Marker in the Sand.

Cropduster49

What do you think this is about? I'm thinking something to do with religion.
But i'm bad at this, so this is all i got.

pickupyourwill

I love this song!! I think its about asking God for more help with the world--earnestly asking him to step in and really make a difference. just my two cents anyway.


enjoy............


There is a marker,... No one sees it cause the sand
Has covered over,... All the messages it kept
Misunderstanding,... What original truth was
And out expanding,... In a faith, but not in love

What went wrong?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Falling up somehow
Do come down

With the living, Let,..... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet,.... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say?

Those undecided,........ Needn't have faith to be free
And those misguided, There was a plan for them to be
Now you got both sides Claiming killing in Gods name
But God is nowhere,..... To be found, conveniently

What goes on?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Before you burn them down
Do come round

With a living, let,...... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say? What do you say?

There is a sickness,...... A sickness coming over me
Like watching freedom,. Being sucked straight out to sea
And the solution?,........ Well, from me far would let it be
But the delusion,.......... Is feeling dangerous to me

What goes wrong?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Falling up somehow
Do come down

With a living, let,...... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say? What do you say?

Calling out,......... Calling out.
Calling out,......... I'm calling you out.

Ms. Haiku

I don't think this is about God, more like a gravestone. From a post in a different thread I realized that to try to understand the new songs I have to think that they may be related to the political/social times at hand as opposed to the lyricist's own experiences. Story-telling is the way it's described, and makes sense. If you look at this as a story about someone who died in a war then it may look different to you.

Thanks for posting the lyrics, makes this type of discussion MuCh eaiser

surfanddestroy

When they played London Eddie saud it was about looking for god for guidance.

Ms. Haiku

surfanddestroy wrote:

When they played London Eddie saud it was about looking for god for guidance.

Ok, disregard what I wrote. . . . .:) I don't really see that in this lyric, though. Even with the word God I don't see the song as a request, but if it's straight from the lyricist's mouth, then there you go.

Ms. Haiku

I could now see the Marker as God but only in the first part of the lyric. Afterwards the discussion reminds me of what I know (little) about the Inquisition or any time period/day when the concept of a God is used to manipulate and destroy. So, if it's a call out to God for guidance then it looks like the narrarator is first deciding what has the concept of a God done to what's around. How can a call out be given to a concept of disrespect, why would it happen. It looks like maybe the narrarator is challenging beyond the concept and demanding almost "Hey, where are you?!" I recognize that may be too cliche a line of thought, and may not apply to this song.

You know, I've been so interested in the Inquisition over the past few years, and I don't know if there are parallels to just this time period, or maybe I'm more aware of how people are abused with the concept of a religion, or maybe there really are parallels.

Nami

You can look at it two ways:
1) From a non believer you can say that if there was a God why is the world in the status that it is today? Poverty, murder, disease.....etc
2) From a believer of a higher power, your frustrated/tired with the world, and you just want it all to change. Therefore you call out God to resolve the struggle.....

Deni

Nami wrote:

You can look at it two ways:
1) From a non believer you can say that if there was a God why is the world in the status that it is today? Poverty, murder, disease.....etc
2) From a believer of a higher power, your frustrated/tired with the world, and you just want it all to change. Therefore you call out God to resolve the struggle.....

That is exactly what I get from the song. And I think when we are talking about somebody who is probably agnostic then it is actually saying both thing equally. Personally, I love the concept of saying...

So unforgiving, yet... Needing forgiveness first.

God, what do you say? What do you say?

The idea that God needs forgiveness too... well that would be blasphemy to some people, but it's interesting in the conext of this song.

What do you guys think about that?

Deni

know1

I think it's saying that there are a lot of religious people who aren't following what their God or religion dicatates. In other words - hypocrites. I think Eddie's saying that if people really practiced what they preached that the world would be a better place.

know1

Double Post due to the database problem...

potluck

i see the song as a more like a statement to god. I got that feeling halfway through it the first time i heard it and after reading the lyrics i dont think its arguable.

LuthienTinuviel

i also thought it is about the question if there is a god, why doesn't he interfere in all that shit

well, for me it's a kind of proof that there is nothing like a god

god, what do you say?

