OFF HE GOES I LOVE YOU!!~((an Off He Goes appreciation thread that refuses to die))

VEDHEAD27

*prepares to go the hell off*

OFF HE GOES, my baby. You are just the most gorgeous,perfect thing out there. How in the world do you do it?! You amaze me constantly. You always floor me with your PERFECTION and extreme, out of this world beauty. I can't possibly praise you enough but never will I stop trying. I am yours..FOREVER!

Four score and 3 boards ago I made this very thread. Over the years it has made a come back but never seems to survive board maintenance. This thread needs to exist. Honestly, this is one HELL OF a masterpiece and should be praised on a frequent basis. Having just listened to the BENAROYA version for the millionth+ time I was forced to come resurrect this thread once more. I worship all versions but this was the first time I FINALLY got to experience the heaven live and never, ever will I forget that feeling. It makes me smile non-stop just thinking about it...and actually listening to it and recalling that out of body PJ experience is something I will forever cherish. What a dream come true. It was even more beautiful than I imagined. Pushed the love to an even greater level, which I didn't think was possible. PJ and OFF HE GOES will do this though. This song demands you to be in love....demands you to feel, DEMANDS YOU...period!

So um...yeah, I am completely head over heels in LOVE with this song!!! It owns a huge part of my PJ loving soul. It hits me like no other song, stirs up/captures something that is just unmatched. I can't even explain it....but damn does it feel sooooooo good! Instant smiles, instant chills, instant tears of joy. Ed completely pouring his soul out!!!! I will always stand by the belief that this is by far one of THE most emotional if not THE most emotion song by the man. These are some of the most gorgeous lyrics EVER!!! "it's like his thoughts are too big for his size" Are you kidding me?! My god. One of my fav lyrics hands down! What a song!

The music =perfect. This guitar work? Right from the beginning I'm majorly in love...just a few gorgeous strums and I am YOURS! Ed's voice = far beyond perfect. There aren't enough words to praise this voice here. How can anyone possibly deny this? The song is just flat out PERFECTION!!!!!!! Doesn't it almost make you kinda mad how PERFECT it is? The way the music builds is one of the greatest feelings. *chills* Soooo amazing! What a ride it takes you on....I don't ever wanna come back! I love at the end how it gets sooo sooo quiet and then BAM...that gorgeous guitar picks up once again and the song sends you off with HIM it seems... OFF YOU GO! I just get completely lost in this one. Never will I stop praising it's perfection. This feeling, this sound, this emotion behind Ed's voice and these insanely beautiful words. I love it all so much it hurts!!

I've always felt it to be about loosing yourself and finding yourself all within the same long journey that is life. Ed took something incredibly heartfelt here and created a serious masterpiece of a song. One of his best, one of the best....a song that will always be at the top of my list when it comes to favs...if not THE top.

Let's celebrate and praise the utter perfection that is and always will be OFF HE GOES!!!!!!!!! A song I can NEVER listen to just once. A song truely sent straight from above.


THANK YOU ED for pouring it all and creating PURE GOLD!
THANK YOU PJ!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

*screams from highest mountain top*

I LOVE YOU OFF HE GOES!!!


••{{Oƒƒ HE GOES}}••

1, 2, 1, 2...
know a man, his face seems pulled and tense

like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds

so i approach with tact

suggest that he should relax

but he's always moving much too fast

said he'll see me on the flipside

on this trip he's taken for a ride

he's been taking too much on

there he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes

there he goes...

he's yet to come back

but i've seen his picture

it doesn't look the same up on the rack

we go way back

i wonder about his insides

its like his thoughts are too big for his size

he's been taken... where, i don't know?

off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope

and there he goes...

and now i rub my eyes, for he has returned

seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned

for he still smiles...

and he's still strong

nothing's changed, but the surrounding bullshit that has grown

and now he's home

and we're laughing like we always did

my same old, same old friend

until a quarter-to-ten

i saw the strain creep in

he seems distracted and i know just what is gonna happen next

before his first step

he's off again

Bob Weir

I've always held a special place for this song,it remindes me of a friend of mine that kind of "lost it" around 96.I was lucky enough to see it at my first show(10/01/96)and that's a moment I'll never forget,great song!

