The meaning of Last Exit
I started to play Last Exit (the opener on Vitalogy) on a regular basis just last year, and I think it's an amazing song.
As in many songs of the band, water is a metaphor. In Last Exit it's “Let the ocean swell, dissolve 'way my past”.
There's some discussion on the internet on the meaning of the song. It seems obvious it's about death and suicide. The line "Three days, and maybe longer. Won't ever find me here" seems a reference to Kurt Cobain who was found three days after his death in his small garden house. Because he was diagnosed with a drugs overdose, the working of drugs might be the "let the ocean swell".
What I think is very intriguing is the reference to Charon from Greek mythology. The line “Under your tongue, I'm like a tab, I will give you what you're not suposed to have” could indicate that people normally condemn suicde, but the singer (Vedder) won't (and gives the coin required to enter afterlife).
I'm curious what others think of the song's meaning.
As in many songs of the band, water is a metaphor. In Last Exit it's “Let the ocean swell, dissolve 'way my past”.
There's some discussion on the internet on the meaning of the song. It seems obvious it's about death and suicide. The line "Three days, and maybe longer. Won't ever find me here" seems a reference to Kurt Cobain who was found three days after his death in his small garden house. Because he was diagnosed with a drugs overdose, the working of drugs might be the "let the ocean swell".
What I think is very intriguing is the reference to Charon from Greek mythology. The line “Under your tongue, I'm like a tab, I will give you what you're not suposed to have” could indicate that people normally condemn suicde, but the singer (Vedder) won't (and gives the coin required to enter afterlife).
I'm curious what others think of the song's meaning.
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I interoperate it as life looked at as compared to the vast amount of time that existed before life. How life can be calm or turbulent like the ocean. Producing high waves with white wash that takes on new forms or can be completely calm and boring on the surface with the power underneath. You can write your name in the sand and the ocean wipes it away in the blink of an eye. This is a song about that wiping of of life. The sun climbs and burns (evaporates) the surface of the ocean away (mask), new lives form old lives die. Three days is usually the amount of time between someone dying and being buried... maybe longer. Shed my worldly flesh... but the spirit lives on. Its a last exit.
Best on the web - check them out
http://www.youtube.com/user/cantkeepmehere
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2008 Bonnaroo - 2009 Philly 2&3 - 2010 MSG 1&2
Lives opened and trashed...'look ma, watch me crash'...
No time to question...why'd nothing last...
Grasp and hold on...we're dyin' fast...
Soon be over...and I will relent...
Let the ocean swell, dissolve 'way my past
Three days, and maybe longer
Won't even know I've left
Under your tongue...I'm like a tab...
I will give you what...you're not sposed to have...
Under my breath...I swear by sin...
For better or for worse...a best we began...
Let the sun climb, oh, burn 'way my mask
Three days, and maybe longer
Shed my skin at last...shed...shed...
Let the sun shine, burn 'way my mask
Three days, and maybe longer
Won't ever find me here
Let the ocean dissolve 'way my past
Four days, and not much longer...
Let my spirit pass...
This is, this is...
This is, this is...
This is, this is...
My...last exit
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Just like IN HIDING - 3 days!!
losts of little ties between songs in the Pearl Jam cataloge
Best on the web - check them out
http://www.youtube.com/user/cantkeepmehere
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</left>
2008 Bonnaroo - 2009 Philly 2&3 - 2010 MSG 1&2
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
and it's not about god either in case anyone was wondering.
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
Immortality I believe is about Kurt, or maybe just the early version from Boston '94 is...
Last Exit isn't about suicide though.
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
i like running to this song. gets me moving
But I heard somewhere that the songs were actually written before Kurdt died . . . that doesn't make sense though, since some of the lyrics seem to so closely refer to the circumstances of his death - didn't they find his body 3 days after he died?
I just want someone to be there for . . .
This song, like most on Vitalogy, can be looked at in a few ways. Ed's pretty good with metaphor and double entendre...
gee, how Christian of you. :roll: and please enlighten us all as to what the hell "interoperate" means.
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my 2 cents: it wasn't about kurt.
and i always thought Immortally was about Native Americans.
it's about surfing while tripping...and it was a kickass opener last year in san diego!
Actually, I think Last Exit is about Native Americans. I vaguely remember reading something when this song came about about how Native Americans when they get old they are sent off to somewhere, "like over the hills" to die off...never really confirmed this with an analysis of the lyrics or if this is actually true in some Native American populations.
Surfing on acid makes me laugh the most, so I'll go with that until the next few times I hear it
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http://www.lukin.com/Information/faq_new.html
In an interview with the LA times in Nov. 1994, Eddie has said that "Immortality" was not about Kurt Cobain. The song did have different lyrics when Pearl Jam started playing it during the spring '94 tour than the final version on Vitalogy. And yes during the Atlanta April 03, 1994 show Eddie did mention that he hoped Kurt was ok. Eddie also dedicated "Go" to Kurt (this was the period after Kurt Cobain's overdose in Rome when he was missing). Sadly enough, Kurt Cobain died a few days after this broadcast.
The Last Exit lyrics have nothing to do with Kurt - they were performing it (with the "three days" reference) almost six months before he died.