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Song of the day(Dissident)
JDE-PJ
Posts: 721
The fifth song off of VS, this is a a song a lot of people seem to love.
enjoy and comment if you like
Dissident
RrVwMirror
1/12/01 8:24 PM
SOTD: .....DISSIDENT
El Conquistador
9/6/99 10:25 AM
a DISSIDENT is here
dissident
She nursed him there, ooh, over a night
I wasn't so sure she wanted him to stay
What to say...what to say
But soon she was down, soon he was low
At a quarter past...a holy no...
She had to turn around
When she couldn't hold, oh...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here
And to this day, she's glided on
Always home but so far away
Like a word misplaced
Nothing said, what a waste
When she had contact...with the conflict...
There was meaning, but she sold him to the state
She had to turn around
When she couldn't hold...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh...oh...oh...
She gave him away when she couldn't hold...no...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh...
Couldn't hold on...she couldn't hold...no...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never the safest place, oh...
A dissident is here
RrVwMirror
9/6/99 11:54 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Hey...I thought we had holidays off! :-)
It's funny when things change so much, it's all state of mind...
evenkat
9/6/99 6:45 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
This is probably the one and only Pearl Jam song that I just never got into.
I guess I don't really understand the song. I would really like to hear what people think this song means, besides the obvious. Did the song give meaning to some specific point in history.
"You know what it's like" EV
pearlgirl
9/6/99 8:28 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
i know a lot of people don't like this song all that much but i love it. i've heard people complain about how they would rather them play any other song than this at concerts. i dunno, guess i just like it.
as for the meaning...i've always been confused about it. a dissident is a person who disagrees...i've always thought of a dissident as someone who is finicky and doesn't stick to one decision. in the first stanza, my favorite lines are the "but soon...a holy no." a woman has this man with her and she knows she shouldn't be with him but they end up sleeping together (a holy no).
as for the rest of the song, i just have jumbled ideas on it. a woman who loves a man but then she backs away from him and basically bails on him. she escapes when she realizes that she loves him--maybe she doesn't want to get hurt.
i'm not sure about the turning him into the state part...i used to picture a woman who's hiding this criminal in her house--like a spy--or something and then she doesn't protect him, she goes the easy way out and turns him in. i know i know, i have quite an imagination! it's goes with my whole james bond obsession
-jen
"living at risk is jumping off a cliff and building your wings on the way down"
-ray bradbury
RrVwMirror
9/6/99 10:19 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
I've always liked this song....I am not sure of the meaning, but I have always felt it is either about a woman who felt like she was raped, or claimed to be raped to save herself perhaps from persecution from her family, religion, or whatever the case may be...or it is about a woman who gave up a child for the same reason....in either case, I feel she did what she felt she 'had to do' as opposed to what she wanted to do...I am probably way off base here, but in my head I get a picture of a woman who went against her religion, beliefs or family and tried to escape by getting rid of, or turning in someone...but is suffering inside for her decision.
It's funny when things change so much, it's all state of mind...
CandleOfThought
9/7/99 06:16 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Gee... I never thought this song would be interpreted in the ways people have been expressing... to me it is very straightforward. It is a call against indifference, like Even Flow, but to action against oppression, instead of poverty.
A woman gives shelter to a dissident, an "enemy of the state", a freedom fighter for a cause she always chose to ignore, always preferred not to think too much about it, not to be touched by it, to accept the official version given by the authorities ("to this day, she's glided on... always something so far away").
But now it has landed on her, and she can no longer ignore it, she has to take sides. And she finds the official truth to be a lie, she finds that these dissidents fight for a worthy cause... but she shuts herself from it. After one night of fighting wiith her conscience, she finds it easier to deny what she has learned than to deal with the implications of the truth, since it means to take a stand against the establishment. So she delivers the dissident to his enemies ("When she had contact with the conflict, there was meaning, but she sold him to the state") and she will just go on with her life, trying to forget that unconfortable moment when the veil was lifted and she saw beyond it.
This song hits home with a lot of people here in Portugal, since we had a right-wing dictatorship ruling the country for 40 years, until 1974; freedom of expression was banned, censorship controlled the media, and those who expressed views against the established regime were denounced by their neighbours and colleagues and arrested by the political police (the PIDE-DGS). So situations like this happened a lot.
But today, what mostly comes to my mind is the fight of the people of East Timor, who have won the ballot for independence (78,5% majority) this weekend and now are being massacred by the Indonesian military, under the indifferent eyes of the United Nations. So please keep your eyes on East Timor; only the sway of the public opinion may urge the UN to action and still save the remnants of that people from total extermination. So please, don't do like the woman in this song.
