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Let's talk about 'Severed Hand'

gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
edited May 2007 in Words and Music...Communication
mmmm...
tasty...
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    The Severed Hand is waving you in...come on you, you, you know you want to tell us about the tripping, the war, the peace, the doubt, the peace, the love, the anger...
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    Don't make the Severed Hand flip you the bird.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    big man stands behind an open door...
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    got two cigarettes lit
    one on the floor...
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  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    I know what this song is about and I'm not saying!! :)
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    justam wrote:
    I know what this song is about and I'm not saying!! :)

    justam. you poet. i wanna know. dammit.
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  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    gue_barium wrote:
    justam. you poet. i wanna know. dammit.

    No way, Jose. :D
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    justam wrote:
    No way, Jose. :D

    make it into a poem, or something. put it in that forum, get the reflection off of it, i understand that. you don't have to do it here.

    then on the other hand, there's going to be a train wreck here...so, if you have the fortitude...
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    "temptation is war?"
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    "preternatural"

    I remember coming across and finding that word when i was 15 and thinking it was the most perfect of words.

    And then to hear it in this song. Another connection.
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  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    I remember seeing it first in an Anne Rice Vampire book.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    justam wrote:
    I remember seeing it first in an Anne Rice Vampire book.


    I don't remember it in "memnoch the devil". My only Anne Rice experience.

    Pretty good read.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    justam wrote:
    I remember seeing it first in an Anne Rice Vampire book.

    I was writing something...i used to write all the time, then. I needed a word...found it. Preternatural.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    So, lets go with the premise that temptation is war.

    does this make any sense to anyone besides me?
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  • pmack215pmack215 Posts: 49
    music and singing style is great but i dont really like songs that are not about something of substance.
    this song is about psychotropic drugs. i just prefer something of substance.
    *Just 4 today, I am FREE*

    Skype: pmacklin
  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    pmack215 wrote:
    music and singing style is great but i dont really like songs that are not about something of substance.
    this song is about psychotropic drugs. i just prefer something of substance.
    It is not. That's a major misconception.

    The emphasis, if you listen, is the temptation to further oneself through the void, be it warfare or otherwise. It also relies on the old myth of the dragon, the dark, the masculine warrior, there to slay.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    allllright...guess it's polka time for this old bird.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    ooom pah pah

    where's lawrence welk when you need him?

    He grew up in the same country as Bob Dylan.

    Must be the water.

    The land of 10, 000 Lakes.
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    gue_barium wrote:
    It is not. That's a major misconception.

    The emphasis, if you listen, is the temptation to further oneself through the void, be it warfare or otherwise. It also relies on the old myth of the dragon, the dark, the masculine warrior, there to slay.

    Nice.

    :)
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  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    It's about Satan. I mean,
    the character is Satan, the Devil, the temptor.
    Or temptress, depending on your point of view.
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  • StuffnJunkStuffnJunk Posts: 896
    gue_barium wrote:
    got two cigarettes lit
    one on the floor...
    ??????? - thats not in the song
    "I'll tell you what: If all I had was Pearl Jam, and I didn't have another band in the world, I would not be worried. Because in there is the essence of making great music. You don't have to use it all at once, but it's there." - Neil Young
  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    gue_barium wrote:
    It's about Satan. I mean,
    the character is Satan, the Devil, the temptor.
    Or temptress, depending on your point of view.

    You think so?
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  • cookiescookies Posts: 113
    To me it is about some one having confliction about marriage the big hand being the conscious, stating the things that could go wrong, the person saying I know and its OK. and in the end they found a way to make it work. The room growing taller, is saying that he has grown, when he found out that he should explore and not explode.


    Cookies
    Cookies
    ôjô
  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    cookies wrote:
    To me it is about some one having confliction about marriage the big hand being the conscious, stating the things that could go wrong, the person saying I know and its OK. and in the end they found a way to make it work. The room growing taller, is saying that he has grown, when he found out that he should explore and not explode.


    Cookies

    This is an interesting idea. I don't think anyone has suggested this before.
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  • wolfbearwolfbear Posts: 3,965
    I thought this was a very interesting interpretation. Don't know if you read it before. :)

    http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=191890&highlight=guided+tour+avocado
    "I'd rather be with an animal." "Those that can be trusted can change their mind." "The in between is mine." "If I don't lose control, explore and not explode, a preternatural other plane with the power to maintain." "Yeh this is living." "Life is what you make it."
  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    wolfbear wrote:
    I thought this was a very interesting interpretation. Don't know if you read it before. :)

    http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=191890&highlight=guided+tour+avocado

    I haven't seen that one either. Thanks.
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  • korbykorby Posts: 298
    its about partying. leaving the woman in the garage ,basement or whatever has a cement floor.

    and going out with a fun guy and getting wasted
    its ok
  • cookiescookies Posts: 113
    Isn't love a hallucinating drug. Makes you see things you want to see. Until you come down is when you see what is there. The severed hand was recognized by the wedding band. Oh please understand I just need my friend a way home.
    Cookies
    ôjô
  • JordyWordyJordyWordy Posts: 2,261
    gue_barium wrote:
    It is not. That's a major misconception.

    - "This is a song about psychotropics" - Eddie Vedder 2006-05-04 - Is Ed confused about the meaning too then? ;)
    gue_barium wrote:
    The emphasis, if you listen, is the temptation to further oneself through the void, be it warfare or otherwise. It also relies on the old myth of the dragon, the dark, the masculine warrior, there to slay.

    what does that myth mean?

    theres interesting discussion on songmeanings.net which makes a very plausable explanation that he goes to a party, takes drugs, and starts to think on a higher level. (i know that me & my friends are convinced we can solve world hunger once we've a few drinks on).

    The drug user in this song longs for enlightenment; for his mind to be free. Drug use is one way to pursue this, however, its affects are misleading.

    *** by pumpikano on 05-01-2006 @ 02:11:03 AM*** from songmeanings.net
    It seems to me that this song is pretty obviously about psychedelic drug use, like LSD or peyote.

    Heres evidence:

    "Got some kicks, wanna take a ride?" --> kicks = hits, ride = trip

    "...leave yourself behind" --> hallucinagens sometimes give the sensation of being outside your body

    "tried to walk, found a severed hand...recognized it by the wedding band" --> he can't walk right, he sees his hand, but is outside it, "severed" from it, and he only recognizes that it is his by the wedding ring

    "you'll see dragons after 3 or 4" --> hallucinations

    "the rooms taller now" --> spatial perception shifts

    "I see the sound in waves" --> experience of synaesthesia (i.e. tasting shapes, smelling colors, etc.) caused by psychedelics

    "If i don't lose control explore not explode" - often users of hallucinogens panic when their world starts to desolve. he realized that he must keep control and not explode - or also could refer to goverment approaches - educate not annihilate

    "a preternatural other plane" --> reference to the transcendent journey he in undergoing - a man having religious or divine inspiration can be called preternatural

    "once dissolved we are free to grow" --> a hippie idea, on the same page as Timothy Leary, that humans can reach spiritual freedom when the mental filters that structure our world are broken down

    in addition to all this, the picture that accomplanies the lyrics in the album seems to fit along the lines of transcendence, mental/spiritual freedom

    altogether, a great song
  • gue_bariumgue_barium Posts: 5,515
    I think Ed is lying.

    Who is the big man hiding behind the open door? Who sees him? Who could/would entice one to leave his lady on the cement floor?

    Could it be Satan?
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