Ghost

The mind is grey,... like the city
Packing in and overgrown
Love is deep,... dig it out
Standing in a hole alone
Working for something,.. that one can never hold
A place in the clouds.
Your place to hide oh my oh

I'm flying away, away
I'm driving away, away
Seeking new ways, before I miss it all

The TV, she talks to me
Breaking news and building walls
Selling us, what I dont need
I never knew soap made you taller

So I'm riding away, away
Hiding away, away
So much talk it makes no sense at all
My senses gone ‚awol, awol, awol, awol, awol

So I'm hiding away, away
driving away
Passing old friends I don't know at all
(Know at all)

It doesn't hurt,.. when I bleed
But memories they eat me
I've seen it all before,..
Bring it on cause I'm no victim

Dying
Dying



Previous Songs of the Moment
1. In My Tree
2. Red Mosquito
3. Porch
4. I Got Id
5. Release
6. Do The Evolution
7. Breath
8. Corduroy
9. Elderly Woman...
10. Leash
11. Hail Hail
12. Grievance
13. Love Boat Captain
14. Even Flow
15. Black Red Yellow
16. In Hiding
17. Can't Keep
18. Indifference
19. Insignificance
20. Whipping
21. Black
22. Smile
23. Push Me Pull Me
24. Rats
25. God's Dice
26. All or None
27. Yellow Ledbetter
28. Last Exit
29. Who You Are
30. Rearview Mirror
31. Hold On
32. Present Tense
33. Light Years
34. Alive
35. Brain of J
36. Thumbing My Way
37. Hard to Imagine
38. Tremor Christ
39. Rival
40. Animal
41. Lukin
42. You Are
43. betterman
44. Given to Fly
45. Once
46. Low Light
47. Parting Ways
48. Off He Goes
49. Go
50. get right
51. World Wide Suicide
52. Angel
53. MFC
54. Long Road
55. Why Go
56. Nothingman
57. Save You
58. Of A Girl
59. Habit
60. Satan's Bed
61. Faithful
62. Oceans
63. Gone
64. WMA
65. State of Love and Trust
66. Spin The Black Circle
67. Life Wasted
68. Arc
69. Garden
70. All Those Yesterdays
71. Sleight of Hand
72. Other Side
73. Let Me Sleep
74. I'm Open
75. Blood
76. Nothing As It Seems
77. All Night
78. Jeremy
79. No Way
80. Around The Bend
81. Immortality
82. Comatose
83. Daughter
84. Alone
85. I am Mine
86. Down
87. Cropduster
88. Strangest Tribe
89. Inside Job
90. Drifting
91. Wishlist
92. Big Wave
93. Sad
94. Stupid Mop
95. Come Back
96. Glorified G
97. Puzzles and Games (Light Years Demo)
98. Dirty Frank

I LOVED ghost when Riot Act first came out. In fact it was probably my second favorite song on the album. I still like it a lot, but I think it is limited by the fact that it was on Riot Act.

Riot Act is a WEARY record, really the only one like that in the Pearl jam catalgoue. The space that almost every song is coming out of is defined by exhaustion---possibly personal stuff (Roskilde or personal stuff in people’s lives) and certainly from what seemed like a bleak and hopeless political situation. The cover art certainly gives a sense of powerlessness, and the two most hopeful songs were left off the record. Even there the hope sounds a bit rote. The music is up but you get a sense in the delivery of the lyrics that Eddie doesn’t quite believe what he is singing. He KNOWS it is true but he doesn’t believe it. And you get a fairly similar vibe in the rest of the record. Thumbing My Way is relentlessely bleak, All or None has the singer surrendering (fighting anyway, but with no expectation of victory), ½ Full has him hoping for someone to come save the world but not expecting that person to arrive (earlier records would call for us to save it ourselves)---even Love Boat Captain has a passive feel to it—the lines that are supposed to soar are unable to lift off, and despite the fact that Save You is supposed to be a ferocious song we only get real passion at the end.

Perhaps this is the only record they could have made at the time, or perhaps it was an artistic choice. Regardless Riot Act is a down record (not encessarily a dark one), and Ghost is a down, weary song. It’s got a good, crunchy main riff, and Mike has some great solos on it, the rythem drives the song hard, and it is overall a very solid and satisfying little number—but the music still has this sense of suffocation about it. It is heavy in the sense that you feel something is pulling it down, and that it has lost the strength to continue. And this is exacerbated ten-fold by Eddie’s performance, which lacks none of the fire this song would have had if it were on S/T or even Binaural (compare to Life Wasted or Breakerfall)

Some of that is deliberate. This is a song about fading away and disappearing into the murk (of the city or his mind)—and the background vocals add nicely to this (giving the chorus a vaguely haunted quality). He works to rise above it (there is never total surrender even in the darkest pearl jam songs) but he is by himself and doesn’t feel like there are any options for him other than running and hiding (a justifable feeling at the height of Bush’s power). But there is no defiance here—just a stubborn, Camus like combination of resiliance and resignation. The second to last lyric “bring it on cause I’m no victim” should have been a challenging snarl instead of a line with no bite to it. He means it, but he doesn’t really BELIEVE it anymore