(Check http://www.etan.org or any news site for details)
*** CandleOfThought ***
"Shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel"
snuh
9/7/99 07:46 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Originally I thought this song was about an "enemy of the state" as candleofthought does. But as I listened more and more to this amazing song I started to change my views. The girl is having an unwanted pregnancy, much to the disgust of her parents. Her parents want her to give up the baby for adoption she wasn't so sure but "at a quarter past, a holy no, she had to turn around" and she "sold him to the state". Its an injustice that the girl was pressured into giving away her own child. I get a bit emotional over this one. It's one of my favourites.
brokenarrow
9/7/99 09:57 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
...I have always looked at this song from a political standpoint also.
I've always pictured the woman taking care of a freedom fighter...The authorities knocking on her door,(probably giving her the choice of death or giving up the man she is trying to hide), giving him up...and having to live with that decision.....
I've pictured the conflicts that go on in Mexico, Cuba and the other militant islands in the Carribean....
How many more times will Holocausts occur on this planet? How many have happened since 1939-1945? Haiti, Cambodia, Laos, Afganistan, Kosovo, VietNam,
........You get the picture....It's Horriffic....people with their head in the sands always say..."Well, we've learned a great lesson after what happened in Germany, Russia, Poland in the 40's...It'll never happen again." Well guess what? It's happened so much SINCE then, it makes my soul ache.
The other meanings could be right also, But I always get a political image...
This is a wonderful tune.
brokenarrow>
enjoy and comment if you like
Dissident
RrVwMirror
1/12/01 8:24 PM
SOTD: .....DISSIDENT
El Conquistador
9/6/99 10:25 AM
a DISSIDENT is here
dissident
She nursed him there, ooh, over a night
I wasn't so sure she wanted him to stay
What to say...what to say
But soon she was down, soon he was low
At a quarter past...a holy no...
She had to turn around
When she couldn't hold, oh...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here
And to this day, she's glided on
Always home but so far away
Like a word misplaced
Nothing said, what a waste
When she had contact...with the conflict...
There was meaning, but she sold him to the state
She had to turn around
When she couldn't hold...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh...oh...oh...
She gave him away when she couldn't hold...no...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh...
Couldn't hold on...she couldn't hold...no...she folded...
A dissident is here
Escape is never the safest place, oh...
A dissident is here
RrVwMirror
9/6/99 11:54 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Hey...I thought we had holidays off! :-)
It's funny when things change so much, it's all state of mind...
evenkat
9/6/99 6:45 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
This is probably the one and only Pearl Jam song that I just never got into.
I guess I don't really understand the song. I would really like to hear what people think this song means, besides the obvious. Did the song give meaning to some specific point in history.
"You know what it's like" EV
pearlgirl
9/6/99 8:28 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
i know a lot of people don't like this song all that much but i love it. i've heard people complain about how they would rather them play any other song than this at concerts. i dunno, guess i just like it.
as for the meaning...i've always been confused about it. a dissident is a person who disagrees...i've always thought of a dissident as someone who is finicky and doesn't stick to one decision. in the first stanza, my favorite lines are the "but soon...a holy no." a woman has this man with her and she knows she shouldn't be with him but they end up sleeping together (a holy no).
as for the rest of the song, i just have jumbled ideas on it. a woman who loves a man but then she backs away from him and basically bails on him. she escapes when she realizes that she loves him--maybe she doesn't want to get hurt.
i'm not sure about the turning him into the state part...i used to picture a woman who's hiding this criminal in her house--like a spy--or something and then she doesn't protect him, she goes the easy way out and turns him in. i know i know, i have quite an imagination! it's goes with my whole james bond obsession
-jen
"living at risk is jumping off a cliff and building your wings on the way down"
-ray bradbury
RrVwMirror
9/6/99 10:19 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
I've always liked this song....I am not sure of the meaning, but I have always felt it is either about a woman who felt like she was raped, or claimed to be raped to save herself perhaps from persecution from her family, religion, or whatever the case may be...or it is about a woman who gave up a child for the same reason....in either case, I feel she did what she felt she 'had to do' as opposed to what she wanted to do...I am probably way off base here, but in my head I get a picture of a woman who went against her religion, beliefs or family and tried to escape by getting rid of, or turning in someone...but is suffering inside for her decision.
It's funny when things change so much, it's all state of mind...
CandleOfThought
9/7/99 06:16 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Gee... I never thought this song would be interpreted in the ways people have been expressing... to me it is very straightforward. It is a call against indifference, like Even Flow, but to action against oppression, instead of poverty.
