coming back to meaning
Greetings pop pickers!
I’m back.
To anyone who knows me from other times HELLO! To you current regulars who don’t have a clue who I am, may I humbly ask your permission to join back in the discussion a little? I used to live around these parts once upon a time! For anyone who I may have offended or antagonised in another life, I apologise. Can we start with a clean slate?
For those who care, I had to withdraw for a while, whilst I went through a lot of shit again. Today I’m strong, I’m safe I’m stable, and I’m happy.
Wasn’t it Obi Wan who said ‘If you strike me down, I shall just become more powerful than you can possibly imagine....’.
If I disappear again it will just be for a quiet life. I didn’t come back here to get into any fighting. a few names I would enjoy seeing again are exhale, cosmo, finsburyparkcarrots, blue rain......bound to be others.
Now guys, I do love popping by here from time to time and reading about the colourful poster collections; it makes me happy and cheerful. But what I want this thread to be about is getting back to the meaning, of the band, the significance of the music, to life, of what they mean to us and what they are about - of the deeper parts of pearl jam (and they run pretty damn deep).
I’m aware this is somewhat like Justin Timberlake trying to bring ‘sexy’ back
‘Yeah, thanks Justin, we appreciate your concern, but actually we were doing pretty fine with Sexy without your input mate.....’.
So if ‘meaning’ never left this forum then I apologise, I’ve never been able to find my way past the poster threads recently
Mods (hello guys, how you doing back there? still taking the flack I see!) I know you may well move this to the Words and Communication thread, but a) I wanted to make a little bit of an entrance through the front door - am happy to be shuffled quietly off into a back room like an embarrassing uncle in due course!, and b) don’t you think the first page is lacking a bit of gravity these days? After all this is not the Shania Twain forum is it? How bout keeping a spot on the front page for the more philosophical musings?
To cut to the chase here – I have been thinking quite a lot recently about the concept of ‘testifying’; to ‘testify’. It seems to have lots of elements, but principally it is about speaking out, and about truth; speaking out with truth. I admire the people who can do this, in fact you really notice it in the people who can testify in this way when the shit properly starts to hit the fan, when they are in danger, when they are terrified, threatened, under pressure to buckle. That is precisely when you need people to testify. As the fear mounts, and the screaming mounts, and all the ‘pragmatics’ kick in “yeah the truth is all very well, but if you say any more of that you are going to get us in a whole lot of crap!” (Bear with me guys, this is not ‘Pearl Jam related’ this is fucking Pearl Jam defined)
There is a video I have seen once (I believe). If it is exists, no doubt it is on youtube. Personally I’m not going to look for it. Seeing it once was distressing enough for me. I’ve come to realise you shouldn’t open every door in reach just because it is unlocked. Anyway, it is a German guy who was in a private Nazi trial / hearing / investigation, whatever, and I don’t know why it was filmed, but it certainly wasn’t designed for public viewing. In that room it was basically the SS investigators and a solitary German citizen, incarcerated, hidden, alone. They were asking him to denounce the Jews, to admit his guilt, to apologise, to deny what he had done, that kind of thing. The guy refused. They pointed out where taking this line was going to lead him, they spelt out the unimaginable suffering, torture, he was going to bring on himself if he went down that path. He refused to collude with them. He said what the Nazis were doing was wrong, that it was immoral, and that he would not lie about it. He testified. He just stood there terrified and trembling and spoke the truth. He knew what was going to follow from this. He had to say the truth out loud. Nobody was ever likely to hear it, but he drew strength from speaking out the truth itself. Maybe he had a God to witness him, I don’t know. It was utterly beyond suicidal to take this line, but he had to do it anyway.
This is something I admire in people. Maybe it’s because I’ve not always been able to do it. It is one of the main things I admire about Pearl Jam. Eddie has always done this, he’s done it consistently since I started watching him in 93. He calls it as he sees it, he speaks out, it may be an opinion, but it is the truth. He’s never wavered from this line, he’s not changed his direction or his mind.
It’s been contagious too. I’ve no doubt the guy would be a shit to get along with and work with (most tortured geniuses seem to be so), but you can see the band have come to respect that part of him implicitly, whilst they have managed to tone down some of his other qualities. I think Mike has got this now, his recent lyrics (inside job), his stuff with crohn’s..... ‘Ok it’s damn embarrassing, but this is the truth’. I’m going to stand here and quietly tell you the uncomfortable truth until the message gets through. This is actually the opposite of indifference, and that song is the band’s manifesto for this commitment to testify.
I think you can hear this really powerfully in Vedder’s earliest lyrics, and it is what makes those of us who are wincing with a lot of pain prick up our ears and tune in. ‘What did he just say? He just said something important there....who is this guy? rewind....’.
Now I’m not interested in what Eddie says his songs are about. In fact in my experience when an artist goes on record as saying a song is not about a particular thing it is often a strong indication that it is about exactly that (Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds?). Setting up smokescreens and mirrors is a good way of stopping people rip the spirit out of something by clinical dissection. What I am interested in is pulling out the meaning inherent in the words, and relating them to stuff I understand.
In footsteps I hear a lot of this quiet testifying. Clearly it describes something terrible being done to someone. There are ominous signs of what was done, but it is never spelled out. There are some markers though; footsteps in the hall - the sound of someone approaching? You ever noticed footsteps coming slowly down the hall? Only when you are scared of what they represent. Pictures on my chest -something left physically. Bruises? scars? something under the surface? That’s all I can think of (alternative interpretations which don’t quote eddie or Wikipedia most welcome!)
Regardless of what the footsteps bring, or brought, and it’s deliberately obscure. The singer is clear about who is to blame in this
It was you.
It wasn’t me, it was you. I didn’t do anything wrong, it was you.
It is tempting in life to keep seeking to forgive everybody, to appease, to pardon and to smooth over the cracks and leave everyone feeling comfortable. Vedder from day one refuses to do this. Later, he will forgive (can’t keep?), but first he’s just going to testify. There WAS someone to blame. It was you. There wasn’t a reason. It was you. I did what I had to do, but it was you who did wrong.
This is what sets footsteps, vedder and pearl jam apart, they are not afraid to testify uncomfortable truth. They are afraid, they are terrified, but they are not afraid of the truth. The truth they see is what gives them strength, and so they will speak it. Don’t expect that to ever change with this band.
Every time Pearl Jam take to the stage we get a masterclass in how to draw strength from authenticity and truth. There is no show, no act. They show that the strongest energy is not revenge but rising above fear by being true.
Thanks for listening, I would welcome any polite discussion of these themes.
Peace.
tremors
I’m back.
To anyone who knows me from other times HELLO! To you current regulars who don’t have a clue who I am, may I humbly ask your permission to join back in the discussion a little? I used to live around these parts once upon a time! For anyone who I may have offended or antagonised in another life, I apologise. Can we start with a clean slate?
