I was talking about my influences for my own work, inspirations and life. Pearl Jam have been a big inspiration to me. I compiled a list to show someone what it was that made them special to me. I've sent it to a couple of people that aren't familiar with the lyrics and they were impressed enough to check out the music.


I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
in somebody else's sky

I don't question, our existence
I just question, our modern needs

Dear dad, can you see me now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll ride the wave where it takes me
I'll hold the pain,
Release me
Dear dad, can you see me now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me
I'll open up, release me
Ii seem to recognize your face
haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it
Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
lifetimes are catching up with me
All these changes taking place, I wish I'd seen the place
But no one's ever taken me
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
I swear I recognize your breath
Memories like fingerprints are slowly raising
Me, you wouldn't recall, for I'm not my former
It's hard when, you're stuck upon the shelf
I changed by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate
Perhaps that's what no one wants to see
I just want to scream...hello...
My god it’s been so long, never dreamed you'd return
but now here you are, and here I am
hearts and thoughts they fade...away...

I will hold the candle till it burns up my arm
I’ll keep taking' punches until their will grows tired
I will stare the sun down until my eyes go blind
I won't change direction, and I won't change my mind
I'll swallow poison; until I grow immune
I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room

Restless soul, enjoy your youth
like Muhammad hits the truth
can’t escape from the common rule;
If you hate something, don't you do it too
All that's sacred comes from youth
Dedication, naive and true
with no power, nothing to do,
I still remember, why don't you?

Little secrets, tremors turned to quake
the smallest oceans still get big, big waves

Once divided, nothing left to subtract
Some words when spoken can't be taken back

The waiting drove me mad, you're finally here and I'm a mess
Take your entrance back - can't let you roam inside my head
I don't want to take what you can give
I would rather starve than eat your bread
I would rather run but I can't walk;
Guess I’ll lie alone just like before...
I’ll take the firmest path, and I must refuse your test
Push me and I will resist; this behaviour’s not unique
I don't want to hear from those who know
They can buy, but can't put on my clothes
I don't want to limp for them to walk
Never would have known of me before
I don't want to be held in your debt
I’ll pay it off in blood, lest I be wed
I’m already cut up and half dead
I’ll end up alone like I began
Everything has chains...absolutely nothing's changed
Take my hand, not my picture, spill my tincture
I don't want to take what you can give
I would rather starve than eat your bread
All the things that others want for me.
Can't buy what I want because it's free
Can't buy what I want because it's free, love
Can't be what you want because I’m…

Who made, who made up, made up the myth
that we were born to be covered in bliss?
Who set the standard, born to be rich?
Such fine examples, skinny little bitch
Model, role model, roll some models in blood
get some flesh to stick, so they look like us
I shit and I stink, I’m real, join the club
I'd stop and talk, but I'm already in love
I'll wait for an angel, but I won't hold my breath
Imagine they're busy, think I'm doing okay

Seek my part, devote myself
my small self like a book amongst the many on a shelf

Up here so high I start to shake
up here so high the sky I scrape
I’m so high I hold just one breath here within my chest
just like innocence
I remember when,
I swore I knew everything,
let's say knowledge is a tree,
it's growing up just like me

Don’t it make you smile?
Don’t it make me smile?
When the sun don't shine, it don't shine at all
don't it make me smile?
I miss you already... I miss you always
I miss you already... I miss you all day

If I had known then what I know now

Do you see the way that tree bends?
Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun's rays
a lesson to be applied?
Are you getting something out of this all encompassing trip?
You can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets,
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who can't forgive yourself.
Makes much more sense to live in the present tense

It's all just inadvertent imitation
and I don't mean mine
It's all across this nation
If it's just inadvertent simulation
A pattern in all mankind
What's got the whole world faking?

He could have 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 out of 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
he's flying, whole!
high! wide!
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...

I’m ahead, I’m advanced...
I’m the first mammal to wear pants,
I’m at peace, with my lust
I can kill 'cause in god I trust, yeah
it's evolution baby
I’m at peace, I’m the man
buying stocks on the day of the crash,
On the loose, I’m a truck
All the rolling hills, I flatten them out,
It's herd behaviour,
It's evolution baby
Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, he's my clone
This land is mine, this land is free
I’ll do what I want, but irresponsibly
it's evolution baby
I’m a thief, I’m a liar
there's my church, I sing in the choir

I swallow my words to keep from lying
I swallow my fist just to keep from biting... biting, biting
I swallowed my breath and went deep, I was diving
I surfaced when all of my being was enlightened

I had a false belief
I thought I came here to stay, but
we're all just visiting
all just breaking like waves

What are you running from
taking pills to get along
creating walls to call your own
so no one catches you
drifting off and doing all the things
that we all do
let them all wash away
all those yesterdays...

