For me this song is a spiritual song about the meaning and the decision you take in life. A life in compliance with society's ideals (self confidence and happiness through money, consumption and status) vs. a life according to your own personal goals and values. The sun is your inner voice, which guides you in order to become who you really want to be.
When I walk beside her
I am the better man
when i look to leave her
I always stagger back again
When you're life is aligned with your feelings, your real desire and guided by your inner voice, your "heart" or gut, you will be happy. You can try to silence the voice but it will always be there and come up in certain moments, questioning if you're really doing what you want to do.
Once I built an ivory tower
so I could worship from above
when I climb down to be set free
she took me in again
The ivory tower is a life or a career which might pay a lot or guarantees you a great status in society..the tower was built to worship from above, e.g. power or money to find meaning in life and to silence the voice. When you climb down the tower, setting yourself free of your plain, meaningless everyday life, you feel that you're back on the right track.
There’s a big
a big hard sun
beating on the big people
in the big hard world
The big people are ruthless or maybe even mindless people with lots of power and money and the big hard world is today's society (kind of like the matrix, where everyone tries to build his ivory tower) telling everyone how to live their life in order to become happy. If you live your life by the rules of the big hard world, your inner voice will constantly remember you that you did not suceed in this or that, so you're a loser.
When she comes to greet me
she is mercy at my feet
I see her inner charm
she just throws it back at me
But when you life accoring to your own rules, values and goals everything becomes easy as you don't care any more about the big people in the big hard world.
Once I dug an early grave
to find a better land
she just smiled and laughed at me
and took her rules back again
Maybe you were thinking about suicide because life has no meaning, but then, the inner voice comes back reminding you that this is not your path, but only the path others have chosen for you.
Once I stood to lose her
and I saw what i had done
bowed down and threw away the hours
of her garden and her sun
So I tried to want her
I turned to see her weep
40 days and 40 nights
and its still coming down on me
The last two paragraphs describe the feeling when he tried to get back into the "matrix" but then realized what he has done and that he was on the wrong path.
this is fantastic!! I've been thinking like this everytime I hear this song, today I wanted to check what ppl think about.. and here we are!.. amazing interpretation!
this is fantastic!! I've been thinking like this everytime I hear this song, today I wanted to check what ppl think about.. and here we are!.. amazing interpretation!
@drofphilosophy I love this song and everyone's enthusiasm, but sadly everyone misses an important point. Gordon Peterson, the original author of the song, took so much exception to the changes made by Eddie Vedder, that he sued Vedder and the label. He lost, but for those so interested in the nature sybolism, to neglect Vedder's replacing of "when I stay to pillage her" with "when i see her inner charm" (sometimes interpretted as "bitter charm") is just sad. Pillage is probably the most important word in the song. Lastly, the fact that Vedder...
@drofphilosophy I love this song and everyone's enthusiasm, but sadly everyone misses an important point. Gordon Peterson, the original author of the song, took so much exception to the changes made by Eddie Vedder, that he sued Vedder and the label. He lost, but for those so interested in the nature sybolism, to neglect Vedder's replacing of "when I stay to pillage her" with "when i see her inner charm" (sometimes interpretted as "bitter charm") is just sad. Pillage is probably the most important word in the song. Lastly, the fact that Vedder change the nature sybolism in a nature focused song as part of a soundtrack to a film from a book about a young man who died trying to return to nature is even more ridiculous. Epic artistic fail by Vedder but of course not commercially. I even like Vedder somewhat, but Indio's version is so much more powerful, both rythmically (the original drums are literally inspirational) but especially lyrically, even if just by a few key words.
For me this song is a spiritual song about the meaning and the decision you take in life. A life in compliance with society's ideals (self confidence and happiness through money, consumption and status) vs. a life according to your own personal goals and values. The sun is your inner voice, which guides you in order to become who you really want to be.
When I walk beside her I am the better man when i look to leave her I always stagger back again
When you're life is aligned with your feelings, your real desire and guided by your inner voice, your "heart" or gut, you will be happy. You can try to silence the voice but it will always be there and come up in certain moments, questioning if you're really doing what you want to do.
Once I built an ivory tower so I could worship from above when I climb down to be set free she took me in again
The ivory tower is a life or a career which might pay a lot or guarantees you a great status in society..the tower was built to worship from above, e.g. power or money to find meaning in life and to silence the voice. When you climb down the tower, setting yourself free of your plain, meaningless everyday life, you feel that you're back on the right track.
There’s a big a big hard sun beating on the big people in the big hard world
The big people are ruthless or maybe even mindless people with lots of power and money and the big hard world is today's society (kind of like the matrix, where everyone tries to build his ivory tower) telling everyone how to live their life in order to become happy. If you live your life by the rules of the big hard world, your inner voice will constantly remember you that you did not suceed in this or that, so you're a loser.
When she comes to greet me she is mercy at my feet I see her inner charm she just throws it back at me
But when you life accoring to your own rules, values and goals everything becomes easy as you don't care any more about the big people in the big hard world.
Once I dug an early grave to find a better land she just smiled and laughed at me and took her rules back again
Maybe you were thinking about suicide because life has no meaning, but then, the inner voice comes back reminding you that this is not your path, but only the path others have chosen for you.
Once I stood to lose her and I saw what i had done bowed down and threw away the hours of her garden and her sun
So I tried to want her I turned to see her weep 40 days and 40 nights and its still coming down on me
The last two paragraphs describe the feeling when he tried to get back into the "matrix" but then realized what he has done and that he was on the wrong path.
this is fantastic!! I've been thinking like this everytime I hear this song, today I wanted to check what ppl think about.. and here we are!.. amazing interpretation!
this is fantastic!! I've been thinking like this everytime I hear this song, today I wanted to check what ppl think about.. and here we are!.. amazing interpretation!
@drofphilosophy I love this song and everyone's enthusiasm, but sadly everyone misses an important point. Gordon Peterson, the original author of the song, took so much exception to the changes made by Eddie Vedder, that he sued Vedder and the label. He lost, but for those so interested in the nature sybolism, to neglect Vedder's replacing of "when I stay to pillage her" with "when i see her inner charm" (sometimes interpretted as "bitter charm") is just sad. Pillage is probably the most important word in the song. Lastly, the fact that Vedder...
@drofphilosophy I love this song and everyone's enthusiasm, but sadly everyone misses an important point. Gordon Peterson, the original author of the song, took so much exception to the changes made by Eddie Vedder, that he sued Vedder and the label. He lost, but for those so interested in the nature sybolism, to neglect Vedder's replacing of "when I stay to pillage her" with "when i see her inner charm" (sometimes interpretted as "bitter charm") is just sad. Pillage is probably the most important word in the song. Lastly, the fact that Vedder change the nature sybolism in a nature focused song as part of a soundtrack to a film from a book about a young man who died trying to return to nature is even more ridiculous. Epic artistic fail by Vedder but of course not commercially. I even like Vedder somewhat, but Indio's version is so much more powerful, both rythmically (the original drums are literally inspirational) but especially lyrically, even if just by a few key words.