Wash


Oh please let it rain today.
This city's so filthy, like my mind in ways.
Oh, there was a time, like a clean new taste...
Smiling eyes before me, inches from my face.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.

Sin to sell, buying just a need.
Just who planted all the devils seeds?
And what the truth, the truth that lies at home...
It's on the inside, and I can't get it off.

Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.

What's clean is pure, but hey,
I'm white on the outside, though I stray...
What she don't know today might kill us both tomorrow.
Bring it back someway...bring it back, bring it back...
Back to the clean form, to the pure form.

Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.
Wash my love.

Wash was, according to Stone, one of the earliest songs written together as a band. As with many songs from the Ten Era, Wash deals with issues of betrayal, sex and love. At the song's core is minimal guitar work, relying more heavily on the atmosphere that is created rather than a driving rhythm or riff, simplicity, perhaps starkness, is key here. As with most Ten songs re-released on Lost Dogs we have multiple versions, and I have to say that this is the only modern take of a Ten song that I prefer over the original. Eddie's vocals fit perfectly (they seem more desperate), Jeff's bass has been cleaned up and permeates the songs beautifully and Krusen's drumming is perfection, best showcased just after the second chorus. Stone summed up Mike's performance perfectly "I love the anti guitar solo by Mike. He sort of rubs his strings and with minimal effort colours the solo section beautifully", indeed the whole song is based on minimal, but very effective guitar work from Stone and Mike. This song just has an intense slow burn and simmer right up until the last 30 seconds when the pent up rustration, rage even, of song's main character explodes. This song is unlike most Ten songs in that it builds and reliles on a fantastic atmostphere.

Lyrically Wash is not complex, perhaps due to its instantaneous formation, being a 'one take and the lyrics were done' song. It does, however have some classic lines: "This city's so filty, like my mind in ways" or "What's clean is pure, but hey, I'm white on the outside, though I stray...What she don't know today might kill us both tomorrow." Wash relies on the passion and intensity of delivery rather than an interesting social commentary or lyrical complexity (as is the case with a lot of Ten). It has been said on this forum before, and by other music commentators, that Eddie is one of the best male vocalists when it comes to empathising with female characters and singing from a female perspective. I think Wash is a good example.

My take on the song is that the main character, a prostitute, is trying to deal with the morality of what she is doing. How can she ever separate the rest of her life from how she makes money? Her day to day living is tainted by her interactions with her customers.

"Sin to sell, buying just a need."

She wants her life to be separated from what she does for money, wants her love (perhaps for other men) to be separate.

"Wash my love"
"Bring it back ...to the clean form, to the pure form"

So, this may be a partner song to Deep, expressing the male obsesssion with sex and it's effect on women, or perhaps even the live improv. of that time "Saying No".

What is interesting about the song is that it could just as easily been viewed as portraying a man trying to deal with his involvement with a prostitue, his obsession with sex and how it may destroy his existing relationship. There are multiple lines that could be seen from either point of view.

"What she (his wife, girlfriend) don't know today might kill us both tomorrow"
"Just who planted all the Devil's seeds?"

The thought and experience of sleeping with someone outside his relationship was at one time exciting,

"Oh, there was a time, like a clean new taste...
Smiling eyes before me, inches from my face."

But now it has tainted everything.

"This city's so filthy, like my mind in ways."

If I had never heard the Lost Dogs version this song would be a 3, but the quality improves dramatically on the newer take. 4 stars and a testament to the quality of the Ten Sessions, even the B-sides. A fantastic song to throw into a live show, especially as an opener, however it's a good thing it isn't played very often.

- As a side note, I really dont like the speed version of Wash from 1992. It destroys everything good about the song, the slow burn and building anger towards the end, the great solos are changed and it becomes quite boring when it's played at that tempo.

MVP for this song: Jeff Ament.

- As a side note, I really dont like the speed version of Wash from 1992. It destroys everything good about the song, the slow burn and building anger towards the end, the great solos are changed and it becomes quite boring when it's played at that tempo.

nice write up. You're right--this is a particularly 'atmospheric' song for the Ten sessions. I never saw this as a song about prostitution, but that interpretation certainly works.

I never really considered the "sin to sell" line before, and doing so now, I see the prostitution angle as well. I always saw it about cheating, or otherwise elicit sex, much like SOLAT, but this seems a more integrated interpretation.

I'm 100% certain this song isn't actually about anything.