The song is definitely about drugs, losing your mind, escaping reality by going on a hellacious bender. Stone and Ed have both acknowledged that.
I don't think it's about spouse murder, although I could see how some lines could mean that. It's about using drugs as an escape to AVOID doing something like that (explore and not explode).
btw, I think the severed hand ed (or the narrator) sees is his own.
That was my other thought, that it was his own hand and that the insanity had taken him to a place where he lopped it off....but the "lady on the cement floor" thing always made me think it was something he did while under the influence....
I just saw the article about stones comments.....wish I had a link, tho.....
I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts about how using drugs as an escape to avoid something like that....."if I dont lose control...explore and not explode"....just like the thought that many people probably have that would be like..." If I could just control this drug, or control the hallucinations I caould learn so much."
Unfortunately more often than not they lose their heads.....er hands
"From the Amazonian rain forst comes one of the most potent catalysts for expanded awareness yet discovered by human beings."
Besides seeing and experiencing fantastic overwhelming stuff, you go through some incredible scary stuff – like your own death, hence the dragons and the severed hand.
This is an experience Ed has'nt gone through yet, since he wants to "clean up" his system before so. It's writen after the stories of friends who had done it.
"From the Amazonian rain forst comes one of the most potent catalysts for expanded awareness yet discovered by human beings."
Besides seeing and experiencing fantastic overwhelming stuff, you go through some incredible scary stuff – like your own death, hence the dragons and the severed hand.
This is an experience Ed has'nt gone through yet, since he wants to "clean up" his system before so. It's writen after the stories of friends who had done it.
Thank you.....that was the info I was trying to remember....
Always figured the 'lady' was armyspeak for gun (watch Full Metal Jacket), and that the song is about a soldier turning to drugs in Iraq. Why else all the references to getting home?
Always figured the 'lady' was armyspeak for gun (watch Full Metal Jacket), and that the song is about a soldier turning to drugs in Iraq. Why else all the references to getting home?
Seeing how the album has some very political references, I think your interpretation is very keen my friend!!!
Spirituality is what most of Pearl Jams songs are about. Or the search for it. It's all over the lyrics. Noticed how Ed is a totally differant person these days? He's found it. Listen people, listen.
"From the Amazonian rain forst comes one of the most potent catalysts for expanded awareness yet discovered by human beings."
Besides seeing and experiencing fantastic overwhelming stuff, you go through some incredible scary stuff – like your own death, hence the dragons and the severed hand.
This is an experience Ed has'nt gone through yet, since he wants to "clean up" his system before so. It's writen after the stories of friends who had done it.
Ed talks about this topic in the radio interview he did either the day of or the day before SNL. I'm sure most of you listened to it. What's the Seattle station called again?
I agree with the mushroom trip reference. Having experimented 13 years ago, it was a trip I still can't forget. I was in Newfoundland, and mushrooms(hallucinagenic type) are natural there. Brewing tea from them is potent.
Ed probably had not had them in years and had a wild ride " got some kicks wanna take a ride?, I said yeahh!!" Leave your lady on the cement floor.
Probably Jill dancing her arse off.
When you're on shrooms you feel like you have no control, especially your
extremities(arms and legs) feel separate from your body. If you are around people you don't completley trust , watch out. You feel like falling down, but you are still standing and almost floating. People, places, and things get
animated(cartoonlike). For the record, I haven't touched them since, and will not again.
The song rocks. Great opener too! (may 9,2006) cheers from Toronto
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's Soul remains Unawakened.
Anatole France
This is from my guided tour post/thread, so this is trying to put severed hand into the context of the rest of the record
Eddie has said on a few occasions that Severed Hand is about psychotropic drugs, and there’s no reason to doubt him. The lyrics certainly make it seem like the song is about buying and using them. I’ve never done any so I can’t comment on whether or not he gets the experience right. The more interesting part of the song is not what the experience is like, but why he needs them in the first place, and whether not they give him what he needs.
