for the most part I think the vocals on backspacer are excellent btw. There are only a few places (the chorus of amongst the waves, supersonic, parts of got some) where I think they fall flat.
Not that I would be opposed to a great live collection of backspacer songs, but I don't think Eddie is holding back the record.
Ok - understood! It's just I wonder if some of the songs where you enjoy them but feel the vocals don't quite hit the mark for a decent 'crescendo' etc - you would feel they pull it off better on the best live versions. Backspacer is a funny old record, was listening it today and it sounded absolutely superb, but last month it sounded a bit dull to me....
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Supersonic does stick out a little just like Comatose, STBC etc. but I enjoy it just the same. Maybe it should be placed in the top half of the recording similar to Comatose. I think that it kind of epitomizes Backspacer as far as a fast, catchy fun record. I have always apprecieated the band's attempt to not have the same tempo and structures throughout their recordings. I love AIC but get sick of their tempo after a while. Supersonic does have one of my favorite lyrics to date: " I've been thinking, I already know, nothin about nothin or so I have been told. I'm not the paper I'm more like the fold, I cut the crease put the shit in the hole yeah!" Booya!
I am not sure I’ve ever had as much trouble getting a handle on a Pearl Jam song as much as I do with Speed of Sound. The fact that the demo--so very different from the studio version-- was released first complicates things. People may prefer the Gone demo to the version on S/T (I prefer the S/T version myself, but I don’t enjoy either song all that much) but they are still basically the same song. The full band version fleshes out the logic of the demo—whether or not you like the final product it still makes sense. The full band version of speed of sound utterly transforms the mood and feel of the original.
Usually I talk about the music before the lyrics, as the music provides the background for the story the song tells, but I’m going to discuss the lyrics first. We need a clear sense of what Eddie was trying to do with Speed of Sound before we can figure out whether he was successful.
Lyrically this song is a gem—some of Eddie’s best writing in years (this song alongside Force of Nature is Eddie’s best 1-2 lyrical punch since Given to Fly -> Wishlist). It may help to think of Speed of Sound as an older, still unsettled but somehow more mature version of Off He Goes. Both songs are about trying to stay grounded in the middle of an oversized, overwrought life—the desire to hold onto the core of who you are against the howling pressures of the rest of the world. Off He Goes is not a song about fame. It’s autobiographical, but we all have to struggle to retain our integrity and our sense of self against what the world throws at us. We all fight the same war, even if our particular battles are different. But there’s a tentative quality to Off He Goes—not tentative in that he’s unsure of the outcome, but tentative as if he’s not necessarily comfortable raising the questions, or sure how to think about it. When I say that Off He Goes is immature I mean that it’s really a first attempt at coming to grips with how to survive in a world that really insists on making survival difficult, and it reflects the confusion, uncertainty, occasional overwroughtness and awkward hesitation that accompanies our first pass at these questions.
Speed of Sound approaches these same questions a decade later from an older, perhaps wiser, certainly more experienced and confident perspective (you can have confident uncertainty). Like Just Breathe, The End, and parts of Amongst the Waves and Force of Nature, it asks us to slow down and reflect. Much of Backspacer asks us to let go of the past and celebrate the moment of experience, something fairly unique in Pearl Jam’s catalog and the source of the album’s energy and abandon. But this is a Pearl Jam record, and Pearl Jam is far too self aware, too externally focused, to live in this moment forever. A song like Speed of Sound (and the others I mentioned) remind us that we will have to come down, and that if we want to hold onto part of the perfect immediacy of now we need to figure out how to make the present come to grips with the past and the future, to celebrate what we have now while recognizing how fragile, precious , and dependent that gift is. This is the story of Backspacer as a whole—no one song tries to capture that entire experience—and so Speed of Sound needs to be understood as playing a particular, concrete roll in the overall album arc. Inverting its name, it tries to slow us down. It warns us that if you only live right now you’ll lose sight of the things that made ‘now’ possible.
The song starts regretting how delicate and fragile the past is, how hard it is to find stability and permanency in a world that changes so fast and sweeps us up alongside it even as we change with it (moving at AND with the speed of sound—simultaneously subject and object). The chorus is hopeful and regretful at the same time. The singer keeps fixed in his mind his dream of distant light—of warmth, peace, illumination, belonging, and there’s no sense of surrender in the song (there is a certain sad sense of futility in Off He Goes—like we know how the story is going to end and so we might as well make our peace with it), but there IS a weariness to it. Not exhaustion, mind you—Backspacer is not Riot Act—but instead a grim awareness of just how long we sometimes have to float through dark empty spaces waiting for the sun.
The lyrics get a little urgent as he explores his inability to come to grips with his momentum. It’s an important verse: “Can I forgive what I cannot forget and live a lie. I could give it one more try.” There’s a sense in which his speed comes from his refusal to accept that the world he lives in is imperfect, and that it always will be. Acceptance is not the same thing as surrender (you can accept the way the world is while still trying to change it) but he cannot come to grips with that. It rings false. He feels guilty—like moments of serenity, calm, acceptance are unworthy of him—like he’s selling out a life long struggle. The problem is the hand wringing, the angst, the defiance, the anger fuel him but at the same time they push him further and further away from the peace he’s so desperate to find. The struggle for a perfect peace makes imperfect peace (all we’re probably capable of in an imperfect world) impossible.
The gravity of his situation, the way in which he feels trapped, the way in which he finds himself imprisoned by the same principles and commitments that are able to set him free, catches up with him in the final, confused verses. He hears a voice and reaches out to it, the promise of stability, fulfillment and security in an uncertain world, but he doesn’t know if what he’s trying to grab onto is real or not, whether he’s worthy of it or not, and in his own uncertainty, his reluctance to accept (not surrender, accept—again this is a key difference) he misses his window. He finds himself alone, isolated, moving too fast to commit to the rest of the world around him.
In the end Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, and probably the darkest moment on the record. Speed of Sound warns us of what will happen if we cannot dial back our war against the world, if we cannot realize that we should change the things we can change and make our peace with what we cannot—even as we work to change the context that makes the possible impossible. We have to learn to accept that there are limits to what we are capable of (the wisdom of the old) even as we refuse to surrender the passion of youth that makes all things possible. The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. Utopia cannot be the enemy of happiness. Ours is an imperfect world, a dark world, but not lacking in moments of light that are all the brighter for the surrounding darkness. To that end, Force of Nature probably has to follow Speed of Sound, since it affirms what Speed of Sound can only say through negation.
It’s a heady song, and captures in important ways the intellectual journey the band has been on for the last 17 years. It requires the previous records to give it context, but when that context is there Speed of Sound says a great deal. So let’s see how this vision translated.
The Demo:
Eddie sounds great here, his voice delicate, floating along on the ups and downs of the vocal melody. Although there is no water imagery here, the performance paints the picture of a man carried out to see by a tide he’s too tired to resist, but not so defeated that he cannot look backwards with longing towards where he came from. This is one of the most wistful songs Eddie’s ever written and it showcases the weathered quaver in his voice that he uses to replace the power he’s lost over the year. His Bruce Springsteen influence is on display here—not in the lyrics, but in the delivery and the melody. I can easily see this song appearing on Nebraska or Devils and Dust. The double tracked vocals, especially towards the end, give the song a sense of urgency during the climax, the high part sounding running away while the lower register keeps him grounded—straining for the shore even as he makes his peace with the tides that carry him away. There is a starkness to the music that is simultaneously cold and warm, stark and full—as if you’re floating through an empty space but you have old memories to keep you from freezing and fill the void (I hear space alongside water). The plaintive, straining guitar notes that punctuate the song give the song a mature sadness that comes from reflecting on the failures of a life lived. Most of Eddie’s demos that we’ve heard (think Man of the Hour, Small Town, Gone) feel, to a greater or lesser extent, incomplete. The Speed of Sound demo, on the other hand, is complete the way it is—in fact there’s a very real risk that weighing it down with more music will destroy the sense of starkness, distance, and cold warmth that the song depends on.
Studio:
And oh man, do they add more music. I wonder if Speed of Sound was sacrificed so that The End might live. I said earlier that this song reminds of Springsteen’s Nebraska, which was a record of demos that Springsteen decided to release. He definitely brought this one in for the E-Street Band. The music is actually pretty interesting. The problem is that, even moreso than the Supersonic solo, it is really poorly matched up with the song they added it to. For people who want more experimental Pearl Jam, this IS experimental pearl jam. There’s an alt-country feel to this one that they rarely play with, guitar tones they don’t use, and I actually like how it sounds. It’s spacey, pretty, rich, and has a hidden sing-songy quality to it that they manage to keep hidden without ruining the appeal. But it doesn’t match up to the song. I don’t know whether it’s faster than the demo, but it feels faster, and way too crowded. This is a song that demands quiet spaces for reflection, and here Eddie (who sounds good here, even though this song showcases him less than almost any other song on Backspacer) is struggling to think over the noise and the clatter. It makes some sense as an approximation for the subdued and reluctant alienation in the lyrics—the purpose behind the speed of sound lyric is not to necessarily convey speed (as a fast song might) but a lack of focus—unable to get perspective because everything around you is out of focus, a blur. The music pulls that off, although it’s probably too pretty for the subject matter. But still, had I not heard the demo I suppose I’d be satisfied with this. It would be imperfect, the same way that Unthought Known and Amongst the Waves are imperfect, but the song would make sense. However, the original presentation of Speed of Sound, reflections in a void rather than straining against a pleasant sensory overload, is so much more powerful that I cannot help but feel disappointed.