For those who care, I had to withdraw for a while, whilst I went through a lot of shit again. Today I’m strong, I’m safe I’m stable, and I’m happy.
Wasn’t it Obi Wan who said ‘If you strike me down, I shall just become more powerful than you can possibly imagine....’.
If I disappear again it will just be for a quiet life. I didn’t come back here to get into any fighting. a few names I would enjoy seeing again are exhale, cosmo, finsburyparkcarrots, blue rain......bound to be others.
Now guys, I do love popping by here from time to time and reading about the colourful poster collections; it makes me happy and cheerful. But what I want this thread to be about is getting back to the meaning, of the band, the significance of the music, to life, of what they mean to us and what they are about - of the deeper parts of pearl jam (and they run pretty damn deep).
I’m aware this is somewhat like Justin Timberlake trying to bring ‘sexy’ back
‘Yeah, thanks Justin, we appreciate your concern, but actually we were doing pretty fine with Sexy without your input mate.....’.
So if ‘meaning’ never left this forum then I apologise, I’ve never been able to find my way past the poster threads recently
Mods (hello guys, how you doing back there? still taking the flack I see!) I know you may well move this to the Words and Communication thread, but a) I wanted to make a little bit of an entrance through the front door - am happy to be shuffled quietly off into a back room like an embarrassing uncle in due course!, and b) don’t you think the first page is lacking a bit of gravity these days? After all this is not the Shania Twain forum is it? How bout keeping a spot on the front page for the more philosophical musings?
To cut to the chase here – I have been thinking quite a lot recently about the concept of ‘testifying’; to ‘testify’. It seems to have lots of elements, but principally it is about speaking out, and about truth; speaking out with truth. I admire the people who can do this, in fact you really notice it in the people who can testify in this way when the shit properly starts to hit the fan, when they are in danger, when they are terrified, threatened, under pressure to buckle. That is precisely when you need people to testify. As the fear mounts, and the screaming mounts, and all the ‘pragmatics’ kick in “yeah the truth is all very well, but if you say any more of that you are going to get us in a whole lot of crap!” (Bear with me guys, this is not ‘Pearl Jam related’ this is fucking Pearl Jam defined)
There is a video I have seen once (I believe). If it is exists, no doubt it is on youtube. Personally I’m not going to look for it. Seeing it once was distressing enough for me. I’ve come to realise you shouldn’t open every door in reach just because it is unlocked. Anyway, it is a German guy who was in a private Nazi trial / hearing / investigation, whatever, and I don’t know why it was filmed, but it certainly wasn’t designed for public viewing. In that room it was basically the SS investigators and a solitary German citizen, incarcerated, hidden, alone. They were asking him to denounce the Jews, to admit his guilt, to apologise, to deny what he had done, that kind of thing. The guy refused. They pointed out where taking this line was going to lead him, they spelt out the unimaginable suffering, torture, he was going to bring on himself if he went down that path. He refused to collude with them. He said what the Nazis were doing was wrong, that it was immoral, and that he would not lie about it. He testified. He just stood there terrified and trembling and spoke the truth. He knew what was going to follow from this. He had to say the truth out loud. Nobody was ever likely to hear it, but he drew strength from speaking out the truth itself. Maybe he had a God to witness him, I don’t know. It was utterly beyond suicidal to take this line, but he had to do it anyway.
This is something I admire in people. Maybe it’s because I’ve not always been able to do it. It is one of the main things I admire about Pearl Jam. Eddie has always done this, he’s done it consistently since I started watching him in 93. He calls it as he sees it, he speaks out, it may be an opinion, but it is the truth. He’s never wavered from this line, he’s not changed his direction or his mind.
It’s been contagious too. I’ve no doubt the guy would be a shit to get along with and work with (most tortured geniuses seem to be so), but you can see the band have come to respect that part of him implicitly, whilst they have managed to tone down some of his other qualities. I think Mike has got this now, his recent lyrics (inside job), his stuff with crohn’s..... ‘Ok it’s damn embarrassing, but this is the truth’. I’m going to stand here and quietly tell you the uncomfortable truth until the message gets through. This is actually the opposite of indifference, and that song is the band’s manifesto for this commitment to testify.
I think you can hear this really powerfully in Vedder’s earliest lyrics, and it is what makes those of us who are wincing with a lot of pain prick up our ears and tune in. ‘What did he just say? He just said something important there....who is this guy? rewind....’.
Now I’m not interested in what Eddie says his songs are about. In fact in my experience when an artist goes on record as saying a song is not about a particular thing it is often a strong indication that it is about exactly that (Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds?). Setting up smokescreens and mirrors is a good way of stopping people rip the spirit out of something by clinical dissection. What I am interested in is pulling out the meaning inherent in the words, and relating them to stuff I understand.
In footsteps I hear a lot of this quiet testifying. Clearly it describes something terrible being done to someone. There are ominous signs of what was done, but it is never spelled out. There are some markers though; footsteps in the hall - the sound of someone approaching? You ever noticed footsteps coming slowly down the hall? Only when you are scared of what they represent. Pictures on my chest -something left physically. Bruises? scars? something under the surface? That’s all I can think of (alternative interpretations which don’t quote eddie or Wikipedia most welcome!)
Regardless of what the footsteps bring, or brought, and it’s deliberately obscure. The singer is clear about who is to blame in this
It was you.
It wasn’t me, it was you. I didn’t do anything wrong, it was you.
It is tempting in life to keep seeking to forgive everybody, to appease, to pardon and to smooth over the cracks and leave everyone feeling comfortable. Vedder from day one refuses to do this. Later, he will forgive (can’t keep?), but first he’s just going to testify. There WAS someone to blame. It was you. There wasn’t a reason. It was you. I did what I had to do, but it was you who did wrong.
This is what sets footsteps, vedder and pearl jam apart, they are not afraid to testify uncomfortable truth. They are afraid, they are terrified, but they are not afraid of the truth. The truth they see is what gives them strength, and so they will speak it. Don’t expect that to ever change with this band.
Every time Pearl Jam take to the stage we get a masterclass in how to draw strength from authenticity and truth. There is no show, no act. They show that the strongest energy is not revenge but rising above fear by being true.
Thanks for listening, I would welcome any polite discussion of these themes.
