meaning of thumbing my way

youngster

all right,
so my wife and I have a discussion going on about the lyrics to thumbing my way. we each have our own opinons of what the lyrics mean and I would like some input. just like to hear what the pit thinks this song is about. Thanks a lot.

InMyTree4

one of my favorites!

celebration

cropduster82 wrote:

all right,
so my wife and I have a discussion going on about the lyrics to thumbing my way. we each have our own opinons of what the lyrics mean and I would like some input. just like to hear what the pit thinks this song is about. Thanks a lot.

I vote for you going first

youngster

celebration wrote:

I vote for you going first

Fair enough. I think it's about someone (Ed cause he's singing) who lost someone close who's very special to him. The hitchhiking and trying to thumb his way back to heaven are just metaphors. He is missing this person and is recalling all the great times. Looking at the rusty signs tells me he is thinking about the imperfections of this person that he loved which is what most people don't notice. They only see the good things. My wife believes he is contemplating suicide. The part about the rope around his neck is what tips her off but I think it's another metaphor. Is either one of us right?

NewDamage

cropduster82 wrote:

Fair enough. I think it's about someone (Ed cause he's singing) who lost someone close who's very special to him. The hitchhiking and trying to thumb his way back to heaven are just metaphors. He is missing this person and is recalling all the great times. Looking at the rusty signs tells me he is thinking about the imperfections of this person that he loved which is what most people don't notice. They only see the good things. My wife believes he is contemplating suicide. The part about the rope around his neck is what tips her off but I think it's another metaphor. Is either one of us right?

I think you are closer than she is. Don't see it as a suicide song at all.

youngster

Hello everyone! I don't usually blog online but due to the circumstances of my hubby and I's discussion, I feel that it is necessary to do so!
Here is what I feel the song is about:
I feel that the guy has lost a love one that he obviously loves dear but that the "thumbing my way back to heaven" means that he is trying to go to where she has gone. Everyone knows that when you lose a love one you think about where they have gone and what it woud be like to be with them once again. So I feel that when the lyrics describe a roadside and an overpass and a rope...I feel that he is contemplating suicide and that this is the only way to get to heaven, where his lost love has gone. My husband is right about the rusty signs being the imperfections of life and his loved ones cause no one else ever sees these but that maybe this particular guy is so in love with this woman that despite the rusty signs he is willing to do whatever it takes to get back to "heaven" her!
Maybe this is just my opinion but hey....thanks for letting me blog!

dontloseyourheat

I think of it as a post-break up song. She left him because he took her for granted.

"I let go of a rope,... thinking that's what held me back
And in time I've realized,... it's now wrapped around my neck"

He took her for granted, thinking he didn't need her. Once she left, he realized that he really did.


"All the rusted sign we ignore throughout our lives
Choosing the shiny ones instead
I turned my back,... now there's no turning back"

She was the rusted sign. He thought it would be better to be with someone else, so he "turned his back" and chose the "shiny ones". She left and no there is "no turning back."

"No matter how cold the winter,.. there's a springtime ahead
I smile, but who am I kidding?
I'm just walking the miles,.. every once in a while I'll get a ride
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven"

He is all alone now and trying to rebuild himself, trying to find happiness (ie "heaven")

holleroxx

I thought Ed wrote the song for a friend that had died from Aids. He played it at the funeral and either gave the lyrics sheet to the family or put it in the casket. Thats the story I had heard. Beautiful song. What would have been my brother-in-law (also a HUGE fan) died of A.L.S. and that song always makes me think of, miss, remember and appreciate Bryan each and every time I hear it. I believe thats what it was meant to do.

dontloseyourheat

Supposedly Eddie played it at Troy Bethel's funeral.

"Friends and loved ones gathered at Capitol Hill's Baltic Room on Sunday, February 10, to celebrate the life and mourn the recent passing of Troy Bethel, a friend of the local music community. Hosted by longtime friends Jeff Ofelt and Wade Weigel (part-owners of the Cha Cha and Chop Suey), the memorial featured a wall of photos and a video montage of various performances and candid moments from Troy's rich life. Recent L.A. transplant Mario Diaz summed up by telling the crowd, "Although he was never famous, Troy was a star." A two-song acoustic performance from a newly mohawked Eddie Vedder left hardly a dry eye in the house, particularly since it included a Cat Stevens song from one of Troy's favorite movies, Harold and Maude. Many in the crowd noted how Troy would have loved the fact that his memorial service featured enough "star power" to make "the society pages." This is the best I can do for you. Rest in peace, Troy Boy."

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=9993

celebration

cropduster82 wrote:

Fair enough. I think it's about someone (Ed cause he's singing) who lost someone close who's very special to him. The hitchhiking and trying to thumb his way back to heaven are just metaphors. He is missing this person and is recalling all the great times. Looking at the rusty signs tells me he is thinking about the imperfections of this person that he loved which is what most people don't notice. They only see the good things. My wife believes he is contemplating suicide. The part about the rope around his neck is what tips her off but I think it's another metaphor. Is either one of us right?

