I certainly agree there is more of that on yield. But I think it begins with no code. Songs like who you are and especially present tense come to mind

I have it on good authority that the bridge in severed hand is THE definitive musical description of tripping, though.


Otherwise I never cited any of the lyrics you mentioned above as particularly good or noteworthy. Nor would I. Nor did I say that his lyrics are currently better than No Code. Some songs are, some songs aren't. It depends on the songs. My point was that there was a shift in the focus of his writing that I do not think plays to his strengths.


I do like the schmaltziness of that future days lyric, though

Stip's 2 cents on the lyrics of No Code

Sometimes: they're good. I've never been particularly interested in this song, despite the fact that it came out at the height of both my pearl jam fandom and my militant atheism. But it's not because of the lyrics

Hail Hail: A dud line here or there (which is the case in just about everything he writes--I wish he'd give his lyrics a final pass) but these are great. One of the more insightful songs about relationships i've ever heard, all the more remarkable for the fact that it's not a talky singer/songwriter piece

Who You Are: They're awkward and not quite playful enough for what the song wants to do

In My Tree: I don't like trees as metaphors, and I don't think the verses are anything special, but the chorus is very good

Smile: They work for the song

Off he goes: Like Lament, I've railed about these at length. I think they're narcissistic crap

Habit: The verses are good. The chorus is not--especially with the delivery and repetition (and song lyrics, unlike poetry, have to be read in the context of their delivery--not that you can't do that with poetry, obviously).

Red Mosquito: These are also excellent. The best work on the album excepting maybe Hail Hail

Lukin: Immature and not particularly powerful or moving given the anger and rage in the song--but they also don't matter much

Present Tense: Although I really like a few moments (especially the overloaded but still nice chorus) but otherwise these are way too 'chicken soup for the soul' for me.

Mankind: Interestingly enough, while I once hated these I have a new appreciation for them, and for stone's sarcastic style in general.

I'm Open: I loved these when I was younger. They feel a bit too overwrought these days. It's just too heavy handed with the music. I think I'd like the music more and the lyrics more if they were contrasting with something else

Around the Bend: Ehh. Technically I'm at the point in my life where I should be relating to these the most. They're okay, but I've never been moved by them. They read a bit too much like someone describing an experience they've never actually had.


For a point of reference I think Eddie's best lyrics are on Vitalogy and Binaural, followed by Ten. The best moments on Vs. are as good as anything he's ever done, but Vs. is spectacularly uneven. And while I think Lightning Bolt is uneven, the best lyrical moments on that record (Infallible, Yellow Moon, parts of Lightning Bolt and Mind Your Manners) are certainly as good as the highs of No Code.

You were 100% right, Heathen, and I apologize for not seeing it sooner.

are you having trouble finding an approach and a way to live?

Of everything that's possible in the hearts and minds of men, somehow it is the stippest things that I need to get offa my plate.

I've always interpreted Present Tense as though the protagonist is addressing himself rather than trying to impart wisdom to others. A lot of No Code feels like this, actually.

the Infallible lyrics are great, and I'm sure I'll write a book about them when I get around to a lightning bolt tour thread. They also work wonderfully in conversation with the Mind Your Manners lyrics. It's the smartest 1-2 political combo in the catalog outside of Insignificance/Grievance (which is better)

That getaway lyric, nota so mucha.

well narratively he is, I agree. But in other songs he uses me, so I think switching to you is significant.

I have to go take ellie to a petting zoo (and was just ordered to make sure I bring money for a pony ride) so I can't check this, but out of curiosity, what songs prior to No Code does Eddie directly sing to another person (you, as opposed to a third party narrative character or me/I)?

And same basic question, when does he use we?

Think it was Stip that once told me that the last few songs of No Code stopped it being perfect. once I really thought about that I couldn't unthink it. Everything after present tense is questionable.

