Dance of the Clairvoyants

[evenslow]

I put this song on as I was writing this post. The 'stand back when the spirit comes' part is paralyzingly good. I just stop what I'm doing to get swept up in it.

it's the tops.

[scrub12]

It’s hypnotizing, the final minute or so. And there are so many layers on top of it.

[DWFB]

Stip, excellent job on the interpretation. I especially like the inclusion of the dancers and their method of escape. What's your take on the following (not my interpretation but the lyrics)?

Expecting perfection leaves a lot to ignore (endure in the next line) when the past is the present and the future’s no more
When every tomorrow is the same as before

Who else would be expecting perfection than a higher power? Society hasn't learned from it's repeated past failures.

The looser things get, the tighter you become
The looser things get, tighter

The more chaotic the world gets, the clearer solutions become.

Or

The more life gets out of control, the more in tune we become with something (or someone, a force) greater than ourselves.




Not one man can be greater than the sum
It’s not a negative thought, I’m positive
Positive, positive!

Depends whether the word is sum, sun or son.

Falling down, not staying down
Could've held me up, rather tear me down
Drown (or down?) in the river

Speaking of his own ("me") spiritual journey? If its "down" could be in reference to a cleansing or even baptism (dunked in a river) for some but could be pointed to society's need for cleansing (change of direction) as during the end of the song. If it's "drown" it could be a statement of religious indifference?

[stip]

My comments are in blue in the post below

Stip, excellent job on the interpretation. I especially like the inclusion of the dancers and their method of escape. What's your take on the following (not my interpretation but the lyrics)?

Expecting perfection leaves a lot to ignore (endure in the next line) when the past is the present and the future’s no more
When every tomorrow is the same as before

Who else would be expecting perfection than a higher power? Society hasn't learned from it's repeated past failures.


Although I don't think of this as a religious song, the idea that we are all imperfect is important - in terms of forgiving ourselves and coming to grips with what is possible. But it is also an invitation to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, especially if you want to confront the challenges that we face 'Oh - how can you afford medicare for all. Lets just scrap the idea. Climate change can't be stopped so why bother trying to fight it. To not let the lack of a complete and total solution to an intractable problem prevent you from wanting to act, or to allow the inability to find that perfect solution to absolve you of the responsibility to do something.


The looser things get, the tighter you become
The looser things get, tighter

The more chaotic the world gets, the clearer solutions become.

Don't think it's that one, at all.


Or

The more life gets out of control, the more in tune we become with something (or someone, a force) greater than ourselves.


or that one, honestly. My read is that the more you feel an inability to find meaning in or grasp the world around you the more existential dread you feel - I read the tightness like a tightness in the chest.

Not one man can be greater than the sum
It’s not a negative thought, I’m positive
Positive, positive!

Depends whether the word is sum, sun or son.

that's one I want to wait on a lyric sheet for, but in either case, in line with the earlier point, it is making peace with human limitations


Falling down, not staying down
Could've held me up, rather tear me down
Drown (or down?) in the river

Speaking of his own ("me") spiritual journey? If its "down" could be in reference to a cleansing or even baptism (dunked in a river) for some but could be pointed to society's need for cleansing (change of direction) as during the end of the song. If it's "drown" it could be a statement of religious indifference?

It's easy to read baptismal imagery in there, but I think it comes back to an important core theme. Making peace with your own limitations as a step towards moving past them.

But take all that with a grain of salt. We haven't seen the formal lyric sheet. We don't know what themes run through the other songs (and Eddie tends to grapple with similar themes across songs), and I haven't sat down to think about how these component parts all fit together just yet. And even if I had, it's just one person's interpretation, and this is a pretty abstractly written song

[stip]

I just noticed a new part in the left channel during the outro. Some additional vocal, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.

Is every part of that carried over from elsewhere in the song, or is any of it new to the outro?

[DWFB]

I got you. Your take is definitely possible. I think back to "push me pull me" and others and still can't help but wonder a little if in dotc ed was blaming a god for allowing an upcoming world destruction due to it's/his dissatisfaction with human conduct as a whole. If so, most in the opposite camp would disagree with Ed's theology by claiming it's not an issue of human inability but of acceptance.