A woman gives shelter to a dissident, an "enemy of the state", a freedom fighter for a cause she always chose to ignore, always preferred not to think too much about it, not to be touched by it, to accept the official version given by the authorities ("to this day, she's glided on... always something so far away").
But now it has landed on her, and she can no longer ignore it, she has to take sides. And she finds the official truth to be a lie, she finds that these dissidents fight for a worthy cause... but she shuts herself from it. After one night of fighting wiith her conscience, she finds it easier to deny what she has learned than to deal with the implications of the truth, since it means to take a stand against the establishment. So she delivers the dissident to his enemies ("When she had contact with the conflict, there was meaning, but she sold him to the state") and she will just go on with her life, trying to forget that unconfortable moment when the veil was lifted and she saw beyond it.
This song hits home with a lot of people here in Portugal, since we had a right-wing dictatorship ruling the country for 40 years, until 1974; freedom of expression was banned, censorship controlled the media, and those who expressed views against the established regime were denounced by their neighbours and colleagues and arrested by the political police (the PIDE-DGS). So situations like this happened a lot.
But today, what mostly comes to my mind is the fight of the people of East Timor, who have won the ballot for independence (78,5% majority) this weekend and now are being massacred by the Indonesian military, under the indifferent eyes of the United Nations. So please keep your eyes on East Timor; only the sway of the public opinion may urge the UN to action and still save the remnants of that people from total extermination. So please, don't do like the woman in this song.
(Check http://www.etan.org or any news site for details)
*** CandleOfThought ***
"Shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel"
snuh
9/7/99 07:46 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
Originally I thought this song was about an "enemy of the state" as candleofthought does. But as I listened more and more to this amazing song I started to change my views. The girl is having an unwanted pregnancy, much to the disgust of her parents. Her parents want her to give up the baby for adoption she wasn't so sure but "at a quarter past, a holy no, she had to turn around" and she "sold him to the state". Its an injustice that the girl was pressured into giving away her own child. I get a bit emotional over this one. It's one of my favourites.
brokenarrow
9/7/99 09:57 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
...I have always looked at this song from a political standpoint also.
I've always pictured the woman taking care of a freedom fighter...The authorities knocking on her door,(probably giving her the choice of death or giving up the man she is trying to hide), giving him up...and having to live with that decision.....
I've pictured the conflicts that go on in Mexico, Cuba and the other militant islands in the Carribean....
How many more times will Holocausts occur on this planet? How many have happened since 1939-1945? Haiti, Cambodia, Laos, Afganistan, Kosovo, VietNam,
........You get the picture....It's Horriffic....people with their head in the sands always say..."Well, we've learned a great lesson after what happened in Germany, Russia, Poland in the 40's...It'll never happen again." Well guess what? It's happened so much SINCE then, it makes my soul ache.
The other meanings could be right also, But I always get a political image...
This is a wonderful tune.
brokenarrow>
I know someday you will have a beautiful Life
Jason
Jason
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
9/7/99 10:22 AM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
since a lot of people weren't here yesterday, let's keep this one up for another day.
kmj
9/7/99 5:23 PM
Re: a DISSIDENT is here
I've read about the 9/16/99 Great Woods show where it appeared Ed was crying while singing Given To Fly and dissident back-to-back, even saying that he had to "compose himself" before starting Even Flow. Makes you wonder what, or who, this song is really about, or inspired it.
kj
I let my music take me where my heart wants to go....
~C.S.
spanna161
4/17/01 07:46 AM
Re: SOTD: .....DISSIDENT
ok, this is gonna seem like i'm just rambling but i'm not very good when it comes to explaining myself.. but anyway..
i've always thought of this song as being about a woman who has a child "she nursed him there over a night" - most probably out of wedlock - and after an attmept to try and keep him "she wanted him to stay, what to say, what to say", she is pressured by her family and their religion "a holy no" to give him away, and she simply gives in "she had to turn around.. she folded..".
(the "dissident" is her family.)
so then the young woman grows older without her child, but never really gets over it or forgets him either, he's always at the back of her mind and she feels almost incomplete "always home, but so far away" and continues through life although she might not be quite 'with it' (i always imagine her to be drifting aimlessly from day to day, almost lost and not sure of who she is now "and to this day, she's glided on")
the next bit is a bit tricky.. i just imagine that she finally gets in touch with her child, but it's too late - she gave him to the "state", to an orphanage, foster parents, adoptive parents, whatever, and perhaps he wants nothing to do with her now.. "she gave him away" and what's done is done.
anyway.. i hope at least one person understood that mess... that's my veiw on it anyway..
vegetable rights and peace
Jason