Peace.
tremors
Cancel my subscription to the Ressurection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
so, here i sit. first in line perhaps?? ive often thought a lot of pj songs would do well in high school english - debating meaning, and emotions that inspired the lyrics. its something i talk about a lot to both my own kids, and something i hope will instill in them the pleasure not just in music, but in words, and the whole feeling a song can conjure up. a feeling for you might be an entirely different feeling for me - and thats the fantastic thing. it speaks to us all as individuals, but also as a group
sooo ... footsteps. i dont often read what the song is about as written by the guys. not because im not interested in what they say, but because i like to think my own thing. (fatal for instance - just as ed says in the lostdogs liner - it will be forevermore playdoh to me now :roll: )
and footsteps ... yep, its always struck me as what i would call somewhat of a denial of feelings, of guilt, of responsibility. ive screwed up ... but hey, it was you ... im hurting myself ... but only because of you ... i need help but dont bother trying, because it was all you. and because of this im not even here anymore. im not home. ive lost touch. but it was you.
we all know someone like this probably, and unfortunetly ...
Am pleasantly surprised to receive a polite and thought-provoking response. Somewhat different from the tone of some of the responses I got in the latter days of my previous stint! (note to self: try not to satirise other people's presidents in a public place again! Might be easier to avoid that these days hopefully)
It looks like you are quite a mainstay of this board. I don't recognise your name from my time here, but I know a lot of people switched names when the board changed a few times. (I think I was most involved 2000-2003 ish.)
I agree with you, I think it's important for us to reflect on the impact of songs and words and art on each of us. As you say there is a lot of individual interpretation, and unique reactions. It's interesting though when a bunch of people (pearl jam fans etc) all have a similarly strong reaction to the songs, but maybe for entirely different reasons! I love trying to work out what we have in common. There must be some essence we all hear!
I love words and poems, but singing has the most powerful effect on me, I always tune in just on the passion and emotion in a voice, and end up trying to work out what lies behind the most thrilling moments in the singing (the words can give pointers). Over the years i have found that in most great singers the words and the voice combine into some single meaning. I mean Janis Joplin is pretty upset, whichever way you read her. If you think she's untroubled I would have to try and point out the signals I'm picking up, in the words in the voice, which tell me otherwise. Feeling her pain is hearing her music!
Eddie has always been a conundrum for me. Like I hear such terrible urgency in the voice of Red Mosquito, such utter pain in black that it makes me want to look deeper, and understand what lies behind that. Ultimately we can never know, and I concluded a while ago that this would be a fruitless investigation (I remember firing up the internet in 1994 and being genuinely shocked at how out of step my interpretations were with the consensus view of Pearl Jam!) The consensus helped me gain persepctive, but ultimately the conclusion I have taken from all this is that Pearl Jam and Eddie's songs are rarely dealing with an everyday issue. They are not just about normal relationships breakups and irritations. They are informed by a sense of unspeakable tragedy which is the common source of most of the early work (Up to Binaural?). This is how I understand those songs; that there is some consistent formative experience, issues and emotions which eddie is dealing with in the music. Quite what they are is his business.
Footsteps though: the way I have come to hear it goes a bit further than your interpretation: although normally, blaming someone continuously is a denial, given that almost all relationships are two-way; what my reading of footsteps has taught me is that sometimes there really is only ONE guilty party. It was you that did that, not me. I couldn't have done differently you could. If we have experienced a situation like that then, as I hear in this song, it is RIGHT to spell that out. It's like, whichever way I turn this round, you did this to ME. So let me just continue to blame you.
I can detect in that line that the blame may soften, but that ultimately this is a healthy stance to take if someone has abused you. Healing, softening, forgiveness, can come in their time, but first off, let's name this stuff, testify. I was forced to endure what I could not forgive. Truth comes before reconciliation.
Ok, will stop going off on one now. i know I'm unorthodox. I've learned a lot of fundamental principles from reflecting on eddie vedder's music though! Thanks for coming over to talk to me!
Pearl Jam songs, Powerful stuff, deserve respect. The important thing isn't really the meaning I guess, but the sincerity. Sometimes though listening to things from a different angle can unlock that essence. Did you know the drugs don't work by the verve is probably about the singer's father dying from cancer by the way? If not, listen again - the song changes!
Cya
tremors
Send my credentials to the house of detention
the verve .... i did know that. sometimes a bit of background opens doors, but sometimes you'd like the doors to lead to your own private world - albeit one that said band has written just for you
I sometimes find it hard to leave the evangelising out of what I say. Sorry. Putting it another way, just from my own emotions, which is after all what leads me to wanting to communicate the strong feeling - I watched the vid of the drugs don't work on youtube just after I posted that, and I had shivers up and down my spine for the whole song - was really moving. I had in mind he was addressing his father. When the song came out I actively disliked it, even though I enjoyed the rest of the album. I just clashed with the sentiment (as I believed it to be) about rave culture, or recreational drugs whatever. Not that I haven't been down that road myself, it's just that obscured my ability to tune in on the sincere emotion. I heard it as an entirely different thing, slightly frivolous.
I guess the reason I gave that as an example is to do with when something you already know changes entirely when attributing it a different meaning. I'm trying to think of other times when I've had that with songs.....oh, yeah, Beatles - when I heard Martha my dear was about his sheepdog! Before that I always thought it was quite rude- 'silly girl!' it immediately became more loving. The song 'Wires' by the band athlete is another good example - you've probably not heard it, British indie. Anyway, it's pretty surreal and obscure lyrics until you get the context that it is the singer describing being a new dad running through a hospital to get towards his prematurely born son.
Sounds a bit naff put like that; I guess drugs don't work and wires both start with a strong 'premise' that they don't want to spell out, but once you know it, it is like the key to hearing the emotion in that song. Maybe it's a way of disguising pain by the singer. I think some things are just too raw, painful, so we speak through a mask in order to get some distance, like looking at the eclipse through a mirror not directly.
Sorry, here I go again!
How about you? How old are your children? Do they take up all your time?
What first got you into Pearl Jam?
hehe, I'm slightly dizzy here in some cafe with pressure mounting for a big work report due tomorrow, so please excuse my bluntness!
t
Send my credentials to the house of detention
heh - is all cool - looks like im the only one talking back in this thread -
i got into pj right at the beginning, i was 19 in 91 and i fell in love basically from dot. my kids are 15 and 13 this year, and im a single working mum, so yea, time taken - but music is very very important in our lives and has been since they were born. the youngest has played guitar for the past 2 years, is now damned good and plays with a bunch of guys 30 upwards since no kids in town here can play at his level. but besides playing music he likes, he's now writing his own tunes ... makes my spine tingle to hear, but im sure all mums feel like that
I didn't pick up on PJ until the week before vs came out on vinyl (the week before the cd? I spat on cds in those days!!). I remember it perfectly cos it was like a rollercoaster of devouring ten one week then gratefully diving into vs the next. They pretty much saved my life those records. I can remember returning home at midnight one night and my head was spinning, like I was stunned; with heartbreak, desolation, horror. I can picture taking the needle and dropping it down on the record and hearing GO! scratch and scream out into the darkness. It was like instantly feeling both terribly alone and totally understood. I'm not sure the kids these days can hear that. I know it's different when you go through the back catalogue of an old band and everything is settled and labelled and static and known.
