I took it this way from day one. The first two verses are recalling being gradually pushed off the planet and the third verse is from the present point-of-view.Ms Harmless wrote:my only doubt is that "here we are on the red planet" sounds like an arrival, making everything before that...earth
Quick Escape
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guitar_davey
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Re: Quick Escape
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Re: Quick Escape
It’s such a simple chorus but I really like that part of it, mainly the harmony of the band singing “haaaaaaaad toooooo”.
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Re: Quick Escape
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Fri January 02, 2026 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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guitar_davey
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Re: Quick Escape
It's rock music. It's not high art.tragabigzanda wrote:The more you guys pick apart the lyrics, the more I think they’re kind of dumb
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Re: Quick Escape
they're singing "had to"? I thought it was just aaaaaa oooooo, but "had to" would be so Pearl Jamscrub12 wrote:It’s such a simple chorus but I really like that part of it, mainly the harmony of the band singing “haaaaaaaad toooooo”.
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guitar_davey
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Re: Quick Escape
So says the lyrics book.Ms Harmless wrote:they're singing "had to"? I thought it was just aaaaaa oooooo, but "had to" would be so Pearl Jamscrub12 wrote:It’s such a simple chorus but I really like that part of it, mainly the harmony of the band singing “haaaaaaaad toooooo”.
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Re: Quick Escape
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Fri January 02, 2026 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ms Harmless
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Re: Quick Escape
I don't know why I forgot thatguitar_davey wrote:So says the lyrics book.Ms Harmless wrote:they're singing "had to"? I thought it was just aaaaaa oooooo, but "had to" would be so Pearl Jamscrub12 wrote:It’s such a simple chorus but I really like that part of it, mainly the harmony of the band singing “haaaaaaaad toooooo”.
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guitar_davey
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Re: Quick Escape
Covid brain.Ms Harmless wrote:I don't know why I forgot thatguitar_davey wrote:So says the lyrics book.Ms Harmless wrote:they're singing "had to"? I thought it was just aaaaaa oooooo, but "had to" would be so Pearl Jamscrub12 wrote:It’s such a simple chorus but I really like that part of it, mainly the harmony of the band singing “haaaaaaaad toooooo”.
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Re: Quick Escape
This is what's correct.Ms Harmless wrote:my only doubt is that "here we are on the red planet" sounds like an arrival, making everything before that...earth
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Re: Quick Escape
I think it's totally valid that the narrator is on Mars when he begins his story; the story of how they ended up on Mars.Jaeti wrote:This is what's correct.Ms Harmless wrote:my only doubt is that "here we are on the red planet" sounds like an arrival, making everything before that...earth
So, yeah, that stuff is "before" in a flashback sense. That doesn't mean the second half of the second verse is referencing Earth. Likely, but not necessarily.
A Kerouac sense of time, after all.
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Re: Quick Escape
how does Kerouac play with time in his writing?
I Am No Guide - Pearl Jam Song by Song - Out now!
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Re: Quick Escape
Linearly. Every single moment depicted breath by breathstip wrote:how does Kerouac play with time in his writing?
On the road is anyways
The one in the woods is far more relaxed.
Calibrate your enthusiasm
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Re: Quick Escape
People call him the father of the Beat movement. He didn't like that label and referred to his work as "spontaneous prose." It's said he wrote spontaneously and without edits. Basically, he wanted his prose to be like jazz.stip wrote:how does Kerouac play with time in his writing?
From wikipedia: "The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision. Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the period, substituting instead a long connecting dash. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words take on a certain musical rhythm and tempo."
I can only guess that's what Ed is getting at with his lyric.
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Ms Harmless
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Re: Quick Escape
this is the correct answerdurdencommatyler wrote:People call him the father of the Beat movement. He didn't like that label and referred to his work as "spontaneous prose." It's said he wrote spontaneously and without edits. Basically, he wanted his prose to be like jazz.stip wrote:how does Kerouac play with time in his writing?
From wikipedia: "The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision. Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the period, substituting instead a long connecting dash. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words take on a certain musical rhythm and tempo."
I can only guess that's what Ed is getting at with his lyric.
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Re: Quick Escape
Be mighty...Be humble...Be mighty humble...
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Re: Quick Escape
It is Ed’s best attempt at a Rage lyric, OK????Ms Harmless wrote:yeah, I don't like it as a metaphor for all that personallyBammer wrote:It’s not even just that. It’s for anyone struggling through life even a minimum wage burger flipper.Ms Harmless wrote:OK, that makes senseStrat wrote:Uh. Tons of people. Construction, landscapers, manual labor jobs. That is what it is referring to.Ms Harmless wrote:"lifting rocks to make a wage" is kind of embarrassing; who does that except for slaves and prisoners?
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Re: Quick Escape
maybe he's talking about rock 'n' roll.Bammer wrote:It is Ed’s best attempt at a Rage lyric, OK????Ms Harmless wrote:yeah, I don't like it as a metaphor for all that personallyBammer wrote:It’s not even just that. It’s for anyone struggling through life even a minimum wage burger flipper.Ms Harmless wrote:OK, that makes senseStrat wrote:Uh. Tons of people. Construction, landscapers, manual labor jobs. That is what it is referring to.Ms Harmless wrote:"lifting rocks to make a wage" is kind of embarrassing; who does that except for slaves and prisoners?
like he rocks so hard to make a nice life for his family
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Re: Quick Escape
Possible.bodysnatcher wrote:maybe he's talking about rock 'n' roll.Bammer wrote:It is Ed’s best attempt at a Rage lyric, OK????Ms Harmless wrote:yeah, I don't like it as a metaphor for all that personallyBammer wrote:It’s not even just that. It’s for anyone struggling through life even a minimum wage burger flipper.Ms Harmless wrote:OK, that makes senseStrat wrote:Uh. Tons of people. Construction, landscapers, manual labor jobs. That is what it is referring to.Ms Harmless wrote:"lifting rocks to make a wage" is kind of embarrassing; who does that except for slaves and prisoners?
like he rocks so hard to make a nice life for his family
Hell, even plausible.
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