just a thought here but if there was no Iraq war what would he be writing about???? I love his song writing but so much songs about war?? He was pretty much a bust on riot act. Then it takes 18 months for this ablum and alot of references about war I think he might be struggling with song writing to some extent
just a thought here but if there was no Iraq war what would he be writing about???? I love his song writing but so much songs about war?? He was pretty much a bust on riot act. Then it takes 18 months for this ablum and alot of references about war I think he might be struggling with song writing to some extent
hmmm ... I thought lyrically, he was pretty damn good on riot act. it's hard to argue otherwise.
Also, there are only a few songs on the new record that I would say are directly, obviously, about war. Others may have been somewhat inspired by it, but they aren't as direct.
Ed just writes about life, man. Always has. Probably always will. It's what attracted me to this band so many years ago, and what keeps me listening still.
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 12:41 pm Posts: 272 Location: Grand Blanc, MI
You can't force creativity. Ed has to be moved by something in order to be inspired enough to compose poetic verses that seem real and not forced. If that is the war than so be it. I'll take whatever heart felt and inspired prose this man has to offer.
_________________ Tell you to pray while the devil's on their shoulder.
hmmm ... I thought lyrically, he was pretty damn good on riot act. it's hard to argue otherwise.
Also, there are only a few songs on the new record that I would say are directly, obviously, about war. Others may have been somewhat inspired by it, but they aren't as direct.
Ed just writes about life, man. Always has. Probably always will. It's what attracted me to this band so many years ago, and what keeps me listening still.
lyrically, he was ass on riot act. that shit about sop making you taller and any line in bushleaguer were embarrassing. i think the way he's attacked the war from perspectives on this album is great. i have no connection to the war at all, but army reserve and marker are 2 of my 3 faves on this album.
You can't force creativity. Ed has to be moved by something in order to be inspired enough to compose poetic verses that seem real and not forced. If that is the war than so be it. I'll take whatever heart felt and inspired prose this man has to offer.
Uh... song lyrics are not prose...
_________________
vacatetheword wrote:
I'll let you in on a little secret. Sometimes we mis-spell stuff and just tell you Americans 'it's how we spell it here'
the band took a more mature approach to tackling the hardship of war on this one vs. riot act. i think there is better music (lyrics and guitars) put behind the "message" on avacado. plus, many songs are not driven by war, yet eds daughter and lifes everyday struggle. music is the loudest voice. listen!
_________________ i change by not changing at all.
Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:49 am Posts: 336 Location: Finland
inglishteecher wrote:
slightofjeff wrote:
hmmm ... I thought lyrically, he was pretty damn good on riot act. it's hard to argue otherwise.
Also, there are only a few songs on the new record that I would say are directly, obviously, about war. Others may have been somewhat inspired by it, but they aren't as direct.
Ed just writes about life, man. Always has. Probably always will. It's what attracted me to this band so many years ago, and what keeps me listening still.
lyrically, he was ass on riot act. that shit about sop making you taller and any line in bushleaguer were embarrassing. i think the way he's attacked the war from perspectives on this album is great. i have no connection to the war at all, but army reserve and marker are 2 of my 3 faves on this album.
This came up in the RA thread as well - i said it there and i say it again: the soap made you taller line should not be quoted out of context.
the tv, she talks to me breaking news and building walls selling me what i don't need i never knew soap made you taller
Now this seems to be about the media, its power and influence, and the bullshit they are selling us - both in a literal sense (eg. shopping tv - soap that is supposed to make you taller would be a fun example), and more importantly, in a metaphorical sense: they are selling us all kinds of myths on the news - propaganda, designed to build walls (to polarize, to keep us seperated). Consider also the ambiguity of the simple phrase breaking news in this sense.
Now, i think these are very good lyrics. Definitely neither shit nor embarassing.
_________________ Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from defeat.
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Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Pearl_of_wisdom wrote:
inglishteecher wrote:
slightofjeff wrote:
hmmm ... I thought lyrically, he was pretty damn good on riot act. it's hard to argue otherwise.
Also, there are only a few songs on the new record that I would say are directly, obviously, about war. Others may have been somewhat inspired by it, but they aren't as direct.
Ed just writes about life, man. Always has. Probably always will. It's what attracted me to this band so many years ago, and what keeps me listening still.
lyrically, he was ass on riot act. that shit about sop making you taller and any line in bushleaguer were embarrassing. i think the way he's attacked the war from perspectives on this album is great. i have no connection to the war at all, but army reserve and marker are 2 of my 3 faves on this album.
