Guaranteed

On bended knee is no way to be free
Lifting up an empty cup, I ask silently
All my destinations will accept the one that's me
So I can breathe...

Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
A mind full of questions, and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes...

Don't come closer or I'll have to go
Holding me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you...

Everyone I come across, in cages they bought
They think of me and my wandering, but I'm never what they thought
I've got my indignation, but I'm pure in all my thoughts
I'm alive...

Wind in my hair, I feel part of everywhere
Underneath my being is a road that disappeared
Late at night I hear the trees, they're singing with the dead
Overhead...

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed

Arguably the high point of Eddie’s solo record, Guaranteed is certainly one of the most graceful songs he’s ever written. It’s an unadorned song, musically and vocally, but it just floats along, instantly catchy without ever taking the easy way out. It’s both complicated and immediately familiar, introspective without feeling weighted down, simple without sacrificing any depth. It’s also a great reminder of how warm and rich Eddie’s voice is, and how much he can communicate with it. There’s no go for broke moments here, no ‘look at me and what I can do’ vocal parts—just a man matter of factly taking stock of his life and the choices he’s made. It’s not a tone he usually takes in his songs, and it isn’t clear that this could have been written with Pearl Jam (maybe that’s changed since then) since the band almost certainly would have weighted this song down and challenged Eddie to rise above it. I’m not sure Guaranteed could have worked as well if it was more assertive.

Lyrically this is the high point of Into The Wild, and one of his better pieces this decade. Guaranteed is a song about freedom—about emancipating yourself from the expectations of others and truly living for yourself, doing what feels right regardless of the costs and consequences. The relaxed, languid nature of the song fits in well here. There’s no need to shout when the only person who needs to hear is yourself, and the way this song feels so profoundly unburdened shows that the singer is at peace with himself. There’s nothing to prove here.

The first four verses recount the journey taken by the singer on his way to the inner peace he’s achieved, the way he’s overcome a spiritual emptiness. The bended knee lyric calls the listener back to Rise—it’s a calm, considered moment of self-assertion. As long as one is on their knees, bowed by the weight of others’ expectations, you can never know the real freedom that comes from being comfortable with who you are. The second verse continues in that same skeptical vein—he embraces the confusion that characterizes the human experience but understands that as long as his life is cluttered with the artificial demands of an acquisitive society obsessed with movement he’ll never find the balance necessary to learn who he really is. In fact, you get the impression that we keep ourselves deliberately distracted so we can avoid having to think about who we are. The fourth verse continues in this vein (everyone I come across in cages they bought…I’m pure in all my thoughts, etc).

The third verse is actually a bit of an outlier. It’s likely written about Chris McCandless’ sister, and it’s an attempt to humanize him—to remind us that this was a person capable of caring about and loving others. He’s trying to soften the self-absorption that is present throughout the story. The idea of just running off into the wilderness, saying fuck it and leaving everything behind, is romantic and tempting, but it’s also pretty selfish. We’re not just isolated individuals, but people who live in a larger social context, and our lives are not just our own. We have obligations to the people we care about because their happiness and well-being becomes invested in our own and vice versa, and if we can only free ourselves by running away from everyone else we are harming the people who depend on us emotionally. In the end McCandless’ love for his sister, for instance, isn’t enough to keep him home, but Eddie wants us to at least acknowledge that he wasn’t 100% self-absorbed, but (I’ll say more about this in the end) I think this is a moment of Eddie injecting more of himself into this story.

The final verses speak of the freedom McCandles found by running away. The ‘wind in my hair’ lyric speaks to the sense of peace and solidarity he feels with the great, unbounded vastness of nature (rather than the structured, organized, and smothering society he’s left behind), and the ‘late at night I hear the trees, they’re singing with the dead…overhead) lyric is wonderfully evocative (and a nice throw back to Long Nights—in fact almost every song on the record can find itself reprised in Guaranteed—it’s part of its effectiveness as a closer)

The final verse is meant to serve as a summation of the song, the record, and the life of Chris McCandless (or anyone who feels so alienated from their world that they can only feel free by escaping). It speaks to the groundless, impermanent nature of freedom—the way that, for some, it can only be achieved by constant movement. To stop is to risk being captured by something (or someone) and, for this character anyway, this is tantamount to a spiritual, if not a physical death. It ends with a statement that would normally be delivered with defiance, but there is such a profound sense of peace throughout this song that it’s just calmly delivered—“I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me”—whatever decisions he made, whatever the outcomes were, he went into them with eyes open, aware of the fact that regardless of how he was raised, and what was expected of him, he was never going to be at home in the world the rest of us inhabit, and he’s made his peace by moving on.