1wrdistillbelieve

pickupyourwill wrote:

I love this song!! I think its about asking God for more help with the world--earnestly asking him to step in and really make a difference. just my two cents anyway.


enjoy............


There is a marker,... No one sees it cause the sand
Has covered over,... All the messages it kept
Misunderstanding,... What original truth was
And out expanding,... In a faith, but not in love

What went wrong?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Falling up somehow
Do come down

With the living, Let,..... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet,.... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say?

Those undecided,........ Needn't have faith to be free
And those misguided, There was a plan for them to be
Now you got both sides Claiming killing in Gods name
But God is nowhere,..... To be found, conveniently

What goes on?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Before you burn them down
Do come round

With a living, let,...... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say? What do you say?

There is a sickness,...... A sickness coming over me
Like watching freedom,. Being sucked straight out to sea
And the solution?,........ Well, from me far would let it be
But the delusion,.......... Is feeling dangerous to me

What goes wrong?

Walking tightrope high,... Over moral ground
Seeing visions of,............. Falling up somehow
Do come down

With a living, let,...... What is living love
So unforgiving, yet... Needing forgiveness first

God, what do you say? What do you say?

Calling out,......... Calling out.
Calling out,......... I'm calling you out.

I feel you are totally off...what is the meaning of DELUSION!?!?!? Look it up. Any religious groups/people remind you of being "unforgiving", yet needing forgiveness first?! I can name a few...to mistake this song as religious fodder is a mistake.

Plus, it's:

walking tightropes high....walk the bridges...before you burn them down...do come round" on the second chorus.

pickupyourwill

1wrdistillbelieve wrote:

I feel you are totally off...what is the meaning of DELUSION!?!?!? Look it up. Any religious groups/people remind you of being "unforgiving", yet needing forgiveness first?! I can name a few...to mistake this song as religious fodder is a mistake.

Plus, it's:

walking tightropes high....walk the bridges...before you burn them down...do come round" on the second chorus.

First off, I got the lyrics from the Pearl Jam website, so they have the lyrics wrong.

Secondly, I have no idea what exact "delusion" (false belief) Ed is speaking of--only he knows that. We can only interpret what we think it means. It could be the "freedom being sucked straight out to sea" , the government's false beliefs, the world's false beliefs, etc. etc.

All I know is that the world is still in alot of trouble and needs God's help. Someone already posted that Ed did say the song was about asking God for guidance. When he's saying "do come down" , it reminds me of when God would intervine in the Bible and actually talk to the people. To me, its like saying to God, "look, we've got a huge mess going on down here---people killing each other --each saying the other's God is the right one--can you just come down and straighten this out please?". ---my two cents anyway.

kickstandkitty

basically all people who claim to be religous are out there, preaching their faith is best but not spreading love in this world.

those who are the "holier than thou" types look down upon others because they appear to be faithful (because the preach but dont practice what they preach (hippocrits), but the holier than thou are worse and have less love in their hearts.

those misguided are people who may have faith may not but understand love and with this love will be free..


got to go

darthvedder88

In more concrete terms, I've felt the song is about how religion causes war and ppl say they're fighting for their beliefs, but in the end an individual is asking God "what do you say about all of this?" because as a Christian, I believe that there are some things out there that we won't understand or know about until we die.

jacquirenee

This is one of those amazing PJ songs where the music influences the meaning so much.

The verses are angry and expository, while the choruses are plaintive and poetic.

Like I think the Marker itself is the bible, rosetta stone kind of imagery. This thing that held a truth for a people, then was covered over by the sand so now no one remembers what it was really all about. Then the message spreads, but only in faith, not in love, by which I think he means that the letter of the law became more important than the spirit of it. People just using it for power, not for the love it was intended for.

This is pretty much how I feel about the story of Jesus. I don't believe in him as the son of god but rather as this beautiful messenger of peace and justice. But the Christian religion now is a huge bastardization of those messages.

So anyway, then with the "Do come down with the living, let what is living love," means to me, while it's speaking TO God, it's really speaking to us, saying, "Listen people, God's an abstract. God's up in wherever, but we're all here. Let's have God here by loving each other and being good to each other."

