Given to Fly

vedderfan10 · August 2006

When i first posted on here last September, I got lambasted for suggesting GTF was about surfing...I mean, c'mon! It's obviously about surfing..."arms wide open with the sea as his floor..." And the music itself ebbs and flows like an ocean wave or two...Plus, Mike McCready said the same thing...

Anyway, at the Gorge II a couple of weeks ago, what did Eddie do when he got ontop of the mixing board room? He surfed!!

So, I guess this isn't about Jesus - it's about Eddie (look at me now!) -- and it's like the continuation of "Reviewmirror"...RVM Part II.

Anyway, it's an incredible song - and my non-PJ fan husband has been singing it all over the place ever since the 2 Gorge shows!

Flame away...if you must....

Memories of Grey · August 2006

i dont really remember surfing having to do with being stripped or stabbed.. lol

vedderfan10 · August 2006

Are there no beach thugs in San Diego?

Anyway, didn't Eddie say he was beat up by the kids in that group home his parents ran? Maybe he was stripped of his dignity and stabbed in the back and he triumphed over that with the help of finding himself while surfing? Or maybe when he was learning to surf he lost his shorts in the waves and was "stabbed" by the rocks & barnacles he landed on...

I dunno, to me this is clearly about surfing or at least being on the ocean. I stand by my "RVM Part II" comments.

SpinMeRoundRollMeOvr · August 2006

I'm not too clear about the meaning of this song but there is one thing that I am sure of... this is one of the greatest live songs ever.

pjrvm · August 2006

He could've tuned in, tuned in
But he tuned out
A bad time, nothing could save him
Alone in a corridor, waiting, locked out
He got up outta there, ran for hundreds of miles
He made it to the ocean, had a smoke in a tree
The wind rose up, set him down on his knee

A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw
Delivered him wings, 'Hey, look at me now'
Arms wide open with the sea as his floor
Oh, power, oh
He's.. flying.....whole...high...wide....oh

He floated back down 'cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed
By faceless men, well, fuckers
He still stands

And he still gives his love, he just gives it away
The love he receives is the love that is saved
And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
A human being that was given to fly

High.. flying
Oh, oh
High.. flying
Oh, oh
He's flying
Oh, oh

The first half of the song and the chrous and even the title sound like they could be surfin, but I'm not so sure about the second and third verses.

I've always had a hard time believing it was about Jesus.
It sure is good live and the band clearly loves to play it.
It's a stretch but maybe it's about how surfing is healing. "Sharing" how surfing helped him, and he was stripped and stabbed (figurative) for saying that surfing was "the answer". Maybe the song is even anti-religious in that sense.
I think I just confused myself.
The more I think about it the more I think that it's about surfing, and how surfing is Eddie's "clean well-lighted place". Ten points for anyone who gets that reference.
This is one song I'd love for Eddie to explain.

pjrvm · August 2006

Also.. I don't get the RVM Part II thing

vedderfan10 · August 2006

Well....RVM is about leaving a bad situation and being angry about it. We all know about Ed's crappy teen years...so, in my mind RVM is about getting out of that situation...and the rearview mirror can be taken figuritively and literally, assuming he got in his car and drove away...

So, GTF continues that theme of leaving a bad situation (being locked out of somewhere, presumably by someone he didn't like) and driving until he got to the ocean...decided to learn to surf and it was a freeing experience, very liberating...and he wants to share that with everyone...it was like a zen thing, I guess...and obviously it freed him of a lot of things (that feeling of being on the water), and for him it was "the key that unlocked the chains he saw everywhere" - literally and figuratively. Plus surfing gave him power to realize that could amount to something great ("look at me now").

I hope that made sense...

DOSW · August 2006

I don't know about the surfing thing. I just see it as a modern fable of sorts.

BeBe · August 2006

All I can say that GYF is one of the best songs ever. period. I love it live even more.

What emotions..

igiventofly · August 2006

given to fly is a song that speaks to me, its my personal favorite PJ tune. i was fucking thrilled that "given to fly" was played both nights at the greatest venue on the planet; the Gorge at George WA. Given to fly to me is being shund from the masses; the world. finding happiness in ones self. Being rejected by everyone, but no matter because one's place has been found. Others don't understand; he goes on, accepted or not. its not about jesus at all, its about self fulfillment and embracing the things that are given to you.

vedderfan10 · August 2006

Right on...Excellent, excellent interpretation!!

Try as I might, I just can't figure out a Jesus reference...especially since Eddie was an athiest at the time he wrote it...(I'm guessing he's changed his mind due to all the "god" references at the Gorge...well, two anyway...)

DOSW · August 2006

igiventofly wrote:

given to fly is a song that speaks to me, its my personal favorite PJ tune. i was fucking thrilled that "given to fly" was played both nights at the greatest venue on the planet; the Gorge at George WA. Given to fly to me is being shund from the masses; the world. finding happiness in ones self. Being rejected by everyone, but no matter because one's place has been found. Others don't understand; he goes on, accepted or not. its not about jesus at all, its about self fulfillment and embracing the things that are given to you.

Excellently said. I never really thought about it in the big picture like you did. It's almost an anthem on how to live, instead of just a nice fairy tale.

Thanks for that, man. You might have just made my day.

Thorns2010 · August 2006

He got up outta there, ran for hundreds of miles
He made it to the ocean, had a smoke in a tree
The wind rose up, set him down on his knee

A reason I think it could be about Jesus is that it has been proposed before that Jesus went to Asia during his teens and 20's.

If you look at the Gospels there is no stories of Jesus from the time he was a young teenager until the time he is 29-32. Where did he go? Rumor is Asia, and got into Eastern ideas like Buddism and such.

But thats just me, looking into more then I probably should!

vedderfan10 · August 2006

Thorns2010 wrote:

A reason I think it could be about Jesus is that it has been proposed before that Jesus went to Asia during his teens and 20's.

If you look at the Gospels there is no stories of Jesus from the time he was a young teenager until the time he is 29-32. Where did he go? Rumor is Asia, and got into Eastern ideas like Buddism and such.

But thats just me, looking into more then I probably should!

Yeah, I used to go to church, so I remember Jesus - the Missing Years... Thanks, though for bringing that up...

But I think that particular part of the song is Eddie referring to himself about leaving Illinois to move to San Diego...he ran for hundreds of miles, made it to the ocean...

And while Jesus may have walked on water, there's no reference it was an ocean (I think, correct me if I'm wrong)..."Arms wide open with the sea as his floor" really sounds like he caught him a big wave...can't surf without the ocean and can't surf with at least one arm open (how could you balance?)..

dsvelund · August 2006

i hear drug references in this song and not just from the obvious ("made it to the ocean had a smoke in a tree..." however, i think it could definitely be about anything that "enlightens" you - and that could definitely be surfing for a lot of people. if you do something that makes you feel incredible, whether it is drugs, surfing, meditating, praying, making music, etc..., it can be difficult to make others "see the light", so to speak. often times you will be mocked or "stripped" or even "stabbed". like almost all pearl jam songs, it is definitely open for interpretation and even if you are listening to it for the 763rd time, you can hear something in this song that you never heard before - unlike if you were listening to a song by, say, dashboard confessional for the 763rd time.

Given to Fly

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