Eddie Vedder is not Chris McCandless. He is ultimately too concerned with ideas of solidarity and love, too committed to confronting and perfecting an imperfect world, to ever fully embrace this idea of simply running away. He ultimately takes his cues from Camus, rather than Thoreau. But there is clearly a romantic attachment to the simplicity of McCandless answer to the problems of modern life, and the need, when we’re broken, to find the space we need to rebuild ourselves and begin again. Guaranteed is not the entire story, but it’s an important part of it.

5 Stars.

5 stars?! Jesus...


It's a nice enough song but gets boring very quickly. I gave it 3 stars.

I thought I was going to give it 4 at first, but I found myself more impressed wtih it by the time I was done really thinking about it.

5 stars.

That was a great write up Stip. Referring back to what was touched upon in another thread, I think the songs 'repetitive' nature is one of it's biggest strength. I remember writing about this before, so I'm copying and pasting what I said from the original Guaranteed thread..

I personally love the cyclical feel of the song - it sounds like a trail of thought, a repeating melody that can just replay in your head for days. Given that Ed didn't write this as an autobiographical account, I think it's very fitting that the song is structured in this way...We are thrown into the mind of McCandless - one singular lone voice explaining himself in a lyrical trail of thought. There are no overdubs, no bridges or guitar solos...we are just given the two things that we need in the simplest forms, and presented in a great way:
1) The story of the character: Told through a strong set of lyrics, and, 2) The musical accompaniment: Never distracting, but allowing us to digest the information in patterns/verses that rise and fall through major and minor chords, which helps to prevent the lyrics from feeling like a page long rant.

The 'trail of thought'/familiarity feel I mentioned earlier, also helps you tap into the mind set of Chris, it doesn't feel too far fetched to imagine a character in Chris's situation writing this sort of song - based from a repetitive, cyclical melody, and using words that reflect their stage of self discovery. You can hear the isolation of the character through the hymn like repitition. I think that itself is part of Ed's success in this song - Ed is understanding and empathetic towards the character, and in a way that feels genuine, and never contrived. Considering that this is probably the song on Into the Wild where Ed is most confrontational in adopting the voice of Chris, it could have easily been seen as disrespectful or insulting to exagerate the story with more words, or to give Chris' character an epic lift with a sweeping string section over the music, or a gut wrenching outro playing him out. Instead, we're left with a 2 and a bit minute humble ditty that never feels over intrusive, yet still makes a really compelling listen.

stip and iceage kind of hit on this already, but the reason it goes from 4 to 5 stars for me is when I watch it in the context of the movie, it really gives you another level of emotion to associate with it. Love it.

i like it enough. nice, calm, pretty song, with enough emotion in the voice to keep it going. 4 stars.

it's nice to see him inhabit a really fleshed out character as well. that's what made a lot of the early songs so compelling

Great writeup....5 stars from me.

The honest truth is that i prefer Ed's stuff on this album to the last few Pearl Jam albums. Guaranteed is right up there as one of my favorites on Into the Wild.

I think it's a pretty good song, but I like a few of the other songs off the Into the Wild album better, I gave it a 3. I like No Ceiling better, and I also like Hard Sun and Society better(I know EV didnt write those songs though.)

Agreed.

3 stars. The melody doesn't do much for me, although the performance is great. I also wish some of the imagery was less sophomoric.

Easily a 5 star song for me, and one of my favorite songs (by anyone or any band) this decade.

stip and iceagecoming -- great write-ups. Not really much to add after those. I just love the tone & lyrics to this song.



Yes.

I never realized there was an instrumental version of this as a hidden track. I'm using it on the radio now.

I'll put a new SOTM up in a day or two. Sorry for the delay