this was my gone write up for that guided tour of avocado thread when the record first came out.



One of my biggest problems with Avocado (there aren’t many) is the sequencing of Gone. I feel that this song needed to follow Unemployable as they are about the same character, or more accurately same feeling—namely a profound sense of disaffection with America and a desire to escape it.

The idea of just in the car and leaving everything behind is nothing new in PJ songs, with a pedigree stretching at least as far back as RVM. Gone is a bit different though. Previous road escape songs were always about running away from some personal issue or some social situation. Gone is much larger—about trying to escape from America itself. He’s tired of attempting to make a failing situation work. He’s sick of the upset mornings and trying evenings. We’re taught from day one that anyone can make it here if they try. The American dream is theoretically open to all. But his own experiences have taught him that this is bullshit. Saying that he disbelieves the American dream doesn’t mean he rejects it as an ideal. It’s more a recognition of how far we’ve fallen from it. He feels trapped and needs to get out. He can’t sleep, let alone dream, where he is.

Some people have attacked the gas in my tank line, but I’m a fan. There is a lot going on in it. There’s an obvious reference to the price of fuel, but underneath that it also calls to mind how tenuous a grip so many of us have on our middle class existence. Even a small rise in gas prices can be devastating, and for lower middle class and working class people, the rise in gas prices often means going without luxuries, entertainment, and in some cases even food (the nation had a moving article on this a few months ago). It puts the American dream out of reach and it does so by making that great American symbol of progress (the car) and the freedom it represents the cause of the problem.

There likely isn’t anyone who gets the symbolic power of the car more than Springsteen, as just getting into your vehicle and escaping has long been a dominant image in his work. And the same thing happens here. He’s not taking the bus to Atlantic City. The subject in Atlantic City has accepted his cage, and is taking a last desperate shot at saving himself in it. In Gone he’s filling up the tank with gas and just getting away. He needs air and space to think. The United States is a stifling, unsympathetic place to be when you need help, but there is still freedom on the open road. And while he’s there everything begins to make sense. The music quickens, the vocals begin to soar, and for at least a little while the subject of the song is free. His head is clear. He’s able to let go of the weight (30 bills unpaid?) that limits his imagination and understanding.

It’s a minor, personal act of rebellion. No one notices it, but as the American dream continues to fail, more and more people will. They’ll have their own epiphany. He begins to understand he hasn’t failed, that in fact it is his country that has failed him. It’s a huge realization, and an intimidating one. It’s not knowledge he necessarily understands, or even knows what to do with. In some respects it is comparable to waking up outside of the Matrix. But, as was also the case in Unemployable, real freedom is impossible when you can’t even find the bars of your cage. Once you do, it at least becomes possible to ‘be what you could be’ (a nice play on the Army’s ‘Be all that you can be’ motto). The American dream, the promise of American life, will not be realized until we figure out how to overcome the nightmare it was perverted into. That’s what needs to be left behind. The belief that the United States, as currently constituted, embodies the best and only real chance anyone has for freedom is drilled into our heads every moment of every day. Outside of our system there is only failure and stagnation. We’re not encouraged to dream beyond ourselves. Outside there is nothing. But this nothing is where we will have to begin to rebuild, to reclaim for ourselves a life worth living.

the who
'nothing is everything is nothing is"

from let's see action

I do not see anything wrong with it either, it reminds me of the lyric from "Light Years" no time to be void or save up on life
you got to spend it all..

Whenever I think about avacodo I forget to factor in this song. I think it may actually be my fav on the album. Oh and whether its lame to say it or not I do think I liked the live version one that we had before the album better.

I agree with Stip about the chorus. However, I must be harsher, this is a whinny little bitch runt of a song. Yeah yeah, your gone, long gone we get it. This is my least favorite all time pearl jam song. 1 star.

Good song, although it impacts me depending on my mood more than most of the songs. At times I love it..........sometimes it just doesn't do it.

I do however get drawn to what sounds like a woman faintly echoing the words "This time" fractions of a second after eddie sings the same words. It's in the background very quiet.......but it's there.

i felt the EXACT same way you did in my last 2 years of high school, thats why i found a way out and am going to school in a completely different state now

i didnt care about anything last year, not my grades, suspensions, i even lost an interest for soccer, which is what ive done best my whole life, if you asked me last year what my life would be like in 10 years, i would have told you that i would be working a dead end job and i would prob be miserable as a result of my failing the shit out of high school and not going to collage, this year i will give you a completely different answer... now i have all As and Bs, i have a lot more friends because i actually feel like talking to people, and im setting myself up to be the best soccer player on my team next year, and i feel that all of this is a result of a change that i needed so badly, and thats why i also really relate to gone... it just lets you know that you can always get out of a bad situation and make a good one somewhere else, you always knew it was possible, you just needed the chance and the change
"i will be what i could be, once i get out of this town"

Great write-up, Nick. I really like this song, and for me it's 4-4.5 stars. I can relate to it pretty well also.

