Corduroy?
rmc1981
Posts: 114
Whats this song about is it about fame?
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rmc1981
Posts: 114
Comments
2006: Berlin
2007: Munich * Düsseldorf
2009: Berlin * Manchester * London
2010: Dublin * Belfast * Berlin
2012: Amsterdam I & II * Berlin I & II * Stockholm * Oslo * Copenhagen
EV 2012: Amsterdam I & II
2014: Amsterdam I & II * Milan * Trieste * Vienna * Berlin
EV 2017: Berlin
2018: Amsterdam I & II * Prague * Krakow * Berlin
2022: Berlin- Vienna - Prague - Amsterdam I - Amsterdam II #
2024: Berlin I & II
~~~
“It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.”
― David Benatar - Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
Like maybe that person has done something to him and hes done putting up with it. Mostly cuz I've had that happen, and when I listen to that song it sounds alot like what a would say about it. But then that my interpretation.
"Its a secret to everybody."
I always thought it was about the press getting to be too much.
Skype: pmacklin
I take your entrance back...can't let you roam inside my head
I don't want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your bread...
I would rather run but I can't walk...
Guess I'll lie alone just like before...
I'll take the varmint's path...oh, and I must refuse your test
Push me and I will resist...this behavior's not unique
I don't want to hear from those who know...
They can buy, but can't put on my clothes...
I don't want to limp for them to walk...
Never would have known of me before...
I don't want to be held in your debt...
I'll pay it off in blood, let I be wed...
I'm already cut up and half dead...
I'll end up alone like I began...
Everything has chains...absolutely nothing's changed
Take my hand, not my picture, spilled my tincture
I don't want to take what you can give
I would rather starve than eat your bread
All the things that others want for me
Can't buy what I want because it's free
Can't buy what I want because it's free
Can't be what you want because I'm...
I ain't s'posed to be just fun
Oh, to live and die, let it be done.
I figure I'll be damned - all alone like I began...
It's your move now...
I thought you were a friend, but I guess I, I guess I hate you...
This is my take on the lyrics,It seems like its about a couple at the end of their ropes, but it's he who is the one who wants out knowing that it is very difficult.
"The waiting drove me mad...you're finally here and I'm a mess", He's waiting for an opportunity to tell her ... she's finally there and he doesn't know what or how to say it.
"I take your entrance back...can't let you roam inside my head", He's stunned when she enters and has to remind him self to say what he really wants to, not to let her affect his decision. "I take your entrance back" can also mean he wishes to take things back before they met.
"I don't want to take what you can give..." He doesn't want to accept what she has to offer, seems like they've entered a period of numbness.
"I would rather starve than eat your bread..." He would rather die then have her, lead him on to a life of what he thinks she has to offer, even though it sounds nurturing and enticing not to have to deal with all the pain.
"I would rather run but I can't walk..." He wishes he can move on with things, but he's drained emotionally and energy wise,he can barely survive.
"Guess I'll lie alone just like before..." He sees "life" without her and "alone".
"I'll take the varmint's path...oh, and I must refuse your test" So he refuses what she has insisted they do, even though it is so hard for him. He decides to take the way thats wilder and less secure, but he's anxious as well.
"Push me and I will resist...this behavior's not unique"
He tells her the more she persists, the more he becomes firm. That it's common "rebel" law.
"I don't want to hear from those who know...
They can buy, but can't put on my clothes...
I don't want to limp for them to walk..." Most likely there are some who have advised him what to do and are trying to make his decision based on their wisdom, but he wants to learn from his own experience. most likely there will be also people, who will even judge but they dont know how it is to be in his skin everyone is diffrent and handles situations diffrently.
"Never would have known of me before...
I don't want to be held in your debt...
I'll pay it off in blood, let I be wed...
I'm already cut up and half dead..." Obviously he feels that he owes her to the point he might have to pay in blood (marriage) and severing it something really hard or something he never thought he would ever do, where it cuts him to the point of being half dead
I'll end up alone like I began...
"Everything has chains...absolutely nothing's changed
Take my hand, not my picture, spilled my tincture"
" Every action has a reaction type thing, one thing leads to another all for a reason. Take me for what I am, not for what you imagine me to be, my blood is spilled for this cause already.
I don't want to take what you can give
I would rather starve than eat your bread
"All the things that others want for me
Can't buy what I want because it's free
Can't buy what I want because it's free
Can't be what you want because I'm... " All the things he wants come free in life which I'm assuming is LOVE and HAPPINESS, and what others want for him might not offer that.
I ain't s'posed to be just fun
Oh, to live and die, let it be done.
"I figure I'll be damned" whatever path he chooses he'll regret so let it be it.
- all alone like I began...
It's your move now...
I thought you were a friend, but I guess I, I guess I hate you
I am fuel, you are friends, we got the means to make amends
I am lost, I'm no guide, but I'm by your side
I am right by your side... PJ
I thought it was a song about non-conformity as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liR8Vpof3E4
This version of the song is very nice, I have cried sometimes while listening to it. I know...
By the way literal meaning of corduroy is a path built on marshes using sticks that cris cross. I'm assuming like a narrow path, rigid that is kinda weak and very easily to fall off.
