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Parachutes

mteahenmteahen Posts: 7
edited February 2007 in Words and Music...Communication
This is a great song, I'd like to hear interpretations..
Other than the love song aspect, there's more to it.. I'd like to understand it better.
Thanks.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • ledveddermanledvedderman Posts: 7,761
    I think it's a song where someone is about to die and having one final life lesson with the person they love, telling them all the things maybe they didn't say enough during their life.
    E8toX.gif

    http://www.reverbnation.com/brianzilm
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    This is probably the most CONFUSING song of PJs. It says YES, but then NO, and then a little of MAYBE. I tell you, if I could figure out this song, then I could figure out 10 RUBIKs cubes within 30 seconds.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Pearl Jam and toastPearl Jam and toast Posts: 4,475
    I thought about it for like a week strait (no joke) and I've got it.

    By my interpretation it's actually one of the more simple and beautiful things Ed's ever written...

    A parachute is something that saves your life when you're falling helplessly,.. It's love.
    Come on pilgrim you know he loves you..

    http://www.wishlistfoundation.org

    Oh my, they dropped the leash.



    Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!

    "Make our day"
  • StrutterStrutter Posts: 37
    Pearl Jam and toast wrote:
    I thought about it for like a week strait (no joke) and I've got it.

    By my interpretation it's actually one of the more simple and beautiful things Ed's ever written...

    A parachute is something that saves your life when you're falling helplessly,.. It's love.


    simply put and well said :-)
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    Pearl Jam and toast wrote:
    I thought about it for like a week strait (no joke) and I've got it.

    By my interpretation it's actually one of the more simple and beautiful things Ed's ever written...

    A parachute is something that saves your life when you're falling helplessly,.. It's love.
    I revisited the lyrics because I wanted to believe that I was just obtuse, and that the answer was plainly staring me in the face. However, again, there is the idea of falling and being saved by the parachute of love, yet at the same time there is all this other negative stuff within the song. Not like really bad negative, but the room is dark, the house doesn't feel like home . . . that sort of stuff. I actually wish that this song was clear in it's sentiment, or that I understood it better as I was getting frustrated just trying to decipher it. If you can find that thread of love throughout the song then more power to you :) I'm lost.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • StrutterStrutter Posts: 37
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    I revisited the lyrics because I wanted to believe that I was just obtuse, and that the answer was plainly staring me in the face. However, again, there is the idea of falling and being saved by the parachute of love, yet at the same time there is all this other negative stuff within the song. Not like really bad negative, but the room is dark, the house doesn't feel like home . . . that sort of stuff. I actually wish that this song was clear in it's sentiment, or that I understood it better as I was getting frustrated just trying to decipher it. If you can find that thread of love throughout the song then more power to you :) I'm lost.

    as i see it...the house represents life...from bright it goes to dark (beginning to end)-and even though he's not that young he shares the new beginning with her-"together share the dawn"...and i think that the rest of the son is clear
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    Why deny
    All the troubles when combined
    With the missing links
    It don't feel like
    Home now,...

    That you're gone
    All the troubles
    suddenly explained infinitum
    You're always wishing and
    Never here at
    Home


    I don't see any love in the above. I can see it in a lot of the rest of the song.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • StrutterStrutter Posts: 37
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    Why deny
    All the troubles when combined
    With the missing links
    It don't feel like
    Home now,...

    That you're gone
    All the troubles
    suddenly explained infinitum
    You're always wishing and
    Never here at
    Home


    I don't see any love in the above. I can see it in a lot of the rest of the song.

    how to explain this...?
    she's gone(probably to clear their heads and find out what they want from this relationship),and he realised that she's the missing link in his life and that wherever he is it doesn't feel like home cause she isn't with him...you can't call your house a home if here ain't love in it...
    and these troubles suddenly explained that his love for her is infinite and he wants to be fixed...
  • Pearl Jam and toastPearl Jam and toast Posts: 4,475
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    I revisited the lyrics because I wanted to believe that I was just obtuse, and that the answer was plainly staring me in the face. However, again, there is the idea of falling and being saved by the parachute of love, yet at the same time there is all this other negative stuff within the song. Not like really bad negative, but the room is dark, the house doesn't feel like home . . . that sort of stuff. I actually wish that this song was clear in it's sentiment, or that I understood it better as I was getting frustrated just trying to decipher it. If you can find that thread of love throughout the song then more power to you :) I'm lost.
    Why deny
    all the troubles
    when combined
    with the missing link
    it-don't-feel-like home now
    that you're gone all the troubles
    suddenly explain infinitum
    you're always wishing and
    never-here-at home you

    All of my troubles, combined with the missing link, you leaving, make everything terrible and empty (it don't feel like home now that you're gone..). Now that I don't have you I realize how powerful love is and why you left.. that I should have/could have kept you.

    I think "Infinitum" is a reference to love's power and everlasting quality. "you're always wishing and never here at home" might be saying that this person left because of things the protagonist could have prevented.. typical bullshit.. "I shouldn't have taken you for granted" type stuff.

    All the dreams we shared and
    lights we turned on
    but the house is getting dark
    and I don't want to know your past
    but together share the dawn

    All that we had is gone now.. I don't care about what happened between us, I just need you and want you back (to share the dawn.. the new begining... fresh start).

    and I won't need
    nothing else cuz when we're dead we would have had it all
    and died
    I would have fallen from the sky till you
    parachutes have opened now

    If you come back my life will be complete... I don't need anything but you... If you come back you can save me from falling. It's an "If you come back" because of the way it's worded... "and I won't need..." implying that the protagonist is looking towards the future.

