| Pearl Jam – Man of the Hour Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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popperoski, not sure whether Vedder said the song was about Joey R. or not. But even if it was, that's irrelevant mate. One must interpret lyrics by themselved alone, nothing else. Just what's written on the page. Forget what Vedder said, forget what Burton said, forget it was in Big Fish...let's just concentrate on the lyrics. Now, if we do that, its pretty obvious its about the speaker's father. He dies in a car crash; he was pretty authoritative. The song is set at the guys funeral, and as the big, church, oak doors open, the speaker fronts a long road ahead of him. Metaphorically, its his life awaiting him...he knows that his father left him a few rusty signs along the way (ie tips on how to live well), and if he does well maybe one day he'll see his father again (ie in heaven; hence the goodbye only for now). |
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| Pearl Jam – Green Disease Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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No Code, yeah, green refers to money. Aside from being your typical, straight-forward anti-capitalism song, I really liked the part: "well i guess there's nothing wrong with what you say but don't sell me, 'there can't be better ways'" Here it seems as if the speaker is conceding that capitalism MAKES SENSE. But that, there could be another system even better (which is probable). So he may just be criticizing the greed and lust for power that capitalism may engender, but is nonetheless stating that it may be very well the best we can do right now. Man, much better than many "South American rockers"* who are still against globalization, privatization and so forth. * By that I refer to Los Prisioneros, RATM and the like. |
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| Pearl Jam – Brother (Pre-Ten Sessions) Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Definitely Big Brother, ie government. Who else would cover a wound (like 9/11) with patriotism? (I'm referring to the band aid/flag). Uhm, I'm not saying the Bush administration did well, or not. All I'm saying is that the big brother here refers to our government and not to a sibling, like a previous poster (on the thread with the wrong lyrics) said. Plus, to keep with the Orwellian motif, there's the recurring "keep/be happy," the occasional "don't question authority," and the never-ending "pushing." Face down still! |
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| Pearl Jam – All or None Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Hmm...I see it a bit differently. I see a man talking to himself, about himself. Imagine to begin a day...along the lines of Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried to Live." You begin a day and say to yourself, today will be different; today I will do all that I have to do, all the way (i.e. study/work for 18 hours straight, write the great American novel, solve an archaic math problem). Imagine you put yourself up against a seemingly impossible standard, but since its you, you can do it. And then you fail. And the next day fail yet again. So here's the speaker of the song, and this is his hopeless situation. He tries and tries, and never quite manages. In his mind, however its All or None. Either he manages to do that seemingly impossible thing, or to hell with it, he won't do a thing. At the end, he comes clean with (surrenders to)himself; that is, with the one he can never please (since he has such high expectations of himself). I think this tends to quite common with high achievers. I had a friend who said that either he would get the best job available for someone in his field, or he would quit his life and go join the French Foreign Legion for 5 years; its All or None. |
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