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Given To Fly (1997)
"Given To Fly" is the fourth song from Pearl Jam's fifth album, Yield, with its lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music by guitarist Mike McCready. The song topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and eventually peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song spent a total of six weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock chart.
Analysis[]
The song is well known as a meaning of freedom, starting calm and going on a crescendo, a feature adimitted Mike McCready to be based on waves and its movement. Also, the song really reesembles Led Zepellin's "Going to California".
Ed on the lyrics to the song, that was imagined as a children's book, said:
"A 20-page cardboard book with a line on each page and a picture to go with it. It's a fable, that's all. The music almost gives you this feeling of flight, and I really love singing the part at the end, which is about rising above anybody's comments about what you do and still giving your love away. You know -- not becoming bitter and reclusive, not condemning the whole world because of the actions of a few."'[1]
The song seems to be a short story of a protagonist who felt trapped, alone and isolated in a bad time without salvation. At some time, this person decides to run away from everything, and just espace anywhere, the same idea that was developed in MFC.
After facing the ocean, the waves "delivered him wings", what made him proud, possibly by surfing above the waves. Finally he felt freedom, something that was locked up on his bad time, and his salvation was escaping, being given to fly above the waves, feeling the power with his arms wide open higher and higher.
That feeling was so impressive that the protagonist wanted to spread this sensation throughout the world, sharing that experience that was a "key to the locks and chains he saw everywhere". But his generosity wasn't enough, because he was betrayed by the world he wanted the best, by people who stripped and stabbed him, men without a face. No matter this happened, he wouldn't go back to his isolation, he would still give his love and spread his message, and his feeling would get him higher than before, he was truly "a human being that was given to fly".
Music & Lyrics[]
He could have tuned in, tuned in, but he tuned out
A bad time, nothing could save him
Alone in a corridor, waiting, locked out
He got up out of there, ran for hundreds of miles
He made it to the ocean
Had a smoke in a tree
The wind rose up, set him down on his knee
Wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw,
Delivered him wings, "Hey, look at me now..."
Arms wide open with the sea as his floor
Oh, Power, oh...
He's flying! Woah!
High! Wide!
Whole!
He floated back down 'cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped, and then he was stabbed
By faceless men, well fuckers... He still stands.
And he still gives his love, he just gives it away
The love he recieves is the love that is saved
And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
A human being that was given to fly
Flying! Woah...
High! Flying! Woah...
He is... Flying! Woah...
Oh Woah...