When the record is straight out the wrapper like a fresh delivery, some personal telegram with the ink still wet, and you hear 'I am fuel you are friends, we got the means to make amends, I'm lost I'm no guide, but I'm by your side....'; that's when you know you just met a guardian angel. I'm not sure I would have guessed back then that he would still be strong and still be speaking, but as others have fallen by the wayside I've not been the one to show surprise that Pearl Jam are intact!
Yeah, I think it's just you and me out here alone on the perimeter kid.
no wait.... I think I can here them coming out of the swamp, cool and slow with a back beat narrow and hard to master....!
I feel I want to tell you about growing up with my best friend who sounds quite like your youngest. Probably save it for another time. He would strip the paint off a guitar in a shop just to prove a point to the bad boys. We had a lot of fun over the years, backpacks, open roads, sun, infinite horizons. Now he works on computers in a bank.
Even the old folks could see he was born to play that guitar. I wish he'd never gained his humility and doubt! Wish I could tell him to risk it.
OK, now I'm getting deliberately sentimental. I finished my report, I'm going for a beer, the birds are still singing. Best wishes to you and the boys (or is the eldest a young woman?)
Thanks for talking. No idea if anyone else is alive. Maybe I should post a reply elsewhere!
hehe
tell me more
cya
t
Send my credentials to the house of detention
You don't know me, but i've been hanging around the board for a few years. (Even before 2004, but wasn't a member.) And I remember your post of you leaving due to some personal stuff. Let me first state that I'm glad you're back. Let me also say that this was one of the best posts I have seen or read in a long time. I like to debate lyrics. To me they can carry or break a song. And I think that Light Years, Given to Fly, Sleight of Hand, Parting Ways, Better Man, Indifference, In My Tree, Present Tense, Red Mosquito, Oceans, Release, I Got Id, Black, Wishlist and many others, especially Immortality, are poetic masterpieces. I think they transgressed (right word?) a bit on the last two records; too much of the same metaphores ("falling down"), not enough poetic variety or themes or trying to say too much in too little space (Parachutes) even though Severed Hand and Army Reserve are still very powerful. Mainly because I can see the links with the Gulf War. (Army Reserve from the perspective from an Army family, trying to survive. This song has a special meaning to me, because I knew many soldiers when I lived in the States. I met them in Army housing and saw how their families dealt with the insecurity and fear during the First Gulf War. Severed Hand because I see a direct link between the drug use in the song and the drugs that was used by soldiers during this war. Did you notice for example that when he sings about "home" in the end, it sounds as if a bomb drops. A very dark ending.)
I'm getting a bit off topic. All I was trying to say that I really enjoyed your analysis of Footsteps. And I concur. I had a similar interpretation of this song. I especially like the line "and if there is something you like to do, please let me continu to blame you..." There is so much anger, but also acceptance in this line.
In short, nice job, nice topic and in the name of everything that is good, welcome back.
Tony
Ps: I want to write more and get more indepth with the lyrics. But it's one in the morning here in Europe, on a weekday, I should go to bed.
i still remember the first time i saw pearl jam - in a little (big) group house in canberra - god knows what time in the am stumbling up the steps to the loungeroom ... tv on in the darkness with alive ... sat down and looked and thought who the hell is this band??? up till then id been a gnr, metallica, rhcp, skid row, etc devotee - and bamb!!!! i was hooked. went out the next day and bought ten - i remember looking in the liner at the fanclub addy, thinking 'who would send money all the way to america in an envelope!!! :roll: if i knew then what i knew now, huh. and unfortunately too, id decided cd's were the thing to get - so no pj vinyl for me. i still have heaps of old metallica and gnr rarities tho. id spend hours in our cities alternate record shop browsing, and looking at all the sleeves. the artwork got me in bigtime. if it looked cool id buy it vinyl, if i only wanted to hear the music it'd be tape, and then it'd die a savage death in the car
now - in my tree - when no code came out i fell in love all over again. i hadnt lost touch with pearl jam, or stopped loving them. but it was like renewing my vows, or seeing your baby born. it doesnt matter how many cd's go for a spin, or how much shuffle, no code is always the cd i come home to. i have the symbol in my avator tattood on the back of my neck, and when i die, no doubt it'll be a no code tune playing at my funeral.
in my tree - yea ive grown into another person. the things that meant something then are stupid now. my friends then have walked down different paths to me, and some still havent moved on at all. im still friends with them - but i feel, i dont know ... outside? not above them, but different to them. sometimes i feel like they, like no one at all, understands me ... but i can look at all of that and see it...
still have my 'inner sense' - the sense of my own being. and im at peace with it ... sometimes i am, anyway
thats what this song says to me ...
and you know, im still yet to hear it live in person!! every show except the one im at ... so this tour baby
my eldest is another boy btw - thinks he might be a primary teacher ... he thinks i act nothing like any of the other mums - which i think he likes - and loves music - but not interested in seeing any with me god forbid
(Hey Tony, thanks for your kind words, I don’t think I’ve had such a nice sentence said about me before – I’ve always wanted to be invoked in the name of everything that is good ! I’ll respond in a minute)
Zenith (what was your name on the ‘Binaural’ board? btw, I have a feeling our paths may have crossed) I hope what I write here doesn’t irritate you, given our previous discussion about the importance of keeping our own meanings in the music. I do tend to write in universals. All I can say is, take me with a pinch of salt – quite a lot of it is probably rubbish!
In my Tree - I can remember always straining to hear the later words in the song, mumbling amongst the thundering bass and drums, then finally getting hold of 'still got it!’, 'innocence!' and working backwards. This is one great example of how pearl jam songs can be genuinely therapeutic to listen to. Before this album I felt they often did this either by firing it straight up and dragging you through the eye of the storm, or by taking you right down to the depths and then up out the other side. Here though they start solid and high, but get higher and higher, lighter and lighter, shedding all the crap, the baggage, the connections; the music, the buildup, the words, the jettison, it’s perfect -it all comes together into a euphoric chant of defencelessness. At the heart of no code there is a vulnerability, a stripping off of all the armour, the defences, the resistance, the defiance and ending up, small, humble, open, innocent, unknowing.
The other song I love for just going through the therapy thing like this is In Hiding. Again the music and the words and the idea work together perfectly. We bolt the door, we close the curtains, we go down deep within ourselves, we surface, and then we triumphantly shout out the riddles of pain and rebellion, we go down again, we’re strong, even and especially in hiding. To hide, yet be bravest, that is a profound paradox.
When I properly listen to In My Tree I go through another process, it builds and builds and builds until the strongest position is admitting that actually you don't know half as fucking much as you thought you knew. subdued. you’re not such a big man and actually, being smaller, growing and learning as a child is ok.
