Pearl Jam – I Got Shit (I Got Id)

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My lips are shaking, my nails are bit off
Been a month since I 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've 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 shell seems 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 a dream
Where I'm not ugly and you're looking at me

And I'll stay in bed
All blue, I've seen hell
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 shaking...

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Lyrics submitted by PJ10, edited by stringray


I Got Shit (I Got Id) song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:Classic unrequited love. Mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend, wife, take your pick.
    Flag Karnenyenon May 07, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Actually, I wonder if the lyrics shouldn't be "I walked in light..." instead of "I walked the line". I've listened to some YouTube live recordings of this song and Eddie seems to sing "light". Also "light" rhymes with "night".
    Flag stringrayon February 26, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I completely agree with nothingmang64, but i have to add in as well that that this song reminds me of how it feels after you're kissing a girl you've wanted to be with, but next moment wake up in your bed and realize how alone you are and that you'll never be with her.

    "So I'll just lie alone and wait for a dream
    Where I'm not ugly and you're looking at me"

    This would definitely be after you've beeen rejected because she's just not attracted to you...every guy knows that feeling where they completely fall for a girl but she's just not attracted to them and you wish you could change yourself but know that nothing will ever change her opinion.

    "And I fight back in my mind
    Never lets me be right
    I've got memories, I've got shit
    So much it don't show"

    To me this kind of represents a time when everything was perfect and fine. I guess kind of like being a kid...you have all the memories of your childhood, and then you realize how much has changed over time and it just gets you down and you realize that you're kind of going down this downward spiral you never though you'd be down. You're nervous, lack confidence, lonely, and dreaming is your only escape from reality. Only thing is when you wake up everything is still the same and that routine repeats...you just can't seem to get your mind off the past
    Flagged x32543on January 08, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning: This is my favorite song. It's very emotional for me. Some of his songs are about being neglected by parents. Alive is about his father leaving him as a child. Jeremy about a boy being bullied at school and parents never giving a shit about him. This song about a boy never feeling loved by his mother. Being neglected by his mother feeling ugly cause his mother wont even look at him. He lies in bed waiting for the dream that he'll be held at night or having his hand held. He's got memories but not any worth remembering so he's got shit. No good memories just dreams of being loved. The one person anyone ever really loves or think should love them would be a mother. If your not loved by the one person that should love you then you got shit. Thats what this song says to me. I love my boys and I cant think of a time where I dont hold their hand, yhold them in at night before bed, and look at them in the eye and tell them I love them. My opinion, eveyone has their own. I read so many interpretations and songs say something different to everyone. No one is wrong.
    Flag BACKSPACER01on September 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:this song is about the divide and fine line of love and infatuation. we all meet someone gut girl gay straight, sometimes we feel love breifly, and sometimes love lasts, clearly love lasted breifly with one, and is affecting the other partners self esteem, driving them crazy, in love with someone who does not love them back in the same degree.
    Flag ajwhitex12on September 11, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I thought it was "All these questions".
    Flag feminist92on August 02, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Holy shit the MUSIC in this song is phemonomanal. Uncle Neil teaming up with Ed to create such a masterpiece has me wondering why bands like Buckcherry even exist or are allowed to exist anymore. So deep, so punishing and enlightening to my soul it's incredible.. We've all been where he's coming from here so let's just go ahead and celebrate the fact that it's what life is! "an empty cup in the middle of the sea"............
    Flag shwiznale3on December 05, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Well, i dont know how can you get your lips shaking and your nails off, unless you are in a situation of extreme misery. Staying in silence for a month and, however, being able to feel comfortable with the adverse situation and also having positive thoughts kinda makes me thing in a spiritual retirement, a time for reflexion. However, all of the balance that you might get goes to hell (you walk the line) when you remember the woman you could have had and your id comes back to you.

    Then, when you are conscious of your situation you want to explode, you want to crack the shell, you got nobody wiser than you that may help you and the only thing that may bring some light to your life would be the woman that ignored you, or didnt want to go any further with you.

    Seen in that way, it's brilliant.
    Flag gatofbon August 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:wow, these lyrics are butchered. too bad, great song. i think it's about somebody who is depressed, lonely, and hates himself and has an object of his affection who is out of his league.
    Flag cecsixon July 09, 2009   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:walkintheline beat me to it. His interpretation is exactly how I felt the song to mean. Pretty much fell into the same "hole" myself. Lost a love...fell right back into my addiction "alcohol", tho while all the time seeing her I was "walking the line". Eventually fell deep into my addiction and, even in my own eyes was pretty ugly.
    "Been a month since I heard myself talk".....can relate to that....pretty much only went out to buy alcohol myself...never saying a word to anyone for some time. And over time as addiction really takes hold even the smallest and easiest of every days problems seem to take on a much more enormous size than they actually are.... "an empty cup in the middle of the sea".
    And anyone that has battled an addiction and overcame it knows how ugly it can be.
    May 15th 2009 3 years sobriety now. :)
    Flag HibernusMortison May 21, 2009   Link

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