PJ Lyrics= Poetry?

who_doesnt_like_pj

I started to argue with my friend that a lot of Eddie's stuff is like poetic and stuff, anyways, he wanted to prove me wrong, so i couldn't win, but I still think so, I just want to know your opinions, and please list like song title or parts of lyrics, cuz i really wanna get him next time, ahha alright thankss

i like matt.c

I was reading out some lyrics to my sister's fiancee once and he said that Eddie is very poetic. The lyrics that came to mind when I read your post were:
And love,... Wish the world could go again with love
One cant seem to have enough
And war,.... Break the sky and tell me what it's for
I'll travel there on my own
And love,.... What a different life
Had I not found this love with you

slightofjeff

Ed's lyrics are absolutely poetry. That's the reason I was drawn to this band to begin with. Most of his songs can stand alone, as simply words on a page. I love that about his writing.

The way he massages words, plays with the language, uses all kinds of different literary devices ... all of that is poetry.

Frankly, I'd like to hear the argument for how Ed's lyrics are NOT poetry. I can't fathom that at all.

It's like arguing Einstein was no mathematician or something.

EDIT: I know you asked for specific examples, but, hell ... there's too many. Pretty much every single lyric ed has ever written has a measure of poetry in it.

yellowbird

i consider Ed's writing as stories more than poetry. poetry to me is written about feelings, emotions, visions. ed tells stories and most of the time in a beautiful way.

Switch

Songs = Poetry set to music.

Poetry = Another form of story telling, although like the above poster said, more focussed on emotion and feeling.

As for specific examples, Given To Fly is blatent poetry, ie can be read, instead of sung, to someone who had never heard it as a song, and they would believe it to be abstract poetry. Same with Black, although less abstract. I suppose Oceans, I Am Mine and Better Man could also pass like this.

Ms. Haiku

Most of the time Pearl Jam lyrics can not stand alone without the music. The music just adds enough to make it a complete communication. Compared to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and others who have sold books just on their lyrics, I don't think Eddie compares for the most part. His lyrics have too much personal relevance to him that they don't flow on a physical page.

With that said the following are some that could stand alone better than others:

Alone
Sad
GTF
Dirty Frank
Alive

deadnote

to me poetry is a universal language of writing
its different art then freestyle thought
i wouldnt put one above the other

Ms. Haiku

deadnote wrote:

to me poetry is a universal language of writing
its different art then freestyle thought
i wouldnt put one above the other

You reminded me of something. I was looking at some of my poetry recently, and some of my favorite poets, and I came to an hypothesis:

Poetry is an expression of love for language. It is like your favorite meal, and every bit is scrumptious; the tone, the texture, the colors, all senses engaged. It's incredibly textural.

My favorite poetry is haiku, which oddly enough, doesn't fit into that hypothesis. It truly is finding all of life in a moment, the AHA! moment, so it is beyond the senses almost. Of course many haiku relay poverty of senses.

slightofjeff

Ms. Haiku wrote:

Most of the time Pearl Jam lyrics can not stand alone without the music.

Really? I couldn't disagree more. I can't think of more than a handful of ed songs that don't work as poetry, even the ones that are just straight-up stories, like Betterman or Gone.

Bertha

Of course it´s poetry, since poetry is the art of painting with words to not only express the essential, but create images and feelings that install themselves in the inner realms of the listeners, become part of them and evoke their own resonance. Makes one feel what is said and what is meant, on a deeper level. If there´s music to transport and intensify it, fine. If there´s great music going with it, as in this case, very, very fine, it´s part of the art and doesn´t need to be separated.

There are so many beautiful and highly original pictures in PJs lyrics that there can be no doubt about them being poetry. Not all on the same level, qualitywise, but on a high level nonetheless.

One of my personal favorites is from "daughter". A simple sentence: "She holds the hand that holds her down", describing the gap between mother and daughter, the latter needing support and tenderness, the former giving suppression and coldness. Simple sentence, simple gesture, everything said, whole story told. That´s poetry. Essential, not elaborate.

Or take Wishlist with it´s stream of images that go from a neutron bomb (oh how I can relate to that!) to the peaceful picture of a full moon on a Camaro´s hood, every mood captured...

We´re all different, so I guess we all have our different lines, phrases, rhymes that reach us inside and tap our veins, but whenever that happens, in an original style springing from an original mind, it´s poetry.

Enjoy the music...

Love, Bertha

romybian

A man lies in his bed, in a room with no door
He waits hoping for a presence, something, anything, to enter
After spending half his life searching, he still felt as blank
As the ceiling at which he's staring
He's alive, but feels absolutely nothing
So, is he?
When he was six he believed that the moon overhead followed him
By nine he had deciphered the illusion, trading magic for fact
No trade-backs...
So this is what it's like to be an adult
If he only knew now what he knew then...

I'm open
I'm open
Come in
Come in

Lying sideways atop crumpled sheets and no covers
He decides to dream...
Dream up a new self... for himself