I'm ok, you're ok, we're ok, it's ok. That is eddie's line. I've come across this idea in other settings but I feel you can hear this most strongly in the way eddie uses his voice.
This may sound conceited to people looking in who have pretty solid personalities, but what I hear with ed is an ongoing forgiveness of himself. This has always been so central to my reading of his voice that I just forgot he actually spells this out on this album - so I think I'm on the right lines here: 'or you can come to terms and realize you're the only one who cannot forgive yourself'. With Pearl Jam this is not just an intellectual understanding though. What's interesting about eddie's singing is he shows us how to do this through his voice, it is the softening at the crucial moment of anguish which can lead you into pathos, not rage – I’m more likely to well up than to smash things up here- release of pain through forgiveness, sympathy for one’s self - 'if I had known then.....you are who who you are......it seems that needlessly....' For me it’s the cadence in the voice that is the message in these lines even more than the words.
To be able to love oneself in the face of one’s darkest blemishes, that is surely a lifetimes struggle.
So for me, listening to in my tree is a reminder of how to connect back to the source of loving yourself, which is really the source of loving others, (as we learnt on track 1, album 1 children!)
To me no Code seems all about vulnerability, fragility, it sounds like a band who've stopped running, found somewhere safe; who were panting for breath, resting, now having a chance to take stock and reflect on what they’ve finally left behind. Here, strength is coming from being small and insignificant, one book amongst the many on the shelf, one cd on the rack.
A beautiful record.
OK, heads up - I know some people (other men?) will be feeling pretty nauseous at this point!! Don’t worry guys, I see this as the first of the two ‘yin’ pearl jam albums – ‘are you woman enough to be my man?’, the second being the criminally underrated riot act which I will write a robust defence of in due course. All I can say is dig a bit deeper and you may find I'm not only on an ego trip, but also just trying to share some basic facts.
Zenith, I wanted to talk about the first fan club single – about my ‘girl’ back then sending a letter to that address and receiving two singles in the post, one with ‘ev’ written in the corner. I realise this would be opening up a whole other part of the big sorry saga tho. She predated me with the band. I’ll have to ask her if she still has that record- We still speak (just!). I also wanted to mention the fact that I have no tattoos, but the point at which I made the choice to go one way or the other I knew it would be the no code symbol which would be my mark. So yes, It’s the tattoo I’ll never have!
However, this seemed like a good place to leave things
Tony, I’ll respond to your nice message later in the day, once I’ve had a chance to reflect.
cheers guys
tremors
ps, Zenith I believe you're gonna hear in my tree live in December......
Send my credentials to the house of detention
I'm afraid I've been landed with a whole host of unexpected work today! As a result I'm not able to reply to you as I would have liked. I love all those songs you mention, and I agree about the level of poetry on the last album. The last one and Binaural are my least favourite records.
Anyway, I would very much like to hear more of your thoughts on the lyrics. Severed Hand is a difficult one to read I feel, it is one of my favourites on the record.
I'd like to read more of your thoughts on any of those songs. Tell me about you and oceans, tell me your interpretation of Sleight of Hand! (I have some strange ideas on that one too!)
I'll read soon, and write more as I'm able.
Cya
t
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Hey Tremors,
I will do my best here to answer at least some of your questions. It's a bit late here in Europe while I write this, so I hope I don't mess up my English too bad, but I will give it a go.
I will leave Oceans and Sleight of Hand (one of my favorite songs btw) for a later date. Now I will concentrate on Severed Hand.
First of and more importantly I always tried to put this song in the context of the album. For selftitled is a very specific album in my opinion; it's the closest to a concept album they ever came. And not a concept album like Vitalogy, No Code, Yield and Binaural were; albums where philosophical themes tied the songs together. In Vitalogy the overt theme was (in my opinion at least) conformtism and how to liberate yourself from the chains and demands society puts on us; No Code eleborated on this theme; it tried to show logic - the code so to speak - of the confusing signals of everyday life (the so-called "No Code". Just think about the "all seeing eye" when you opened the album cover.) Yield was a natural follow up. This album was about surrendering and getting to terms with yourself and the world . Binaural was about death and rebirth and therefore their most philosophical album to date. Mind you, these are just my interpretations and they are not universal in any way. I could eloborate on each album, and tried to explain what I see, thematically. Vitalogy is in my opinion their absolute masterpiece. Riot Act left me at a loss. (But maybe you could help me on this one and I will help you with Binaural hehheh
Self titled it's not a concept album like those albums were. It's not a thematic album, but more an album build on a storyline, in the same way for example Tommy was. IMO ST is and was completly about the Gulf War and the many perceptions of this war. The perception of a soldier, the perception of a widow, the perception of an activist, the perception of a veteran etc. Like I stated in a previous post, this album could have been in essence a rock opera. (A bad idea but still.) When I listened to the song Life Wasted for example I hear the youthfull wish of the young to give meaning in their lives, when I listen to Come Back, I listen to the loss of a loved one. (I know that Ed Vedder stated this song was about Johnny Ramone; but what I try to do here is to put it in the context of the album.) The four last songs and the progression of these songs are therefore very interesting to me: Life Wasted Reprise has a much more sobering sound than the Life Wasted at the beginning of the album. It's like it's adult brother. It's still about seeking meaning and purpose in life, but now with more experience on its belt. Army Reserve is about the perception of war through the eyes of the loved ones left behind. Their fears. Their anguish. The absoloute certainty of what is going to happen. And the bitter realization that they only can be saved if the "loved one" saves himself. Than there is Come Back. A song about loss and grieve and dealing with this grieve, but not (yet) finding peace in it. Just the plain wish that this pain and loss will go away. That the loved one returns. That this is nothing but a bad dream. The last song ties it all up, it is in my opinion about overcoming grieve, finding a meaning ("let me run into the rain, to be a human light again") in the pain, or after the pain, and therefore coming back to the starting point of the album; finding a purpose, finding a meaning... A more adult meaning this time. The meaning of someone who knows what suffering is.
A life has been wasted, but knowledge has been gained....
To make it very clear; this is just my interpretation. It's not set in stone, it's just the way I perceive the album. The title therefore ST is not jus about going back to their music roots, but also returning to their firm political believes. And also to advocate bluntly against this war. (Did anybode ever notice how much advocado and advocates sounds alike?)
I once jokily stated that ST could have been a rock opera. For in my opinion it's a prisma of perceptions on war. It symbolises the start of the war - the naeive patriotsm to mean something, to do something with your life - and the ending when the reality of war kicks in, when people return in body bags.
It's in this light I place and contextualise Severed Hand. First take a look at the title. "Severed" means being seperated from. "Hand" symbolises something personal; a body part, an identity. In this sense the song title alone refers to being seperated from your former self. Or maybe even being seperated from family, sanity and daily life.
