Push Me, Pull Me

(reality...is what i've seen...)
i had a false belief
i thought i came here to stay
we're all just visiting
all just breaking like waves
the oceans made me, but who came up with me?
push me, pull me, or pull me out
push me, pull me, or pull me out
so if there were no angels, would there be no sin?
you better stop me before i begin
but let me say: if i behave, can you arrange a spacious hole in the ground
somewhere nice, make it nice
where the land meets high tide
push me, pull me, or pull me out
push me, pull me, or pull me out
push me, pull me, or pull me out
push me, pull me, or pull me out
like a cloud dropping rain
i'm discarding all thought
i'll dry up, leaving puddles on the ground
i'm like an opening band for the sun
push me, pull me, push me, pull me
push me, pull me, push me, pull me
push me, pull me, push me, pull me
i've had enough, said enough, felt enough, i'm fine
see ya later


Previous Songs of the Moment

In My Tree
Red Mosquito
Porch
I Got Id
Release
Do The Evolution
Breath
Corduroy
Elderly Woman...
Leash
Hail Hail
Grievance
Love Boat Captain
Even Flow
Black Red Yellow
In Hiding
Can't Keep
Indifference
Insignificance
Whipping
Black
Smile

i'll just post an article i wrote about this song when i was editor of my college newspaper. i wrote it as one of my last columns, as my senior class was preparing to graduate.

The Editor’s spot
By Michael De Dora, Jr.
Editor in Chief

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really been getting into one of the over 100 Pearl Jam CD’s I have.

First off, you did read correctly. I own over 100 Pearl Jam CD’s. I have all of Pearl Jam’s studio material, along with almost half of their 72-concert 2000 tour, and roughly ten shows from their 2003 tour.

But while I enjoy all of that music, there is one disc that is getting me through life right now.

Yield, my favorite album, hasn’t left my CD players in weeks. I carry it from my house, to my car, to the Albany Student Press room. Released in 1998, I believe Yield is the deepest, most thought provoking and complete album Pearl Jam has ever produced.

And I was going to write some sappy column about how much I love the band, or how important music is. But you need not look further than my CD booklet, the bumper of my 1997 Kia Sportage, or my bedroom walls to see my obsession with the band. And the topic of how important music is to people has been written again and again.

What I am going do is show you some of the lyrics from track number twelve of Yield, “Push Me, Pull Me”, and see if they help you at all in getting through the tough times of college, and the coming graduation. After you read them, I’ll let you know what I see in them.

“I had a false belief I thought I came here to stay We're all just visiting All just breaking like waves The oceans made me, but who came up with me? So if there were no angels, would there be no sin? You better stop me before I begin But let me say: if I behave, can you arrange a spacious hole in the ground Somewhere nice, make it nice Where the land meets high tide Like a cloud dropping rain I'm discarding all thought I’ll dry up, leaving puddles on the ground I'm like an opening band for the sun”

Here’s how I read it: A person is questioning life, asking what exactly it’s all about – why am I here? What’s my purpose? But even in seeing how confusing life can be, the person moves on, not trying to dwell on life being so confusing. Then, after seeing what life is about, the person then flashes a quick smirk at the end of life, death – I know it’s coming, there’s nothing I can do – in asking for a “spacious hole.”

And after figuring out life, and realizing death is an unavoidable aspect of life the person really takes off. Basically saying, “Bring it on,” the person realizes how beautiful life is and proclaims that they are discarding all thought, and moving on with life. The person isn’t going to let anything clutter life.

“I’m like an opening band for the sun.”

That line really closes the song on the perfect note. After seeing that life is confusing, is not easily figured out, and that the end of life is unavoidable, the person still says it’s beautiful, and that life is something to be treasured. Ultimate optimism.

Over the past few months, I’ve questioned why we’re here on Earth. Did I really attend four years of college to work at a small newspaper, working an assigned beat with little to no freedom and making less than $30,000 a year? Scary thought.

But what I do know, and what Pearl Jam’s music has helped me remember, is that you have to make the most out of life, no matter what cards you’re dealt. It’s a beautiful thing. Throw a smirk at the unavoidable, learn as much as you can as you go and live as much as you can. You only get one life.

Be the opening band for the sun.

that's a great article!

and a terrific song.
I'll write more about it later, but I'm going to sleep now.

Well done, c_b!!!

The best of Eddie's spoken word pieces. A lot of fun, but the sound effects (the whistles especially) make it hard for me to take it as seriously as I should.

I'll try and write more tomorrow. Nice pick CB.

i took the song more seriously since i heard it through a live version..
i love it.great lyrics and great music..more like an experimental song

C_B, have you dethroned Stip's status of SOTM editor? I don't believe it! I haven't seen a sneakier job theft since the 2000 Presidential Elections. You are one slick son of a bitch.

seriously

He'll be hearing from my lawyers

C_B I just want to say that the piece you wrote about the song was excellent. I'll deliver one of my patented ( ) song reviews either tonight when I'm drunk or tomorrow when I'm recovering. Either way, good work.

