1
Confusion is to commotion
What love is to our devotion
Imperceptibly big
Big as the ocean
And equally hard to control
So save your predictions
And burn your assumptions
Love is friction
Ripe for comfort
Endless equations
And tugging persuasions
Doors open up
To interpretation
Expecting perfection
Leaves a lot to ignore
When the past is the present
And the future's no more
When every tomorrow
Is the same as before
The looser things get
The tighter you become
The looser things get
Tighter
Not one man can be greater than the sun
That's not a negative thought
I'm positive, positive, positive
Falling down, not staying down
Coulda held me up, rather tear me down
Drown in the river
Expecting perfection
Leaves a lot to endure
When the past is the present
And the future's no more
When every tomorrow
Is the same as before
Numbers keep falling off the calendar's floor
We're stuck in our boxes
Windows open no more
Collecting up the forget-me-nots
Not recalling what they're for
I'm in love with clairvoyants
'Cause they're out of this world
I know the girls wanna dance
Away their circumstance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks, and fix and fire things
I know the girls wanna dance
Clairvoyants in a trance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks and fix and fire things
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
I know the girls wanna dance
Away their circumstance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks and fix and fire things
Drown in the river
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back (Their dicks, and fix and fire things)
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
(Drown in the river)
What love is to our devotion
Imperceptibly big
Big as the ocean
And equally hard to control
So save your predictions
And burn your assumptions
Love is friction
Ripe for comfort
Endless equations
And tugging persuasions
Doors open up
To interpretation
Expecting perfection
Leaves a lot to ignore
When the past is the present
And the future's no more
When every tomorrow
Is the same as before
The looser things get
The tighter you become
The looser things get
Tighter
Not one man can be greater than the sun
That's not a negative thought
I'm positive, positive, positive
Falling down, not staying down
Coulda held me up, rather tear me down
Drown in the river
Expecting perfection
Leaves a lot to endure
When the past is the present
And the future's no more
When every tomorrow
Is the same as before
Numbers keep falling off the calendar's floor
We're stuck in our boxes
Windows open no more
Collecting up the forget-me-nots
Not recalling what they're for
I'm in love with clairvoyants
'Cause they're out of this world
I know the girls wanna dance
Away their circumstance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks, and fix and fire things
I know the girls wanna dance
Clairvoyants in a trance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks and fix and fire things
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
I know the girls wanna dance
Away their circumstance
I know the boys wanna grow
Their dicks and fix and fire things
Drown in the river
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back (Their dicks, and fix and fire things)
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
Stand back when the spirit comes
(Drown in the river)
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A clairvoyant is basically someone who can see the future. And the idea which Pearl Jam seems to be speaking to on this track is that some people have a tendency to be future-oriented. Or stated differently, they perpetually operate under the disposition that tomorrow will be better than today. And whereas the singer is indeed “in love with clairvoyants”, he seems to be more smitten by their optimism than the reality of the situation.
In fact a fit, popular idiom which “Dance of the Clairvoyants” can be said to be based on is ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. Or as Pearl Jam states in the chorus, “the past is the present, and the future is no more”. That is rather than progressing into the future so to speak clairvoyants, like everyone else, tend to be stuck in the same routine. And apparently the word “dance”, as used within context of this song, symbolizes the desire to get over the past and rather experience some type of ideological future.
So again whereas the vocalist may appreciate clairvoyants, he has also come to the understanding that their visions for the future are more based on the fantasies of an ideal life as opposed to the hard, discouraging realities which constitute everyday living.
Expecting perfection Leaves a lot to ignore When the past is the present And the future's no more When every tomorrow Is the same as before