Speed of Sound ends the dip in Backspacer. You have a four song stretch of good ideas, vital to the arc of the record but imperfectly (or in some cases poorly) realized. It’s this block that keeps Backspacer out of the top tier of Pearl Jam records, but the album rallies magnificently for the final stretch of songs and the strongest finish to a Pearl Jam record since Vitalogy, and arguably of any of their albums.
Great points all around - could not agree more about demo vs studio/full band Speed of Sound
Something I would love to hear your thoughts on though is the fact that Ed has said Speed of Sound was written for the Ronnie Wood record he was a part of.
Does that give any insight here?
Completely agree with your allusion to the Speed of SOund vs The End comparison - seems like 2 Ed solo songs would have been too much
" I said there's nothing wrong with what you say. Believe me just asking you to sway. No white or black just grey. Can you feel this world with your heart and not your brain?"
Something I would love to hear your thoughts on though is the fact that Ed has said Speed of Sound was written for the Ronnie Wood record he was a part of.
Does that give any insight here?
I've only heard that one song from the record so I can't offer any compelling insight here. My guess is that it doesn't matter. I don't think Backspacer is a concept record. I think it explores the state of mind the band was in when they wrote it, so anything written during that period will address these themes.
Is there something about the Ronnie Wood connection you find significant?
No not off hand with regard to Ronnie Wood, its the other side of it actually that interests me...
We know there are songs (of the Earth for instance - which I personally like a whole lot more than Speed of Sound) sitting and ready and those could have been placed on the record instead of Speed of Sound, but for whatever reason, Ed felt that THIS song should be brought to the band and then, be it as a whole or Ed himself, be included on Backspacer.
Why is beyond me as I think the demo is far better than the studio version (for reasons you outline quite well as well as the possible reasons behind the solo not being used) but would like to hear yours and others thoughts on what is it about this song that PJ or Ed seemed to have NEEDED it on Backspacer
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but for a track that seems to be in most people's bottom 2 for the album (Supersonic being the other) I think Ed or the band must have thought it brought something important, be it a perspective or otherwise, to whatever they are trying to say with album
Thoughts?
PS I also think the release of the demo for this song as part of the buildup to Backspacer and Ed's performing it solo as opposed to say Just Breathe os very telling and supports your "only one Ed solo song" theory
" I said there's nothing wrong with what you say. Believe me just asking you to sway. No white or black just grey. Can you feel this world with your heart and not your brain?"
I'm not sure what I can say that I didn't say in the song review. The message of speed of sound is really important to the overall thematic arc of backspacer. Of the earth may be a better song but just not fit. Sometimes b-sides are excluded when they belong (Sad, for instance) but other times they disrupt the larger message and feel of a record. Down and Undone are two of my favorite songs from the Riot Act sessions, but including them on that record really changes what it is about.
As to why they changed it, who knows. This is not a solo record so there's only so much 'eddie and a guitar' that there is room for, and as is other Eddie songs like just breathe and UK are actually kind of thin for the rest of the band (or at least mike and stone). So simple band dynamics may have required adding on to this.
But beyond that the speed of sound that ended up on the record is something of an experiment. Not an altogether successful one, but that's the price of risk.
Fair enough and good points all around - I guess I just get the feeling that the band itself wasn't even sure on this one and thats why the demo was officially let out to the public.
Very interested to see your take on The End in that regard - kinda makes you wonder if there is a version floating around somewhere that had the whole band playing on it...
" I said there's nothing wrong with what you say. Believe me just asking you to sway. No white or black just grey. Can you feel this world with your heart and not your brain?"
Force of Nature is a necessary counterpoint to Speed of Sound. If Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, a warning to slow down and make your peace with the world, Force of Nature is a celebration of a stubborn, unwavering faith that things can change, that if we hold fast to what we believe in we’ll be rewarded with a better world. In some respects these two songs are at odds with each other, but both perspectives are needed (an acceptance of the way things are and a faith that they will get better) for a healthy, meaningful existence. It is really on Backspacer where we finally get this fusion, and Force of Nature is probably the high point of the album precisely because this song embodies the weathered optimism that is always at the core of Pearl Jam’s best music. While I think Pearl Jam intended for The Fixer, Unthought Known, and Amongst the Waves to really be the core of the record it is actually Force of Nature (filtered through the context of the rest of the record) that best captures the emancipatory heart of the record.
Musically this is a deceptively simple song. The main riff is not overly complicated or particularly dramatic, but it is remarkably evocative. The entirety of Force of Nature sounds like a person standing on a widow’s walk or on a shoreline looking upon the horizon, battered and soaked by a storm, but unwilling to give in. You can hear the grim defiance and stubborn hope in the delivery and the music. This is the sound of refusal, of one person willing to stare down vast empty spaces without blinking, to lean into howling winds and perhaps bend, but never break. In this Force of Nature differs from songs like Insignificance or Deep. These are also stormy songs, but musically they focus on the destructive energy of the storm itself. These are songs that emphasis impact. This is a song about endurance, and endurance is not a particularly flashy emotion, and one that may be hard to appreciate until you get swept up into the song itself.
Musically part of me wants a bigger entrance than the song gets, something more explosive in the vein of Deep, but that might have made this song a little too dramatic, and there is an understated toughness to the main riff. It churns along, with the bass and drums pushing rather than propelling. They don’t give Force of Nature legs, but they give it a spine, while the main riff continues to doggedly put one foot in front of the other, and is clearly prepared to do so for as long as it takes. There’s almost something petulant about Mike’s primary counterpoint to the main riff, the sound of the put upon grimace we all have when we’re trapped in the rain and long to be dry, even though we know that it’ll be a long time before we are. It’s not an appealing part in itself, but it is a necessary component of the overall piece. The soundscape is less evocative without it.
Force of Nature is a headphones song. Most atmospheric songs are (and this is an atmospheric song, despite the conventional riff). There are a number of great flourishes throughout the mix that are buried a little deeper than I might preferred, but they’re striking when they fade in and out of your hearing, and it means that every time you hear the song you’re picking up something new (especially in the second verse). The brighter guitar parts pushing through the wind and rain right before the choruses are well done—rays of light peeking through a storm, moments of hope on a lonely vigil. They become more prominent with each chorus as the singer steels himself. Mike’s ‘leads’ in the bridge are great. They sound like flashes of lightning. The atmosphere in this song is terrific, especially because it is so subtle. And while some have called it cheesy, I think Mike’s outro is perfect, its bright chimes pushing through the murk, muted but no less diminished for it. It speaks of hope and optimism and new beginnings and the promises finally fulfilled. It’s simple, but so is the solo at the end of I am Mine, and both are powerful in their simplicity, managing to convey so much with so little.
This is a song about determination and defiance, but it’s also a song about faith, and it may be the finest song they’ve yet written about it. There is an anger to Faithful, and a certainty to it, that FoN lacks. The singer in Faithful has his anger to ground him, and his partner. He has what he needs, as long as he stays true to it (the love and the anger). It’s a love song, albeit a circuitous one. The singer in Force of Nature has nothing but promise. It celebrates refusing to give in when confronted by absence and uncertainty, of never wavering even when everything around you is hostile, when there are no guarantees of victory, when there are no small rewards or mile markers to let you know you’re on the right path. This is the essence of faith. It’s faith in love (and faith in each other) rather than a faith in God, but faith nevertheless. There are elements of Given To Fly to be found here too (which also, in its way, celebrates faith as refusal and defiance) but without the martyrdom. Both songs celebrate sacrifice, but Given to Fly transcends. Force of Nature endures, at least until Mikes outro lifts us out of the storm and carries us to our reward.
Eddie’s vocals capture the feel of the song perfectly. Eddie doesn’t lift us up, but he’s not supposed to. The waves crash down on us here. They don’t’ carry us away. He needs to be a rock. His voice needs to convey refusal (which is like defiance, but weathered and beaten down—unable to lash out but still unwilling to give in). He sounds like he’s been through a war, and he has, but there are notes of pride here too, honoring the fact that even though he’s still a long long way from home he is able to hold his head up and this is no small victory. His performance here is subtle, but very effective—the way his voice slightly lifts up for the ‘somewhere there’s a siren singing’, the way he finds comfort and inspiration in his memories and his faith; or the way he trails off coming out of the chorus, like he’s steeling himself for what he knows is still to come (he does the same thing in the pre chorus, the way he carefully drags out each word). I love how he delivers the ‘makes me ache, makes me shake, is it so wrong for us to think that love can keep us safe’—the slightly exacerbated way he questions an indifferent universe and then answers his own question since something has to respond to the silence (the nature of faith is that you’ll never get an answer and so you need to provide it yourself). These are subtle moments, but this is a subtle song, and they’re no less powerful for being understated, and Eddie deserves credit for turning his new vocal limits into strengths, for allowing craft to substitute for power.