VEDHEAD27

Awww that's so beautiful Bob Weir. I am just so beyond happy for anyone that gets to experience this one live and you got it at your first show! How extra beautiful.

Yes, it sure seems that this is a song people can relate to...it always seems to remind someone of someone else ya know? Oh the power! It just attaches itself to you. I'm never letting it go.

PerfectlyUnkept

Wow, so cool to read all that love for one of my favourite songs.

No Code was the first PJ album I bought on the day it was released... it was the first album to come out after they became my no.1 favourite band. That helps make the album and all the songs on it special to me.

There was always something about Off He Goes I loved but I found some extra love for it in 2000 when I learned it was the favourite song of Anthony Hurley, a fellow Aussie jammer, who died in Roskilde. It wasn't that Anthony loved it that made me love it, it was just that he gave me a reason to listen to it closer. I decided Anthony was right, it was one of their best.

To me, these are Ed's best lyrics. I have enjoyed listening and thinking about this little story more than any other song. And the music makes it, like Vedhead said, perfect.

VEDHEAD27

What a great post PerfectlyUnkept! Hey, looovin the name. We're definitely instant friends. haha.

Really though, thank you for sharing that story. I had no idea it was cherished so by someone that tragically passed at Roskilde. How touching though that his love made you look deeper into the song and have it hit you in a way it hadn't before. I'm sure that has Anthony smiling up there. Very moving.

OFF HE GOES is perfect! I'm glad you agree. There really is something that exclusively stands out about this song. A friend of mine actually led me to listen to it more closely and sink in complete and total love like never before, a bit similar to your situation.:) A friend that I converted into a PJ fan with NO CODE. I remember he once told me,"You know EVERY song on here is brilliant...but the one that truely gets better and better each time I listen to it is OFF HE GOES. I can't get enough of it. There is something very,very special about that song." I had always loved the song but once he said this it was just reborn. It never sounded the same again. All I could think is "my god he is SO, SO RIGHT!" There's just some extra magic at work here and I just can't express my full gratitude to ED & the boys for this beauty...but like I said, I'll never stop trying.

PerfectlyUnkept

Yeah, they dedicated Off He Goes to Anthony at the closing show of the 2000 tour in Seattle. That's how I found out. Ed said they'd got to know Anthony's family and friends and some of them were over in Seattle for the show. There's a bit about it on 5H if you don't have the boot - http://fivehorizons.com/tour/00/seattle2.shtml

VEDHEAD27

PerfectlyUnkept, thanks for reminding me of this. Now that you mention it, it does sound familiar. And I do actually have this boot and I actually made an OFF HE GOES playlist on my Itunes awhile back and THIS is a version I listen to quite often oddly enough. I haven't listened to the boot in it's entirety in a long time though (to hear the encore break prior to the song) but you just inspired me to go dig it out and do that so thanks again.

What a very touching, compassionate gesture this was of Ed to play this song for him. Anthony certainly had some awesome taste! This version has always had some added emotion. Ed's voice really quivers at times...very powerful. It's so beautiful, heartbreaking and comforting all at once.

There's a version from Boston 98 where Ed introduces the song saying~~>

"a little story and I haven't quite figured out if the ending is happy or sad...".

I think you can really feel this and that's one of the MANY things I love about the song...how it's sorta yet to be determined, or how perhaps you could make up the ending on your own. I just love how up and down and all over the place it is. At times it feels so hopeless and other times, just the very way the music and Ed's gorgeous voice rises you get the sense that everything is gonna be ok...... then the last words of ths song lead you to believe otherwise, but once again-the way the music just lifts you up...it feels TOO damn GOOD to be a sad ending.

Indeed a song to think deeply about. There are just so many layers. This is one that digs way deep.

*sigh*

I love it.

Cropduster49

This is one of my all time favorites...I LOOOVVVEEEEE this song.

mca47

Off He Goes is def. my favorite PJ song!! From the first time I played No Code and heard this song I was hooked. I really is a beautiful song...especially live.

i_am_a_wishlist

Off He Goes is the first Pearl Jam song I learnt on the guitar. I don't count Last Kiss cause it isn't by Pearl Jam.

UpHereInMyTree500

yeah great song for the guitar and the lyrics are very thoughtful....how do you think up stuff like this?

mariposa

My favourite song in No Code, and certainly one of the best and one of the most beautiful in the BENAROYA disc.