I don't think it's really a matter of being right or wrong. For years, a song that I love, I thought I had the meaning pegged, then one day I read someone else's definition and that seemed to work as well, perhaps even better than mine and perhaps the real meaning. But I never once thought I was wrong after I read someone else's interpretation. Especially if the meaning isn't coming from the actual songwriter!

I also think it's kinda limiting to hold some songs to just 1 definite definition. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen but I just think that some songs can be, and are, more encompassing. I find the best lyrics are the vague ones that don't work perfectly cause it allows the me lots of room for my own interpretations

I'm also sure songwriters ultimately want to create the song so the fan/listener makes it their own, so in the end clever lyrics, like this song has, does just that.

ok im still drunk....damn i gotta work in the am....

what was the original question again....damn

Sane Mary

masturbation

Corey Lynn

I think that the song is about regret and the realization that your life will not turn out the way that you thought it would. I can see this being written about his friend with AIDS. Having a debilitating illness myself (MS) I have interpreted this song to have meaning in my life. So here is my 2 cents for whoever cares to read it.

I have not been home since you left long ago
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
(Things have changed)

Counting steps,.. walking backwards on the road
I'm counting my way back to heaven
(the walking backwards down the road signifies that I must rethink my life. I have different decisions to make now that I know that I have this illness, but am still in pursuit of happiness, but must backtrack to find it)

I can't be free with what's locked inside of me...
If there was a key, you took it in your hands.
There's no wrong or right,... but I'm sure there's good and bad
The questions linger overhead
(I feel that my life was decided for me now. I know that I will be sick for periods of my life and it is a really helpless feeling. The questions may be "why me" or "what could I have done differently in my life to stop this")

No matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
I wish that I could hold you... wish that I had
Thinking 'bout heaven
(Their will be bad times, but their will also be good times. Again, their is regret for things in the past and I am wondering if I will be able to experience all of the things that I thought I would)

I let go of a rope,... thinking that's what held me back
And in time I've realized,... it's now wrapped around my neck
I can't see what's next,... from this lonely overpass
Hang my head and count my steps, as another car goes past
( I have lived selfishly. I have worried about things that really didn't matter. Now that I know I have this disease my priorities are changing. I am having to rethink everything and my future is unclear. It is hard not to resent those who are not sick and the world just keeps on going around me even though my world has crashed down (another car goes past) )

All the rusted sign we ignore throughout our lives
Choosing the shiny ones instead
I turned my back,... now there's no turning back
(again..selfishly living and taking things for granted. I now have information that has changed my life and there is no going back.)

I smile, but who am I kidding?
I'm just walking the miles,.. every once in a while I'll get a ride
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
(this is a repeat of the above thought that their will be good and bad times and I will just rethink things and continue on a different path to happiness, but I am scared to death on the inside (I smile but who am I kidding))

CHANGEinWAVES

for me....it's more about internal thought, it's a personal song.

southerngarden

i gotta think the suicide idea is a little off.

while im not religious...i was under the impression that if you commited suicide you werent going to heaven? so if you had enough faith to think that if you died youd spend forever with your loved one in heaven i think you would also frown upon suicide as it would be considered sin and youd go to hell anyways

but like i said im not religious and i dont intend to step on anyones beliefs at all...

i think the hubby is right here...i like the rusted sign metaphoar idea...

Fighting Hellfish

dontloseyourheat wrote:

I think of it as a post-break up song. She left him because he took her for granted.

"I let go of a rope,... thinking that's what held me back
And in time I've realized,... it's now wrapped around my neck"

He took her for granted, thinking he didn't need her. Once she left, he realized that he really did.


"All the rusted sign we ignore throughout our lives
Choosing the shiny ones instead
I turned my back,... now there's no turning back"

She was the rusted sign. He thought it would be better to be with someone else, so he "turned his back" and chose the "shiny ones". She left and no there is "no turning back."

"No matter how cold the winter,.. there's a springtime ahead
I smile, but who am I kidding?
I'm just walking the miles,.. every once in a while I'll get a ride
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven"

He is all alone now and trying to rebuild himself, trying to find happiness (ie "heaven")

I pretty much agree with this. I would add that he is very depressed. Not just typical breakup depressed, but a deep dark depression. But he hasn't given up hope. Hence the no matter how cold the winter (no matter how deep the depression) there's a springtime ahead ( there's alight at the end of the tunnel. There's hope to get out of this. But not yet....I smile, but who am I kidding?

This song will always be a favorite. i remember listening to the CD for the first time, and things were pretty bleak at the time. No matter how cold the winter, there's a spring time ahead.....I think of that line all the time

RB659246

Eddie captures what it is to grieve so succinctly in this song. The journey from grief to life. Because grief is something everyone endures alone...where I "hang my head and count my steps while another car goes past", and sometimes you meet someone who helps you in some way ("every once in a while I get a ride").