Lyrically this is some of Eddie’s finest work in a long time. The central phrase ‘force of nature’ evokes something wild uncontrollable and eternal—something impossible to stand against, and it’s this impossibility that makes his vigil so moving, his refusal to back down in the face of something he cannot possibly hope to master. In this particular case the force of nature is love, and his determination to stand by and not give up on someone deeply flawed and deeply wounded. The songs imagery speaks of waits and vigils, but he’s not waiting for someone to love him back (this isn’t I Got Shit), but for someone to save themselves (and to let him in so he can help). It’s going to be a difficult journey, and the Alice In Wonderland allusion is effective. There’s no romance here. No grand adventure, no dream someone is just going to wake up from. This is long, hard, thankless work, with no guarantee of a happy ending (again faith)—the ‘no way to save someone who won’t take the rope and just lets go’ lyric gets to the heart of the problem. Do you abandon this person? Do you give up on someone or something that has made it manifestly clear that they do not (maybe even cannot) be saved, or do you stand by them?
The chorus and the remaining verses make clear that you stand by them, even in the face of the impossible demands this places upon you (the storm and shipwreck imagery), but they’ll never make it back if you’re not there to light their way. Someone has to be the beacon. Someone has to make sure the light doesn’t go out. Someone has to have faith. The first chorus captures this beautifully, and is addressed to the person who is lost. When you’re ready to come back, I’ll be here to show you the way.
The second chorus is even better, and one of my favorite lyrical moments in the catalog. This is addressed to an internal audience. He’s signing for himself. The siren’s song drives the listener mad, and his faith is mad. It defies reason. It cannot be explained. But it doesn’t have to be—he just needs to hear it, to hold onto it. He doesn’t need to justify his resolve. He just needs to maintain it. There are moments of doubt, and the crashing bridge witnesses his crisis of faith as he cries out to a cold and indifferent world. “Is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?” It’s a more profound question that it first appears, since there’s a lot at stake. Love is more than caring for another person. It is more than how you feel about someone else, or even yourself. Love is safety. Love is shelter against a storm, love is the baseline that makes all futures possible. Without it we have nothing but ourselves trapped in a hostile, disenchanted universe. Should we give up on it, even when love is little more than faith in the possibility of love, and when leaving ourselves open leaves ourselves incredibly vulnerable? Love is risk, after all. The world doesn’t answer (the world never does), and so he has to answer himself
There’s a brief lull in the music and the storm starts up again, but we see him still standing there. He refuses to move. His faith endures, and the outro rewards us with a happy ending, although we don’t know whether the object of his love heals and returns to him, or if the faith is its own reward. It’s a better ending that way.
Musically part of me wants a bigger entrance than the song gets, something more explosive in the vein of Deep, but that might have made this song a little too dramatic, and there is an understated toughness to the main riff. It churns along, with the bass and drums pushing rather than propelling. They don’t give Force of Nature legs, but they give it a spine, while the main riff continues to doggedly put one foot in front of the other, and is clearly prepared to do so for as long as it takes. There’s almost something petulant about Mike’s primary counterpoint to the main riff, the sound of the put upon grimace we all have when we’re trapped in the rain and long to be dry, even though we know that it’ll be a long time before we are.
Perfect description.
I think more needs to be said for Matt's drumming here, as his groove really solidifies the grit and toughness of the song. The little hesitation he uses at the end of each bar (excuse my lack of musical terminology) really adds a lot but doesn't over do it.
A lot of people complain about the huge buildup of momentum in bridge only to drop back down into the last verse. I think this is the point of the song though - its meant to feel like an uphill battle all the way through until the solo.
Force of Nature is a necessary counterpoint to Speed of Sound. If Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, a warning to slow down and make your peace with the world, Force of Nature is a celebration of a stubborn, unwavering faith that things can change, that if we hold fast to what we believe in we’ll be rewarded with a better world. In some respects these two songs are at odds with each other, but both perspectives are needed (an acceptance of the way things are and a faith that they will get better) for a healthy, meaningful existence. It is really on Backspacer where we finally get this fusion, and Force of Nature is probably the high point of the album precisely because this song embodies the weathered optimism that is always at the core of Pearl Jam’s best music. While I think Pearl Jam intended for The Fixer, Unthought Known, and Amongst the Waves to really be the core of the record it is actually Force of Nature (filtered through the context of the rest of the record) that best captures the emancipatory heart of the record.
Musically this is a deceptively simple song. The main riff is not overly complicated or particularly dramatic, but it is remarkably evocative. The entirety of Force of Nature sounds like a person standing on a widow’s walk or on a shoreline looking upon the horizon, battered and soaked by a storm, but unwilling to give in. You can hear the grim defiance and stubborn hope in the delivery and the music. This is the sound of refusal, of one person willing to stare down vast empty spaces without blinking, to lean into howling winds and perhaps bend, but never break. In this Force of Nature differs from songs like Insignificance or Deep. These are also stormy songs, but musically they focus on the destructive energy of the storm itself. These are songs that emphasis impact. This is a song about endurance, and endurance is not a particularly flashy emotion, and one that may be hard to appreciate until you get swept up into the song itself.
Musically part of me wants a bigger entrance than the song gets, something more explosive in the vein of Deep, but that might have made this song a little too dramatic, and there is an understated toughness to the main riff. It churns along, with the bass and drums pushing rather than propelling. They don’t give Force of Nature legs, but they give it a spine, while the main riff continues to doggedly put one foot in front of the other, and is clearly prepared to do so for as long as it takes. There’s almost something petulant about Mike’s primary counterpoint to the main riff, the sound of the put upon grimace we all have when we’re trapped in the rain and long to be dry, even though we know that it’ll be a long time before we are. It’s not an appealing part in itself, but it is a necessary component of the overall piece. The soundscape is less evocative without it.
Force of Nature is a headphones song. Most atmospheric songs are (and this is an atmospheric song, despite the conventional riff). There are a number of great flourishes throughout the mix that are buried a little deeper than I might preferred, but they’re striking when they fade in and out of your hearing, and it means that every time you hear the song you’re picking up something new (especially in the second verse). The brighter guitar parts pushing through the wind and rain right before the choruses are well done—rays of light peeking through a storm, moments of hope on a lonely vigil. They become more prominent with each chorus as the singer steels himself. Mike’s ‘leads’ in the bridge are great. They sound like flashes of lightning. The atmosphere in this song is terrific, especially because it is so subtle. And while some have called it cheesy, I think Mike’s outro is perfect, its bright chimes pushing through the murk, muted but no less diminished for it. It speaks of hope and optimism and new beginnings and the promises finally fulfilled. It’s simple, but so is the solo at the end of I am Mine, and both are powerful in their simplicity, managing to convey so much with so little.
This is a song about determination and defiance, but it’s also a song about faith, and it may be the finest song they’ve yet written about it. There is an anger to Faithful, and a certainty to it, that FoN lacks. The singer in Faithful has his anger to ground him, and his partner. He has what he needs, as long as he stays true to it (the love and the anger). It’s a love song, albeit a circuitous one. The singer in Force of Nature has nothing but promise. It celebrates refusing to give in when confronted by absence and uncertainty, of never wavering even when everything around you is hostile, when there are no guarantees of victory, when there are no small rewards or mile markers to let you know you’re on the right path. This is the essence of faith. It’s faith in love (and faith in each other) rather than a faith in God, but faith nevertheless. There are elements of Given To Fly to be found here too (which also, in its way, celebrates faith as refusal and defiance) but without the martyrdom. Both songs celebrate sacrifice, but Given to Fly transcends. Force of Nature endures, at least until Mikes outro lifts us out of the storm and carries us to our reward.
Eddie’s vocals capture the feel of the song perfectly. Eddie doesn’t lift us up, but he’s not supposed to. The waves crash down on us here. They don’t’ carry us away. He needs to be a rock. His voice needs to convey refusal (which is like defiance, but weathered and beaten down—unable to lash out but still unwilling to give in). He sounds like he’s been through a war, and he has, but there are notes of pride here too, honoring the fact that even though he’s still a long long way from home he is able to hold his head up and this is no small victory. His performance here is subtle, but very effective—the way his voice slightly lifts up for the ‘somewhere there’s a siren singing’, the way he finds comfort and inspiration in his memories and his faith; or the way he trails off coming out of the chorus, like he’s steeling himself for what he knows is still to come (he does the same thing in the pre chorus, the way he carefully drags out each word). I love how he delivers the ‘makes me ache, makes me shake, is it so wrong for us to think that love can keep us safe’—the slightly exacerbated way he questions an indifferent universe and then answers his own question since something has to respond to the silence (the nature of faith is that you’ll never get an answer and so you need to provide it yourself). These are subtle moments, but this is a subtle song, and they’re no less powerful for being understated, and Eddie deserves credit for turning his new vocal limits into strengths, for allowing craft to substitute for power.