I still have to see and hear the guys play this live...I'm sure it'll be a different experience.

This song always makes me think of an old dear friend a few years back and still now actually. This song have so much meaning to me.

VEDHEAD27

I LOVE rain. I LOVE No Code. The 2 go hand in . On this gorgeous rainy night this perfect ass song is just more comforting than ever. NEVER will I tire of this masterpiece and NEVER will I understand how such a song exists. Damn! It really does own me.

Awesome to see all the love & praise for a song that is sooooooo, soooooooo worthy. UpHereInMyTree500...I have no idea how this song is even possible!!! Trust me! haha. Too fuckin perfect!!


mariposa...ahhhh the Benaroya version is definitely one of the greatest things on earth. As I mentioned in my first post ((but will say again to assist in it sinking in)) that was the FIRST time I finally got to witness this piece of heaven live!!!!!!!!!!! My god what a high!! Actually...if you listen in the beginning...the "extended" scream there is yours truly. ha! I just could not contain myself one bit. *tears up* That jam was taken to another level here too. Those acoustics + this song!?!??!!? :eek: The hope in this one always gets me...and the way the music (and Ed's heartbreakingly gorgeous voice) rises and falls with it. *sigh* PERFECT!!!! And even though at the very end, "he" is gone again...the music makes you FEEL otherwise. I always find myself grinning from ear to ear by the end of the song.

I totally know what you mean about being able to relate this song to someone. It's so personal like that. It reaches into you & really does have a deep, relatable, comforting effect. I'll never be able to praise it enough.

dan_vedder

i love this song to, its the centre piece of No Code which is a beautiful album on the whole. the guitar is perfect but most of all i love eddie in this, lyrical masterpiece. Off He goes is definately in my Pearl Jam top 10

sistanumsy

Oh my memory lane you can fail me now.

VEDHEAD27

Lovin the LOVE guys.

On this special day ~~~>(((HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDIE!!!))))) <~~~~ I'm going on a massive BDAY BUMPIN frenzy. I HAD to come and bump this thread!!! While the man has delivered us a humongous supply of flat out masterpieces....he really, really struck PURE GOLD with this song. What a gift!:o Happy birthday to us ALL when it comes to this perfection!! THANK YOU SO MUCH EDDIE!! Pouring out your soul and creating PURE gold. You're the greatest...and this song is "perfect" proof of that.

dan_vedder wrote:

the guitar is perfect but most of all i love eddie in this, lyrical masterpiece.

INDEED!!! The man delivers with such depth & intense emotion. It seriously attacks my heart every...damn...time!!! I can't praise him enough here.

whatsthefreezer

VEDHEAD27 wrote:

Lovin the LOVE guys.

On this special day ~~~>(((HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDIE!!!))))) <~~~~ I'm going on a massive BDAY BUMPIN frenzy. I HAD to come and bump this thread!!! While the man has delivered us a humongous supply of flat out masterpieces....he really, really struck PURE GOLD with this song. What a gift!:o Happy birthday to us ALL when it comes to this perfection!! THANK YOU SO MUCH EDDIE!! Pouring out your soul and creating PURE gold. You're the greatest...and this song is "perfect" proof of that.




INDEED!!! The man delivers with such depth & intense emotion. It seriously attacks my heart every...damn...time!!! I can't praise him enough here.

Totally agree. That song has really saved my life countless times.

VEDHEAD27

Beautiful whatsthefreezer!

Oooh OFF HE GOES! You are still my baby and still as gorgeous as ever! I've let the LOVE thread go without LOVE for far too long. I apologize as you deserve NON-STOP love & praise. I've just been so overwhelmed with all the other PJ love in the air but don't think for ONE second that I've forgotten about your perfection. You are SO perfect. You still knock me to my knees. As soon as I hear you, I can't even explain it...I just freeze up and tear up. I wanna laugh and cry all at once. You make me feel so much. It's all so personal...like just injected straight to the very core. It's also just that you're SO beautiful you make my heart feel like it's caving in or something (in the most euphoric, non-painful way possible of course;) ). Fact is, I've heard you a million plus times (always on repeat) and yet each time you manage to floor me.:o This breakdown of yours at the end?? *chills all over* This feeling right here!!! ~*Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!*~ The way you rise and fall...jam out and then get really quiet...you just take us on such a beautiful ride. How do you do this? You are SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!

