Corduroy

memememe Posts: 4,695
The waiting drove me mad...you’re finally here and I’m a mess
I take your entrance back...can’t let you roam inside my head
I don’t want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your bread...
I would rather run but I can’t walk...
Guess I’ll lie alone just like before...

I’ll take the firmest path...oh, and I must refuse your test
A-push me and I will resist...this behavior’s not unique
I don’t want to hear from those who know...
They can buy, but can’t put on my clothes...
I don’t want to limp for them to walk...
Never would have known of me before...
I don’t want to be held in your debt...
And I’ll pay it off in blood, let I be wed...
And I’m already cut up and half dead...
I’ll end up alone like I began...

Everything has changed, absolutely nothing’s changed
Take my hand, not my picture, spilled my tincture

I don’t want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your breast...
All the things that others want for me...
Can’t buy what I want because it’s free... (2x)
Can’t be what you want because i’m...

I ain’t s’posed to be just fun
Oh, to live and die, let it be done
I figure I’ll be damned, all alone like I began...

It’s your move now...
I thought you were a friend
but I guess, I guess I hate you

I know it's not the standard interpretation, but this cry makes complete sense spoken by a woman (cause it's usually the woman, you know...) trapped in a marriage she does not want anymore, buy can't leave behind
(I would rather run but I can’t walk...). She is the weaker part of the couple, is afraid she would not be able to make it on her own, supporting herself and her children. Or maybe she KNOWS she wouldn't.

I love this tension between the will to want out, and the impossibility of leaving (I would rather starve than eat your bread/I would rather run buy I can't walk). If you think about it, this tension is there even in the standard interpretation of the song. They did have to come to minimal compromises with the industry/fans that used them (they couldn't "walk"). This only adds to the anger, knowing that you cannot fully make it without those assholes.

Ed is known to write songs often with a woman's soul, and the trapped woman is a recurrent image (Better men, and differently Small town). It seems his own life experience as a child made this theme painfully close to him, and I have a sense it was in the background when he wrote Corduroy.
... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • I subscribe to the more standard 'battle with fame' interpretation, but I'd never criticize another idea. I love to see other people's thoughts on lyrics.

    I think Corduroy sums up for me why PJ has remained so artistically solid all of this time. It's walking the fine line between getting the music heard and selling out. They have kept the original spirit of the band, artistic integrity and their fans without getting soft (like Aerosmith or Metallica for example).

    The sacrifice is that they don't get new stuff on the radio like the old days, but they still manage to stay strong without it.
    "No time to be void or save up on life...
    You got to spend it all."
  • Always Been One Of My Favorites
    It doesnt hurt.... when I bleed
    but memories...they eat me
    I've seen it all before,...
    bring it on cause I'm no victim.
    -Ghost
  • a poet wrote:
    Always Been One Of My Favorites

    me too :):)
    EVENFLOW MEMBER #009 and i'm LOVIN the new PJ!!!! avacado all the way!!

    i know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
    i HOPE you'll be a star,
    in somebody elses sky, but why, why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine?!
  • i forgeti forget Posts: 281
    a poet wrote:
    Always Been One Of My Favorites
    Ditto, it's a fabulous song.
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    it's my favourite song at the moment....
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • Just the opening line does it for me. A fantastic song!
    And we're all allowed to dream of the next time we touch.
  • meme wrote:
    Can’t buy what I want because it’s free...

    Love that line, kinda sums up me.
    'The more I studied religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.' - Sir Richard Francis Burton
  • This was the song that made me first notice Pearl Jam back in 96. That song is what made me interested in their other music. So it is one of my favorite songs by them.
    "If you were waiting for us, than we were waiting for you" E. Vedder 10-3-05

    He who forgets will be destined to remember.
  • Interesting, I lean more towards the standard interpretation but I do see what you mean. How would you explain the line "take my hand not my picture" though?
    "And, when the doctor said I didn't have worms any more, that was the happiest day of my life."
Sign In or Register to comment.