Lyrically this is some of Eddie’s finest work in a long time. The central phrase ‘force of nature’ evokes something wild uncontrollable and eternal—something impossible to stand against, and it’s this impossibility that makes his vigil so moving, his refusal to back down in the face of something he cannot possibly hope to master. In this particular case the force of nature is love, and his determination to stand by and not give up on someone deeply flawed and deeply wounded. The songs imagery speaks of waits and vigils, but he’s not waiting for someone to love him back (this isn’t I Got Shit), but for someone to save themselves (and to let him in so he can help). It’s going to be a difficult journey, and the Alice In Wonderland allusion is effective. There’s no romance here. No grand adventure, no dream someone is just going to wake up from. This is long, hard, thankless work, with no guarantee of a happy ending (again faith)—the ‘no way to save someone who won’t take the rope and just lets go’ lyric gets to the heart of the problem. Do you abandon this person? Do you give up on someone or something that has made it manifestly clear that they do not (maybe even cannot) be saved, or do you stand by them?
The chorus and the remaining verses make clear that you stand by them, even in the face of the impossible demands this places upon you (the storm and shipwreck imagery), but they’ll never make it back if you’re not there to light their way. Someone has to be the beacon. Someone has to make sure the light doesn’t go out. Someone has to have faith. The first chorus captures this beautifully, and is addressed to the person who is lost. When you’re ready to come back, I’ll be here to show you the way.
The second chorus is even better, and one of my favorite lyrical moments in the catalog. This is addressed to an internal audience. He’s signing for himself. The siren’s song drives the listener mad, and his faith is mad. It defies reason. It cannot be explained. But it doesn’t have to be—he just needs to hear it, to hold onto it. He doesn’t need to justify his resolve. He just needs to maintain it. There are moments of doubt, and the crashing bridge witnesses his crisis of faith as he cries out to a cold and indifferent world. “Is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?” It’s a more profound question that it first appears, since there’s a lot at stake. Love is more than caring for another person. It is more than how you feel about someone else, or even yourself. Love is safety. Love is shelter against a storm, love is the baseline that makes all futures possible. Without it we have nothing but ourselves trapped in a hostile, disenchanted universe. Should we give up on it, even when love is little more than faith in the possibility of love, and when leaving ourselves open leaves ourselves incredibly vulnerable? Love is risk, after all. The world doesn’t answer (the world never does), and so he has to answer himself
There’s a brief lull in the music and the storm starts up again, but we see him still standing there. He refuses to move. His faith endures, and the outro rewards us with a happy ending, although we don’t know whether the object of his love heals and returns to him, or if the faith is its own reward. It’s a better ending that way.
Top Notch!!
Was so good it actually made me laugh in parts - laugh with how good the review was!! hehehe. You nailed this one Stip - and the song. Expresses near perfectly what I already felt about this song, and takes me further too!!
Is tempting to chop some of the best lines up and repeat them - but there will be time for that!! Scorching review!!
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Was so good it actually made me laugh in parts - laugh with how good the review was!! hehehe. You nailed this one Stip - and the song. Expresses near perfectly what I already felt about this song, and takes me further too!!
Is tempting to chop some of the best lines up and repeat them - but there will be time for that!! Scorching review!!
Top Notch! indeed. I must admit Stip, some of your other reviews, in part have been a little confusing (to me) but you nailed this one my friend. It took me a while to warm up to this song which I think is becuase it has such an interesting, complexe, emotive dynamic that must be fully explored to appreciate fully. I see from your descriptions that I still did not have all the layers of this song peeled back and exposed. Thank you for that.
nothing is worse than hearing someone review and judge art that was not made for just the reviewer. it was made to live free inside us all and have different meanings to each one of us.
i dont need a guided tour of any pearl jam music. the music itself is the guide. and it will take us all on a different journey.
nothing is worse than hearing someone review and judge art that was not made for just the reviewer. it was made to live free inside us all and have different meanings to each one of us.
i dont need a guided tour of any pearl jam music. the music itself is the guide. and it will take us all on a different journey.
I don't believe the reviewer's word or opinion is meant to be taken as THE WAY IT IS. It's only another's viewpoint, and it's just as valid as yours or mine. Of course the art will speak to each of us in our own ways.
Don't read it if you don't like it, but I've always enjoyed hearing others' feedback on music that I love so much, and I've read Stip's stuff with great interest. I even disagree here and there, but in the end, I know that when I sit down to listen to whatever album it may be, that it is mine and only mine for that private hour.
"I know I was born and I know that I'll die...the in between is mine"
nothing is worse than hearing someone review and judge art that was not made for just the reviewer. it was made to live free inside us all and have different meanings to each one of us.
i dont need a guided tour of any pearl jam music. the music itself is the guide. and it will take us all on a different journey.
Well, the clue was in the thread title. I wouldn't read them then. Personally I like nothing better than reading someone who is informed, has opinions, and writes excellently discuss Pearl Jam's music, and then is open to hearing others' views. Pearl Jam have been a band with depth since day one - with subjects and themes that should be discussed. This isn't the Michael Bublé forum is it?
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Great job, Stip!
I love to read what other fans think about PJ songs and records, especially when is well written.
Waiting for The End review that is a very beautiful song.
Let's say knowledge is a tree, yeah.
It's growing up just like me.
I should have the end up Tuesday morning. I was away this weekend and now I'm getting caught back up on work I missed.
to ..: If you don't like my particular interpretation that's of course entirely up to you. if you don't enjoy the writing that is of course also entirely up to you. But music as communal as Pearl Jam's was also probably not meant to be listened to in a vacuum either, and if you cannot learn from other people (I do all the time) or even just use another person's discussion/interpretation to remind yourself of why a particular melody/phrase/song moves you then you're really closing yourself off to a much richer and fuller experience of art and music.
Force of Nature is a necessary counterpoint to Speed of Sound. If Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, a warning to slow down and make your peace with the world, Force of Nature is a celebration of a stubborn, unwavering faith that things can change, that if we hold fast to what we believe in we’ll be rewarded with a better world. In some respects these two songs are at odds with each other, but both perspectives are needed (an acceptance of the way things are and a faith that they will get better) for a healthy, meaningful existence. It is really on Backspacer where we finally get this fusion, and Force of Nature is probably the high point of the album precisely because this song embodies the weathered optimism that is always at the core of Pearl Jam’s best music. While I think Pearl Jam intended for The Fixer, Unthought Known, and Amongst the Waves to really be the core of the record it is actually Force of Nature (filtered through the context of the rest of the record) that best captures the emancipatory heart of the record.
Musically this is a deceptively simple song. The main riff is not overly complicated or particularly dramatic, but it is remarkably evocative. The entirety of Force of Nature sounds like a person standing on a widow’s walk or on a shoreline looking upon the horizon, battered and soaked by a storm, but unwilling to give in. You can hear the grim defiance and stubborn hope in the delivery and the music. This is the sound of refusal, of one person willing to stare down vast empty spaces without blinking, to lean into howling winds and perhaps bend, but never break. In this Force of Nature differs from songs like Insignificance or Deep. These are also stormy songs, but musically they focus on the destructive energy of the storm itself. These are songs that emphasis impact. This is a song about endurance, and endurance is not a particularly flashy emotion, and one that may be hard to appreciate until you get swept up into the song itself.
Musically part of me wants a bigger entrance than the song gets, something more explosive in the vein of Deep, but that might have made this song a little too dramatic, and there is an understated toughness to the main riff. It churns along, with the bass and drums pushing rather than propelling. They don’t give Force of Nature legs, but they give it a spine, while the main riff continues to doggedly put one foot in front of the other, and is clearly prepared to do so for as long as it takes. There’s almost something petulant about Mike’s primary counterpoint to the main riff, the sound of the put upon grimace we all have when we’re trapped in the rain and long to be dry, even though we know that it’ll be a long time before we are. It’s not an appealing part in itself, but it is a necessary component of the overall piece. The soundscape is less evocative without it.
Force of Nature is a headphones song. Most atmospheric songs are (and this is an atmospheric song, despite the conventional riff). There are a number of great flourishes throughout the mix that are buried a little deeper than I might preferred, but they’re striking when they fade in and out of your hearing, and it means that every time you hear the song you’re picking up something new (especially in the second verse). The brighter guitar parts pushing through the wind and rain right before the choruses are well done—rays of light peeking through a storm, moments of hope on a lonely vigil. They become more prominent with each chorus as the singer steels himself. Mike’s ‘leads’ in the bridge are great. They sound like flashes of lightning. The atmosphere in this song is terrific, especially because it is so subtle. And while some have called it cheesy, I think Mike’s outro is perfect, its bright chimes pushing through the murk, muted but no less diminished for it. It speaks of hope and optimism and new beginnings and the promises finally fulfilled. It’s simple, but so is the solo at the end of I am Mine, and both are powerful in their simplicity, managing to convey so much with so little.