I am fuel, you are friends, we got the means to make amends
I am lost, I'm no guide, but I'm by your side
I am right by your side... PJ
"It is about a relationship but not between two people. It's more one person's relationship with a million people. In fact, that song's almost a little too obvious for me. That's why instead of a lyric sheet we put in an X-ray of my teeth from last January and they are all in very bad shape, which was analogous to my head at the time."
Link:http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/la112094.shtml
"Yeah, that song was based on a remake of the brown corduroy jacket that I wore. I think I got mine for 12 bucks, and it was being sold for like $650. The ultimate one as far as being co-opted was that there was a guy on TV, predictably patterned, I guess, after the way I was looking those days, with long hair and an Army T-shirt. They put this new character on a soap opera, so there was a guy, more handsome than I, parading around on ''General Hospital''. And the funny thing is, that guy was Ricky Martin."
Link:http://www.avclub.com/content/node/22611
If you hate something, don't you do it too
7/22/06, 7/23/06, 04/07/07, 8/3/07
"The waiting drove me mad...you're finally here and I'm a mess
I take your entrance back...can't let you roam inside my head
I don't want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your bread...
I would rather run but I can't walk...
Guess I'll lie alone just like before..."
that verse is definately speaking to "fame" (as well as the rest of the song, but this definately introduces it).
"Everything has CHANGED...absolutely nothing's changed"
to me, its the "I am the same dude but the shit surrounding me is totally fucked up". IMO, this attitude is what caused PJ to want to make themselves "disappear" so to speak (to the mainstream anyway). After vitalogy, they were never the same popularity wise.
here is this down to earth, chilled out guy, pumping gas and playing clubs because he is passionate about music, and suddenly his passion changes his life forever so that he can never lead it the way he did before. That must be pretty hard to deal with in about 5 mintues time.
I can say that I've learned a thing or two from those links. Thanks for posting them.
I am fuel, you are friends, we got the means to make amends
I am lost, I'm no guide, but I'm by your side
I am right by your side... PJ
They can buy but cant put on my clothes
Throw down my ace in the hole~~~~~~
Let's go for three in a row, no sorry i can't think of anything thats not funny. - Paul Merton
London96,Manchester00,Berlin06,London07
I agree with this part of your post.
uh ... no.
This song, as mentioned earlier on this thread, is about ed's battle with fame.
"Take my hand, not my picture" is a plea to us ... the fans.
Take my hand. I am a normal human being. I am like you. I am no God. I am no Messiah. I am no rock star.
Don't take my picture. I am not an animal in a zoo. Or a statue in a museum. I am a normal human being. Like you.
for the least they could possibly do
And don't forget the bong hits.
the other foot in the gutter
sweet smell that they adore
I think I'd rather smother
-The Replacements-
The "fame sucks!" meaning has always been pretty clear to me, just as in Blood or Not For You, and I think it's one of Ed's greatest songs.
And no question about it, the lyric is "everything has CHAINS, absolutely nothing's changed". It makes much more sense that way, I have no idea why people don't grasp the meaning in that line. I've always taken it this way: when Ed was a nobody, he was wracked with feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness from time to time...and now he's a SOMEBODY, guess what? It's fuckin' worse!
The chains are those that restrict his ability to trust those around him and feel good about where and who he is...and they only got tighter now he's a famous rock star, absolutely nothing has changed.
I don't really see the "relationship gone bad" angle too much, though it's awesome if it means something to you in that sense. Ed and Beth were newlyweds when this song was recorded, you'd hope that they weren't already falling apart...
it's "chains"..."changed."
Yep, most definitely.
"Everything has chains, absolutely nothing's changed"
that was it, wasn't it?
I'll Hold The Pain... Release...
Yourself
Yes.
I think honestly it can be either - its very difficult to tell on the album versions but there are live versions where he definately says changed and others where he says chains. I personally think the album says "changed" in both. i think the line "everything has changed, absolutely nothings changed has an ironic tone to it and the other way just doesnt really have the same effect in the context of the song IMO. Someone else interpreted it to mean he is the same person, but everything around him has become compltely different and in the context of the song that makes perfect sense.
My Movie/Music Reviews & Sports Blog
Ed: It is about a relationship but not between two people. It's more one person's relationship with a million people. In fact, that song's almost a little too obvious for me. That's why instead of a lyric sheet we put in an X-ray of my teeth from last January and they are all in very bad shape, which was analogous to my head at the time.
For the whole interview: http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/la112094.shtml
throw them again...
My favorite part of the song is where he mumbles at the very end........
" its your move now....thought you were a friend.....but I guess..I guess I hate you"
hmmm,.. doubt he'll admit to that, but perhaps,.....
in my view: striving, failure, overcoming, more failure, more striving, more failure, more overcoming, more striving, more failure, more striving, more overcoming,... etc, etc,..... [plus a whole lot of love].
to dust i guess,
forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
But I think if you look contextually, Vitalogy as an album marks a major directional shift in Pearl Jam via both their music and outlook. The music became less mainstream and their media outlook nosedived, by that I mean they granted far less press access between 95 and 2006 than they did in the early years. I think that is enough evidence outside the clear lyrical interpretations to show that this song is about struggling with fame.
Ok, I lied about the lyric part, the line about taking the varmint's path and then later when he says i dont want to be held in your debt, I'll pay it off in blood, let I be wed. Is clearly about refusing to sell out for the sake of making money or being famous, he would rather play his music in a shithole than comprise his artistic values and I think that shines through real clear in these lines. That is all.