Let's now take a look at the progression in which the song on the album was placed. It wasn't placed as the first song - after the naieve cry of "meaning someting" - but much later on the album after the reality of war was (WWS and Comatose) already established. From my POV the song therefore is written from the perception of a soldier who is not jus loosing himself in drugs, but also in the reality of war.
Let's take a look at some lines:
Big man stands behind an open door
Said "Leave your lady on the cement floor"
This line immidiatly reminded me of the famous footage shown on CNN where some American soldiers were threatning and killing Iraqi citizens. (The imagery is very strong.) I'm not sure if Ed Vedder had this specifically in mind when he wrote these lines, but these lines point at the brutality of war, but also the brutality of what war brings out in ourselves. "Leave the lady on the cement floor" sounds threatening, agressive almost. It's not a question it's a demand. Demand made to a victim.
On the same time we have another narrative. The narrative of the war itself. The narrative that seduces the protagonist, makes the war more "bearable". "Got some kicks, want to take a ride?" And more importantly: "Take your pick, leave yourself behind." (Here we can start to see the seperation from the "self".) When I lived in the States I spoke to many veterans who had survived the Vietnam war. They told me that the drugabuse they did was a defense mechanism to deal and cope with the reality of war that they experienced, but also - and this is even scarier - with their own dark side. They had a very tough time accepting all the stuff that happened but also what they did themselves during the war.
This makes the next lines more important:
"tried to walk, found a severed hand"
"recognized it by the wedding band"
Could this be his own hand, realizing what he has become. (Metaphorically?) Or is this, like it has been stated, refferring to an article where a soldier recognized the hand of one of his dead comrades. The point is clear. This is the reality of war. The crude reality; you are severed from any normality. You can try to walk around it or ignore it, even push it away by drugs, but at some point the reality will break through it. The narrative of the drugs or war increases however: "it's okay" (a very important line btw, for it promises false safety) "do you want some more?" "You see dragons after three of four" (meaning complete invincibility).
And then the collapse comes. The true meaning of all the seductions and lies:
"like a tear in all we know. once dissolved we are free to grow" (my favourite line btw, stolen from Nietzsche) "What is human, what is more?" (Almost pleading, "what have I done?") "I'll answer this when I come home..." (And notice the guitar here, it sounds like a bomb dropping. It's an open ending, it's not sure how he will "come home". He could be the protagonist that returns in the songs Army Reserve and Come Back. He could return in a body bag.)
Like I said, this is just my interpretation. And I could add much more details in here. This is also btw my beef with this album. Even though I like the thought of fragmented storylines all tied together, I miss the personal reflection and introspection that coloured their previous albums. Like Ed Vedder stated in numerous articles and interviews, it was (and I'm paraphrasing) "good to tell stories again and that not all songs were personal". From a rock opera point of view this makes sense.
I like the introspective songs however.
This album is IMO more a storybook, a powerful storybook nonetheless, and not a philosophical and thematical album that VS, Vitalogy. No Code, Yield and Binaural were.
Now, this has become a very long mail. And I hope it's a bit comprehensible. (it's very late here now.) Like I stated before, it's just my interpretation. There are probably more interpretations, but that is what makes music IMO so good... It can be read in thousand different ways. Books can't. Poetry will.
I hope I answered your question.
Tony
Madrid '07 Munich '07 London '07
Camden '08 MSG I '08 MSG II '08 Hartford '08 Mansfield '08
Philly II '09 Philly III '09 Philly IV '09
Hartford '10 MSG I '10 MSG II '10
Made in America Fest Philly '12
I thought your account of the last album as a sequential concept album around war was very convincing. I will have a listen to it in that way. I agree with many of the points you make, and others opened up new ways of looking at the songs for me.
I think we are both looking at the songs in a similar way, as you would a set of poems or other great literature - where you have to assume that if things are collected and framed together, there are conscious and unconscious links and connections between them, which it makes sense to explore.
I liked the themes you identified in the major albums, and I can see a lot of them would ring true for me. Sounds like a lot of discussion to be had at some point! I always think shining different coloured lights on an object reveals different things about the object, the light, and the person with the torch! Whether there is some definitive colour which reveals all there is to know - god knows.
Your english is better than many of my fellow englishmen, and you're using concepts that I can understand and appreciate, so don't apologise!
On Binaural I would like to be convinced. I do like light years, nothing as it seems, of the girl, grievance sleight of hand and parting ways, so we're already doing better than most albums on the planet!! hehe I actively dislike some of the others tho and I can't listen to it as an 'album' (yet!).
Riot Act I know is one of the least popular albums, the weaker songs for me- you are, get right and half full change their sound depending on how far i'm in with the spirit of the rest of the album.
For me tho, this album is all about where eddie is at with his voice and emotions. I hear him carrying a sadness right to the edge. I picked this up in the voice of the build up (single) with 'down', but there are songs on riot act where I feel the singing is so raw and trembling (and unrefined & unpolished) that I imagine it being recorded in the middle of a black night where no other shelter or respite could be found. These are dark dark places. However it is also the most 'organic' album for me, finding hope, comfort, meaning, energy in nature, with the perspective of being part of the earth, and part of time. So it's very raw, but very connected to the universe. For me it is the most spiritual pearl jam album. I am Mine is pretty much a hymn in my eyes - riot act - staring through existential angst, tragedy and finding a connection to the whole. although some places are so dark even that isn't possible (no matter how cold the winter?....I smile but who am I kidding).
Cropduster is one of my favourite songs ever recorded. I find it anything but nihilistic, instead melancholy 'earthed', rooted, connected. For me the key to finding the value in riot act is in the voice, hearing how far out of the comfort zone it is, I feel he is almost overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death on this album. However, the yin side of that is we get a sense of the vibrancy of gloaming, the subtle shadows, the spark just beyond the veil, the hidden, the unseen, dusk, when you're this raw you can start to perceive what's on the other side.
For me the light on riot act is the last moments of dusk, so it there is a melancholy smoky beauty of decline in the vision surrounding the sadness.
OK, at this point I believe I will have confirmed the view amongst anyone reading who gauges I am completely off the dial! Whatever, it's just ideas. Thoughts like these never caused anyone much harm.
Cheers Tony, cheers ZWK51 (don't you think the internet needs to be slowed down a bit?!), cheers everyone.