This is a song about determination and defiance, but it’s also a song about faith, and it may be the finest song they’ve yet written about it. There is an anger to Faithful, and a certainty to it, that FoN lacks. The singer in Faithful has his anger to ground him, and his partner. He has what he needs, as long as he stays true to it (the love and the anger). It’s a love song, albeit a circuitous one. The singer in Force of Nature has nothing but promise. It celebrates refusing to give in when confronted by absence and uncertainty, of never wavering even when everything around you is hostile, when there are no guarantees of victory, when there are no small rewards or mile markers to let you know you’re on the right path. This is the essence of faith. It’s faith in love (and faith in each other) rather than a faith in God, but faith nevertheless. There are elements of Given To Fly to be found here too (which also, in its way, celebrates faith as refusal and defiance) but without the martyrdom. Both songs celebrate sacrifice, but Given to Fly transcends. Force of Nature endures, at least until Mikes outro lifts us out of the storm and carries us to our reward.
Eddie’s vocals capture the feel of the song perfectly. Eddie doesn’t lift us up, but he’s not supposed to. The waves crash down on us here. They don’t’ carry us away. He needs to be a rock. His voice needs to convey refusal (which is like defiance, but weathered and beaten down—unable to lash out but still unwilling to give in). He sounds like he’s been through a war, and he has, but there are notes of pride here too, honoring the fact that even though he’s still a long long way from home he is able to hold his head up and this is no small victory. His performance here is subtle, but very effective—the way his voice slightly lifts up for the ‘somewhere there’s a siren singing’, the way he finds comfort and inspiration in his memories and his faith; or the way he trails off coming out of the chorus, like he’s steeling himself for what he knows is still to come (he does the same thing in the pre chorus, the way he carefully drags out each word). I love how he delivers the ‘makes me ache, makes me shake, is it so wrong for us to think that love can keep us safe’—the slightly exacerbated way he questions an indifferent universe and then answers his own question since something has to respond to the silence (the nature of faith is that you’ll never get an answer and so you need to provide it yourself). These are subtle moments, but this is a subtle song, and they’re no less powerful for being understated, and Eddie deserves credit for turning his new vocal limits into strengths, for allowing craft to substitute for power.
Lyrically this is some of Eddie’s finest work in a long time. The central phrase ‘force of nature’ evokes something wild uncontrollable and eternal—something impossible to stand against, and it’s this impossibility that makes his vigil so moving, his refusal to back down in the face of something he cannot possibly hope to master. In this particular case the force of nature is love, and his determination to stand by and not give up on someone deeply flawed and deeply wounded. The songs imagery speaks of waits and vigils, but he’s not waiting for someone to love him back (this isn’t I Got Shit), but for someone to save themselves (and to let him in so he can help). It’s going to be a difficult journey, and the Alice In Wonderland allusion is effective. There’s no romance here. No grand adventure, no dream someone is just going to wake up from. This is long, hard, thankless work, with no guarantee of a happy ending (again faith)—the ‘no way to save someone who won’t take the rope and just lets go’ lyric gets to the heart of the problem. Do you abandon this person? Do you give up on someone or something that has made it manifestly clear that they do not (maybe even cannot) be saved, or do you stand by them?
The chorus and the remaining verses make clear that you stand by them, even in the face of the impossible demands this places upon you (the storm and shipwreck imagery), but they’ll never make it back if you’re not there to light their way. Someone has to be the beacon. Someone has to make sure the light doesn’t go out. Someone has to have faith. The first chorus captures this beautifully, and is addressed to the person who is lost. When you’re ready to come back, I’ll be here to show you the way.
The second chorus is even better, and one of my favorite lyrical moments in the catalog. This is addressed to an internal audience. He’s signing for himself. The siren’s song drives the listener mad, and his faith is mad. It defies reason. It cannot be explained. But it doesn’t have to be—he just needs to hear it, to hold onto it. He doesn’t need to justify his resolve. He just needs to maintain it. There are moments of doubt, and the crashing bridge witnesses his crisis of faith as he cries out to a cold and indifferent world. “Is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?” It’s a more profound question that it first appears, since there’s a lot at stake. Love is more than caring for another person. It is more than how you feel about someone else, or even yourself. Love is safety. Love is shelter against a storm, love is the baseline that makes all futures possible. Without it we have nothing but ourselves trapped in a hostile, disenchanted universe. Should we give up on it, even when love is little more than faith in the possibility of love, and when leaving ourselves open leaves ourselves incredibly vulnerable? Love is risk, after all. The world doesn’t answer (the world never does), and so he has to answer himself
There’s a brief lull in the music and the storm starts up again, but we see him still standing there. He refuses to move. His faith endures, and the outro rewards us with a happy ending, although we don’t know whether the object of his love heals and returns to him, or if the faith is its own reward. It’s a better ending that way.
thank you. with out getting all cheesy, I'll say I identify. With the song and your take on it. very well done.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I should have the end up Tuesday morning. I was away this weekend and now I'm getting caught back up on work I missed.
to ..: If you don't like my particular interpretation that's of course entirely up to you. if you don't enjoy the writing that is of course also entirely up to you. But music as communal as Pearl Jam's was also probably not meant to be listened to in a vacuum either, and if you cannot learn from other people (I do all the time) or even just use another person's discussion/interpretation to remind yourself of why a particular melody/phrase/song moves you then you're really closing yourself off to a much richer and fuller experience of art and music.
I agree - and one of the things that drives me mad about PearlJam.com, and particularly its 'Porch' is that we seem to have lost the ability to discuss the music, how powerful it is and how it affects us - in a thoughtful and reflective way, or at least at any length. I think we need to remember how to do this - and quickly!! This thread is a prime example of the types of discussion I would like to see a lot more of on PearlJam.com, and not just in the 'Words and Music' section. Pearl Jam is all about the strongest of words and the strongest of music - so I'm grateful to Dr. Zoidberg for reminding us how the music, themes and words have a depth which can stand up to some proper and rigorous discussion. More like this on the front page of Pearljam.com please!!
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I should have the end up Tuesday morning. I was away this weekend and now I'm getting caught back up on work I missed.
to ..: If you don't like my particular interpretation that's of course entirely up to you. if you don't enjoy the writing that is of course also entirely up to you. But music as communal as Pearl Jam's was also probably not meant to be listened to in a vacuum either, and if you cannot learn from other people (I do all the time) or even just use another person's discussion/interpretation to remind yourself of why a particular melody/phrase/song moves you then you're really closing yourself off to a much richer and fuller experience of art and music.
I agree - and one of the things that drives me mad about PearlJam.com, and particularly its 'Porch' is that we seem to have lost the ability to discuss the music, how powerful it is and how it affects us - in a thoughtful and reflective way, or at least at any length. I think we need to remember how to do this - and quickly!! This thread is a prime example of the types of discussion I would like to see a lot more of on PearlJam.com, and not just in the 'Words and Music' section. Pearl Jam is all about the strongest of words and the strongest of music - so I'm grateful to Dr. Zoidberg for reminding us how the music, themes and words have a depth which can stand up to some proper and rigorous discussion. More like this on the front page of Pearljam.com please!!
I agree with tremors, but add there is always going to be some conflict on this page. It is where the most people hang out. The words and music page usually only gets people looking for this type of conversation.
I should have the end up Tuesday morning. I was away this weekend and now I'm getting caught back up on work I missed.
to ..: If you don't like my particular interpretation that's of course entirely up to you. if you don't enjoy the writing that is of course also entirely up to you. But music as communal as Pearl Jam's was also probably not meant to be listened to in a vacuum either, and if you cannot learn from other people (I do all the time) or even just use another person's discussion/interpretation to remind yourself of why a particular melody/phrase/song moves you then you're really closing yourself off to a much richer and fuller experience of art and music.
I agree - and one of the things that drives me mad about PearlJam.com, and particularly its 'Porch' is that we seem to have lost the ability to discuss the music, how powerful it is and how it affects us - in a thoughtful and reflective way, or at least at any length. I think we need to remember how to do this - and quickly!! This thread is a prime example of the types of discussion I would like to see a lot more of on PearlJam.com, and not just in the 'Words and Music' section. Pearl Jam is all about the strongest of words and the strongest of music - so I'm grateful to Dr. Zoidberg for reminding us how the music, themes and words have a depth which can stand up to some proper and rigorous discussion. More like this on the front page of Pearljam.com please!!
I agree with tremors, but add there is always going to be some conflict on this page. It is where the most people hang out. The words and music page usually only gets people looking for this type of conversation.
