Post subject: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:17 pm
Global Moderator
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Not For You
Restless soul, enjoy your youth Like Muhammad, hits the truth Can't escape from the common rule If you hate something, don't you do it too...
Small my table, sits just two Got so crowded, I can't make room Oh, where did they come from? Stormed my room! And you dare say it belongs to you...to you...
This is not for you This is not for you This is not for you...
...Scream...my friends...don't call me... ...Friends, no they don't scream... ...My friends don't call...my friends don't...
All that's sacred, comes from youth Dedication, naive and true With no power, nothing to do I still remember, why don't you...don't you...
This is not for you This is not for you This is not for you Oh, never was for you...fuck you... This is not for you...
The stuff below is taken from my 'tour of vitalogy' thread. I'm not going to have much to add here that I didn't say in there about what the song means. Some stuff I can add that didn't really fit in there
I love the music--one of my favorite riffs they've ever come up with. It's so deceptively ominious--almost lazy, but sort of lazy like the growling of a half asleep tiger. You don't want to be around when it wakes up. Ed's vocals are great--they've got the unhinged quality of most of vitalogy without sacrificing the beauty and melody that drops out on songs like lukin or habit
This is always great live, and especially given the insane crowd responses they've gotten before this needs to be played more often. I would have loved to have been in the garden and hear everyone belt out "restless soul..."
Three things keep the song from 5 star territory for me though. I still can't really figure out the 'like Muhammad' lyric, and other than the excellent third verse this is really not that special lyrically. I am NOT a fan of the bridge lyrics at all. I get the sentiment behind it but think the writing is lazy. And finally I think the outro goes on a little bit too long. It lets too much tension disapate and I would have liked a stronger transition into not for you
Anyway, here is what I had previously written about Not For You, if you missed it the first time and care enough to read
The slow burn of Not For You’s riff puts the listener in mind of a powder keg about to go off—the deceptive calm and the mild crackling right before the big explosion. There is an undercurrent of barely contained rage running through the entire song, released during the chorus but quickly bottled back up during the verses, and ultimately fizzling out during the outro. There is a temporary relief found in catharsis, but there is not resolution. But resolution is not necessarily what the song searches for either. The reference to the myth of Sisyphus in the linter notes(a greek myth about a guy who is punished in Hades by having to roll a rock up a hill only to have it fall back down when it reaches the top) is telling here. He is almost certainly referring to the Albert Camus essay that interprets it. Camus argues in it that the only proper orientation to the absurdity of life is to revolt against it. Even if the revolt can never be successful, it is the act of revolting, of rejecting absurdity, that gives life meaning. And Not For You is directed in part against the people who forgot that, who abandon their youthful ideals once they become difficult—once the payoff is not immediately forthcoming.
Not For You continues with the sacredness of music theme begun in STBC, in particular what it means to the young—the way in which music helps us realize that regardless of how big and impersonal the world may get, there are others who have experienced what we’ve experienced, and we find solidarity in the music we share. In particular music is supposed to be the voice of optimism and hope, representing a purer vision of a world with more justice than the one we live in.
This, at the very least, is the importance with which Eddie has invested music, and is why the ‘corruption’ of music, the commodification of art and artist, is so damning. Rather than a source of authenticity and transcendence, it becomes something to be exploited—to put songs about rebellion and change into the service of selling products, to turn music away from solidarity and towards trends and fads. Music moves away from life and towards, if not death, then a type of marketed unlife. It rejects the position of revolt and moves towards an empty acceptance.
This plays itself out throughout the verses. The warning to youth not to lose the restless energy and optimism that is the hallmark of what is best in the young. The plea to the old to not forget where they came from and what they left behind. Sandwiched in between are the shots at fame (the chanting in the bridge, the ‘small my table’ lyrics). Much of that is obviously reflecting the personal claustrophobia Eddie was feeling at this time, the burden of being an icon, the ‘voice of a generation.’ But this should not be understood solely as an anti-fame rant. What is at the root of it is the way in which the position he has is unearned, a fabrication of the media and the culture industry. Eddie is a symbol, not a human being, and the deeper solidarity he envisions calls for a more intimate relationship than this—knowledge of one another as human beings, not as things. *
And so not for you is an accusation—a shot targeted directly at the people who not only forgot what music once meant to them, but forget what it meant to have hope not only in some kind of transcendence, but some kind of immediate transformation of this world. It accuses them of surrender, acceptance, and in many cases collaboration. Not only have they forgotten this feeling, they now actively work to undermine the possibilities of realizing it. They pervert the shared vocabulary of revolution, change, and meaning. And this is who the music is not for. It is not for the people who look to music for style, rather than substance. It is not for people who look to music for money, rather than meaning. It is not for people who accept the world the way it is, rather than working to change it. If you are one of those people then this is not for you.