One of the things I really like about this song is the sense of searching and confusion about it. Are we just matter in motion or is there something more transcendent about us. Are we just fish crawling out of an ocean---if so where did love come from? But if that's the case, where does sin come from? Why are good people punished for bad things? Why aren't we rewarded? There is so much a disenchanted world cannot explain, yet at the same time there is no answer to that problem that makes sense. We can't just rely on God as a solution because a world with god makes no sense either. Where does evil come from? Are we really rewarded for being good, etc.


One problem I have with the song is the fuck it all lets go have a beer attitude at the end. These are questions worth exploring.

good point

More than anything, I find this song to be about spirituality. It mentions theology, and not in glowing terms, but only on the periphery. I think the song has less to do with why we're here, but more about the mystery of where we're all going once our bodies expire.

"We're all just visiting, all just breaking like waves." A visitor eventually leaves the place he inhabits, and I think it’s obvious to us all that it’s not our broken bodies that transcend this planet, but our souls/spirits. The key word is obviously "visiting.” That's a very distinct verb that has only one infinite meaning.

The definitive symbol within the song is the ocean/water, as in the aforementioned line. But this symbol appears in all 3 of the verses, the most peculiar being in the second verse: "If I behave can you arrange a spacious hole in the ground...where the land meets high tide." Here the narrator almost condescendingly asks for the ocean at its most powerful to wash over his dead remains, as if it will cleanse his body from any wrongs he has committed as a physical being, because he has little to no faith that anything else can. How ironic that this line comes after his questioning of Christian beliefs by asking if angels did not exist, then would sin? Clearly there is a crisis of conscience within the narrator about how or what is exactly responsible for our existence.

"Like a cloud dropping rain, I'll discard all thought, leaving puddles on the ground...I'm like an opening band for the sun." This is our final verse, and probably the most powerful of the three. Again the symbolic water arrives, but this time from the heavens/above, as compared to the first verse (the ocean) or the second (the land). Here I find the narrator referring to something, maybe not necessarily our souls, but something within us, rising once our physical selves have passed on. The drying up and leaving puddles could be a mention of the liquid life of man, blood, being left on the earth as our souls' light makes its way to light's true father, the sun. I could probably write a 20-page essay about the symbolism within the lyrics, as short and simple as they may seem to be. Good, good stuff.

Musically, this track is pretty out there, though not nearly as much so as some previous Pearl Jam tracks (re: Stupid Mop). The difference is this one isn't annoying or unlistenable; the sound effects combined with the music are actually very cool, and fit the narrative of the lyrics. This is the closest the band has ever come to sounding like Pink Floyd, and that is not a bad thing at all. Most people call this song "experimental," but I'd much rather use the term "avant-garde." Great headphone listening.

For the second time in a row, we are confronted with a SOTM that is easily dismissed because it resides between two great tracks (the previous Smile between In My Tree and Off He Goes, and this one between In Hiding and All Those Yesterdays). While this must be a coincidence -- especially because these are C_B's only 2 SOTM picks -- this says something special about our favorite band. They have the ability to hide these little gems in between great tracks, where most bands nowadays have trouble producing a great track, period. But what is best of all about songs like Push Me, Pull Me is that only the truest fans will ever discover the beauty of them. You'll never hear a song like this on pop radio, and for that I am eternally thankful. This is ultimately the band's greatest gift to us.

Nice response DF

Since no one has really mentioned this, listening to this song in the context of Ishmael and Daniel Quinn's larger project is helpful here too. This gives it a slightly less spiritual read (as Quinn didn't really start delving too heavily into spirituality until his later books) but of course Eddie can put his own spiritual spin on it as well. One of the most important messages Quinn wants people to take away from Ishamel is that human beings are just animals, and as animals are still bound by the same laws of nature and evolution as anyone and everyone else. To think that we are any different is one of humanities most prominent (and dangerous) conciets. This is particularly prominent in the first two verses

I had a false belief...I thought I came here to stay....

and

If I behave can you arrange a spacious hole in ground....

There is nothing special about us--the ocean lines are referring to both the literal ocean and the larger biological soup we (and everything else) evolved out of.

In this interpretation the push me/pull me chorus could also deal with deciding whether or not we want to accept that Man is just another animal, and nothing particularly special.

First time i heard this song i thought wow this is crap...but recently i started to listen to it and i love it now...the lyrics are deep and the riffs in the song make it stand out. I espcially enjoy the part when Ed says "Im like an open band for the sun" and you hear the guitars entere. Great song very underrated.

I was updating the song of the moment que and I don't have any requests for Riot Act or Binaural for this cycle (and for the next cycle I only have requests from Ten and No Code). So if you want to PM me I'll stick the song into the rotation.

Thin Air!

Ugh, Okay. That is only nominally better than the God's Dice request a few months back (I should stick that one in the que too).

haha, i really dont care. i just said it because i know you dont like it. i dont think you should take requests.

When no one offers anything I stick one in. Otherwise I worry that it will just reflect my tastes. But I'm happy to cross that one out.

If you take Parting Ways, I'll write my most emotional, personal and non-interesting post ever!

As for Riot Act... Down? All or None?