<~~~ listening to ALBANY version

K...thank you SO MUCH FOR CALLING AND LETTING ME LISTEN TO THIS! You have no idea. Well actually...you do. See...I knew you'd knew when to call.


((((OFF HE GOES I LOVE YOU))))))


P.s. PJ...no you did NOT play OFF HE GOES...INTO...GONE? :eek:

How did you people survive this overload of beauty??? For real???

<~~ OFF I GO
*faints*

Omarama

yeah it's an amazing song.always comes into my head at really beautiful moments, like when i was in a boat crossing the most beautiful lake ever and the first song that came to mind was off he goes.

love it!!!!!!!!

reeferchief

Never really come to post in this part of the forum before but this thread looks like a good one to start...........OFF HE GOES unbelivably amazing lyrics even by Eddies standards this one is everything and then some.
Whilst I had always loved this song, especially the spine chilling opening chords from Jeff's bass, Mansfield night 3's double hit of Sometimes non stop straight in to Off He Goes just cemented it's true beauty in my mind forever:) I believe that was when the boot reduced me to tears, a grown man crying over the shear beauty of true art, not many artist's can do that to me but these five can:)

morgs08

i have many other fave p.j. songs, but this song will always be the most important to me...

i hadn't known my friend adam for that long and i remember this one night him, me and another friend of ours jamming in the lounge. we started singing along to 'off he goes' and i glanced over to see our new friend weeping.

when i asked him what was wrong he replied that when he was younger his girlfriend at the time was killed in a house fire and that song was played at her funeral.

i said to him, 'that's really awesome man, because that song was played at my father's funeral a few years ago too'

and we're still friends to this day! )

VEDHEAD27

It was played tonight...and seeing it on the set made me get all fuzzy and floaty like those in love usually do.
I thought this baby could a use a giant LOVE BUMP!

Wow morgs08, that is intense and very touching. Seriously, this song is one of THE most moving , powerful, emotion ones out there!
Again, I LOVE the LOVE and how this perfect song has had such a major impact on so many lives.

Eddie...your musical genius can be summed up with this one and this one alone. THANK YOUx infinity!!!

(((I LOVE YOU OFF HE GOES! FOREVER & EVER!)))

ChrisPJ

another fan maybe?

Crazy_Mary87

Ten was the first PJ album i ever bought and the magic eddie weaved was just incredible. Black? all time most love pearl jam song BUT and yes a big but, there is a void the size of 'Off He Goes' that can only be filled by OHG. its awesome to know that other people have a true appreciation for the musicianship of these blokes.

Pearl Jam and toast

One of the best songs ever written (and live on 2 legs' version being one of the more perfect live performances ever) as far as I'm concerned.

If I had time I'd do some elaborate, vedheadish post about it but I don't.

darthvedder88

VEDHEAD27 wrote:

*prepares to go the hell off*

OFF HE GOES, my baby. You are just the most gorgeous,perfect thing out there. How in the world do you do it?! You amaze me constantly. You always floor me with your PERFECTION and extreme, out of this world beauty. I can't possibly praise you enough but never will I stop trying. I am yours..FOREVER!

Four score and 3 boards ago I made this very thread. Over the years it has made a come back but never seems to survive board maintenance. This thread needs to exist. Honestly, this is one HELL OF a masterpiece and should be praised on a frequent basis. Having just listened to the BENAROYA version for the millionth+ time I was forced to come resurrect this thread once more. I worship all versions but this was the first time I FINALLY got to experience the heaven live and never, ever will I forget that feeling. It makes me smile non-stop just thinking about it...and actually listening to it and recalling that out of body PJ experience is something I will forever cherish. What a dream come true. It was even more beautiful than I imagined. Pushed the love to an even greater level, which I didn't think was possible. PJ and OFF HE GOES will do this though. This song demands you to be in love....demands you to feel, DEMANDS YOU...period!