The start of the song has a wonderfully powerful build, and Eddie’s vocals have a vaguely ominous and sinister quality to them that provides a nice compliment. For whatever reason, the singer cannot stay in his vacuum. He’s exposed and vulnerable. He sees too clearly and knows too much for that to work, and he cannot cope with it. At least not yet. He needs help, and is looking for mind-altering drugs to provide it. What is clear right off the back is that the singer is the one without power in this relationship, confronting a gatekeeper who holds the secrets to the salvation he craves. It’s also made clear right off the bat that this is a journey the singer has to make on his own. His woman has to be left behind, unceremoniously dumped onto the concrete floor. But the singer is so desperate for some kind of escape he has no problem with the deal. This is a decision he will come to regret later in the record. One of the messages to take away from Pearl Jam is that salvation and peace (inner and world) cannot be accomplished without others.
The falling down chorus is my favorite part of the song, and some of my favorite lyrics on the entire record. It’s meant to bring the listener back to comatose. He has no fear except for falling, which is to say failure and damnation. But another way to think about this is that a fear of falling means you have a fear of everything, since every facet of existence has some degree of risk attached to it. And right now the singer is overwhelmed with reality and everything in it. This could be a reaction to his personal life, the state of the world, or both. I’m inclined to think it’s both, with the state of the world weighing on him so heavily that it’s affecting the rest of his life. The severed hand line supports that reading. It’s likely a reference to a story about a soldier in the Iraq war who had to go find a friends severed hand, recognizing it from the wedding ring (if someone knows the details of this story better please share them). That experience (and the war around it that he is trying to walk away from) may have left the person so traumatized that they can’t make sense of anything else. Either way, he needs a way home, a way back to a sense of safety, and serenity. He needs some kind of grounding for his life
Are drugs the answer? They seem to be, at least in part. They offer an escape. You can see dragons instead of war—whatever kind of fantasy you want. And as we move into the next chorus the benefits of his expanded sense of consciousness are clear. His room is larger, and there’s more space for him within it. It buys him time to try and think and understand, but at the same time there is a realization that this isn’t the answer. The questions haven’t gone away. Reality will be waiting for him, and he’s going to have to confront it and decide how he can live in, and hopefully transcend, the world of pain outside our vacuum alluded to in Life Wasted and World Wide Suicide.
Always figured the 'lady' was armyspeak for gun (watch Full Metal Jacket), and that the song is about a soldier turning to drugs in Iraq. Why else all the references to getting home?
I remeber reading an album review that mentioned SH was about a soldier too. I don't know....
"This guy back here is giving me the ole one more....one more back to you buddy."
Everything after the lyrics "wedding band" insinuate a serious trip.
What I got out of it, is possibly a broken marriage due to a drug habit that one was not willing to give up to save the relationship.
Could be modeled after anyone...
I remember Ed saying it was about a psychotropic. I don't remember him saying drug. But I truly do believe the tune is about marriage. The big man is his conscious and he is finding reasons to stay with it. The dragon is about getting to know every thing about your partner and the room getting taller is about growing. And if he explores and not explode he can make it..... But that is just me
I like the broken marriage due to drugs theme.
I think the "psycotropic" is a date rape hallucinogenic like kitamin or ghb that rapes the mind for a few years before the flashbacks.
"Tried to walk found a severed hand, recognized it by the wedding band."
Wedding band, I took as a symbol of obligation...
as if Eddie is trying to say that a hand was severed (a person hurt) because they tryed to fulfill an obligation...
This made me consider the idea that the severed hand could represent the previous marriage. Everything else is a feeling of reality which sprang from a new life. Just verbally spitting here.
If that was a joke--not funny, if that was serious---are you in denial?
why would they be, because the subject matter is God and thats a hot topic for you?
"God what do you say" in respect to forgiveness is another lyric which puts spiritual matters at the fore of the album, why should it be that out of place elsewhere?
I thought that was in reference to a bouncer who stands at the door of a club/pub (any public place where you can get shit-faced)
Yeah, that would make sense, b/c at some clubs, only "certain" people get in. "Leave your lady on the cement floor" could mean she didn't get in and he did and well,... all kinds of "influential matter" is abundant in clubs, hence leading to the overall experience! Just a thought. Who really knows anyway besides the one who actually wrote it?
Always figured the 'lady' was armyspeak for gun (watch Full Metal Jacket), and that the song is about a soldier turning to drugs in Iraq. Why else all the references to getting home?
