Tremor Christ is a classic, an amazing song that often gets forgotten soley because it is surrounded by so many other greats. It’s also the song I feel like I have the least of a handle on of everything that is on Vitalogy, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of you come up with.

For me Vitalogy is an album about redemption and salvation in the face of corruption. I'm not going to say too much about it since I've talked about Vitalogy in the Last Exit and Corduroy threads, and I'll probably say it all again when we eventually get to Immortality. The primary story arc of the record deals with finding that salvation through music and the ways in which an overly commodified, inauthentic, superficial industry threatens to undermine that redemption. But some of the other songs on the records address the same battle for salvation, but instead of art there is the corruption of love by the same forces. Betterman and Nothingman both fit into this category, but lyrically and in terms of its connection to the rest of the album, Tremor Christ is the more important song (even though I like the other two more). The same promise of the easy, cost free, instantly gratifying reward that destroys art also destroys love, and threatens to destroy love. The jagged music and weary, yet sharp, vocals do a great job evoking the stormy, shipwrecked feel of the song.

The two dominant images/metaphors in this song are the ocean, and the spiritual/supernatural. There are times Eddie overdoes the water imagery, but here it works perfectly. Water gives life and takes it away, it is fluid and ultimately beyond our control, but if we’re careful, and lucky, we can bend it to our will, at least temporarily. There is a blend of skill and chance that does a nice job coloring the rest of the song. The singer in Tremor Christ is lost at sea, at the mercy of the waves, of life, of temptation, and of loss.

The spiritual imagery also is nicely used here. We hope for angels but we know we have to expect the devil. We want to stay clean, but we know the world will try and make us dirty. We know we must prepare for sacrifice but are always willing to sell out for ease. We hope for the best but always have to prepare for the worst. In the end what we need to overcome the devil' temptation is faith in love, in ourselves, in each other, and in the belief that something pure can exist in this world. Tremor Christ is a tentative declaration of faith. Vitalogy is far too searching, honest, and dark album for Eddie to claim he's found it, and there is the realization that he may be too far gone to receive it. Too many sacrifices were made, too many promises broken. Nevertheless, there is a grim determination at the end to accept responsibility for mistakes that have been made and to keep on looking for salvation.

So maybe 'Sirens' is Tremor Christ 2

These are the types of questions that should asked in the SOTM threads instead of starting a new thread.

Dear new RM users, may I suggest the search function at the top of the page before you start a new thread? Or the Pearl Jam chat index. Thank you.

So maybe 'Sirens' is Tremor Christ 2

Me sorry!
Bad, bad new user.
Delete it if you can please

It is widely known that PJ is an atheist band.

Fuck. I just wrote an answer for the other thread and it got deleted. Here it is again:

A lot of Christians talk of Christ as their 'solid rock'. There's that old Reformation hymn which goes: 'On Christ the solid rock I stand / All other ground is sinking sand.' Tremor Christ might be the version of Christ (or belief in him) that is always threatening to fall through, and is ultimately not solid, and not trustworthy to be Ed's only 'anchor' for his faith.

Little secrets, tremors, turn to quake.
Smallest oceans still get big, big waves.

I can relate to this. The 'little secrets, tremors', the 'smallest oceans' are the little voices inside you which say that maybe, just maybe, 'God' doesn't exist and that 'God' is just a shorthand for everything good about the world. Maybe you could drop God and everything would still be OK. Those little inklings in the mind can eventually 'turn to quake', and those 'smallest oceans' of doubt can sometimes get huge waves of crisis. There's that Bible story about Jesus in a boat with his disciples calming the storm by speaking to it, and this might be a stretch, but there might be a subversion of that here (Doubt -- or Tremor Christ -- is speaking, whispering secrets). There's also a story in which Elijah (I think? Can someone confirm this?) is speaking to God, and his answer doesn't come in the fire, or the earthquake, but in a 'still small voice'. Maybe this Tremor Christ is the God that speaks in the quake.

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

There is a lot going on in Vitalogy but one of the main themes playing itself out is the desire for purity in the face of corruption—a desire for the salvation of music, and the salvation of self in a world where both are threatened, perverted, distorted (I’ve long felt Red Mosquito needs to be on Vitalogy, as it is addressing these same themes).

RM poster SLH has made the argument that Not For You should be seen as working itself out over time, rather than capturing a particular moment—and her interpretation makes a great deal of sense segueing into Tremor Christ. It picks up in the aftermath of a metaphorical shipwreck and while the song is exhausted you can cut yourself on its jagged sounds and sharp vocals. Musically Tremor Christ does a wonderful job evoking the stormy feel of the song. The subject had succumbed to the superficial ease of temptation, the promise of reward without cost. Slight surrenders of principle, seemingly innocuous decisions quickly spiral out of control. The smallest oceans still get big big waves. It turns out that there was a steep price after all, demanding payment in terms of lost love, lost innocence, lost purity. Both the art and the artist suffer for the easy choices, for the refusal to see the hidden price of playing the game instead of choosing to move Sisyphus’s rock. We’re left with an exhausted artist, passion bleeding itself dry, and the emancipatory promise of the music drowning in the wake left by the industry.

The second verse, chronologically, comes before the first one—it’s a flashback of sorts, what happened to the subject that lead to him washed up on the shore. The Devil is seductive, and it is rare for the angels to reach an artist before they’ve accepted his bargain, to let him know exactly what is at stake. We can hope for angels but if we’re honest with ourselves we know it is going we’re going to have to learn to fight the devils (this theme returns in Corduroy and Satan’s Bed).

While the subject is wounded, he isn’t dead yet. The second half of the song is a fighting creed, a declaration to resist, to forgo temptation and endure hardship, to do what is necessary to regain control over his soul, the only prize the devil ever seeks. And the song ends with the eerily calm determination to turn the boat back to the water, enter the waves and prepare to fight, with nothing on his side but faith in love (love of music, love as meaningful attachment and solidarity, love as purity), and the knowledge that the struggle itself has meanings. The liner notes of Not For You intimate that Eddie has at least a passing familiarity with Albert Camus, and this really starts to play itself out in the moments of defiance on Vitalogy (here, Whipping, and Corduroy). There is never any guarantee, or even expectation of victory, but it is the fight that preserves our humanity. There is no promise that he’ll find what he is looking for, and in fact he may be too far gone to be redeemed, but he is willing to accept responsibility for the mistakes made, and he is willing to keep searching for the possibility of a wavering, uncertain salvation (tremor Christ). Since that is all we can have, it will have to be enough.

Is this widely known. I always got the impression that there is some sort of universal spirit type belief system going on. Can't really identify why I think this but it is the impression I have always had.