Think I've made myself late for work again. damn that riot act. not a robust defence, more pointers to my treasure.
tremors
Send my credentials to the house of detention
yep ... they are 'coffee hit and hhhmmmm' posts
perhaps ... even tho its my fav, im starting to think im cursed with never hearing it ... 95 it didnt exist, 98 they didnt play it at sydney at all, 03 was a disaster life wise for me so i didnt get to any shows, and 06 again no sydney love, and at newcastle they played it at the soundcheck ....
this time, if i havent heard it by the last show ill be painting a sign ... and it'll be a typical zenith painting, so it'll stand out
i know a lot will always class yield as the best pj album, but no code for me was like a door opening. this is a band you love. this is a band you know. but hey look - theres more than one door down their hallway ... and look at the stories in this one
yin yang?? the line 'are you women enough to be my man' - to me thats equality. we stand as one. the next line - 'bandaged hand in hand' - an ancient marriage ritual was to bind the couples wrist for a period of time (a day?? not sure) but the point would be to make them realise the value of working as a team, as one. and thats also where we get the term 'tying the knot'.
'your one, your one, your one' being one ... not the one
incidentally - in my tree, building to the end - i assume you have heard both slow and fast versions?? which one do you like better.
i guess another song for me is given to fly - not just for the words, but live. everytime ive been in the crowd - that opening riff starts up, the start, and then - how do you explain it??? a wave came crashing!! fuck it sure does - straight thru the crowd - the energy on the floor in that song could light the arena for the rest of the show
or nothingman. a very personal song and an almost perfect example of feeling like a song is written exclusively for you. by someone that understands you. and that understanding and common feeling is something that makes things seem just a tiny bit easier perhaps.
regret ... what could be .... what now is - and from two perspectives i think. begining to hate someone you love, losing faith in them, the whole beautiful picture slipping away .... but still knowing what you could have had. And worse maybe, being the person that knows what youve thrown away. .... seeing it all crumble in front of you. the same theme runs thru parting ways - but perhaps more from the view of the partner who sees it clearly, and wishes they didnt - but they know they needs to make the decision to wake up and acknowledge what needs to be done. but still regret. And who hasn’t felt this huh? The fact that eddie writes so deeply about these things is more than likely a reason so many people identify with pearl jam’s music so strongly. And the reason we all (mostly
i dont post on the Binaural boards btw - only here, given to post, and lifewasted - and all as zenith
You're right I reckon if you go deep enough then everyone above you in all sorts of conflicting positions will be able to relate. Maybe Pearl jam just go closer to the source, so our multiple versions may be different variations of a common truth they've hit.
Your no code stuff is opening it up again for me. I'm getting back into that record currently. Yin / yang to me is the balance of complementary principles with differing dynamics uniting to form a whole. I guess it's equality like the equality of hot and cold! Anyway I won't go down that route.... the woman in the man thing for me is something about all genders needing a balance of both principles. I liked your one one one bit, to be whole, to be one, together. The song that comes to mind here is so clear it doesn't really need mentioning. I think I meant in my odd little world riot act, no code are yin outside, yang inside albums, whereas other albums are more yang exterior, interior yin. but I wouldn't get too hung up on this rubbish from me, as you can see by now I have some strange beliefs!!
The two songs which have been transformed most dramatically and forever for me from seeing them live have been given to fly and inside job. Exactly as you say, given to fly was like being hit by such a solid wave of intense pressure that I was winded for about 5 minutes whilst still trying to punch the air 'fuckers we still stand' the tides of the crowd at a PJ concert are phenomenal certainly. I never heard PJ as anything 'surfy' until I saw the way the guitars undulate the room like that! That song in a throng of people - the words with the power, I'm not sure I've felt such unity. And I've found it incredible to be in a room of 10,000 people all singing along to betterman. Even if only 20% of those people are recognising the same sentiment I am, that's thousands more tuning in on that feeling than in any other part of my life.
Given to fly on record was originally a bit thin and mediocre to me, with pretty good words. First time I heard it on the radio I instantly thought 'going to california guys, you're getting lazy...' (so I'm sympathetic to those that heard that!) These days all that is swept away by alternative experiences associations and meaning (especially following the live experience)
Inside Job at first appeared pretty non-eventful on the record. But Dublin 2006, opener, as soon as I heard the first guitar licks I knew I would be in tears by the time the first words came in. I could immediately see how fitting they were in that moment. Very very strange. Great beginning, & continued. Nowadays that song is one of my favourites in the catalogue and the thrills from the opening line remain.
I have only attended 4 shows, in 2000, 2006, 2007. There are reasons. Dublin was a pilgrimage worth making! I'm expecting to see more this year. By the Binaural board I meant the synergy board, pearljam.com when it had binaural logos. That's where I used to be most. There were some good folks, who I've heard sad things about on the airwaves sometimes since.
I have heard a lot of the shows you were at on various bootlegs! nice stuff. An older shop-bought aussie one I have has in my tree on I think (from memory). I always enjoyed the slow version, but to be honest for a while I overdosed on bootlegs to such an extent that I think I put myself off the music, I felt a bit sick, like some child left in the sweetshop. The 2000 euro botlegs I could probably talk about by name - Katowice, Milan, Hamburg, I gave them a lot of time. After that, and especially after the 2003 Japanese ones, I heard so many that they all blend into an indeterminate mass. I think I probably had a year out from Pearl Jam altogether last year as a result!
Anyway, a show, a studio album, a bootleg of a show you were at. That is pretty much all the hit I need now I think!
I better get back to listen to some music. It seems like a good time to be dusting off all the old heirlooms.
Cya
t
ps, I saw some of your pics on deviantart I think, very good! Will look for some more. Do they have colours too? I would like to see in my tree too. Why don't you start a petition for it to be a common fixture at EVERY show, every city, every country. Not sure Pearl Jam would recognise a compulsory setlist mind.....
Send my credentials to the house of detention
i do always enter the deep comps tho - ive got some acrylics all ready to go for the latest one.
live sounding better - reviewmirror sounded a bit bleh to me at first - like you said great words, but a repetitive, cumbersome sort of tune. live tho, its pumped up a notch, the tempo picks up, and its another one that just goes off.
ed's a storyteller. a minstrel from the olden days, who tells a tale with his words and his music, and entwines our hearts, our minds, our souls. in fact, back then, he prob would have been called a witch or a demon
and actually - compulsory setlists? the best thing aout the newcastle 06 show was its spontaneity - they'd just stand there in a little convergence, ed'd turn around with a grin and mumble, 'a little change of plan for you' and bamb - we'd be hit with leatherman, or down, or footsteps - 6th row in a tiny area, that show is quite possible the best night of my life - if i get more shows like that, ill be happy enough to take my chances on hearing in my tree ( although, who knows, the sign might get a comment )
and that folks, is all i gotta say for now
Wow, I think you hit Riot Act spot on. For the first time in years I start to see the complete picture and also see the importance of this album in the PJ catalogue. Meaning, that I start to see how they evolved, thematically that is, from the vibrant and rebellious Vitalogy all the way to Riot Act. (I start to wonder what is next. What will Backspacer bring?) Thank you for this. Now I have to listen to the album again
What convinced me the most were the following lines:
I always had a problem with the art work of Riot Act. The title screamed action, while the cover showed the opposite. Now I can see what they meant: this album is about vulnerability, true naked vulnerbality, a deep introspection in finding meaning, a "riot" from within. This also explains another critique I had with this album: the singing of Eddie Vedder. It always sounded mellowed down. Soft. Powerless. But I think you are right; he is using his voice as an instrument to show vulnerability.