I thought the same thing
I think it's about a soldier who takes part of a chaotic fight and takes drug to handle al of it. He want to get hurt so he can get home(so please understand i just need my friend a way home)So he walks and finds his own hand that was blown of.
Once dissolved we are free to grow...when the damm war wil be over we wil be able to move on.
I tought i was way of with this one so i didn,t want to say anything before.
I like the idea of going into a room, tripping your brains out, losing sense of reality for a few hours, then going back to your life. "I'll answer this when I get home". Thats what the whole song means to me. Severed hand is losing a little of yourself, reattaching it and moving on. It will never be the same, but its back.
I don't make any trips anymore, but break out a bottle of wine after a long day at work and I can still relate. Simple, yes, but I'm a low maintainence type of gal!
Thank you fellow 10 clubber for saving my ass....again!!!
Comments
That was my other thought, that it was his own hand and that the insanity had taken him to a place where he lopped it off....but the "lady on the cement floor" thing always made me think it was something he did while under the influence....
I just saw the article about stones comments.....wish I had a link, tho.....
I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts about how using drugs as an escape to avoid something like that....."if I dont lose control...explore and not explode"....just like the thought that many people probably have that would be like..." If I could just control this drug, or control the hallucinations I caould learn so much."
Unfortunately more often than not they lose their heads.....er hands
Nuclear fission
" this song's about psycotropics" EDITTED
i think it was: "this song's about psycotropics"...whatever, it's the same...this song is about drugs!
"From the Amazonian rain forst comes one of the most potent catalysts for expanded awareness yet discovered by human beings."
Besides seeing and experiencing fantastic overwhelming stuff, you go through some incredible scary stuff – like your own death, hence the dragons and the severed hand.
This is an experience Ed has'nt gone through yet, since he wants to "clean up" his system before so. It's writen after the stories of friends who had done it.
https://www.facebook.com/Bring.Pearl.Jam.To.Israel
I thought that was in reference to a bouncer who stands at the door of a club/pub (any public place where you can get shit-faced)
Avocados have a big Stone
Thank you.....that was the info I was trying to remember....
Nuclear fission
Seeing how the album has some very political references, I think your interpretation is very keen my friend!!!
-Eddie Vedder
6/24/06 Cincinatti, Ohio
6/14/08 Manchester, Tennessee
~~I agree~~
Ed talks about this topic in the radio interview he did either the day of or the day before SNL. I'm sure most of you listened to it. What's the Seattle station called again?
Ed probably had not had them in years and had a wild ride " got some kicks wanna take a ride?, I said yeahh!!" Leave your lady on the cement floor.
Probably Jill dancing her arse off.
When you're on shrooms you feel like you have no control, especially your
extremities(arms and legs) feel separate from your body. If you are around people you don't completley trust , watch out. You feel like falling down, but you are still standing and almost floating. People, places, and things get
animated(cartoonlike). For the record, I haven't touched them since, and will not again.
The song rocks. Great opener too! (may 9,2006) cheers from Toronto
Anatole France
Eddie has said on a few occasions that Severed Hand is about psychotropic drugs, and there’s no reason to doubt him. The lyrics certainly make it seem like the song is about buying and using them. I’ve never done any so I can’t comment on whether or not he gets the experience right. The more interesting part of the song is not what the experience is like, but why he needs them in the first place, and whether not they give him what he needs.
The start of the song has a wonderfully powerful build, and Eddie’s vocals have a vaguely ominous and sinister quality to them that provides a nice compliment. For whatever reason, the singer cannot stay in his vacuum. He’s exposed and vulnerable. He sees too clearly and knows too much for that to work, and he cannot cope with it. At least not yet. He needs help, and is looking for mind-altering drugs to provide it. What is clear right off the back is that the singer is the one without power in this relationship, confronting a gatekeeper who holds the secrets to the salvation he craves. It’s also made clear right off the bat that this is a journey the singer has to make on his own. His woman has to be left behind, unceremoniously dumped onto the concrete floor. But the singer is so desperate for some kind of escape he has no problem with the deal. This is a decision he will come to regret later in the record. One of the messages to take away from Pearl Jam is that salvation and peace (inner and world) cannot be accomplished without others.