"Unforgiving yet needing forgiveness first" reminds me of this John Prine song, "Fish and Whistle," where he says, "Father forgive us for what we must do... you forgive us and we'll forgive you." It's a lighthearted song, but I always take that line pretty seriously.

The "Calling out" part really gets me every time. Either chills or tears. No joke. It's like a hymn and I really feel it. The other day I was mowing the lawn with my iPod headphones on... and the sun was shining and all the dogwoods are blooming, and I looked around and just cried out that ending part...

Okay, I'm going WAYYYY off topic. But this is by far my favorite song on this album.

darthvedder88

jacquirenee wrote:

This is one of those amazing PJ songs where the music influences the meaning so much.

The verses are angry and expository, while the choruses are plaintive and poetic.

Like I think the Marker itself is the bible, rosetta stone kind of imagery. This thing that held a truth for a people, then was covered over by the sand so now no one remembers what it was really all about. Then the message spreads, but only in faith, not in love, by which I think he means that the letter of the law became more important than the spirit of it. People just using it for power, not for the love it was intended for.

This is pretty much how I feel about the story of Jesus. I don't believe in him as the son of god but rather as this beautiful messenger of peace and justice. But the Christian religion now is a huge bastardization of those messages.

So anyway, then with the "Do come down with the living, let what is living love," means to me, while it's speaking TO God, it's really speaking to us, saying, "Listen people, God's an abstract. God's up in wherever, but we're all here. Let's have God here by loving each other and being good to each other."

"Unforgiving yet needing forgiveness first" reminds me of this John Prine song, "Fish and Whistle," where he says, "Father forgive us for what we must do... you forgive us and we'll forgive you." It's a lighthearted song, but I always take that line pretty seriously.

The "Calling out" part really gets me every time. Either chills or tears. No joke. It's like a hymn and I really feel it. The other day I was mowing the lawn with my iPod headphones on... and the sun was shining and all the dogwoods are blooming, and I looked around and just cried out that ending part...

Okay, I'm going WAYYYY off topic. But this is by far my favorite song on this album.

Yeah I agree, this song has probably the strongest message of any song off the entire album.

potluck

jacquirenee wrote:

This is one of those amazing PJ songs where the music influences the meaning so much.

The verses are angry and expository, while the choruses are plaintive and poetic.

Like I think the Marker itself is the bible, rosetta stone kind of imagery. This thing that held a truth for a people, then was covered over by the sand so now no one remembers what it was really all about. Then the message spreads, but only in faith, not in love, by which I think he means that the letter of the law became more important than the spirit of it. People just using it for power, not for the love it was intended for.

This is pretty much how I feel about the story of Jesus. I don't believe in him as the son of god but rather as this beautiful messenger of peace and justice. But the Christian religion now is a huge bastardization of those messages.

So anyway, then with the "Do come down with the living, let what is living love," means to me, while it's speaking TO God, it's really speaking to us, saying, "Listen people, God's an abstract. God's up in wherever, but we're all here. Let's have God here by loving each other and being good to each other."

"Unforgiving yet needing forgiveness first" reminds me of this John Prine song, "Fish and Whistle," where he says, "Father forgive us for what we must do... you forgive us and we'll forgive you." It's a lighthearted song, but I always take that line pretty seriously.

The "Calling out" part really gets me every time. Either chills or tears. No joke. It's like a hymn and I really feel it. The other day I was mowing the lawn with my iPod headphones on... and the sun was shining and all the dogwoods are blooming, and I looked around and just cried out that ending part...

Okay, I'm going WAYYYY off topic. But this is by far my favorite song on this album.

i agree with everything you said, but lets try not to compare pj with tool. Tool doesnt deserve it. How many times has Tool said love in any of their songs?

jacquirenee

potluck, I don't get the reference to Tool? I don't know any of Tool's stuff, so I wasn't referencing them on purpose!

potluck

jacquirenee wrote:

potluck, I don't get the reference to Tool? I don't know any of Tool's stuff, so I wasn't referencing them on purpose!

sorry then.