I know!! But people hanging out in the Porch that don't want to talk about Pearl Jam's music, and attack others that do? That's not right, it didn't used to be so, and it doesn't need to be so - as this thread shows.
'The Porch:
Step out on the porch to discuss Pearl Jam's music, tour, appearances, causes they support, etc. It's all about Pearl Jam here. '
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I found myself yesterday in the unenviable position of a four hour train journey with no iPod, so had a read through the Vitalogy and No Code via my phone. I wouldn't normally engage in others thoughts on Pearl Jam's lyrics, not because I'm deliberately closed minded, but these albums have had a long time to stew in my head with each song have a very strong flavour that I go back for over and over again. I get a thrill out of the way a line is broken up in Red Mosquito to tease out the payment of presents the devil is tempting the narrator with. The hidden double meaning. The secret tastes behind what is being presented. Discovering the magic for yourself is powerful and intoxicating. That said I also found the write up of Sometimes to be an interesting and revealing examination of a song I'd clearly been swallowing whole in the past insted of savouring. Thanks for the inspiration, will be reading more of your stuff man!
I found myself yesterday in the unenviable position of a four hour train journey with no iPod, so had a read through the Vitalogy and No Code via my phone. I wouldn't normally engage in others thoughts on Pearl Jam's lyrics, not because I'm deliberately closed minded, but these albums have had a long time to stew in my head with each song have a very strong flavour that I go back for over and over again. I get a thrill out of the way a line is broken up in Red Mosquito to tease out the payment of presents the devil is tempting the narrator with. The hidden double meaning. The secret tastes behind what is being presented. Discovering the magic for yourself is powerful and intoxicating. That said I also found the write up of Sometimes to be an interesting and revealing examination of a song I'd clearly been swallowing whole in the past insted of savouring. Thanks for the inspiration, will be reading more of your stuff man!
Very interesting. I've not really noticed that about Red Mosquito - will have a listen. Is that in the RM review, or from your own observation? I think Stip is right about this - hearing others engage their intellect with the music can really open up the songs in different ways - then you can go and check for yourself, and if you think they are talking rubbish then that's fine - but these kind of discussions help to bring the music alive again for me. Also, I don't think it 'spoils' anything - the music is deep within us all, and Backspacer has been out for over 12 months now - Ten a lot more months than that!!! I don't think we need to be threatened by hearing new perspectives on our favourite music. Stip's and your approach is a good one - because it takes you through the music in 'real time' in your head when reading. So I enjoyed reading this just now, it gives me something to think about in relation to the music, and gets me out of this 'vacuum'!
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I mean the way the line is broken up "he was just paying me" as in he has sold out to 'the devil', but then "a little visit". Its wonderfully playful. At least that's how I enjoy that line. Stip mentions the "reminding me of his 'Presents'" (or is it 'Presence') in his piece which is also a great way of layering the song with suggested intent but leaving it open to interpretation.
I also like the way Eddie calls back to Black in his song Gonna See My Friend, "Hard as a statue, black as a tattoo, never to go away" - love being the ultimate addiction perhaps?
Comments
Ok - understood! It's just I wonder if some of the songs where you enjoy them but feel the vocals don't quite hit the mark for a decent 'crescendo' etc - you would feel they pull it off better on the best live versions. Backspacer is a funny old record, was listening it today and it sounded absolutely superb, but last month it sounded a bit dull to me....
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I am not sure I’ve ever had as much trouble getting a handle on a Pearl Jam song as much as I do with Speed of Sound. The fact that the demo--so very different from the studio version-- was released first complicates things. People may prefer the Gone demo to the version on S/T (I prefer the S/T version myself, but I don’t enjoy either song all that much) but they are still basically the same song. The full band version fleshes out the logic of the demo—whether or not you like the final product it still makes sense. The full band version of speed of sound utterly transforms the mood and feel of the original.
Usually I talk about the music before the lyrics, as the music provides the background for the story the song tells, but I’m going to discuss the lyrics first. We need a clear sense of what Eddie was trying to do with Speed of Sound before we can figure out whether he was successful.
Lyrically this song is a gem—some of Eddie’s best writing in years (this song alongside Force of Nature is Eddie’s best 1-2 lyrical punch since Given to Fly -> Wishlist). It may help to think of Speed of Sound as an older, still unsettled but somehow more mature version of Off He Goes. Both songs are about trying to stay grounded in the middle of an oversized, overwrought life—the desire to hold onto the core of who you are against the howling pressures of the rest of the world. Off He Goes is not a song about fame. It’s autobiographical, but we all have to struggle to retain our integrity and our sense of self against what the world throws at us. We all fight the same war, even if our particular battles are different. But there’s a tentative quality to Off He Goes—not tentative in that he’s unsure of the outcome, but tentative as if he’s not necessarily comfortable raising the questions, or sure how to think about it. When I say that Off He Goes is immature I mean that it’s really a first attempt at coming to grips with how to survive in a world that really insists on making survival difficult, and it reflects the confusion, uncertainty, occasional overwroughtness and awkward hesitation that accompanies our first pass at these questions.
Speed of Sound approaches these same questions a decade later from an older, perhaps wiser, certainly more experienced and confident perspective (you can have confident uncertainty). Like Just Breathe, The End, and parts of Amongst the Waves and Force of Nature, it asks us to slow down and reflect. Much of Backspacer asks us to let go of the past and celebrate the moment of experience, something fairly unique in Pearl Jam’s catalog and the source of the album’s energy and abandon. But this is a Pearl Jam record, and Pearl Jam is far too self aware, too externally focused, to live in this moment forever. A song like Speed of Sound (and the others I mentioned) remind us that we will have to come down, and that if we want to hold onto part of the perfect immediacy of now we need to figure out how to make the present come to grips with the past and the future, to celebrate what we have now while recognizing how fragile, precious , and dependent that gift is. This is the story of Backspacer as a whole—no one song tries to capture that entire experience—and so Speed of Sound needs to be understood as playing a particular, concrete roll in the overall album arc. Inverting its name, it tries to slow us down. It warns us that if you only live right now you’ll lose sight of the things that made ‘now’ possible.
The song starts regretting how delicate and fragile the past is, how hard it is to find stability and permanency in a world that changes so fast and sweeps us up alongside it even as we change with it (moving at AND with the speed of sound—simultaneously subject and object). The chorus is hopeful and regretful at the same time. The singer keeps fixed in his mind his dream of distant light—of warmth, peace, illumination, belonging, and there’s no sense of surrender in the song (there is a certain sad sense of futility in Off He Goes—like we know how the story is going to end and so we might as well make our peace with it), but there IS a weariness to it. Not exhaustion, mind you—Backspacer is not Riot Act—but instead a grim awareness of just how long we sometimes have to float through dark empty spaces waiting for the sun.
The lyrics get a little urgent as he explores his inability to come to grips with his momentum. It’s an important verse: “Can I forgive what I cannot forget and live a lie. I could give it one more try.” There’s a sense in which his speed comes from his refusal to accept that the world he lives in is imperfect, and that it always will be. Acceptance is not the same thing as surrender (you can accept the way the world is while still trying to change it) but he cannot come to grips with that. It rings false. He feels guilty—like moments of serenity, calm, acceptance are unworthy of him—like he’s selling out a life long struggle. The problem is the hand wringing, the angst, the defiance, the anger fuel him but at the same time they push him further and further away from the peace he’s so desperate to find. The struggle for a perfect peace makes imperfect peace (all we’re probably capable of in an imperfect world) impossible.
The gravity of his situation, the way in which he feels trapped, the way in which he finds himself imprisoned by the same principles and commitments that are able to set him free, catches up with him in the final, confused verses. He hears a voice and reaches out to it, the promise of stability, fulfillment and security in an uncertain world, but he doesn’t know if what he’s trying to grab onto is real or not, whether he’s worthy of it or not, and in his own uncertainty, his reluctance to accept (not surrender, accept—again this is a key difference) he misses his window. He finds himself alone, isolated, moving too fast to commit to the rest of the world around him.
In the end Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, and probably the darkest moment on the record. Speed of Sound warns us of what will happen if we cannot dial back our war against the world, if we cannot realize that we should change the things we can change and make our peace with what we cannot—even as we work to change the context that makes the possible impossible. We have to learn to accept that there are limits to what we are capable of (the wisdom of the old) even as we refuse to surrender the passion of youth that makes all things possible. The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. Utopia cannot be the enemy of happiness. Ours is an imperfect world, a dark world, but not lacking in moments of light that are all the brighter for the surrounding darkness. To that end, Force of Nature probably has to follow Speed of Sound, since it affirms what Speed of Sound can only say through negation.
It’s a heady song, and captures in important ways the intellectual journey the band has been on for the last 17 years. It requires the previous records to give it context, but when that context is there Speed of Sound says a great deal. So let’s see how this vision translated.
