SONG OF THE MOMENT!

The Song of the Moment discussion goes as follows. A moderator or myself will start a new thread. We'll post the lyrics of the song along with links to the previous discussions.

SOTM gives us a chance to come together and talk about the music in a very focused manner. Many of these songs touch us in different ways and this is a great medium for enjoying the reason we are all here, the music.

Previous SotM's:
In My Tree
Red Mosquito
Porch

Song of the Moment #4
I Got Id
Written By: Vedder
Album: Merkinball

Why was it chosen? Duh, it won Green Habit's Tournament as the Champion of all Pearl Jam songs!
Special Mention: Only 2 members of Pearl Jam appear on this song, Ed on guitar and Jack on drums. The other players? Producer extraordinare Brendan O'Brien on bass and Neil Young on guitar, pump organ, and background vocals. Bonus points if anyone can spot where Neil can be heard


*********************************
my lips are shakin' my nails are bit off
been a month since i've heard myself talk
all the advantage this life's got on me
picture a cup in the middle of the sea
and i fight back in my mind
never lets me be right
i got memories i got shit
so much it don't show
oh i walked the line when you held me in that night
i walked the line when you held my hand that night
an empty shells seem so easy to crack
got all these questions don't know who i could even ask
so i'll just lie alone and wait for the dream
where i'm not ugly and your lookin' at me
and i stare you back
oh blue eyes, i've seen it
if just once i could feel love
oh stare back at me, yeah..
but i walked the line when you held me in that night
oh i walked the line when you held my hand that night
oh i walked the line when you held me close that night
i paid the price never held you in real life
my lips are shakin'

I don't know what to say about I Got Shit. Suffice to say, when I close my eyes and listen to this song, it's hard to imagine it being anything other than musical perfection.

i wanna thank luke ( HardToImagine ) for getting me into this song. covering it was a blast. wah > you.

Neil's guitar sounds awesome. Haven't heard a live version which I like anywhere as near as much as the studio version.

Haven't heard a studio version which I like anywhere as near as much as the live version.

My favorite PJ song hands down.

youngs solo makes this song. but live, mikes soloing style just doesnt mesh.

still nice to hear it, but i dont think we're going to hear this one too often any more.

i've just realized it's my second favorite song, after In My Tree!

my favorite lines:

"i got memories i got shit
so much it don't show"


"so i'll just lie alone and wait for the dream
where i'm not ugly and your lookin' at me" -> this is MY song too!

haven't herad the studio version and love the live version (touring band)

This song is not my cup of tea

i love the first line of this song

"I Got Shit" was one of the first Pearl Jam songs I every heard that made me say, "Wow." And after hundreds of listens to every single Pearl Jam song, it's one of the few that still makes me say, "Wow." This song has an amazing number of levels and sublevels and inner workings, and there's no way I can go through them all...but I'll try.

I think, on the very surface, this is simply a song about depression. You can point at just about every single line to see this. Some of the more striking ones are, "If just once, I could feel love... " and "I'll just lie alone and wait for the dream...where I'm not ugly and you're looking at me." Ed uses what I think are his best metaphors ever to make this convincing. "Picture a cup in the middle of the sea..." Just think about that for a minute. Think about the last time you were on a boat in the ocean, or in a place flying over it or something. Now picture a cup out there...I always use a Dixie Cup in my mind to make the image more effective. Imagine you're that cup and the ocean is the rest of the world. That line just makes me feel so small, so insignificant, so...blah. It makes me know exactly what Ed was feeling when he wrote the song, and it reminds me of the many times I felt like that. It brings me down every time I hear it.

I also think it's a love song. There's an amazing interplay going on between reality and the singer's (read: Ed's?) mind, and it comes out the best in the very end of the song. "I walked the line..." suggests that there was something going on, some kind of relationship that was very unstable, very dangerous. And whoever is singing the song knew this was not a good situation, he knew he was thiiiiiis close to fucking things up, to making everything fall apart. So judging from the rest of the song, can we assume that something did go wrong and the whole piece is a lament? I don't think so. I think it's more about worrying that things can go wrong than about things actually turning for the worst. Biting your fingernails is more commonly associated with worrying than with depression. That's just one clue to that interpretation. Of course, considering how heavily the song revolves around the mind and dreams, the relationship in question may not be in trouble at all.

