This song as most people have pointed out is about Eddie Vedder's relationship had, or perhaps more accurately, about the relationship he wished he had with his father.
This is a theme that crops up in a few Perl Jam songs, but this one in my opinion is the most moving - and definitely one of my favourite songs of all time.
In the song 'Alive' off the Ten album for example, he sings: "While you were sitting home alone at age 13, you're real daddy was dying... sorry you didn't meet him". This song to me, is almost a follow-on from that. If "Alive" was a conversation he had with someone else during the day, then "Release" is a conversation he had with himself while lying in bed that night.
The reason the lyrics of this song are so moving, to my mind, is because they touch on some of the most deep-seated feelings and needs people have, but that people rarely talk about openly. And he articulates them in such a way that you can't help but feel your heart strings being pulled.... the need to understand where we come from - not geographically, but the make up of our characters - and the first step along that road is looking at who we come from. Something he will never fully be able to do.
There is a tangible (audible, I suppose) sense of loss that Eddie feels for having missed out on having this connection with his father - in this song, he is almost mourning the relationship he never had.
The second and third verses in particular get me every time:
=================================
Oh, dear dad, can you see this now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll ride the wave where it takes me
I'll hold the pain release me
---Interpretation---
In the first line, he's wondering if his father can see him, but I suspect underneath what he's really asking is: if his father was still alive, would he be proud of the man his son had grown up to be. The second line shows he's trying to figure out which traits he's inherited from his father, and that he's sad that he doesn't know. In the last two lines, I think "wave" is a wave of emotions associated with loss - sadness, grief, pain - and that he'd rather experience these emotions and be able to think about his father than forget about him altogether and avoid them, which would be the easy way out.
=================================
Oh, dear dad, can you see this now
I am myself, like you somehow
I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me
I'll open up release me, release me, release me, release me
---Interpretation---
The opening two lines are repeated from the previous verse.
"I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me" - this line is the most poignant and melancholy in the whole song for me. The listener can really feel how desperate he is to have a connection with his father - to get some kind of explanation or comfort from him as to why they never got to be together. Just heart-breaking. On the last line, and in contrast to the last line of the previous verse, I think he realizes that he can't go through life this way, and that he needs to achieve some kind of closure. It's almost like "open up" here means that he's going to give back these feelings of loss to his father - wherever he is - so that he can move on.
An absolute masterpiece.
(P.S. The "oooooh"'s between the first and second verses always struck me as being almost like a meditation chant. Try closing your eyes, relax your mind and humming along to them... really relaxing and personally put me in frame of mind that helped me appreciate the lyrics more.)
@gaelicyoda I was just coming on here to comment about this and to see if anyone else heard the meditation chant too, it sounds like om doesn't it. Fantastic song.
@gaelicyoda I was just coming on here to comment about this and to see if anyone else heard the meditation chant too, it sounds like om doesn't it. Fantastic song.
This song as most people have pointed out is about Eddie Vedder's relationship had, or perhaps more accurately, about the relationship he wished he had with his father.
This is a theme that crops up in a few Perl Jam songs, but this one in my opinion is the most moving - and definitely one of my favourite songs of all time.
In the song 'Alive' off the Ten album for example, he sings: "While you were sitting home alone at age 13, you're real daddy was dying... sorry you didn't meet him". This song to me, is almost a follow-on from that. If "Alive" was a conversation he had with someone else during the day, then "Release" is a conversation he had with himself while lying in bed that night.
The reason the lyrics of this song are so moving, to my mind, is because they touch on some of the most deep-seated feelings and needs people have, but that people rarely talk about openly. And he articulates them in such a way that you can't help but feel your heart strings being pulled.... the need to understand where we come from - not geographically, but the make up of our characters - and the first step along that road is looking at who we come from. Something he will never fully be able to do.
There is a tangible (audible, I suppose) sense of loss that Eddie feels for having missed out on having this connection with his father - in this song, he is almost mourning the relationship he never had.
The second and third verses in particular get me every time:
================================= Oh, dear dad, can you see this now I am myself, like you somehow I'll ride the wave where it takes me I'll hold the pain release me
---Interpretation---
In the first line, he's wondering if his father can see him, but I suspect underneath what he's really asking is: if his father was still alive, would he be proud of the man his son had grown up to be. The second line shows he's trying to figure out which traits he's inherited from his father, and that he's sad that he doesn't know. In the last two lines, I think "wave" is a wave of emotions associated with loss - sadness, grief, pain - and that he'd rather experience these emotions and be able to think about his father than forget about him altogether and avoid them, which would be the easy way out.
================================= Oh, dear dad, can you see this now I am myself, like you somehow I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me I'll open up release me, release me, release me, release me
---Interpretation---
The opening two lines are repeated from the previous verse. "I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me" - this line is the most poignant and melancholy in the whole song for me. The listener can really feel how desperate he is to have a connection with his father - to get some kind of explanation or comfort from him as to why they never got to be together. Just heart-breaking. On the last line, and in contrast to the last line of the previous verse, I think he realizes that he can't go through life this way, and that he needs to achieve some kind of closure. It's almost like "open up" here means that he's going to give back these feelings of loss to his father - wherever he is - so that he can move on.
An absolute masterpiece.
(P.S. The "oooooh"'s between the first and second verses always struck me as being almost like a meditation chant. Try closing your eyes, relax your mind and humming along to them... really relaxing and personally put me in frame of mind that helped me appreciate the lyrics more.)
Whoops, just realised the lyrics at the top are wong! It should be "Oh, dear dad, can you see ME now"
Whoops, just realised the lyrics at the top are wong! It should be "Oh, dear dad, can you see ME now"
@gaelicyoda I was just coming on here to comment about this and to see if anyone else heard the meditation chant too, it sounds like om doesn't it. Fantastic song.
@gaelicyoda I was just coming on here to comment about this and to see if anyone else heard the meditation chant too, it sounds like om doesn't it. Fantastic song.