Post subject: SOTM: It's like his thoughts are too big for his size...
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:04 am
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Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Off He Goes
Know a man...his face seems pulled and tense... Like he's riding on a motorbike... in the strongest winds So I approach with tact... suggest that he should relax... But he's always moving much too fast...
Said he'll see me on the flipside... of this trip he's taken for a ride He's been takin'... too much on... off he goes With his perfectly... unkept clothes... there he goes...
He's yet to come back...but I've seen his picture Doesn't look the same up on the rack...we go way back...
I wonder bout his insides... Its like his thoughts are too big for his size He's been taken... where? I don't know... off he goes With his perfectly... unkept hope... there he goes...
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
Until a quarter-to-ten... I saw the strain creep in... He seems distracted and I know just what is gonna happen next
_________________ "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
I’ve railed against this song before many times, but since this is its SOTM I’ll try and be charitable. Musically it is nice. Strong melody and nice gentle guitar work. I do think it goes on a bit too long at the end (chop two minutes off and I’d be a much bigger fan). Eddie’s vocals are pretty good too. Not great, but pretty good. Part of my problem with this song (and with No Code in general) is that the acoustic/softer songs (Off He Goes, Around the Bend, Sometimes, I’m Open, even Who You Are) can’t hold a candle to their predecessors (Oceans, Small Town, Indifference, Nothingman, Immortality, Betterman, even Daughter). Off He Goes catches a lot of grief from me because it was the first in what became a long line of late period acoustic songs that couldn’t measure up to the ones on the first records
But my real issue with Off He Goes is the lyrics. They are just too self-indulgent for me. This song feels like a gimmick. He dealt with some similar issues in Vitalogy (with less resolution) but there you felt like he was peeling off his skin to get at his soul and see what was left of it. It was harrowing and compelling. You almost feared to look but couldn’t turn away. On Off He Goes you have Eddie #1 talking to Eddie #2. That’s just not that interesting to me. Nor are there any real great lyrical moments to transcend the hokiness of the gimmick. There are some decent lines here and there but there is never a moment that makes me go Wow, I wish I wrote that. I’d never show Off He Goes to someone I was trying to impress with Eddie’s writing.
Some people have said that this song is supposed to be about Neil Young. Maybe if I liked Neil Young more that would help, but if that is the case it probably makes me like the song even less. What are we supposed to relate to? What is it about this story, this moment, this exchange that is supposed to help me articulate about my own life and my own experiences?
In the end I listen to Off He Goes and I feel nothing except annoyance that this song is interrupting the flow of No Code (it isn’t the only culprit here) coupled with a slight sense of embarrassment for the lyrics.
But I recognize that I am in the minority here.
This song gets one star from me. It would get two if it was a b-side.
_________________ "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 12:47 am Posts: 46000 Location: Reasonville
i gave it 4 stars. it's not at the level where i could hear it ALL the time, but it's fucking beautiful and heartbreaking.
_________________ No matter how dark the storm gets overhead They say someone's watching from the calm at the edge What about us when we're down here in it? We gotta watch our backs
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
corduroy_blazer wrote:
i gave it 4 stars. it's not at the level where i could hear it ALL the time, but it's fucking beautiful and heartbreaking.
what is heartbreaking about it? I hear Off He goes and feel absoltuely nothing except vaguely bored.
_________________ "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 12:47 am Posts: 46000 Location: Reasonville
stip wrote:
corduroy_blazer wrote:
i gave it 4 stars. it's not at the level where i could hear it ALL the time, but it's fucking beautiful and heartbreaking.
what is heartbreaking about it? I hear Off He goes and feel absoltuely nothing except vaguely bored.
Until a quarter-to-ten... I saw the strain creep in... He seems distracted and I know just what is gonna happen next
Before his first step... he is off again
_________________ No matter how dark the storm gets overhead They say someone's watching from the calm at the edge What about us when we're down here in it? We gotta watch our backs
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
LostDog1079 wrote:
Average on album, pretty good live. I gave it 4 stars.
pretty good is enough to bump it up to four?
