Yellow Ledbetter

Thin Air 211

Someone explain this song to me, please. I love this song but I've read the lyrics over and still am not really sure on it's meaning.

jubilairesjl

Thin Air 211 wrote:

Someone explain this song to me, please. I love this song but I've read the lyrics over and still am not really sure on it's meaning.

the lyrics are a bit of a mystery....no one knows what the lyrics truly say because the way Ed sings them it is hard to decipher.....plus whenever he sings it live the lyrics change somewhat....there really isn't an answer to your question....It is what it means to you that matters

Strutter

Thin Air 211 wrote:

Someone explain this song to me, please. I love this song but I've read the lyrics over and still am not really sure on it's meaning.

depending on his mood it has a meaning...don't now...i think that he changes lyrics constantly...and when he sings this song it's like he's singing it for himself...not for the audience...
when you go to the officaial pj site and see the lyrics you can't find for this one

Butterfly_Thoughts

it kinda sounds like it's for him and for his father, i think

Fighting Hellfish

I always thought it was "him" being notified of his brother's death, killed at war. (Him being the character in the song, not Eddie)

"Can you see them? Out on the porch. But they don't wave"

The military officers there to make the notification

"I don't know whether it was a box or a bag"


Not knowing whether his brother was sent home in a casket or a bodybag


That's just my view. There are some unbelievable 2003 versions. I always loved this song. It's amazing that it's been played 234 times, and there probably aren't 2 identical versions

Coathanger Halos

Fighting Hellfish wrote:

I always thought it was "him" being notified of his brother's death, killed at war. (Him being the character in the song, not Eddie)

"Can you see them? Out on the porch. But they don't wave"

The military officers there to make the notification

"I don't know whether it was a box or a bag"


Not knowing whether his brother was sent home in a casket or a bodybag


That's just my view. There are some unbelievable 2003 versions. I always loved this song. It's amazing that it's been played 234 times, and there probably aren't 2 identical versions

That was always my interpretation too. Not only that, but in the Madison Square Garden DVD, he changes the lyrics to, "And I wonder 'bout the reasons he was sent/ I know he's comin home in a box or a bag"

My3rdEye

Thin Air 211 wrote:

Someone explain this song to me, please. I love this song but I've read the lyrics over and still am not really sure on it's meaning.

It's how Mike says goodbye.

My belief is that the lyrics don't really mean much. They change all the time in the live performances and are pretty much undecipherable in the studio version.

Its all about the guitar

cookies

i think he changes the lyric for the fun of it. And I use to listen to this song all the time and never had a clue. Until dealing with a really deep depression. And one night it hit me. I mean I felt enlighten. And listen to that song for 2 days. I may miss a word or two but listen with me and tell what you think. Then I will share my thoughts with you..

see them on a porch of weathered sand
then I said, i wanna leave it again
once i saw him on a beach of weathered sand
I'm gonna say it i wanna leave it again yeah
wanna leave here I'm a wastin away
and they called and i say then i woo and i say
and then i call out again
and the reason wanna leave her gone
i know I said I know what i wear and that the box or the bag
ah yeah can you see them
out on the porch yeah but they don't wave
i see them round the front way yeah
and i know and i know i don't want to stay
make me cry

i see ooh i don't know if it something else
gonna my own way
oh I better i don't I don't know whether there's a box or the bag
ah yeah can you see them
out on the porch yeah but they don't wave
but i see them round the front way yeah
and i know and i know i don't wanna stay at all
i don't wanna stay yeah
i don't wanna stay
i don't wanna stay
i don't don't wanna oh yeah ooh ohh

pmack215

Fighting Hellfish wrote:

I always thought it was "him" being notified of his brother's death, killed at war. (Him being the character in the song, not Eddie)

"Can you see them? Out on the porch. But they don't wave"

The military officers there to make the notification

"I don't know whether it was a box or a bag"


Not knowing whether his brother was sent home in a casket or a bodybag


That's just my view. There are some unbelievable 2003 versions. I always loved this song. It's amazing that it's been played 234 times, and there probably aren't 2 identical versions

this is the meaning behind the studio version. ed's modified it a bit recently to express his feelings on the war.

slightofjeff

Originally, it was supposed to be a sort-of protest song to the first Gulf War. It's hard to decipher line by line, but the story it tells is of a family waiting to hear word of one of their loved ones who is off fighting.

The key line, to me, is the bit about the people on the porch who don't wave. You ever see Saving Private Ryan? Where the mother is standing at her kitchen window, and she sees the car pull up, and she knows, before the men ever get out of the car, that they are there to tell her that her son is dead? And she just collapses in a heap of anguish?

That's the kind of the picture this song paints. Family is out on the porch, and they don't wave because they know what's coming. Their loved one is dead.

In this context, the box or bag line seems obvious.

What is interesting to me about this song is the way ed changed it in 2003, to be an obvious protest of the new Iraq War. Where as the original version was a vague protest, the 2003 version was more direct.

Go listen to the version from San Antonio 2003, for instance:

"Want to see him, just look at his photograph today
Looks so good in his uniform, but I remember him other ways
And I'll never forget then phone call ... the phone call ... followed by the letter
It doesn't say whether he's coming home in a box or in a bag."

orig_long red

and what about the title? what does "yellow ledbetter" mean?

cookies

That is a great question.

Yellow Being a color or the sun
Led. Being shown a way
Better Being more positive then the here and now

lephty

The song's name is derived from the actual name of an old friend of lead singer Eddie Vedder from Chicago, named Tim Ledbetter.

found that on wiki... so it must be right!