The falling down chorus is my favorite part of the song, and some of my favorite lyrics on the entire record. It’s meant to bring the listener back to comatose. He has no fear except for falling, which is to say failure and damnation. But another way to think about this is that a fear of falling means you have a fear of everything, since every facet of existence has some degree of risk attached to it. And right now the singer is overwhelmed with reality and everything in it. This could be a reaction to his personal life, the state of the world, or both. I’m inclined to think it’s both, with the state of the world weighing on him so heavily that it’s affecting the rest of his life. The severed hand line supports that reading. It’s likely a reference to a story about a soldier in the Iraq war who had to go find a friends severed hand, recognizing it from the wedding ring (if someone knows the details of this story better please share them). That experience (and the war around it that he is trying to walk away from) may have left the person so traumatized that they can’t make sense of anything else. Either way, he needs a way home, a way back to a sense of safety, and serenity. He needs some kind of grounding for his life
Are drugs the answer? They seem to be, at least in part. They offer an escape. You can see dragons instead of war—whatever kind of fantasy you want. And as we move into the next chorus the benefits of his expanded sense of consciousness are clear. His room is larger, and there’s more space for him within it. It buys him time to try and think and understand, but at the same time there is a realization that this isn’t the answer. The questions haven’t gone away. Reality will be waiting for him, and he’s going to have to confront it and decide how he can live in, and hopefully transcend, the world of pain outside our vacuum alluded to in Life Wasted and World Wide Suicide.
I remeber reading an album review that mentioned SH was about a soldier too. I don't know....
- Mr. Edward Vedder 7/11/03
I remember someone posting an article about a female solider who was a sitting duck in Baghad and got bombed... lost her leg and arm...
So she was on heavy drugs and she mentioned how appreciative she was when her fellow soliders found her hand by recognizing her wedding band.
Even after all this happening, she has a very postive attitude and has a goal to join in Olympics by practicing to swim or something like that...
I can't find that thread or the link to that article....
Thought I'd mention that.
EV: It's your band.
~Q Magazine
"Kisses for the glow...kisses for the lease." - BDRII
What I got out of it, is possibly a broken marriage due to a drug habit that one was not willing to give up to save the relationship.
Could be modeled after anyone...
If that was a joke--not funny, if that was serious---are you in denial?
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I think the "psycotropic" is a date rape hallucinogenic like kitamin or ghb that rapes the mind for a few years before the flashbacks.
I thought it said "ceiling floor".
I've been seeing that as a bouncer at a club where the drugs are.
I see this as a tearing down of oneself until there is room to grow. A better way of saying when you're at the bottom there is no where to go but up.
This made me consider the idea that the severed hand could represent the previous marriage. Everything else is a feeling of reality which sprang from a new life. Just verbally spitting here.
I posted this in the pearl jam newsgroup, but figured I'd do it here too.
here are some links to a poorly scanned (sorry about the jpegs) article that i thought was really interesting and enlightening.
Hope you enjoy reading it as much as i did:
picture: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca0.jpg
part 1: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca1.jpg
part 2: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca2.jpg
part 3: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca3.jpg
part 4: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca4.jpg
part 5: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca5.jpg
part 6: http://members.shaw.ca/wof/ayahuasca6.jpg
why would they be, because the subject matter is God and thats a hot topic for you?
"God what do you say" in respect to forgiveness is another lyric which puts spiritual matters at the fore of the album, why should it be that out of place elsewhere?
Yeah, that would make sense, b/c at some clubs, only "certain" people get in. "Leave your lady on the cement floor" could mean she didn't get in and he did and well,... all kinds of "influential matter" is abundant in clubs, hence leading to the overall experience!
I think it's about a soldier who takes part of a chaotic fight and takes drug to handle al of it. He want to get hurt so he can get home(so please understand i just need my friend a way home)So he walks and finds his own hand that was blown of.
Once dissolved we are free to grow...when the damm war wil be over we wil be able to move on.
I tought i was way of with this one so i didn,t want to say anything before.
I don't make any trips anymore, but break out a bottle of wine after a long day at work and I can still relate. Simple, yes, but I'm a low maintainence type of gal!