Well, they do manage to concisely merge metaphors from at least a half dozen travel-magazine quality opinion articles. Locked doors, ships that have finally come in and are (gasp) sinking, things that slip through hands, people tempting fate, beginning at the ending, third second chances, sitting on fences. Wow.

Release: "Can you see me now, I am myself, like you somehow"
Garden: "I don't need what you have to give"
Porch: "Why would you hit me?"
Oceans: "You don't have to stray two oceans away"
Why Go: "What you taught me"
Once: "You think I got my eyes closed, but I'm lookin' at you the whole fuckin' time"

Leash: "I am fuel, you are friends... I'm no guide, but I'm by your side" "We will find a way"
Rearviewmirror: "I gather speed from you fucking with me"
Animal: "Torture from you to me" "Why would you wanna hurt me?"

Aye Davanita: "Jahooh" (This could just be a breathy form of "Jew", of course...)
Satan's Bed: "Univited, as you know"
Corduroy: "Can't let you roam inside my head" "I don't want to take what you can give"
Whipping: "Oh, I'm just like you - think we've had enough... We all got scars..."
Not for You: "If you hate something, don't you do it to"
STBC: "Won't turn you away" "Only you deserve conceit"
Last Exit: "I will give you what you're not sposed to have"

Who You Are: "You are who, who you are"
Smile: "Don't it make you smile?"
Habit: "It's not your way"

That was just a quick search for "you ". Saw a good few "we's" as well. Leash, Corduroy, Whipping and Who You Are are probably the strongest cases in context (some of the other lines are implied dialogue, etc).

On a side note, I'm quite sad to discover the lyric is "I don't want to take what you can give". I always thought it was "can't".

I have always loved how much ''Smile'' was able to do with so little--so few lyrics, so few guitar chords, such a short running time. It demands little and gives back a lot, which is probably why it's such a fan favorite that so many people are always so happy to hear. It doesn't invite the same kind of active listening that some of their deeper material does, but somehow it ends up feeling equally as rich. A wonderful moment in their catalog.



The lyrics to this song are dreadful, and they're right there front and center. I would agree that there's no criticizing any of the material on ''Lightning Bolt'' if this is the sort of thing you hold up as your standard. I find the solitary, plaintive quality of the performance attractive, though--and I think both the vocal melody and the lyrics, not so much as words but as a series of consonant and vowel sounds, add to it. Eddie's diminished sense of phrasing over the years has done his later-era Deepak Chopra material no favors, the solo track ''Better Days'' probably signaling what thus far has amounted to rock bottom.

Overall I think ''Yield'' and ''Binaural'' are both significant leaps forward for Pearl Jam lyrically. The other songwriters in the band bring a welcome balance of obscurity to Eddie's paper-thin philosophizing, and the discrepancies in vocabulary cast a sort of sideways shadow over the platitudes Eddie could never resist writing and still can't. I hadn't really considered it until this thread but I would agree that the lyrics on ''No Code'' could reasonably count as its major flaw. Lucky for them it's probably the most musically compelling record in their whole arsenal.

Present tense works a lot better acoustically I think.

I don't think I have ever heard an acoustic version of it. When did that happen? Bridge School?

I am so very in love with the music to "Present Tense".

PMs to you both.

No Code Weaknesses
1. Including Mankind in lieu of Brain of JFK
2. Mankind -> I'm Open -> Around the Bend is a crap album closing sequence that doesn't relate to the album. The latter two tracks are fine independently, but this sequence is easily skipped, leaving an almost perfect 10 track album in front of it.

That's it

No Code Strengths
1. Everything else. This and Vitalogy have always been neck and neck as my favorite PJ albums. Pearl Jam is to me what they were when they made Vitalogy and transitioned to this. This part of the band's evolution has defined them for me for years

It's quite a development too, Vitalogy into No Code. But No Code feels like a natural follow up. Something that hasnt happened again until S/T being an answer to Riot act and Backspacer being an answer to S/T

I think the inclusion of the words "soul" and "moss" do a much better job of cementing the song's playfulness.