[stip]

Ahh, I see. But if that's the case the song seems pretty sympathetic to the opposite camp, which would be a real sea change for him

[Norah]

I could say that it was worth the wait but I wasn't waiting for anything from this band anymore. The overall feel of artistic compromise that hovered above Lightning Bolt and the crass ridiculousness of Can't Deny Me kind of put the nails in the coffin of PJ for me. Add to that that I won't see them live anymore (don't like the ''experience'' of paying overpriced tickets to hear drunken bros singing over Ed and co.), I thought that was it - this band was a great companion in the 90s, we'd slowly drift apart in the oughts and the 10s marked our proverbial split. I must say that I've been a good fan until then, i.e. I still think that the self-titled album is kinda great, like a yang to Riot Act's yin but afterwards, despite some rare moments of togetherness, this band, at best, hinted at what they were capable of doing before being cut short by highly questionable production decisions. They were fooled, maybe by BoB, that they were going to be the next big thing again because even their most daring songs of the era were thwarted by the chorus tyranny or by the obligatory guitar solo motto or the classic Eddie moment religion, whatever - it did the songs no good and probably caused harm to their already fragile cred (they had to deal with this from the very beginning). They had to remember how they managed to get this far, after Ten, after Vs and on until Riot Act but seemingly they had lost the plot or maybe they got lost in the band's pseudo-democracy which gave way to the aforementioned artistic compromises. Of course, Eddie Vedder is the focal point of Pearl Jam but to put all their cash on him, like BoB seemed deemed to do, must have been a pretty frustrating experience for the rest of the band and for me, it seemed like a waste of a mightily creative unit.

Come this single, teased beforehand with electronic-sounding snippets that really didn't sound like something serious from PJ (''it must be an intro or some kind of tongue in cheek bit'') - I had to take a breath. While this isn't a breakthrough to some unchartered territory, it's still fucking bold for this band to release this song as a lead single, especially at this stage of their career. Now, I'm absolutely unfamiliar with Talking Heads or David Byrne but I rekon some kind of Peter Gabriel influence there. I think, after reading this thread (fuck me - it was good reading your reactions) that it's not a lift from any TH song - like Got Some was somewhat aping a Devo song. The band comes together pretty nicely, like, one by one, adding texture and personality, there is silence and there is attack, there is melody and emotion without falling blatantly into the old tropes, etc. I fucking love this - they take us on a journey here and they, at last, let the song go on. The Pearl Jams are a groove band, they forgot that for a long while but apparently, they're still pretty good at creating an atmosphere so on with that, we may need a new atmosphere soon. Thanks folks!

Good post. I'm glad I got to throw up next to you before we both swore off live Pearl Jam forever.

[dad]

I just noticed a new part in the left channel during the outro. Some additional vocal, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.

Is every part of that carried over from elsewhere in the song, or is any of it new to the outro?

Are you referring to when someone - maybe Ed? maybe Matt? - is singing HEY HEY or YEAH YEAH - or something like that? I hear that, and I love it along with the other layers of the outro.

And I don’t hear it anywhere else in the song.

[evenslow]

I just noticed a new part in the left channel during the outro. Some additional vocal, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.

Is every part of that carried over from elsewhere in the song, or is any of it new to the outro?

for me it's someone shouting "STAND BACK!" every few seconds.

[96583UP]

probably BOB attempting to enter the property

[Tj]

I am obsessed with this track 4.7 stars for me. I don't give out 5 stars often at all. Great review Stip.
I wanted to hear this in the context of a album. So I have been listening to it like this
Brain of J
God's Dice
DOTC
Amongst The Waves
Can't Keep

[DWFB]

I just noticed a new part in the left channel during the outro. Some additional vocal, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.

Is every part of that carried over from elsewhere in the song, or is any of it new to the outro?

Are you referring to when someone - maybe Ed? maybe Matt? - is singing HEY HEY or YEAH YEAH - or something like that? I hear that, and I love it along with the other layers of the outro.

And I don’t hear it anywhere else in the song.

Toward the end I thought i heard "lay down in the river or down/drown in the river".

[Ledbetterdays]

I wish I had the proper sound setup to listen to the end of this song. I think it really does have a lot more layers than immediately recognized and would be a trip to hear it work around the room.

[EJ]

I blasted this in my car about 5 times today. Still really digging it.

The only part of this song I don't like is the:

I'm in love with clairvoyants
because they're out of this world

It's really clunky and kind of takes me out of the song for a moment.

[The Argonaut]

My first impression was too harsh, skewed by the confusion that resulted from a lifelong love of Talking Heads. I dig this song

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[DWFB]

Although I don't think of this as a religious song,

[/quote]

Evertything you wrote is surely in line with Ed's political views and is likey an accurate interpretation, imo. But what seems to be reoccurring in Ed's lyrics throughout the years is they're purposely left open to double meaning and I think often its both political and spiritual.

[Kaius]

Open to all interpretations indeed. I think these lyrics are internal projections that double as a statement on “smartphone/social media” society and the health of the planet both.

[Jorge]

My first impression was too harsh, skewed by the confusion that resulted from a lifelong love of Talking Heads. I dig this song

plat, your rebuttal?

I just listened again and it still feels half-assed and boring to me but I love that you guys love it, so I've stopped talking about it here. Except now... but only because you asked