I'm Above

i fully agree with the amphibian. a relationship that's not going too well.

the more i hear about Staley, Alice in Chains, and the grunge scene the more i feel unworthy to try to interpret it. We only hear such a fraction and its usually the bad stuff, and we try to make inferences about these guys as people and their messages.. Mad Season was another very sad story. These guys (made up of a member each of Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains, and John Baker Saunders - whose death in 1999, also from a heroin overdose, pretty much closed the door on any further work.

Having said that, if this was written by Layne, i think this is about his relationship with Jerry Cantrell. Although the two were apparently close, there was a lot of tension between them because of Layne's addictions and difficulty in getting him to work; Jerry on the otherhand seems like a bit of a workaholic by comparison (AiC had a tendency for short albums, whereas Cantrell's album Degradation Trip has 25 songs!)

It seems Layne joined Mad Season in a time when things weren't too peachy at the Alice camp, he needed to get away: "For clear space and soundess of mind/I've let you play me for some time"

"continue to pretend that I'm blind" - I think (perhaps understandably) Jerry minimised the influence Layne had in Alice, writing most of the songs, bugging him to get clean and get in the studio. But it was Layne's band too, and I think he felt that Jerry was ignoring his efforts.

"How is you're feeling so uneasy?/How is it that I feel fine"... I think Layne took the fact that Jerry was bothered by his wanting to join this sideproject as an admission of guilt almost. I think Jerry was really just trying to keep the band in one piece.

"I'm above/Over you I'm standing above/Claiming unconditional love/ Try to keep bad blood in the past...I have strength enough...to forgive/I desire peace where I live"

Layne feels like he's taking the moral high road by walking away, therefore he feels like he's "above" Jerry. He thinks Jerry doesn't get it because he isn't seeing it from a neutral angle: "Behind the unwhole truth you hide". But he also desires to work things out, and he still considers himself a part of Alice, "peace where I live", loves those guys unconditionally, he forgives them.

Anyways i expect its actually nothing like that I haven't done my research its just what I get out of the lyrics.

Best song on the album. Thank God, Layne got this shit together. Great fucking album all the way through.

this is my favorite song on the album also. i put it on repeat and listen to it over and over and over again. i love it. i miss layne.

Layne always said, whatever you think the song is about, that's what it's about. That being said, it's almost certainly about Layne and Jerry's relationship. Go listen to Jerry's solo album Boggy Depot. It's almost like a direct response to Above. Jerry says things like born traitor, and cut you in, part time friend. At the time Above was written, AIC had hoped Layne would go straight back to the band. Instead Layne felt that being with clean people, who'd just gotten outta rehab also, would be healthier. Jerry never forgave Layne for that. BTW Cantrell was in the serious grip of meth addiction himself. On Degradation, Cantrell completely unloaded on Layne. Layne died when Jerry toured it.

I can't believe no one has commented on this song yet!! I think its about seeing the big picture (which you can see from 'above') that you get what you deserve: "life reveals what is dealt thru seasons...circle comes around each time"...

This song could be about Demri Parrott, I dont`t know. Yes, this song is one of the best from Above.

I'm above Over you I'm standing above Claiming unconditional love Above

LAYNE THOMAS STALEY August 22, 1967 – April 5,2002 Think. before you act!

this song could have been the only song to be released by Mad Season and I would have been happy, but they wound up releasing 9 other little snippets of audio heaven... thank god...

I think this song deals with Layne relationship with Demri as well...

I think this song is about seeing your life from above. Seeing that there are people who lie to you, people who take advantage of you. It might be about when you die and go to heaven, you see your life, and all the good shit and the bad. It could also be about a relation ship.

Ive read the text again, and ive decided its a song about a realation ship that is not going to well.

for clear space and soundness of mind! ive let you play me for some time..it refers that he let "something" had some force on him when he agree to live and lived on heroin one can only receive and reteain well it means something like if you got goddamned the only thing you can do to all of the damnations its retain its totally crazy because you know he did all to himself but you know heroins a big shit so it got him hooked up cuz that shit sustenance all your pain caused by the same use but the lines you recite for your gain means like that well you get to think several when your high and you think that you can be on control or something by some force.. im above over you im standing above its quite like he thinks hes a better person that the force that cause him all of this and hes claiming for unconditional love You say I made your life a living hell And yet still let me pay you when I fell it means that he made his life and this life its also like a temple for god and hes telling god that he says that he made his life a living hell and layne thought that still god would let him pay for his since like going to hell or something very sad! something that has a little hope for those who cared of layne its that in ine line he says "how is it your felling so uneasy..(well that lines not the one i refer the next one..but this means that well he feel that the relationship with god aint easy) but the next line says how is it that i fell fine "well unless when he was on heroin the heroin killed all the pain caused by the same use and unless in that time he can get some peace felling fine you know cuz heroin totally numbs your entire body or something but it gets fuckin very damn bad if you dont give up trying some rehab medicines or something because that shit destroys your entire body and organs veins and shit and well youll feel the pain and sometime heroin couldnt help you anymore so...shit laynes suffered so much hes entire fuckin life man how sad its that you got to give him some credit the man he stand it for it like a man ! he didnt killed himself he belived in living! but shit heroin got him fucked!