Betterman/Nothingman question
Betterman308
Posts: 8
Now this has probably already been discussed in the past, but if so I've never read it. So here goes......
Do you think theres a story behind Betterman that leads into Nothingman?
I know everyones got their own interpretation of these songs, but the way I see it,
Betterman is about a guy whos not doing the right thing by his partner (cheating, staying out etc.) she wants to break up, to find someone better.
"She dreams in colour", of a full life, not the black and white life shes in.
Then Nothingman talks of a guy whos broken up with girl and now finds himself on his own, empty, a nothingman.
"He who forgets, will be destined to remember" , he took her for granted and now lives the rest of his life with that thought.
It was the similar lines that got me thinking:
She loved him, yeah...she don't want to leave this way
She feeds him, yeah...that's why she'll be back again
from Betterman, and then:
Oh, she don't want him...
Oh, she won't feed him...after he's flown away...
Oh, into the sun...ah, into the sun...
from Nothingman.
Is this another set of songs similar to the Alive trilogy, if so whats the third song?
Any thoughts about all this??
Do you think theres a story behind Betterman that leads into Nothingman?
I know everyones got their own interpretation of these songs, but the way I see it,
Betterman is about a guy whos not doing the right thing by his partner (cheating, staying out etc.) she wants to break up, to find someone better.
"She dreams in colour", of a full life, not the black and white life shes in.
Then Nothingman talks of a guy whos broken up with girl and now finds himself on his own, empty, a nothingman.
"He who forgets, will be destined to remember" , he took her for granted and now lives the rest of his life with that thought.
It was the similar lines that got me thinking:
She loved him, yeah...she don't want to leave this way
She feeds him, yeah...that's why she'll be back again
from Betterman, and then:
Oh, she don't want him...
Oh, she won't feed him...after he's flown away...
Oh, into the sun...ah, into the sun...
from Nothingman.
Is this another set of songs similar to the Alive trilogy, if so whats the third song?
Any thoughts about all this??
"Fuck the Pessimists, Fuck em"
E. Vedder, Live at the Garden.
E. Vedder, Live at the Garden.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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I really like your interpretation though.
Sometimes I think the connection is as simple as they all contain the word and gender "man" in the titles.
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I downloaded, what I though was, an acoustic version of Betterman and before the song started Eddie said:
"This is for the bastard who married my mom."
I never made the correlation between Nothingman and Betterman though.
Anyway, loved your interpretation
But leatherman, I don't think so...and I don't like the song lol
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what do you mean by little? and why would that necessarily mean the two songs aren't companion songs?
ds
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....
So wouldn't that be a bit strange if betterman writtn by eddie when he was a wee lad had a connection to nothingman written by jeff?
I know Eddie wrote Betterman way before Pearl Jam, but both songs come out on the same album, so the topic might have been discussed whilst writing the album.
E. Vedder, Live at the Garden.
I was a bit worried that i knew nothing about this because i always thought Eddie wrote the lyrics (they seem like typical Eddie lyrics) and Jeff wrote the music.
Either way, its a beautiful song and i agree that its linked to Betterman. I think they're on the same album for a reason.
On the other hand, if you don't make a connection, it is, again, down to personal interpretation. Neither side is wrong -- both are right.
I personally like to think of them as connected -- for me it adds a greater resonance to both songs. At the same time, I love them equally as separate entities, because, in and of themselves, they each tell a beautiful story.
Hmmmm, need to re-listen to both for my theory, but not sure I could get one.
Maybe theyre both ABOUT Leatherman, but that would be kinda weird. I dont know, the connection the original poster made was pretty good.
Whats the Alive trilogy?
Some die just to live.
Betterman
"It's a new song, but it was written a long time ago. And it's dedicated to the bastard that married my mama" -Eddie Vedder (onstage in Atlanta, April 3, 1994)"Sometimes I think of how far I've come from the teenager sitting on the bed in San Diego writing 'Better Man' and wondering if anyone would ever even hear it." -Eddie Vedder (Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1996)
"Nothingman" was written in an hour, and so I like listening to that 'cause it just happened and somehow captured a mood there, at least for me in the vocal. Any time I can nail down a song, a thought, in a half hour, that feels really good. -Eddie Vedder (Spin, December 1994)
go to this site, it explains it all:
http://www.korat.co.il/pearljam/Ibook/Ten/ev_bio.html
Its a great site, with some really interesting quotes from Eddie.
E. Vedder, Live at the Garden.
I could see that connection with leatherman. There's a guy who fucked up a relationship in Betterman or something cas he didn't know what he had. Then in nothingman he realizes how much he loved her and how much he needed her (and vise versa). He realizes that hes not much of a man without her. So he goes off on his own, roams from town to town and has weird habits like wearing all leather. The leather is a dependency for him. He needs it just like he needed the girl. It's sort of taking the place of the girl, but unlike the girl, leather will never leave him. So he's kinda left loving leather for the rest of his live. Eddie even compares himself to leatherman.
Just think...why does this guy like leather so much?...there's gotta be a reason behind it
I think it might be because he fucked up a relationship or something. Maybe this is a little far fetched but I thought I'd throw it out there.
-Nietzsche
EMPATHY
hence the title then i guess, nothingman.
im not sure about betterman. again he points out thats a scenerio where he creates a fictional character and can work around the frame.
they could be linked, but then again, may be not.
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I'm of the opinion that Leatherman truely has nothing to do with betterman and nothingman. It is pretty interesting that the three are so often played together though.
As for why the guy wears so much leather...Well, for one thing he dies a long time ago...in the 1880's...remember. I always picture Leatherman as kind of a hermit in a cave in the woods type. So obviously he wouldn't have a job, couldn't buy fabric, so he made all his clothes from the skins of the animals he killed for food. People started calling him Leatherman, cause no one knew his name and thats all he wore.
Hmm...just a thought.
For some reason, I was listening to Nothingman a lot in September of 2001. I got to the line "And he who forgets will be destined to remember.." and thought of it as "if you forget about some single emotional event, then you'll end up regretting it because you can't forget it.." or something like that.
FWIW, I was also listening to the Las Vegas version of untitled (intro to MFC) a lot then as well, and got to the line "oh everyone's confused, they're all __forget this part__ in their rooms.." and it was weird how true THAT bit was as well. I was living in a college dormitory at the time, and everyone was just in their rooms glued to the TV, as i'm sure the situation was in all colleges across the country.
I'm not sure, but FWIW, i've heard that Rearviewmirror might be a part 2 of MFC.. in the first part they want to go for a drive, and in the 2nd part it's getting away from something nasty.