Monkey driven, call this living?

I’ve used hammers made out of wood
I have played games with pieces and rules
I undeciphered tricks at the bar
but now you're gone, I haven't figured out why
I’ve come up with riddles and jokes about war
I’ve figured out numbers and what they're for
I’ve understood feelings and I’ve understood words
but how could you be taken away?
And wherever you've gone
and wherever we might go
it doesn't seem fair...today just disappeared
Your light's reflected now, reflected from afar
We were but stones, your light made us stars
With heavy breath, awakened regrets
back pages and days alone that could have been spent, together..
But we were miles apart;
Every inch between us becomes light years now

Occupations overthrown, a whisper through a megaphone

Bombs dropping down,
overhead, underground
It's instilled...to want to live
Bombs dropping down, please forgive
our hometown in our insignificance

All my rivals will see what I have in store, my gun...
I’ve been harbouring fleets in this reservoir, red sun...
and this nation's about to explode
Your disciples are riddled with metaphors, well hung...
better pony up and bring both your barrelfuls, not one...
as we release this unspeakable toll...

It’s already been sung, but it can't be said enough
all you need is love
Is this just another phase of earthquakes making waves?
Once you hold the hand of love, it's all surmountable
And if our lives became too long, would it add to our regret?
And the young they can lose hope
because they can't see beyond today...
The wisdom that the old can't give away
To the universe, I don't mean a thing
and there is just one word that I still believe
and it's love

I know I was born and I know that I’ll die
the in-between is mine
I am mine

The man they call my enemy, I’ve seen his eyes
he looks just like me, a mirror
The more you read, we've been deceived
everyday it becomes clearer

I’m a seed, wondering why it grows


What did I miss?

yeah...

theres nothing worse than a gremmie outta control

Oh, you forgot the Glorified G lyrics

Got a gun, in fact I got two?

That's ok man, cause I love

*ducks*

[quote="Play C3"]yeah...

theres nothing worse than a gremmie outta control[/quote

lol well done

you left out my two favorite lines

if i knew where it was I would take you there
There's much more than this

I am lost I am no guide
But I'm by your side
I am right by your side

Neither of those are 'wisdom' per se but I think they emobdy what the band is about

This piece of wisdom came from an interview I read where somebody was, of course, asking Ed about the Ticketmaster thing. Ed said something I thought was very wise about it. He said something to the effect of "the band's way of doing things during that time was very direct and confrontational (hence the title of the second album)." But at this time (I think this was after No Code was released), he said he "learned that sometimes, instead of meeting something that is coming at you head on with all of your momentum smashing against all of that 'thing's' momentum, if you just get out of it's way the 'thing' would lose momentum and run out of gas by itself."

I really thought about that for a long time and decided that there was so many times in life, looking back, that I wish I would have just "gotten out of the way" of something and it never would have bothered me as much as when I threw everything I had at it in opposition.

I don't know if anybody else remembers this interview or if this even makes any sense, but I thought it very wise.

I love all those lyrics, still the best shit eddie ever wrote was "hearts and thoughts...they fade away."

i hadnt seen this is years, but you are correct. thats actually a pretty powerful point.

in reaction to this thread up to this point, i realize that no matter how well you know a song, sometimes its great to sit and look at the written lyrics. it gives you a perspective on the song that you may not have had when listening to the same words when sung.

The lyrics that stand out for me for purely selfish reasons are:
"and now I rub my eyes...for he has returned
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned...
For he still smiles...and he's still strong...
Nothing's changed but the surrounding bullshit...that has grown...

And now he's home and we're laughing...
Like we always did...my same old...same old friend".

My best mate battled alcoholism from he was 15.He would have thought nothing of drinking a bottle of vodka and a 12 pack every day.
He is now 34,he ain't perfect.He drinks once every month,only if I go with him.He's now lying on my sofa sleeping.I can tell him anything,he will never repeat it.He's also my youngest boy's Godfather.We've been drinkin'.

HAPPY DAYS

Oh my God!

And he still gets 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.

This is a very good thread,my friend.It's probably been done before.Who cares?

Well I didn't start the thread my friend, I was simply contributing the Lyric I believed to reflect the pinnacle of existance...

That's easily among my favourites. It's even better on Live at the Garden, when he says "There's..." then hesitates and say "not much more than this."

Outstanding.

eddie's taught me a bit, but the lyrics, i don't think, haven't.

Holy double-negative Batman! What the hell does that mean?

well when my friends are down, i don't say to them 'i'm gonna save you fucker!' but i've seen how eddie handles people and i like it and have adapted to it a bit.