Then of course, I think the song may be about the lack of any significant relationships. It could be about not being close to anyone, about not having someone to go to when things are rough. And that's all the singer wants. He just wants someone to look at him without seeing him as ugly. The depression comes around because he believes this will never happen. So there's only one thing left to do: "And I fight back in my mind..." What does this fight invole? It's the last few lines of the song: imagining that there's actually someone to hold your hand, take you in...but he knows that's never going to really work. I think the song has much more meaning live, when Ed sometimes changes the last lyric to: "I paid the price...only got to hold you in my mind..."

If I had to pick one way to listen to this song, I'd say it's about the dangers about becoming introverted and not looking for comfort and help outside of yourself. Not a very hopeful song, but certainly one to make you think.

There isn't a wasted word in the whole song, especially the studio version. One of Ed's best compositions. Neil also wails on that version a little better than Mike does live. Good Times.

Awesome post Simple_Torture. That pretty much sums it up.

It's kind of hard for this song not to mean something to everyone - we all have memories, we all have shit, we've all been "there". Sometimes when I listen to it, memories crush me to the point where I can't breathe, but still I continue to go back to it over and over.

This is just awesome lyrics I think. The first line says something about the isolation the person has put himself in. I went a day without talking to another human being, and I felt like a freak. I can't imagine what it's like to go nearly a month without hearing your own(or someone else's voice).

I also like the next two, since they say something about how far the person in the song is from having contact with his/her love. Instead of taking action, he just dreams about her instead. The 'where I'm not ugly'-part is probably a sign of low self-esteem, which I can identify with. Beautifully put by Eddie.

My favourite PJ-song behind Black.

Good post Simple_Torture!

Gracias.

One last suggestion to everyone: Soldier Field '95, especially the last verse. It gets me every time for some reason.

I must confess I wasn't a great big fan of this song at first...It has grown on me over the years and its now currently a song I listen to at least once a day.

During the 2003 tour there was a really nice guy seated next to me at one of the three Boston shows, he informed me that there were certain songs he really needed to hear "I got ID" was one of them. When they played this song I turned to the man at the same time he turned to me, we both screamed and jumped up and down (he was mostly jumping, but he was holding my arms so I had no choice, I jumped too). I still think of this guy when I hear the song and remember how much he loved it.

This is my favorite Pearl Jam song. I don't really think that anything will be able to pass it up (not even Sleight of Hand). The lyrics are amazing and what I love most about the song. Ed's vocals on the studio version are brilliant, just the way that he sings it. I love this song.

This is a good song, and it excels in the live setting, but the studio version just seems so slow, like they are slogging through it. The live versions, especially now with Matt, are faster and have more pop. It's one of the few older PJ songs that I think sounds better sped up.

By far one of my favorite songs. Anytime you can hear Neil and Eddie together you have to smile. But the best version I think I ever heard, was the I Got Id with the Cinnamon Girl tag. I think it was in Toronto.

I think this is a great idea BTW.

This song is an excellent portrait of where Eddie was when he wrote it. If memory serves, this was written during the Mirrorball sessions and Ed and Neil had been discussing the art of songwriting quite a bit during those couple of weeks where they were spending a lot of time together (between the VFC shows in mid january and the recording sessions in early February). Neil's influence in both the lyrics and the music are evident. It is at once personal and full of metaphor, simple and layered.

The sense of isolation that comes through in the lyrics, and the music as well, tells of where Eddie was at that point in his career. Pearl Jam was at it's most fragile state as a band in late 94 and early 95. Dave A. was gone, and Ed and Stone were still very much battling over control of the group's direction. In fact, in these sessions, Ed only appeared on a couple of the Neil Young songs, and Stone and Mike weren't on either of Eddie's songs, with Jeff only on Long Road. Ed must have felt very alone in the group around that time.

Then there's Neil's guitar work at the end of the song. I agree with everyone who said that no live version can touch the studio performance. That spaced out fuzzy guitar of Neil's on track really helps to set the mood in a way that Mike and Stone have never really been able to duplicate or improve upon.