, and orders that the living child be 'cut in two', and half be given to each woman.
The real mom immediately gives up her claim, willing to give up her child rather than see it killed. Fake mom says, sure, this seems a fair settlement. Solomon then correctly awards custody to the rightful mother.
We silly monkeys are like fake Mom, fighting to the bitter end, willing to divide things in two, destroying them in the process, in the interest of 'fairness', but without regard for the end result.
This seems a departure for Tool, using the bible with out sarcasm, but the song is about human nature, not biblical truth. In this case, the story from the bible happens to fit perfectly.
The first 15 minutes of the movie takes place at the "Dawn of Mankind" - there are two packs of primitive humanoid apes (apparently representing our ancestors). One pack of apes is drinking at a watering hole, and then the other pack invades their territory and scares the first pack away.
Later on, the first pack of apes (the one that had been evicted from their own watering hole) encounter a strange black monolith that had suddenly appeared in the middle of their den. After being frightened at first, they all reach out an touch the smooth black monolith.
Afterwards, the first pack of apes is suddenly gifted with the curiosity of technology, and one of the apes discovers that he can use animal bones as a club to fight off the second pack of apes. Him and his posse all arm themselves with femurs from some dead animal, and proceed to beat the shit out of one of the rival apes. In doing so, they scare off the second pack of apes, and win back their watering hole.
There is no real explanation of the mysterious 'black monolith' throughout the movie, but perhaps it is merely symbolic of "technology", or simply a metaphor for the concept of a "Tool". Its presence in the minds of the apes caused them to begin thinking abstractly, such that they were able to develop their own tools.
Angels on the sideline - Angels are sent here on earth to be our protectors and do help us along the path of righteousness. They sit there watching over us until they are called upon to do God's bidding. This is what they are thinking: They are puzzled because "Father" (God) gave his children ("humans") the right to choose what to do. They are amused because they are wondering what we will do with this newly given right. They humans dont actually know what to do with it yet because they just have recieved it. I think this is also referring to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were made, and, therefore, humanity was created. God makes no mistakes so He has given them all they could ever want. But despite that fact, the greed in all of us comes out when we don't choose to do the right thing (what is correct in God's eyes). He now blesses humans with reason. He gives them the power to decide what to do, making us above every other living thing placed on this earth. The angels are baffled and confused because they are reaching this rediculous idea of fighting and killing each other over peices of land (because of greed). The angels are still confused at the fact that when God gives humans working hands, they create weapons to cause pain and suffering to other humans over stupid things.
Now from a more deeper and meaninful experience, Maynard obviously wants us to dig deeper into his lyris and find more meaning to his songs. I will attempt to make a stab at it, and probably fail miserably...
God places things here on earth for our pleasure and to pass the time until he welcomes us into the gates of heaven. Now, part of the deal is that we have to accept him as our creator, and as our father, and spread his teachings and wisdom with the world. These material things that he gives us wasn't meant to make us jealous and want us to fight over them, but to use them as intended: live with what you have to have and give up what you don't need for God. (if you're looking for that in the bible, peter is a good example) But we can't take these things into heaven, the greatest place, an intangeable object to our minds (unless we reach 46 & 2 of course!). We have to learn to live with each other and not fight over things that matter but rather, embrace one another with love and respect because we all have something in common. We are all striving to make it into heaven and it can be easier to do that in unity with one another rather than fighting all the time over things that have no true value. Peace throughout the world is the greatest goal for the human race, and until every single person living on earth right now agrees and follows that, we will always have fighting and war.
Damn what a long post sorry about that I just had to get that out of my system. Hope someone agrees with me, if you don't, argue in a civilized manner and I'll respect you. Otherwise, dont say anything because all you"ll be doing is making yourself look like an idiot.
So it's the same religious thing in the eyes of the Wachowskis really...
This seems like a very verbatim and simple translation of the lyrical content, something I would hope most Tool fans could arrive at on their own. Plus, I lost you at "more deeper." Sorry.
Just my 2 cents.
I think Maynard is just calling all of us Primates in basic nature, but that we differ because we have “free will”, “reason”-ing skills, and thumbs. Which have lead to us being deviant in nature because “free will” makes us lose sight of what is necessary, “reason” makes us think that we NEED things that we don’t (and the ability to justify), and the thing that makes us different from Primates in physical nature (thumbs) leads to us building more efficient ways to hurt, harm and kill each other.
The combination will lead to us fighting over everything, until there is literally nothing left to fight over on this planet. Or the planet is divided by completely differing ideas of what “free will” and “reason” are given to us for.
With "Angels on the sideline again; Been so long with patience and reason; Angels on the sideline again; Wondering when this tug of war will end.” Basically saying that the righteous (Angels, being devout and in as high praise as he held his mother, see 10,000 days (Part 2)) will win, in the end. The “Primates” will destroy each other until they are all gone. Since, Angels are not allowed to interfere with free will and would interrupt our idea of reason.
"Fight over cloud over earth over sky
They fight Over love over blood over hell and light
Over love over sun over flood
They fight or they die over one for uprising!"
I agree that the song is essentially about the angels ridiculing man(monkeys) for fighting to claim everything which isn't theirs to begin with. The lyrics i've posted can add backing to the notion, ridiculing the causes people fight for to begin with. The last line really hooks me. They fight or they die over one for uprising. I can imagine the "one" being Jesus who caused an uprising and was crucified for the behaviour. And now these confused monkeys are fighting in the name of that one up-riser but are truly no better than the ones who had slain him.
Also, dividing/cutting in two can be seen as destroying something, sharing something, or creating something (Cells dividing in two.) So the division can be bad, good, or neutral. Just depends on how the monkeys choose to divide.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.
About the angels. I think the angels represent the human higher conscience. The referral to fighting over Jesus as an upriser is correct in my opinion and again testify to Maynards clever lyrics. It is the ultimate irony that we develop from fighting over land or earthly things to ultimately fight over how to interpret a historical figure. The ultimate hypocrisy. They are no better than the one who caused an uprising.