I'm not completly convinced yet, for I'm a stubborn little ..., but you def. gave me a new angle to listen to this album. I'll let you know how I experienced it
It's up to me now to convince you or at least show you my interpretation of Binaural. I will do that in a few days. (I'm washed at work now and also waiting for a very big day - I'm going to be a dad soon, any day now really - so it may happen I don't respond immediatly.) But I will respond. Even if I have to drag this post from the sewage of the pit.
You're right: PJ music is open for multiple interpretations. It is all in there and all these songs are consciencly and subconsciencly linked. I do believe that PJ put a lot of thoughts in their albums. They are not just writing hit machines. They have a message.
Anyway, thank you for opening this door to Riot Act for me. I will try to listen to with different ears and will let you know the outcome.
Yours,
Tony
The thing about riot act is, and I think i'm going to have to say all this in a way which will be quite offhand, out of line, pure opinion and probably end up alienating some people; I don't see it as eddie 'deciding' to use his voice in that way. By this point his singing is so second nature it flows as a part of his natural expression. I just think he's so devastatingly fucking sad at the time he's writing and recording these songs, that it's an authentic expression of where he's at in those moments, rather than a more constructed work of art. Which is why I think maybe more than any of his other work it is the voice which is important over the flat words. There are even points where he can't find the words at all. 'I've turned my back, now there's no turning back....m m m m'. This is at the place where in a symmetrical work of art you need some bloody word like all the other verses, especially after the beautiful line before. The fact that he doesn't have anything more to say here, that on this song he is so crushed that he can hardly summon the spirit to 'project' says something. In fact to me this works as pure art in the way Birthday Letters does, it goes beyond form into pure truthfulness. There is no word for the pain here. Bearing in mind this is a man who has summoned up light from the darkest places and helped a whole lot of people in doing that over many years, in summoning up a fighting spirit and hope from the devastation, out of alive, out of rearviewmirror, not for you, faithful defiant energy. That is his thing. For me when this guy can't summon up that fight any more it's a sign that things are pretty damn hard. Thumbing my way is the lowest point of the catalogue in my view, and although I don't always like to spell things out, if we look at the biographical facts around this one, about what we the public do know about our singer's relationships I don't think it's totally outside our scope to read this song and where some of this sadness is coming from. There is a lot of other tragedy around it too, even amongst the famous biographical facts of that period. I'm really only using this as a way of us tuning in on HIM, rather than expecting him to always come to us and deliver what WE need. Thumbing my way is the frequency of the whole album as far as I'm concerned, and if we care about understanding him, not just in terms of what he's giving out, like we're used to, but also about what he's needing, there are a lot of questions in this album. Save You for example, who is that really written by, about, to, for, from? Can't keep is probably the deepest lyrical conceit I've ever encountered, but I'm not going to spell out exactly how I interpret this because it almost starts to seem like a violation. I guess I'm saying it is saying, there is always one way out that nobody can take away from you, and actually that to stay just so as to have your revenge is actually really THEIR victory. This revelation comes on song one! It's a beautifully hopeful twisted revelation but it doesn't get much deeper than this song in my mind.
Ok, i'm not sure what I'm getting tangled up in here other than really this is the man who sells hope dredged up out of the bottom of a barrel to the world, finding himself in a totally hopeless situation. Up until this album was released, the lowest I'd ever heard ed get was singing 'down' - "and good old ed, he summons up hope from the dirt, the light out the darkness, just like he always does", thanks ed, you're the best.
Trouble is on riot act, what about when the magic finally wears out and there's nothing more to summon? when the spell wears off, who's gonna save the magician? To be honest it is mike who leads the way out of these depths, you can hear it coming right out of the final song, you can hear him ringing out throughout. He's chiming whilst vedder is failing. this may be going a bit far, but this is when they come good for him. Solidarity, go through it. We'll still be here. ( this is what I hear). Riot Act is a sincere expression of a moment by an artist who has shed so much artifice that he's not leaving us that much to go on, other than him saying 'this is me'.
Have you seen this version of can't keep? Does this look like a trivial little number from a lean period? not to me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po6U4EeQ820
Peace
t
Send my credentials to the house of detention
welcome back misterrr kotterrrr
Don't see why not! 134 posts since 1998? That sounds like quite an achievement! I'm serious in the way that I've always admired my friend who has smoked a single cigarette every night but no more for the past 20 years. I always thought 2 cigarettes a day over a long life would be a great little habit to maintain!
What's happening in the world of emptyglass? is that completely empty or half-full?
Hey, Tony, sorry, meant to say I was really appreciating and still thinking about all your critiques, and that I'll come round to ST once I've managed to drag myself away from the decent records again!
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Hey Zenith, how did your day end up? Hope you weren't too stressed. I think I've not got much more strange heavy lyrics stuff to say for a while. Feel like coming down to earth. I'm whacked! Yeah newcastle sounded great, they played lots of my favourite rarities.
For some reason I can't click on people's profiles ('not privileged enough!'). I would like to see some of your recent artwork if you give me pointers.
I just realised that between 1990 and 2008 I have been to Seattle more times than I've seen Pearl Jam! I remember attending their Bumbershoot festival in 1990, and my friends talking bout soundgarden, tho we didn't see them; and it wasn't till years later I appreciated the significance. Anyway, I just emailed some friends and it looks like by the end of 2009 it might even be PJ - 7, Seattle 6! Yay
Hope they give you your news soon enough!
Send my credentials to the house of detention
today for eg - i got morning tea and that was it ... no lunch because i was on the phone for 2 hours to centrelink (thats our countrys welfare system) sorting out rent assistance for a aged care resident that they'd kindly cut off ... no afternoon tea because i was trying to catch up on all the work id missed that morning. it was a full moon this week in aus ... and i swear, all the loonies came out to howl at it
so ... i actually feel too worn out to even think of a d/m song breakdown ... im going to eat a burger and veg on the lounge and watch whatever the tv throws at me ... you should start a "song of the day" thread - every day a new song gets selected and posted, and then discussed. theres you mission
and there you go http://www.facebook.com/lindy.hunter ... my poster entries are there - my tee entry that i wasnt allowed to enter and then got stolen till 10c took it down isnt :roll: i should put it up i guess ... and my latest entries wont be till the contest closes because i learnt my lesson with the tee contest ... ive got a few other things lying around that i should put up - will have to stop being so slack
id like to see seattle .... one day, huh