The Demo:
Eddie sounds great here, his voice delicate, floating along on the ups and downs of the vocal melody. Although there is no water imagery here, the performance paints the picture of a man carried out to see by a tide he’s too tired to resist, but not so defeated that he cannot look backwards with longing towards where he came from. This is one of the most wistful songs Eddie’s ever written and it showcases the weathered quaver in his voice that he uses to replace the power he’s lost over the year. His Bruce Springsteen influence is on display here—not in the lyrics, but in the delivery and the melody. I can easily see this song appearing on Nebraska or Devils and Dust. The double tracked vocals, especially towards the end, give the song a sense of urgency during the climax, the high part sounding running away while the lower register keeps him grounded—straining for the shore even as he makes his peace with the tides that carry him away. There is a starkness to the music that is simultaneously cold and warm, stark and full—as if you’re floating through an empty space but you have old memories to keep you from freezing and fill the void (I hear space alongside water). The plaintive, straining guitar notes that punctuate the song give the song a mature sadness that comes from reflecting on the failures of a life lived. Most of Eddie’s demos that we’ve heard (think Man of the Hour, Small Town, Gone) feel, to a greater or lesser extent, incomplete. The Speed of Sound demo, on the other hand, is complete the way it is—in fact there’s a very real risk that weighing it down with more music will destroy the sense of starkness, distance, and cold warmth that the song depends on.
Studio:
And oh man, do they add more music. I wonder if Speed of Sound was sacrificed so that The End might live. I said earlier that this song reminds of Springsteen’s Nebraska, which was a record of demos that Springsteen decided to release. He definitely brought this one in for the E-Street Band. The music is actually pretty interesting. The problem is that, even moreso than the Supersonic solo, it is really poorly matched up with the song they added it to. For people who want more experimental Pearl Jam, this IS experimental pearl jam. There’s an alt-country feel to this one that they rarely play with, guitar tones they don’t use, and I actually like how it sounds. It’s spacey, pretty, rich, and has a hidden sing-songy quality to it that they manage to keep hidden without ruining the appeal. But it doesn’t match up to the song. I don’t know whether it’s faster than the demo, but it feels faster, and way too crowded. This is a song that demands quiet spaces for reflection, and here Eddie (who sounds good here, even though this song showcases him less than almost any other song on Backspacer) is struggling to think over the noise and the clatter. It makes some sense as an approximation for the subdued and reluctant alienation in the lyrics—the purpose behind the speed of sound lyric is not to necessarily convey speed (as a fast song might) but a lack of focus—unable to get perspective because everything around you is out of focus, a blur. The music pulls that off, although it’s probably too pretty for the subject matter. But still, had I not heard the demo I suppose I’d be satisfied with this. It would be imperfect, the same way that Unthought Known and Amongst the Waves are imperfect, but the song would make sense. However, the original presentation of Speed of Sound, reflections in a void rather than straining against a pleasant sensory overload, is so much more powerful that I cannot help but feel disappointed.
Speed of Sound ends the dip in Backspacer. You have a four song stretch of good ideas, vital to the arc of the record but imperfectly (or in some cases poorly) realized. It’s this block that keeps Backspacer out of the top tier of Pearl Jam records, but the album rallies magnificently for the final stretch of songs and the strongest finish to a Pearl Jam record since Vitalogy, and arguably of any of their albums.
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Great points all around - could not agree more about demo vs studio/full band Speed of Sound
Something I would love to hear your thoughts on though is the fact that Ed has said Speed of Sound was written for the Ronnie Wood record he was a part of.
Does that give any insight here?
Completely agree with your allusion to the Speed of SOund vs The End comparison - seems like 2 Ed solo songs would have been too much
I've only heard that one song from the record so I can't offer any compelling insight here. My guess is that it doesn't matter. I don't think Backspacer is a concept record. I think it explores the state of mind the band was in when they wrote it, so anything written during that period will address these themes.
Is there something about the Ronnie Wood connection you find significant?
We know there are songs (of the Earth for instance - which I personally like a whole lot more than Speed of Sound) sitting and ready and those could have been placed on the record instead of Speed of Sound, but for whatever reason, Ed felt that THIS song should be brought to the band and then, be it as a whole or Ed himself, be included on Backspacer.
Why is beyond me as I think the demo is far better than the studio version (for reasons you outline quite well as well as the possible reasons behind the solo not being used) but would like to hear yours and others thoughts on what is it about this song that PJ or Ed seemed to have NEEDED it on Backspacer
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but for a track that seems to be in most people's bottom 2 for the album (Supersonic being the other) I think Ed or the band must have thought it brought something important, be it a perspective or otherwise, to whatever they are trying to say with album
Thoughts?
PS I also think the release of the demo for this song as part of the buildup to Backspacer and Ed's performing it solo as opposed to say Just Breathe os very telling and supports your "only one Ed solo song" theory
As to why they changed it, who knows. This is not a solo record so there's only so much 'eddie and a guitar' that there is room for, and as is other Eddie songs like just breathe and UK are actually kind of thin for the rest of the band (or at least mike and stone). So simple band dynamics may have required adding on to this.
But beyond that the speed of sound that ended up on the record is something of an experiment. Not an altogether successful one, but that's the price of risk.
Very interested to see your take on The End in that regard - kinda makes you wonder if there is a version floating around somewhere that had the whole band playing on it...
Force of Nature is a necessary counterpoint to Speed of Sound. If Speed of Sound is a cautionary tale, a warning to slow down and make your peace with the world, Force of Nature is a celebration of a stubborn, unwavering faith that things can change, that if we hold fast to what we believe in we’ll be rewarded with a better world. In some respects these two songs are at odds with each other, but both perspectives are needed (an acceptance of the way things are and a faith that they will get better) for a healthy, meaningful existence. It is really on Backspacer where we finally get this fusion, and Force of Nature is probably the high point of the album precisely because this song embodies the weathered optimism that is always at the core of Pearl Jam’s best music. While I think Pearl Jam intended for The Fixer, Unthought Known, and Amongst the Waves to really be the core of the record it is actually Force of Nature (filtered through the context of the rest of the record) that best captures the emancipatory heart of the record.
Musically this is a deceptively simple song. The main riff is not overly complicated or particularly dramatic, but it is remarkably evocative. The entirety of Force of Nature sounds like a person standing on a widow’s walk or on a shoreline looking upon the horizon, battered and soaked by a storm, but unwilling to give in. You can hear the grim defiance and stubborn hope in the delivery and the music. This is the sound of refusal, of one person willing to stare down vast empty spaces without blinking, to lean into howling winds and perhaps bend, but never break. In this Force of Nature differs from songs like Insignificance or Deep. These are also stormy songs, but musically they focus on the destructive energy of the storm itself. These are songs that emphasis impact. This is a song about endurance, and endurance is not a particularly flashy emotion, and one that may be hard to appreciate until you get swept up into the song itself.
Musically part of me wants a bigger entrance than the song gets, something more explosive in the vein of Deep, but that might have made this song a little too dramatic, and there is an understated toughness to the main riff. It churns along, with the bass and drums pushing rather than propelling. They don’t give Force of Nature legs, but they give it a spine, while the main riff continues to doggedly put one foot in front of the other, and is clearly prepared to do so for as long as it takes. There’s almost something petulant about Mike’s primary counterpoint to the main riff, the sound of the put upon grimace we all have when we’re trapped in the rain and long to be dry, even though we know that it’ll be a long time before we are. It’s not an appealing part in itself, but it is a necessary component of the overall piece. The soundscape is less evocative without it.
Force of Nature is a headphones song. Most atmospheric songs are (and this is an atmospheric song, despite the conventional riff). There are a number of great flourishes throughout the mix that are buried a little deeper than I might preferred, but they’re striking when they fade in and out of your hearing, and it means that every time you hear the song you’re picking up something new (especially in the second verse). The brighter guitar parts pushing through the wind and rain right before the choruses are well done—rays of light peeking through a storm, moments of hope on a lonely vigil. They become more prominent with each chorus as the singer steels himself. Mike’s ‘leads’ in the bridge are great. They sound like flashes of lightning. The atmosphere in this song is terrific, especially because it is so subtle. And while some have called it cheesy, I think Mike’s outro is perfect, its bright chimes pushing through the murk, muted but no less diminished for it. It speaks of hope and optimism and new beginnings and the promises finally fulfilled. It’s simple, but so is the solo at the end of I am Mine, and both are powerful in their simplicity, managing to convey so much with so little.
This is a song about determination and defiance, but it’s also a song about faith, and it may be the finest song they’ve yet written about it. There is an anger to Faithful, and a certainty to it, that FoN lacks. The singer in Faithful has his anger to ground him, and his partner. He has what he needs, as long as he stays true to it (the love and the anger). It’s a love song, albeit a circuitous one. The singer in Force of Nature has nothing but promise. It celebrates refusing to give in when confronted by absence and uncertainty, of never wavering even when everything around you is hostile, when there are no guarantees of victory, when there are no small rewards or mile markers to let you know you’re on the right path. This is the essence of faith. It’s faith in love (and faith in each other) rather than a faith in God, but faith nevertheless. There are elements of Given To Fly to be found here too (which also, in its way, celebrates faith as refusal and defiance) but without the martyrdom. Both songs celebrate sacrifice, but Given to Fly transcends. Force of Nature endures, at least until Mikes outro lifts us out of the storm and carries us to our reward.