    Heaven knows if there's a ceiling
    come so low with the kneeling
    please know that
    I've got
    all the friends I'm needing
    before my light goes out
    as the doors are closing now

    Heaven knows what heights our love could bring us to,.. I've been so low, begging you to come back.. Seems like the charecter is going through acceptance here,... like saying "look, even if you don't come back, know that I'll be alright"....

    and far away will be my home
    but to graps this I don't know

    ... or at least the charecter was trying to go through acceptance. Running through the scenario of if his or her lover didn't come back and feeling like it's some outrageous immpossibilty. Can't be "grasped" by the charecter.

    and I don't need

    Never quite got where this line came from,.. my best guess is that it's just there to state some kind of independance from it all.

    further back and forth a wave will break on me today

    This chapter in his life is coming to a close.. like a wave finally crashing. But also like a wave it will retreat to the ocean and start over, fresh. This could be an acceptance of the loss or the lover coming back,.. the wave crashing and the fresh start between the two of them.

    and love, wish the world could go again with love, one can't seem to have enough

    This line makes me think the wave crashing was acceptance,.. not easy acceptance, but acknowleding that she's not coming back. Wish we could have what we had again,... never can have enough love in your life.

    and war, break the sky and tell me what it's for
    i'll travel there on my own

    Not sure what this means.. almost points to the loved one being lost in combat, but i don't know if it's that literal. I lean towards a lover.. a relationship.. but that's just because i've related it so heavily on my personal experiences of lately.. it's very likely a loved one lost in combat. Also alludes to the reference of their love as a 'parachute' (soldier - parachute, obviously).

    I don't know what he means by "I'll travel there on my own" unless it's travelling the rest of his life's journey without the loved one.

    And love, what a different life had I not found this love with you

    BEAUTIFUL line... I don't think it merits any interpretation :).
    Come on pilgrim you know he loves you..

    http://www.wishlistfoundation.org

    Oh my, they dropped the leash.



    Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!

    "Make our day"
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    I doubt this is the true intent of the song. However, imagine if the protagonist is someone in the war, and the other who he/she is talking to didn't agree with him/her on his/her decision to join the military? It almost sounds like a letter from the front. Almost like a last letter from the front as if the person writing is expecting to die in battle.

    Home could be not just a particular house, but rather the homefront. The home country. Friends could be people in his/her military company. The wave could be of gunfire.

    I was thinking of the US Civil War when I was reading the lyrics from this point of view. I must be reading too many books on quilts :) Kindof an interesting turn, though. Try reading it from a point of view you just have a feeling is not it, and see what happens.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • Pearl Jam and toastPearl Jam and toast Posts: 4,475
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    I doubt this is the true intent of the song. However, imagine if the protagonist is someone in the war, and the other who he/she is talking to didn't agree with him/her on his/her decision to join the military? It almost sounds like a letter from the front. Almost like a last letter from the front as if the person writing is expecting to die in battle.

    Home could be not just a particular house, but rather the homefront. The home country. Friends could be people in his/her military company. The wave could be of gunfire.

    I was thinking of the US Civil War when I was reading the lyrics from this point of view. I must be reading too many books on quilts :) Kindof an interesting turn, though. Try reading it from a point of view you just have a feeling is not it, and see what happens.
    That's a really good idea about the song.

    This one's fairly wide open in the specifics.
    Come on pilgrim you know he loves you..

    http://www.wishlistfoundation.org

    Oh my, they dropped the leash.



    Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!

    "Make our day"
  • gossardstradlingossardstradlin Posts: 324
    And love, what a different life had I not found this love with you


    Yeah, that's such a great, beautiful closing line to the song. Leaves you with such a great feeling afterwards. One of my favorite lines from Eddie.

    Don't you think it has such a great flow with between Eddie's vocals and the band's music? You almost get a sense of a person in a parachute being blown away and then drifting back down.
    "She knows there is no success like failure
    And that failure's no success at all."

    "Don't ya think its sometimes wise not to grow up."

    "Cause life ain't nothing but a good groove
    A good mixed tape to put you in the right mood."
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    gossardstradlin wrote:
    And love, what a different life had I not found this love with you


    Yeah, that's such a great, beautiful closing line to the song. Leaves you with such a great feeling afterwards. One of my favorite lines from Eddie.

    Don't you think it has such a great flow with between Eddie's vocals and the band's music? You almost get a sense of a person in a parachute being blown away and then drifting back down.
    Honestly, the song consistently reminds me of pink cotton candy. So, Eddie's up there singing about love, and I'm thinking of a mid-week carnival in suburban NJ.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • mteahenmteahen Posts: 7
    I'm starting to see a scenario where the "soldier" lost a love at home, and now is being shipped off to deal with war, or whatever conflicts in his/her life. Being that this album was so war-driven, this is actually plausible.
    Nice thought processes, people!
  • fanch75fanch75 Posts: 3,734
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    Why deny
    All the troubles when combined
    With the missing links
    It don't feel like
    Home now,...

    That you're gone
    All the troubles
    suddenly explained infinitum
    You're always wishing and
    Never here at
    Home


    I don't see any love in the above. I can see it in a lot of the rest of the song.

    I thought it was about divorce. It starts off a bit angry/dark and ends up reflective.
    Do you remember Rock & Roll Radio?
  • gossardstradlingossardstradlin Posts: 324
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    Honestly, the song consistently reminds me of pink cotton candy. So, Eddie's up there singing about love, and I'm thinking of a mid-week carnival in suburban NJ.

    Nice! I can definitely hear that with the guitar, almost like a carousel. Makes we wish for summer!
    "She knows there is no success like failure
    And that failure's no success at all."

    "Don't ya think its sometimes wise not to grow up."

    "Cause life ain't nothing but a good groove
    A good mixed tape to put you in the right mood."
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