So um...yeah, I am completely head over heels in LOVE with this song!!! It owns a huge part of my PJ loving soul. It hits me like no other song, stirs up/captures something that is just unmatched. I can't even explain it....but damn does it feel sooooooo good! Instant smiles, instant chills, instant tears of joy. Ed completely pouring his soul out!!!! I will always stand by the belief that this is by far one of THE most emotional if not THE most emotion song by the man. These are some of the most gorgeous lyrics EVER!!! "it's like his thoughts are too big for his size" Are you kidding me?! My god. One of my fav lyrics hands down! What a song!

The music =perfect. This guitar work? Right from the beginning I'm majorly in love...just a few gorgeous strums and I am YOURS! Ed's voice = far beyond perfect. There aren't enough words to praise this voice here. How can anyone possibly deny this? The song is just flat out PERFECTION!!!!!!! Doesn't it almost make you kinda mad how PERFECT it is? The way the music builds is one of the greatest feelings. *chills* Soooo amazing! What a ride it takes you on....I don't ever wanna come back! I love at the end how it gets sooo sooo quiet and then BAM...that gorgeous guitar picks up once again and the song sends you off with HIM it seems... OFF YOU GO! I just get completely lost in this one. Never will I stop praising it's perfection. This feeling, this sound, this emotion behind Ed's voice and these insanely beautiful words. I love it all so much it hurts!!

I've always felt it to be about loosing yourself and finding yourself all within the same long journey that is life. Ed took something incredibly heartfelt here and created a serious masterpiece of a song. One of his best, one of the best....a song that will always be at the top of my list when it comes to favs...if not THE top.

Let's celebrate and praise the utter perfection that is and always will be OFF HE GOES!!!!!!!!! A song I can NEVER listen to just once. A song truely sent straight from above.


THANK YOU ED for pouring it all and creating PURE GOLD!
THANK YOU PJ!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

*screams from highest mountain top*

I LOVE YOU OFF HE GOES!!!


••{{Oƒƒ HE GOES}}••

1, 2, 1, 2...
know a man, his face seems pulled and tense

like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds

so i approach with tact

suggest that he should relax

but he's always moving much too fast

said he'll see me on the flipside

on this trip he's taken for a ride

he's been taking too much on

there he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes

there he goes...

he's yet to come back

but i've seen his picture

it doesn't look the same up on the rack

we go way back

i wonder about his insides

its like his thoughts are too big for his size

he's been taken... where, i don't know?

off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope

and there he goes...

and now i rub my eyes, for he has returned

seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned

for he still smiles...

and he's still strong

nothing's changed, but the surrounding bullshit that has grown

and now he's home

and we're laughing like we always did

my same old, same old friend

until a quarter-to-ten

i saw the strain creep in

he seems distracted and i know just what is gonna happen next

before his first step

he's off again

VEDHEAD27, this is the very reason why you FUCKING ROCK!!!!

breath_girl

The BENAROYA version is so great... When Ed says "Ah and there he goes" and it trails off to the amazing guitars... I get chills! Perfection!

idratherbe

...lucky enough to be sitting right next to my sweet VEDHEAD27 the first time she heard this beauty song live... my God, the acoustics in Benaroya Hall, the music they gave us all that night (and for a great cause!), the whole evening was pure magic. I will never forget that show or the people I spent that day and night with as long as I live.

This song has such a calming effect on me; it's very grounding. Lovely, beautiful, introspective perhaps? Sweet as honey.

I must admit, though, that one of my favorite comments Ed has made before playing this song -- "This is a song................. about an asshole". Ever wistful is the man front and center.

~peace~

Low_Light03

Great song that means alot of different things to different people. He dedicated to his brothers who were at the show in Los Angeles this year. Ed dedicates this version to a friend of the crew that passed away.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TKlEABUsteU

VEDHEAD27

It's already been said but it can't be said enough....

VEDHEAD27 wrote:

On this special day ~~~>(((HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDIE!!!))))) <~~~~ I'm going on a massive BDAY BUMPIN frenzy. I HAD to come and bump this thread!!! While the man has delivered us a humongous supply of flat out masterpieces....he really, really struck PURE GOLD with this song. What a gift!:o Happy birthday to us ALL when it comes to this perfection!! THANK YOU SO MUCH EDDIE!! Pouring out your soul and creating PURE gold. You're the greatest...and this song is "perfect" proof of that.

**listening to OFF HE GOES in repeat mode**

mca47

My alltime favorite PJ song!!!!

Such a gem!