Cropduster

I'll be the first to admit I didn't know the words that well even though I bought the CD on the day it came out. I thought this was purely a song advocating on behalf of the environment as the title is a plane that spreads pesticides . . . isn't it? Very interesting song. I really like the development in the first part. Some parts are over my head as always, but that first part was very well done.

I like how points of reference are given; light green to green, dark green, brown it's almost like Eddie is taking the listener on a trip by saying follow me. The music really adds to this almost instructional tone as it supports the point by point reference. Going from point A to point B, going from point B to point C etc. This occurs throughout the first section, and it leads the listener into the song, and into the mindset of the lyricist.

Then Eddie starts to take the listener on a different path, one where it's not so easy to follow, and maybe it's not suppose to be. However, within this confusion is exploration and similarities, how one entity and another is in the world. By noticing this the listener is able to feel empathy for another species. I think the garden reference is a Garden of Stone reference. It would make sense here as the lyrics paint the portraits of two deaths.

The chorus is where I feel that my original guess of the meaning comes out in full-force. It's an admonishment on our behaviors. If we felt the empathy Eddie lead us into discovering then our behaviors would not be practicing but fully conscious and aware. The next stanza may have a reference for Given to Fly as the protagonist in that song seems very comfortable in situations not just rightside up. Also, the line we're upside down could reference that we descended from monkeys? There's a turning turning, upside down feeling.

I must admit that the part where the music supports the movement within the words the best is the last line the moon is rolling round the world. There is rolling within the music, and it fits very well. In the stanza that ends we're upside down the relationship is not as close.

The next stanza that starts dad, he's gone up in flames throws me for a loop. Flames could be a cremetorium, it could be hell. I don't think the line is my dad's gone up in flames, but more like dad, that other man has gone up in flames. To understand it I went back to the title. Cropdusters also used to drop napalm, didn't they? So, thinking in those terms, this stanza makes sense as maybe people didn't realize the affects of napalm until a movie about it came out. The truth about Viet Nam, which I'm assuming is still being discovered and discarded, could easily be what exposes the big lie.

The dad reference, why the dad reference? Maybe, asking to support him as he figures things out? I ususally look at the speaker in Pearl Jam songs as the protagonist, but with the dad reference, I look at the song from Eddie's point of view not a general protagonist. Because of this I have a increased chance of getting it completely wrong. Thoughts assigned to a concept, a protagonist, can be re-evaluated, but thoughts assigned to an actual person can be argued.

Fluency, fluency, I love the word, it's definitely about language, and thought, communication. Eddie is like a docent in a museum throughout this song; look at this over here, notice this over there. He's directed us in a way to look at connections via empathy; and to see how the words can add power to that empathy. At the same time he realizes that he also needs help/direction to understand any verbal chaos, and that is when he calls out to his dad. I'm glad I finally took a look see at this song.