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Immortality
CaptainMurphy44
Posts: 34
Ok so recently i have been listening to this song a TON. I'm not sure what it is about it but this song just grabs me and won't let go, especially live, Mike's solo is just killer! I was just wondering how you guys felt about this song, and also, what you thought the meaning behind this song might be? I've been trying to figure it out for a few days now and i'm not quite sure....
If God resides in all of us like some people say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas. Cuz man, thats what he's getting.
They said that timing was everything
Made him want to be everywhere
There's a lot to be said for nowhere...
They said that timing was everything
Made him want to be everywhere
There's a lot to be said for nowhere...
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It'll take me a few minutes to type it out. I studied it line by line and this is what it looked like to me:
Vacate is the word---(someone is being told to leave)
"Vengence has no place" he swears to her "cannot find comfort in this world"--(a man is pretending that he just doesn't feel comfortable, he's not trying to be hurtful)
Artificial tears--(someone's being dishonest)
Vessel stabbed, "Next up, volunteers"--(this victim has been used, let's find another person willing to be treated in this way)
Vulnerable,wisdom can't adhere--(I'm not sure which character this is referring to)
A truant finds home, a wish to hold on.--(someone has a wish to stay)
But there's a trapdoor in the sun.--(someone finds an escape into the light)
Immortality--(being remembered after the person is gone)
**********
As priviledged as a whore--(whores have NO priviledges, so this means the person is treated badly)
Victims in demand for public show--(someone gathers people to show off)
Swept out thru the cracks beneath the door--(they are treated like dirt and then just swept away)
Holier than thou. (How? this is a myth)--(here, someone is standing up for someone who has been accused of holding themselves above others)
Think of it. Surrendered, executed anyhow. --(direct commentary to the listener, asking people to think about what actually happened to someone...someone who gave themselves willingly and then was STILL killed anyway.)
Scrawl dissolved, cigar box on the floor--(old letters with words fading, kept as momentos in a cigar box)
A truant finds home, a wish to hold on...saw a trapdoor in the sun. Immortality--(a lost person found a home in a wish, saw redemption or escape in being remembered or remembering)
Cannot stop the thought. Of running in the dark. Coming to a whichway sign. All good truants must decide...... (Person keeps thinking of a dream where a choice had to be made)
Stripped and sold mom.--(A woman with a child was sold to someone.)
Auctioned forearm--(Sold to the highest bidder... she took the man's arm down the aisle)
And whiskers in the sink.--(Man she was given to?)
Truants move on.--(the person who did the damage moved on)
Cannot stay long.
Some die just to live. --(Some people sacrifice themselves just to be remembered and live in other people's memory.)
***************
It seems to be a tale of someone's habitual use of people and the consequences of this over a period of time. But I'm certainly not sure. It's a difficult song because it's so coded I think.
Kurt
Great analysis. I also think that "immortality" and "truant finds home" refers to the person being remembered after death. This man who used people as a means to an end and not as an end of themselves, is remembered more favorably after the passage of time and death. Just a shot in the dark.
I think your ideas are good. Thanks.
I haven't heard the April 94 versions. (I'll have to search for them.)
Looking at the song as it could refer to Kurt Cobain is interesting because I can see how it might be a description of how he was used by the media ("victims in demand for public display", etc.) and then chose to kill himself to escape.
Thanks for the ideas.
i can write hours from now but it doesn't really matters to you .......if someone wants to write me a message or have info to share pls e-mail:ten713@hotmail ......i think i have more than 25 hours songs but the releases in america and canada cannot be to quick here in bulgaria.
all this times i hope that i can see pj live ona concert here in bulgaria but this dream will die with me there is not enought clear people for the muzik .........it will be not profitable for the band and this the reason i think ......bye and believe in your selfs that is only what you got and it's for whole life no one will be closer to you real you
Also, there's the lines "scrawl dissolved, cigar box on the floor". If you see a copy of Kurt's suicide note (it's out there) his handwriting goes all crazy and loopy and "dissolved" at the end. And I heard there was a cigar box on the floor near his body.
Immortality is a great song and the metaphors are very well chosen.. Never heard about the link to kurt.. makes sense..
--BOB MARLEY
Also, Vedder did an interview in which he stated that the song was not about Cobain (I just can't find the article). The meaning might have changed after Cobain's death although.
where i'm not ugly and your lookin' at me."
Hmmmm..."one mis-step and you could fall from greatness" .....that's another thought. I'm not sure how it might fit but I'll think about it. Thanks.
ok,
ciao
Trading stories with the leaves instead
It's a very depressed man, caught in a world where people are abusive, and all he sees is hurt. But, he's got a woman.
Truant--"rebellious boy." The man is lost and immature, and perhaps has been on the road to nowhere all his life. and though he has that woman (home), and a shred of hope to cling to... there's no light in it--it's a trap. "Immortality" as a term plays with suicide and redemption.
This man sees that to the others (maybe a larger sense of public), a person (he) is both disposable and exploitable. And that his hurt is both enjoyed by onlookers, then forgotten.
I love this line. I'll get really college lit on it. Religiously, there's sun worship (pagan) going on in this song, and the man admits that it's false. There's the sacrifice/redemption of immortality--which can only be achieved through death, as his living actions are meaningless entertainment for others. On another level, he's been rediculed, and those around him have advice that offers no help and no solace. The former usage of "truant" indicates that the man skips school and rejects "success" as preached to him by society, meaning that there's the chance that this man truly believes that the onlookers are holier than he is--clean and "together"--re-inforcing his inferiority and disposability. Great line.
He gives up--an allusion to suicide. Yet, executed, meaning that he was "forced" into it. The world was too much for him and it killed him.
If it's not Cobain's box (the box obsession was actually Love's); it's definately an image of a bad/emergency situation.
Again, this man has no escape.
General complaint that life doesn't come with an instruction manual. Desicions must be made, whether you're ready or not.
Obvious reference to childhood. Perhaps the scrawl/cigarbox from above is a childhood memory in a broken home.