Eddie’s vocals capture the feel of the song perfectly. Eddie doesn’t lift us up, but he’s not supposed to. The waves crash down on us here. They don’t’ carry us away. He needs to be a rock. His voice needs to convey refusal (which is like defiance, but weathered and beaten down—unable to lash out but still unwilling to give in). He sounds like he’s been through a war, and he has, but there are notes of pride here too, honoring the fact that even though he’s still a long long way from home he is able to hold his head up and this is no small victory. His performance here is subtle, but very effective—the way his voice slightly lifts up for the ‘somewhere there’s a siren singing’, the way he finds comfort and inspiration in his memories and his faith; or the way he trails off coming out of the chorus, like he’s steeling himself for what he knows is still to come (he does the same thing in the pre chorus, the way he carefully drags out each word). I love how he delivers the ‘makes me ache, makes me shake, is it so wrong for us to think that love can keep us safe’—the slightly exacerbated way he questions an indifferent universe and then answers his own question since something has to respond to the silence (the nature of faith is that you’ll never get an answer and so you need to provide it yourself). These are subtle moments, but this is a subtle song, and they’re no less powerful for being understated, and Eddie deserves credit for turning his new vocal limits into strengths, for allowing craft to substitute for power.
Lyrically this is some of Eddie’s finest work in a long time. The central phrase ‘force of nature’ evokes something wild uncontrollable and eternal—something impossible to stand against, and it’s this impossibility that makes his vigil so moving, his refusal to back down in the face of something he cannot possibly hope to master. In this particular case the force of nature is love, and his determination to stand by and not give up on someone deeply flawed and deeply wounded. The songs imagery speaks of waits and vigils, but he’s not waiting for someone to love him back (this isn’t I Got Shit), but for someone to save themselves (and to let him in so he can help). It’s going to be a difficult journey, and the Alice In Wonderland allusion is effective. There’s no romance here. No grand adventure, no dream someone is just going to wake up from. This is long, hard, thankless work, with no guarantee of a happy ending (again faith)—the ‘no way to save someone who won’t take the rope and just lets go’ lyric gets to the heart of the problem. Do you abandon this person? Do you give up on someone or something that has made it manifestly clear that they do not (maybe even cannot) be saved, or do you stand by them?
The chorus and the remaining verses make clear that you stand by them, even in the face of the impossible demands this places upon you (the storm and shipwreck imagery), but they’ll never make it back if you’re not there to light their way. Someone has to be the beacon. Someone has to make sure the light doesn’t go out. Someone has to have faith. The first chorus captures this beautifully, and is addressed to the person who is lost. When you’re ready to come back, I’ll be here to show you the way.
The second chorus is even better, and one of my favorite lyrical moments in the catalog. This is addressed to an internal audience. He’s signing for himself. The siren’s song drives the listener mad, and his faith is mad. It defies reason. It cannot be explained. But it doesn’t have to be—he just needs to hear it, to hold onto it. He doesn’t need to justify his resolve. He just needs to maintain it. There are moments of doubt, and the crashing bridge witnesses his crisis of faith as he cries out to a cold and indifferent world. “Is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?” It’s a more profound question that it first appears, since there’s a lot at stake. Love is more than caring for another person. It is more than how you feel about someone else, or even yourself. Love is safety. Love is shelter against a storm, love is the baseline that makes all futures possible. Without it we have nothing but ourselves trapped in a hostile, disenchanted universe. Should we give up on it, even when love is little more than faith in the possibility of love, and when leaving ourselves open leaves ourselves incredibly vulnerable? Love is risk, after all. The world doesn’t answer (the world never does), and so he has to answer himself
There’s a brief lull in the music and the storm starts up again, but we see him still standing there. He refuses to move. His faith endures, and the outro rewards us with a happy ending, although we don’t know whether the object of his love heals and returns to him, or if the faith is its own reward. It’s a better ending that way.
Perfect description.
I think more needs to be said for Matt's drumming here, as his groove really solidifies the grit and toughness of the song. The little hesitation he uses at the end of each bar (excuse my lack of musical terminology) really adds a lot but doesn't over do it.
A lot of people complain about the huge buildup of momentum in bridge only to drop back down into the last verse. I think this is the point of the song though - its meant to feel like an uphill battle all the way through until the solo.
Top Notch!!
Was so good it actually made me laugh in parts - laugh with how good the review was!! hehehe. You nailed this one Stip - and the song. Expresses near perfectly what I already felt about this song, and takes me further too!!
Is tempting to chop some of the best lines up and repeat them - but there will be time for that!! Scorching review!!
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Was so good it actually made me laugh in parts - laugh with how good the review was!! hehehe. You nailed this one Stip - and the song. Expresses near perfectly what I already felt about this song, and takes me further too!!
Is tempting to chop some of the best lines up and repeat them - but there will be time for that!! Scorching review!!
Top Notch! indeed. I must admit Stip, some of your other reviews, in part have been a little confusing (to me) but you nailed this one my friend. It took me a while to warm up to this song which I think is becuase it has such an interesting, complexe, emotive dynamic that must be fully explored to appreciate fully. I see from your descriptions that I still did not have all the layers of this song peeled back and exposed. Thank you for that.
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i dont need a guided tour of any pearl jam music. the music itself is the guide. and it will take us all on a different journey.
I don't believe the reviewer's word or opinion is meant to be taken as THE WAY IT IS. It's only another's viewpoint, and it's just as valid as yours or mine. Of course the art will speak to each of us in our own ways.
Don't read it if you don't like it, but I've always enjoyed hearing others' feedback on music that I love so much, and I've read Stip's stuff with great interest. I even disagree here and there, but in the end, I know that when I sit down to listen to whatever album it may be, that it is mine and only mine for that private hour.
Well, the clue was in the thread title. I wouldn't read them then. Personally I like nothing better than reading someone who is informed, has opinions, and writes excellently discuss Pearl Jam's music, and then is open to hearing others' views. Pearl Jam have been a band with depth since day one - with subjects and themes that should be discussed. This isn't the Michael Bublé forum is it?
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I love to read what other fans think about PJ songs and records, especially when is well written.
Waiting for The End review that is a very beautiful song.
It's growing up just like me.
I should have the end up Tuesday morning. I was away this weekend and now I'm getting caught back up on work I missed.
to ..: If you don't like my particular interpretation that's of course entirely up to you. if you don't enjoy the writing that is of course also entirely up to you. But music as communal as Pearl Jam's was also probably not meant to be listened to in a vacuum either, and if you cannot learn from other people (I do all the time) or even just use another person's discussion/interpretation to remind yourself of why a particular melody/phrase/song moves you then you're really closing yourself off to a much richer and fuller experience of art and music.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I agree - and one of the things that drives me mad about PearlJam.com, and particularly its 'Porch' is that we seem to have lost the ability to discuss the music, how powerful it is and how it affects us - in a thoughtful and reflective way, or at least at any length. I think we need to remember how to do this - and quickly!! This thread is a prime example of the types of discussion I would like to see a lot more of on PearlJam.com, and not just in the 'Words and Music' section. Pearl Jam is all about the strongest of words and the strongest of music - so I'm grateful to Dr. Zoidberg for reminding us how the music, themes and words have a depth which can stand up to some proper and rigorous discussion. More like this on the front page of Pearljam.com please!!
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I agree with tremors, but add there is always going to be some conflict on this page. It is where the most people hang out. The words and music page usually only gets people looking for this type of conversation.
I know!! But people hanging out in the Porch that don't want to talk about Pearl Jam's music, and attack others that do? That's not right, it didn't used to be so, and it doesn't need to be so - as this thread shows.
'The Porch:
Step out on the porch to discuss Pearl Jam's music, tour, appearances, causes they support, etc. It's all about Pearl Jam here. '
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Very interesting. I've not really noticed that about Red Mosquito - will have a listen. Is that in the RM review, or from your own observation? I think Stip is right about this - hearing others engage their intellect with the music can really open up the songs in different ways - then you can go and check for yourself, and if you think they are talking rubbish then that's fine - but these kind of discussions help to bring the music alive again for me. Also, I don't think it 'spoils' anything - the music is deep within us all, and Backspacer has been out for over 12 months now - Ten a lot more months than that!!! I don't think we need to be threatened by hearing new perspectives on our favourite music. Stip's and your approach is a good one - because it takes you through the music in 'real time' in your head when reading. So I enjoyed reading this just now, it gives me something to think about in relation to the music, and gets me out of this 'vacuum'!
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I also like the way Eddie calls back to Black in his song Gonna See My Friend, "Hard as a statue, black as a tattoo, never to go away" - love being the ultimate addiction perhaps?