The End

What were all those dreams we shared
Those many years ago?
What were all those plans we made
Now left beside the road?
Behind us in the road

More than friends I always pledged
Cause friends they come and go
People change as does everything
I wanted to grow old
Just want to grow old

Slide on next to me
I’m just a human being
I will take the blame
Bust just the same
This is not me
You see
Believe
I’m better than this

Don’t leave me so cold
Or buried beneath the stones
I just want to hold on
And know I’m worth your love
Enough
I don’t think
There’s such a thing

It’s my fault, Now I been caught
A sickness in my bones
How it pains to leave you here
With the kids on your own
Just don’t let me go

Help me see myself
Cause I can no longer tell
Looking out from the inside of
The bottom of a well
I yell
It’s hell
But no one hears

Before I disappear
Whisper in my ear
Give me something to echo
In my unknown futures ear

My dear
The End
Comes near
I’m here
But not much longer


Pearl Jam has written plenty of lush meditative songs (the gentle bombast of release, the questing simplicity of sometimes, the cold warmth of Indifference), and they’ve played around with strings (which are hard to arrange without sounding over the top), but there probably isn’t any pearl jam song this side of Just Breathe that has the potential to be as over the top and melodramatic as The End, and it’s to the band ‘s (and BoB’s) credit that they manage to pull of what they do here. It combines the richness of those songs I just mentioned with the starkness of numbers like Thumbing My Way or All or None, and the final effect is quite powerful.

Eddie has really become quite talented with these meandering yet forceful finger picking numbers. It’s a simple song musically and is completely overshadowed by both Eddie’s vocals and the orchestration, but it never surrenders the song to them. It keeps The End grounded and moving forward, and makes its other elements more compelling. The orchestration is affecting and understated, and colors the song beautifully. It accents the song, without ever overpowering it, and doesn’t feel trite or clichéd.

The star here, however, is Eddie. Vocally this is probably his most affecting performance on the album. It’s been a long time since he sounded this raw and open, with his voice cracking on practically every line, like the emotions are rushing out faster than he can control and contain them. There’s no false bravado here, no disguise, just vulnerability without the affectation that often follows from this kind of vocal. I suppose the gasp at the end of the song could count, but it’s so well delivered (and comes out of nowhere, as Eddie’s voice isn’t rising to a climax and while the strings are swelling, they’re still understated). It was a complete surprise the first time I heard it, and a powerful and unexpected exclamation on a song that stops so abruptly, and gives the final lyric even more power and weight then it would otherwise have.

Lyrically The End is more bittersweet than it is depressing. Whereas a song like I Got Shit is miserable for its loneliness, Thumbing My Way for its loss, and Parting Ways for its emptiness, The End approaches the question of absence and finality from a different place. How, when you’ve found unqualified joy and inner peace, can you bear to let it go. The songs emotional core doesn’t come from what he’s lost, or never had, but what he may have to let go. It’s a far more mature song then the others (not necessarily better) for that reason—it’s exploring newer, and in some ways more adult, ground. In fact, the central lyric in the song might be “I just want to grow old”. Eddie’s come a long way in 20 years, and this honesty is more compelling than faux alienation.

The End seems to be a song about forgiveness as well as loss, with the speaker asking the loved ones in his life to forgive him for possibly taking them for granted, for not realizing exactly how precious the gifts he’s been given are, how incalculable his debt to them is, and how selfish he has been in not taking greater pains to repay it (that’s how I read the final verse, at any rate). The singer is sick, possibly dying, and it’s a result of his own carelessness—hence the need for apologizes and forgiveness (it’s my fault, I’ve been caught). He realizes, perhaps too late, that whatever self destructive behavior (smoking?) he’s been engaged in doesn’t simply affect him. His life, his future, is intimately tied up into the lives of the people he cares about, that he no longer lives solely for himself, and that if/when he dies, he takes the part of him that others depend on and live for with him. That’s the sacrifice that love demands—that you no longer simply live for yourself, that continuing to do so is amongst the most selfish things you can do. The hope of the song is that we all come to realize it before it’s too late.

4 stars. I'm not sure what it needs to be worth 5. Maybe just time.

TLDR.

4 stars, maybe 5 though.

You're getting lazier and lazier with your descriptions in the poll too.

3 stars, because the well/hell/yell bit bugs me. Other than that, I probably would have gone 4.

i gave it 5, one of ed's best efforts

This is the one Backspacer song I feel comfortable giving 5 stars to

Alright Jorge, you convinced me. 5 stars it is.

I gave it 1 star and I don't even know how it deserves 1 for me. I can't say I hate the song, but I don't ever want to hear it again. I remember some telling me "you'll get it when you have kids". Maybe. I'll come back to it then. But it defnitely won't be in the first 9 months.

3.5 if i could.

What does TLDR stand for?

And you're right about the song polls. I just stopped caring unless something obvious jumps out at me

Too long, didn't read. But then I went back and read it anyway. Good review.

5: Worth your love.
4: More than friends.
3: I'm better than this.
2: Left beside the road.
1: Bottom of the well.
0: It's hell.


Now, mod me.

3 stars.

Nice little ditty. The whole rock star on the road and missing his family theme has been beaten to death it seems. I got sick of it around 2002 when 311 covered it. I think it's just short enough to make it enjoyable. Also, I don't like the recent move to the "Ed show." Despite the recent "collaboration", the rest of the band has slowly become his backing band in a sense, but this is a song where that's works. There are times (we've discussed this elsewhere) where the band muddles a song that Ed does solo fantastically (TMW, MOTH, Gone, etc...)

I prefer the earlier days where it was music first, and Ed's voice was its own instrument. A bit of off topic tangent since this song doesn't suffer from that, but I am just saying. I would never search out this tune. It's just kinda there. One of my least favorite closers.

I don't really see this as a road song

Boy, you interpreted this song all wrong.

5 Stars

Great song, this is the first new SOTM that I've given a 5 to.

i dont like that line about leaving her with the kids on her own. im not a big fan of Eddie's new lyric writing style. he used to write some brilliant lyrics. now it just sounds like shit he saw on tv the night before.

the last bit is nice though.

If this was just Ed and an acoustic guitar, I probably would've given this five stars.

The string arrangement really dulls the impact of the song for me, however. If we're just talking about the studio version, I can't help but slightly mark it down - four stars.

Still, this is a gorgeous tune and one of the best things Ed's ever written. I wouldn't call it the best song on Backspacer, that honour goes to Speed of Sound in my book (though the arrangement on that one is even worse), but it's pretty damn close.

In his error-filled Beatles bio, Bob Spitz refers to Sgt Peppers as "ambrosial." That is, to me, just about the best adjective to describe what it is about that record that feels different from other Beatles works. I think the word applies equally when placing Backspacer in Pearl Jam's catalog. It also works well for this song. And maybe that's what gives it a more uplifting, serene sense than other Ed-penned death songs. Whatever the words may convey, the music itself is ambrosial.

dude, write a book. about anything. ill buy it.