*as a footnote of sorts, Eddie may just be wrong on this. Any kind of movement, even one as abstractly formulated as the one he is striving for, requires its symbols, and he clearly had a similar symbolic relationship with his musical heroes (see Pry, To). Reacting to people cheering you as a marker of what is currently popular is one thing, but it is never clear on Vitalogy whether or not Eddie is willing to assume the mantle of leadership for the people willing to look deeper. This is something he makes his peace with on the later records, but not here.
_________________ "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
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:20 am
Johnny Guitar
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:13 am Posts: 133 Location: Adelaide, Australia
The 'My friends..' bridge is one of my favourites in all of PJ's music, the way it builds and then leads to some Mike goodness is definitely the number one element of this song for me. I usually don't froth over a meandering outro but I don't mind it on the album, especially because it slows the pace down for Tremor Christ.
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:39 pm
Menace to Dogciety
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
5!! Very personal and epic at the same time.
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:54 am
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:12 am Posts: 3783
Ironically,
This was a so-so song for me since Vitalogy came out. I would have given it two-three stars. But after seeing it live for the first time at Hartford, woo wee they ripped through it. IT was wickedly awesome. 4 stars
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:42 pm
a saucerful of secrets
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:08 pm Posts: 15892 Location: a wee green island Gender: Male
blackite wrote:
The 'My friends..' bridge is one of my favourites in all of PJ's music, the way it builds and then leads to some Mike goodness is definitely the number one element of this song for me. I usually don't froth over a meandering outro but I don't mind it on the album, especially because it slows the pace down for Tremor Christ.
3 stars.
I dunno much about the intricacies of pj's songs, but I'm 99% sure that Stone plays the lead in this.
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:57 pm
Got Some
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:04 pm Posts: 1875 Location: Atlanta, SE of Disorder Gender: Male
I have mixed feelings about the song. Studio does nothing for me but I do like the music live and the "my friends" bridge is fun. Good song but not great. One of those that depends how "on" the guys are that day. In person the first few notes remind me of Light Years and more than once I thought the one was being played when it was the other. ***
_________________ From under my lone palm i can look out on the day
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:57 am
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:12 am Posts: 3783
lord vedder wrote:
I have mixed feelings about the song. Studio does nothing for me but I do like the music live and the "my friends" bridge is fun. Good song but not great. One of those that depends how "on" the guys are that day. In person the first few notes remind me of Light Years and more than once I thought the one was being played when it was the other. ***
I've done before too. I think it hurts Light Years more than anything.
I really like the "My Friends" line...I think "my friends don't scream" really sums up the whole attitude and problems Ed had on this record. good stuff
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:52 am
Unthought Known
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:19 am Posts: 6221 Location: Tasmania / Australia Gender: Male
great song, glad i heard it live in 06 but slightly disappointed as Eddie was in too good a mood and not angry enough for an awesome version as in 1995 (from the bootlegs)
Post subject: Re: SOTM #130: All that's sacred comes from youth...
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:29 am
Stone's Bitch
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 2:47 am Posts: 2169 Location: W.MA Gender: Male
I gave it a 4 star earlier thinking of it as overall PJ catalog...but now I think it's a 5 star song b/c it's an wesome standout song from Vitalogy. Probably third best off that album.
_________________ PJ: Albany 04-29-2003 / 2008- MSG, Hartford, Mansfield 06-24,25,27,28,30 / 2009- Philly 10-27,28,30,31 EV: 2008- Montreal Aug-09, 10; 2009- Albany Jun-08, 09(met Eddie after show, shook his hand. YEEEAAAA!!!!)
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