Let's talk about 'Severed Hand'

gue_barium wrote:

got two cigarettes lit
one on the floor...

??????? - thats not in the song

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.


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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

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

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

he doesnt physically leave her at all, just sits there beside her but is totally spaced out of it - maybe not really a cement floor, but shes on planet earth at least while hes spacing out

the big man standing behind the open door is the person opening the door for him at whatever party or house he's going to i guess..

its probably cliche if it is about drugs but its a not a "drugs are deadly - DO DRUGS" kind of song at least, more thoughtful look at it. the theories about marriage and satan are good too

gue_barium wrote:

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...

Addams Family? I was thinking, it was better when you knew The Hand was connected to something. It was more trippy and believable, back in the so-called unreal monochrome early 60s. In the 80s the hand started walking on its own, and you could spot its artifice. We go further out on our own when we're connected to the stuff behind the curtain.