Sleight of Hand
innane
Posts: 33
There are moments when i listen to Pearl Jam where i analyse something in a song, which springs me from my seat because i feel i finnaly cracked what Ed was saying.
Listning to sleight of hand the other day, on a few cones of some really strong stuff the meaning of some of the lines in this song became much clearer.
I think everyone knows the song is about a man trapped in the modern working world. Bored and completely unfulfilled with his current life.
Towards the end of the second verse with the lines "Sometimes he hid in his radio watching others pour into his home. While he was drifiting." As Spin The Black Circle lets us all know music can be our high, our escape from reality. So after work, the man in the song can drift off into music "on a line of his own". The real world just becomes "by the by."
Then when Ed screams so majetically "as dirt turned to sand". The dirt which is the current reality is replaced by the sand of a beatiful beach, which the man enteres when he escapes with the music. The vision was so vivid. I picture the man with his tie loosened in the drivers seat, being taken away to his own heavenly beach.
Im pretty sure this is what Ed had in mind because the next line "Now when he reached the shore of his clip-on world". The use of the word "shore" is evidence that the man was somewhere lost in the water of the beach. Then he reached the shore when he came back to reality.
The next verse is self explanatory. Im still debating whether it is suicide, or some force of nature which takes the man's soul away from the physical into the spiritual world.
Listning to sleight of hand the other day, on a few cones of some really strong stuff the meaning of some of the lines in this song became much clearer.
I think everyone knows the song is about a man trapped in the modern working world. Bored and completely unfulfilled with his current life.
Towards the end of the second verse with the lines "Sometimes he hid in his radio watching others pour into his home. While he was drifiting." As Spin The Black Circle lets us all know music can be our high, our escape from reality. So after work, the man in the song can drift off into music "on a line of his own". The real world just becomes "by the by."
Then when Ed screams so majetically "as dirt turned to sand". The dirt which is the current reality is replaced by the sand of a beatiful beach, which the man enteres when he escapes with the music. The vision was so vivid. I picture the man with his tie loosened in the drivers seat, being taken away to his own heavenly beach.
Im pretty sure this is what Ed had in mind because the next line "Now when he reached the shore of his clip-on world". The use of the word "shore" is evidence that the man was somewhere lost in the water of the beach. Then he reached the shore when he came back to reality.
The next verse is self explanatory. Im still debating whether it is suicide, or some force of nature which takes the man's soul away from the physical into the spiritual world.
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Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Like what you've got going on here ... and I'd like to expound on one thing in particular. It's kind of word wonkish but ...
I love, love, love the phrase "clip-on world." To me, it fits the song perfectly. First of all, it conjures, perhaps, the image of a "clip-on tie" -- which would fit in with the rhetoric of a man completely bored by his hum-drum life. He works a job that requires a tie, but he is so hum-drum about it that he can't even be bothered to put on a real tie.
A clip-on tie is temporary. It's removeable. It isn't real.
Except this line isn't about his tie. It's about his life. It's about his world.
The "clip-on world" in the story of "Sleight" is the world he THINKS is real. It's the world he hates, the world he finds boring. The "clip on world" is the same-old, same-old 9-to-5 life he pours himself into uniform for every day.
And, this song is saying, that world is the FAKE world. There's a better world out there for this guy, if he could only bring himself to move himself -- to make change for himself -- instead of waiting for life to make change for him (ie being "moved by sleight of hand")
As you can tell, I fucking love this song.
for the least they could possibly do
it fits the theme of the song. The humdrum of the working week. "pour into uniform". "Clip-On world" like a clip on tie.
I completely agree with u. His reality is just a clip-on which can be removable, just like the tie.
Awesome stuff. This song has got the "last exit" "cant keep" theme going. Love it.
ITS A PERFECT SONG,,IN MY FAVORITE TOP 50!!!!!CANT PUT LESS THAN 50 PEARL JAM FAVORITES
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
Unfortunately this song is my current "Pearl Jam song that totally fits my life right now." (I can't be the only one that experiences this phenomenon) So with that in mind I think the next verse is more just the guy realizing that his life circumstances aren't going to change immediately (marriage, kids, mortgage, etc.) so he needs to be patient until he can fully let himself be who he wanted to be. I find hope in the last verse. Great song. Wish it didn't speak to me so deeply.
A point for Binaural!
6/12/08 - Tampa, FL
8/23/09 - Chicago, IL
9/28/09 - Salt Lake City, UT (11 years too long!!!)
9/03/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 1
9/04/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 2
Could'nt agree more with that last comment and im stoked that this song has been brought up,its one of my all time favourite Pearl Jam songs! Theres just something about this song that just gets me.
Except that day is never gonna come.
for the least they could possibly do
it fit my life perfactly last year when i went to work at a supermarket... super long days... monotonous routine... pouring myself into uniform... and 'clipping on' the name badge, luckily it was only a temporary thing cos im at university now and never want to go back to work at that particular supermarket again! i am one of the lucky ones cos i escaped that world (for now at least!)
i love this song, and i hope it has the same resonance for everyone... and that soon you wont be pointlessly slaving away for some underapreciative overpaid manager
I agree, I definitely don't think its about suicide. I think its more along the lines of going through life and then having moments of realizations where you're like wtf, how did I get here.....
Such a great song and incredible writing. One of my favorites.
I get down knowing I'll be a slave to the big bosses on higher incomes for the next 40 or so years.
It's not the life I want, I want to do something I love but I cannot realise that dream.
I don't get 'moved by sleight of hand' what does sleight mean?
Only lyric I don't get and it's the title :oops:
What is the definition of 'sleight'???
:oops:
Mostly used in 'magic' - basically something kinda happening and you don't even see it coming or happening.
Wikipedia - Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation ("quick fingers") or léger de main (from the French for "lightness of hand"), is the set of techniques used by a magician (or card sharp) to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly.[1]
imo, I think the song means that person was moved into a place (i.e. a state of life) he "hadn't imagined being" and is now having realizations about how he got there and that how he see himself on the outside of a world and looking in.