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Light Years Question

Dissident67Dissident67 Posts: 568
edited August 2008 in Words and Music...Communication
I have always thought light years was a good song but after I heard it live at camden this year i was really blown away. i have been listening to it more and more since then and also to boots that is included in. but there is one thing that i was unsure of, is the song only about when you lose someone because of death? I just don't think there is anything in this song that really says death is what is being talked about. could it just be about losing someone in any sort of way??? because that is what it means to me, and that there still is hope to be together and achieve that feeling from before you were apart.

just looking for a little help on the interpretation of this beautiful song, sorry if this is a stupid question or has been talked about before.
"Change don't come at once, it's a wave, building before it breaks"
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Comments

  • slightofjeffslightofjeff Posts: 7,762
    Light Years was written as a death song ... Ed has said so himself ... It is about a lady at Pearl Jam's record label named Diane, who died young.

    If you want to use it to get you through some other kind of loss, I'm sure Ed wouldn't mind. But, originally, it was written as a death song, and the lyrics very much support that interpretation.
    everybody wants the most they can possibly get
    for the least they could possibly do
  • StaffanStaffan Posts: 606
    Dissident67 wrote:
    I have always thought light years was a good song but after I heard it live at camden this year i was really blown away. i have been listening to it more and more since then and also to boots that is included in. but there is one thing that i was unsure of, is the song only about when you lose someone because of death? I just don't think there is anything in this song that really says death is what is being talked about. could it just be about losing someone in any sort of way??? because that is what it means to me, and that there still is hope to be together and achieve that feeling from before you were apart.

    just looking for a little help on the interpretation of this beautiful song, sorry if this is a stupid question or has been talked about before.

    Just wanted to say that I recently came to love this song.
    Listen to St paul 6-27-2006 for a beautiful and heartfelt interpretation of this fine piece of music :)

    Peace
    Everyday................is Pearl Jam Day.

    Except Sundays, that's Ed day.

    The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work unless it's open. FZ

  • 3inputchick3inputchick Posts: 845
    I love love love this song-
    my only problem with it played live is that they rush through it-

    Jones Beach 2000 is a great version!
    A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are.
  • Dissident67Dissident67 Posts: 568
    slightofjeff wrote:
    Light Years was written as a death song ... Ed has said so himself ... It is about a lady at Pearl Jam's record label named Diane, who died young.

    ok i didn't know that, is there any bootleg where ed talks about this specifically? i just have never found one where he went into a lot of detail about the song and now am hoping that someone can help me out again
    "Change don't come at once, it's a wave, building before it breaks"
  • Stone IronsStone Irons Posts: 430
    Dissident67 wrote:
    ok i didn't know that, is there any bootleg where ed talks about this specifically? i just have never found one where he went into a lot of detail about the song and now am hoping that someone can help me out again

    Pinkpop 2000. Although he dedicated the song to her at the concert, it is not really known whether it is actually about her. At the concert, Ed said there are "times you have got friends that don't fuck up at all and are great people. And then you just lose them for some reason. They are off the planet and you never had a chance to say goodbye. I only mention this because there was a person we used to know here and that was Diane and ah, we never got a chance to say goodbye. This is goodbye. And if you've got good friends, love them while they're here."
    Can't escape from the common rule...
    If you hate something, don't you do it too
  • lukinvedderlukinvedder Posts: 203
    i love this song and it means heaps to me, im even thinking about getting a tattoo saying "we were but stones, your light made us stars" just beautiful. i dont think of it as a death song but of a song about losing someone in any way or form. it is definitely a song about love and i feel every lyric.
    Christchurch, New Zealand 2009

  • Dissident67Dissident67 Posts: 568
    lukinvedder wrote:
    i dont think of it as a death song but of a song about losing someone in any way or form. it is definitely a song about love and i feel every lyric.

    I am glad someone else was on the same page as me. I feel every lyric of this song too, i think it is very moving and powerful.
    "Change don't come at once, it's a wave, building before it breaks"
  • dcfaithfuldcfaithful Posts: 13,076
    This is a beautiful song, and I'm so glad I got to here it in Tampa...i was so suprised, but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face...why would I want to?
    7/2/06 - Denver, CO
    6/12/08 - Tampa, FL
    8/23/09 - Chicago, IL
    9/28/09 - Salt Lake City, UT (11 years too long!!!)
    9/03/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 1
    9/04/11 - East Troy, WI - PJ20 - Night 2
  • innaneinnane Posts: 33
    when i first heard light years i thought it was a break up heart break song...

    But there is alot of evidence in the words that the song is not about heartbreak but about the loss of life...

    The song contains alot of astronomical metaphors and imagery...

    "your lights reflected now...reflected from far"

    "every inch between us becomes light years now"

    Talking of a loved one becoming a star in the sky when they die is not uncommon in our culture...so that is my evidence that this is a death song...

    The first verse is absolutely incredible....eddie goes thru all the things hes been hailed for by being a wise, intelligen man..."ive understood feelings and ive understood words" meaning he has shed light on deep human emotions and complex circumstances of our existence... "but now your gone i couldnt figure out why"

    he really is an amazing lyricist.
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