And again, some of this is a choice. It is the artistic and personal space riot act was written in, and if Ghost had the energy of Life Wasted it would not fit on this record. BUT, it is a choice that makes the song harder to love, even if it makes it more interesting. And that’s the problem I have with ghost and so much of Riot Act. The songs are faithful to the theme and feel of the record, and for the most part work as pieces of art, but they are pieces of art that are very difficult to enjoy. Ghost wallows in its desire to disappear, its fantasy of no longer having to fight, and I don’t listen to Pearl jam to wallow. I listen to fight

3 stars

oh yeah, and while I think the lyrics are pretty decent overall there are a few dud lines here (the awol lyric and of course the soap line—the intetion is clear from the preceding lyric (we don’t get the information we need to make meaningful choices and form meaningful connections and so we lack the materials we need to stay and fight) but this was a BAD choice

Good write up Stip..to quote a part of it which practically sums up the whole song (and most of Riot Act actually): "He means it, but he doesn’t really BELIEVE it anymore"

To me Ghost is the perfect example of an average 3 stars kind of song. I don't mind if it comes on, but i never feel the need to listen, and it never really moves me at all.

Meh. 2 stars.

That makes Even Flow more than twice as good.

i dont say this about alot of songs, but this might be their worst

The music's not bad but Ed's vocals kill this one. There's a couple of RA tracks where it sounds like mailed it in and this is one of those. I can understand that happening on stage after weeks on the road but when recording a new record? Lyrics are nothing special.
I got Ghost and Cropduster confused the first the first few I listened to them. I still think Ghost is weaker than Cropduster, which is just so-so but a better filler. Ghost is a B-side quality song that made the record.
**

love this song, and love the soap line.

and off topic, but you mentioned it first so i thought i'd add: i would say that while all or none is a song about surrender, it's more about a realization than the surrender itself. realizing how/who you are and being at peace with it... that's what i think a lot of the album is about.

This song is utterly unhummable. I haven't listened to this song in a couple years, and for the life of me, I can't remember the music enough to hum it to myself, even with the lyric in front of me. I seem to remember that it has a strange time signature, and it kind of reminds me of a bad Sondheim musical, where the lyrics are sung over music that just seems to go up and down randomly and without melody or discernable tempo.

Anyway, I dropped a duece on this one. PJ's most forgettable song.

I gave it two stars and it maybe even deserved a one star. There's not much redeeming about the song except that no one's off key. And that's not saying much.

The four star rating floors me!!!! But to each their own.

4 stars. PJ's most underrated tune ever.

Worst intro in the Pearl Jam catalog. What a boring riff. I do, however, like the arrangement on the chorus.

average song; 3 stars

about the soap line, when Riot Act came out i didn't live in the US yet, but my wife was telling me that around 01/02 there was one of those late night commercials that claimed they had invented a soap that could make you taller. I guess if you haven't seen that commercial it doesn't make much sense, but once i found out what it's likely to be referring it kinda changes perspective.

Uninspiring.

For point of reference, here's a list of all the songs that haven't been a SOTM yet (for Stip/those interested in doing write ups):

Deep
Dissident
Not For You
Pry, To
Aye Davanita
Sometimes
Mankind
Pilate
Red Dot/The Colour Red
Breakerfall
Evacuation
Thin Air
Soon Forget
Green Disease
Help Help
Bushleaguer
1/2 Full
Severed Hand
Marker In The Sand
Parachutes
Unemployable
Wasted Reprise
Army Reserve
Hitchhiker
Don't Gimme No Lip
In The Moonlight
Education
U
Leaving Here
Gremmie Out Of Control
Whale Song
Yellow Ledbetter
Fatal
Footsteps
Wash
Dead Man Walking
Last Kiss
Sweet Lew
Brother
Bee Girl
Out Of My Mind
Last Soldier
Happy When I'm Dying
Sunburn
Anything In Between
Just A Girl
Goat
Ramblings?
Man Of The Hour

Reads like a greatest hits list eh? I'm not sure how deep into the barrel we'll end up going, so i'm not sure about the inclusion of Ramblings etc...but that's a rough list. Sorry if any of those HAVE been done, or if i've missed any obvious ones off.

thanks--I've got a list on my computer but it is helpful to have one up here

We're running out of songs until we really start going into covers/demos/deep territory--so if there are any of these you want to do the post for just pm me and it is yours

i've never seen the commercial, i figured it was actually an exaggeration/parody of the claims made about some products, but that's interesting.

2 stars, one of Riot Act's more forgettable and weak tracks.

could this be the first SOTM to not have 1 5 star vote?

Running out? Looks like you've got at least 30 songs left in that list.

I'll happily do the Sweet Lew SOTM