5 stars- its a gem of a song. The Matt Cameron backing vocals are amazing.
I've said it before, but the AOL sessions version is great.

Lyrically, it's just the same thing over and over. Not a great song.


meh

Average. One of my least favorites on the new album. Gas in my take like money in the bank...I don't know, it makes me cringe when I hear that line.

Regardless of how much gas costs, it's always worth a certain amount of money. I don't see this as any big revelation.

i really enjoy the lyrics of this one, but musically it doesnt get me, and live i was never overly impressed

Great choice Nick and I enjoyed reading your write-up.

As many of you know, I hate Las Vegas with a flamming passion and I cannot wait to get out of this pit. (Hearing Gone at the Vegas show was very emotional for me.) A few years ago I started writing a song that had the same theme as Gone, but I never finished it. I remember hearing Ed's solo version of the song and being like "that's it." That is what I had wanted to say. There are several PJ songs that I can relate to, but this one is #1. I liked the solo Ed version of the song, but I love the full band version of it much better. The ending, If nothing is everything..., is by far my favorite part of Gone. The way Ed and Matt deliver that part is like getting hit in the face with a brick. I give it a very solid 5 stars.

For the lights of this city
They only look good when I’m speeding
I wanna leave em all behind me

When I hear these words, I picture myself driving down the freeway while the Vegas lights get smaller and dimmer behind me. They will look good because I will be getting away from them. I've screwed up a lot and have done some really stupid things and I just want to leave all of that behind me.

No one to witness
but they will someday

There will come a day when I will get my shit together, but I will be far away from my friends and family. They won't be there to see me change for the better. The same goes for all of those people who thought that I could never do what I wanted to simply because I was a female, and a small one at that.

Feel like a question is forming
And the answers far
I will be what I could be
Once I get out of this town

If I want success/opportunity, happiness, and love I have to look far for them. And far could either mean distance or something beyond the usual. The second part of these lyrics hits home so hard. I feel like I am being held back by living here. There are so many things that I want to do, but it's like I'm standing still and everything around me is moving.

If nothing is everything
then I will have it all.

This last part, to me, comes right down to happiness. I'm a pretty simple girl, I don't need to have a lot of things in my life to make me feel happy.

I also forgot to mention this...

At the end of Gone at the 06 San Diego show, there's someone in the audience who screams "FUCK YEAH!!!"

I think that might be me...

(I'm not laughing at you Coach--I thought the first sentence was funny)

Others have said it well in this thread. Having money in the bank confers both a sense of security (if something happens you're prepared) and possibilities--you can make things happen because you have the resources to do it. To a large degree money guarantees freedom. A full tank of gas gives him the opportuntiy to escape which in turn confers a degree of freedom he didn't have before.

3 stars.

This should be Ed's last "drive in a car and get the heck out of a bad situation" song. That is what I take from the lyrics. I think it starts off way too slow for it to be a single and I have some problems with it overall:


I hate how Ed sings "long gone."

I also do not like the line "If nothing is everything, then I have it all." I have said this before but Ed is tip toeing around a geat line but is nothing everything? How can you have it if you don't know. Tell us what Ed. Lose the "if." It's obviously written as the cornerstone of the song, but it's such a weak line overall that it weighs down the tune.

regardless of your opinion of Gone, you have to believe that it is refreshing that they have a catchy single out there where you can completely understand Ed's lyrics and he really belts it well. His voice is really a centerpiece here. It's been a while (maybe I am Mine, if not you have to go as far back as Wishlist).

As far as the gas in my tank line - it took me a while to get over it. But the way I look at it now - it's genius. It can be taken literally as a stupid cheesy line. But, if you think of it in the context of the song, it to me signifies that the gas is priceless, because the singer wants nothing more to escape via the road, and a full tank will take him as far as he possibly can - since he left everthing else behind. I mean, a nice vette recently tuned up with a bose system would be really ideal, but how cheesy and long do you want the song to be?

Solid song, nice 3rd single, it's come around for me. Only real downside- it reminds me of In Hiding a little too much.

3 1/2 STARS

on a side note, i think the title of the thread needs to be changed - I thought this was going to be about 1/2 Full.

"far from lights of a city, the elements they speak to me"...

agreed, My favourite version as well, so far