_________________ "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
this is my second favorite pj song , and i think this is one of eddies shining moments as a lyricist... this is easily the best song on no code, and the last thing i find it to be is boring
i dont mind the fact that it is about eddie, i thought it was even more amazing after i found out that he wrote it about himself, he was reflecting on the last few years of his life with this song, realizing that he wasnt the most approachable person in the world during that time"face pulled and tense"
"Said he'll see me on the flipside... of this trip he's taken for a ride
He's been takin'... too much on... off he goes
With his perfectly... unkept clothes... there he goes..."
i look at this part as other peoples view of what eddie was going through around vs and vitalogy, his inability to cope with fame and the "ride" that it took him on during those years, hes taken too much on himself, became really stressed out
"I wonder bout his insides...
Its like his thoughts are too big for his size
He's been taken... where? I don't know... off he goes
With his perfectly... unkept hope... there he goes... "
this verse i believe is about whether he would go down the same road as cobain, the possibility that he can no longer cope with the world on his back and he just wants to end it like kurt did
"For he still smiles... and he's still strong
Nothing's changed, but the surrounding bullshit... that has grown"
eddie is still the same person he always was before fame, but the fame and confusion in his life is building
it ends with eddie being his old self and happy again but its an ongoing cycle, and he is most likely going to go down the same path he did before
i like how eddie recognized this in himself and wrote a song as amazing as this one about it, you can tell he poured his heart and soul into this song, and i love it... 5 stars, easily
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 11:54 pm Posts: 816 Location: Australia
This is one of my favourite songs and I so would show it to people as an example of PJ (I have). The song structure appears simple to me and yet the space that the music creates really adds to the reflective nature of the lyrics. I love that there is like 90 seconds of guitar strumming at the end - it is just beautiful. I wish it was longer actually (but then I love Inside Job and how long that takes to build).
And despite the narrator perhaps telling a story about himself (or Neil Young or whatever) I find that I can really relate to the lyrics too. I don't find it self indulgent, but then again, I love No Code and don't think it is self indulgent. I find it contemplative and about finding perspective in life - that it is our interpretations that influence what we see. And each person who experiences the same thing may view it in a totally different way...
And despite your preface Stip, you were harsh and are now trying to convert others to your rating - shame on you! 5 stars!
This is one of my favourite songs and I so would show it to people as an example of PJ (I have). The song structure appears simple to me and yet the space that the music creates really adds to the reflective nature of the lyrics. I love that there is like 90 seconds of guitar strumming at the end - it is just beautiful. I wish it was longer actually (but then I love Inside Job and how long that takes to build). And despite the narrator perhaps telling a story about himself (or Neil Young or whatever) I find that I can really relate to the lyrics too. I don't find it self indulgent, but then again, I love No Code and don't think it is self indulgent. I find it contemplative and about finding perspective in life - that it is our interpretations that influence what we see. And each person who experiences the same thing may view it in a totally different way...
And despite your preface Stip, you were harsh and are now trying to convert others to your rating - shame on you! 5 stars!
i agree, i think it is definitely eddie writing about himself, but aside from that i do really love the song and relate to it, and im sure a lot of people can relate to it in their own way
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2005 5:55 am Posts: 4213 Location: Austin TX Gender: Male
i like the country-ish nature of this tune. 3.5 stars. if ed ever did a solo album i think it would be really interesting if a lot of it was musically similar to this kind of song.
i agree the lyrics fall a little flat which is why i didn't give it 4 stars.
_________________ Pour the sun upon the ground stand to throw a shadow watch it grow into a night and fill the spinnin' sky
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
nothing to say wrote:
And despite your preface Stip, you were harsh and are now trying to convert others to your rating - shame on you! 5 stars!
the other version of that post was not PG
_________________ "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
well...i dont think that the star ratings were right on this one...most of the time i'd give this one 3 stars but i think its better then a b side so it gets 4...
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