This came up in the RA thread as well - i said it there and i say it again: the soap made you taller line should not be quoted out of context.
the tv, she talks to me breaking news and building walls selling me what i don't need i never knew soap made you taller
Now this seems to be about the media, its power and influence, and the bullshit they are selling us - both in a literal sense (eg. shopping tv - soap that is supposed to make you taller would be a fun example), and more importantly, in a metaphorical sense: they are selling us all kinds of myths on the news - propaganda, designed to build walls (to polarize, to keep us seperated). Consider also the ambiguity of the simple phrase breaking news in this sense.
Now, i think these are very good lyrics. Definitely neither shit nor embarassing.
I remember that post. It definitley turned that lyric around for me.
If you ever get a chance read Frances Fox Piven's The War At Home (I'm a little partial to it because it was my first published book review)--it provides a nice arguement for how the war in iraq/war on terror really pervades all aspects of foreign and domestic politics with larger and scarier consequences than might first be apparent. Eddie has the lyric 'what does it mean when a war has taken over' in WWS and it's easy to understand why it's so pervasive in his writing if you read that book. If there wasn't a war he'd probably write more songs about love and finding meaning in the world that dominant the earlier records, or just move on to other political causes.
Riot Act's got some fine writing on it. Thumbing My Way has magnificent lyrics.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:41 am Posts: 5867 Location: Providence, RI Gender: Male
I had to look at the original post in this thread a few times before it hit me that he's really onto something, although in my opinion he's found it in a roundabout way (or helped me find my way to it). I'll have to disagree with you about the Riot Act lyrics, because if you go to the RA thread everyone's talking about (could someone for it?) you'll find some great readings on the lyrical content of that album, especially Ed's contributions. I don't think he was struggling at all with his lyrics; my biggest problem with RA is that outside of his lyrics, the album seems to slouch. The band sounded exhausted and tired of playing music to me, like they didn't want to be there. Luckily when they went on the road this seemed to go away, but it's tough for me to sit through RA because of the way it sounds, not because of its content.
He's right that if there was no war, we wouldn't have the 8th album in our hands in its current state. Ed would have had to write about different things on some of the tracks; we probably would never hear WWS, Marker, Army Reserve, Severed Hand. But I'll argue that we probably wouldn't have heard some of the other songs either, like Life Wasted and Comatose, Unemployable and Gone. In the music there's a strong emotion that I haven't heard in abundnace in Pearl Jam's music for a while, and it's a very strong one: frustration. I think that may be the driving force behind this album, and you can hear it in a lot of the comments the band has made about the record and the current state of the world. It's also just so prevelant in the lyrics: "Something I never thought you'd be part of" / "God, what do you say?" / "You're always saying that there's something wrong..." / "What does it mean when a war has taken over?" And look at Come Back: although it's not as scathing as some of the other songs, it's obviously about the frustration about losing someone you love. Some people might see this as a negative force, they want them to stop complaining. But there's too many good things on this record to simply say frustration is useless; they're trying to channel that into an artform to do something positive. And this energy is what makes me really love this record at the moment; I've run off topic sort of, but I agree that without the current state of the world, we wouldn't have the album as it is, but I'll disagree with your RA points.
I think I'm rambling, does this make sense to anyone else?
_________________ "I wish that I believed in fate / I wish I didn't sleep so late"
"The real truth about it is: no one gets it right / The real truth about it is: we’re all supposed to try"
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
nice post S_T. I think you're right.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
bullet proof wrote:
Simple_Torture wrote:
stip wrote:
nice post S_T. I think you're right.
And I think you can't spell.
SHOT DOWN!
thanks to the magic of the edit button no one will ever know
And my problem isn't that I can't spell, its that I don't know my hominyms. Of course I can't spell that so I guess you're still write.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 am Posts: 8662 Location: IL
Auggiestyle wrote:
Captain Loveboat wrote:
You can't force creativity. Ed has to be moved by something in order to be inspired enough to compose poetic verses that seem real and not forced. If that is the war than so be it. I'll take whatever heart felt and inspired prose this man has to offer.
Uh... song lyrics are not prose...
Uh... Vedder quite often uses prose in his writing
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
MAGICforFACT wrote:
um...
didn't Jeff write Ghost?
they co-wrote the lyrics I believe. Only help help and get right are completely vedder free. Eddie also cowrote on you are (matt), bushleaguer (stone) and all or none (stone)
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
mray10 wrote:
I've always loved the "soap" line in Ghost because of it's blatant sarcasm. I had no idea people hated it or regarded it as a bad lyric.
I always liked the sentiment, I just always thought it was a bit clumsy
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
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