Billboard Beatdown: Pearl Jam – “Given to Fly”
| Given to Fly |
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Among my many amazing talents is the ability to find a song for every occasion or situation. TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried had just taken her literature final and was telling me about some of the stories she liked best from the semester. One of those was “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As she was telling me about the story, I found myself humming Pearl Jam’s “Given to Fly.” After reading the story on my own, the relationship deepened Marquez’s story and Pearl Jam’s song in my own mind.
This morning, I was listening to a podcast version of Tony Kornheiser’s radio show for Washington Post radio. Kornheiser, the curmudgeon I aspire to be, was shaken from his stodginess by the story of physicist/author Stephen Hawking experiencing zero-gravity.
I don’t know a lot about Hawking, but the fact I know anything at all about him speaks to his place among the leading physicists and intellectuals of our time. In addition to being one of the smartest human beings on the whole damn planet, Hawking suffers with ALS — more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He has been wheelchair bound for more than four decades, can no longer speak without the assistance of technology- I can’t imagine that his body can withstand a great deal more before the disease claims him.
Our culture has cheapened emotion to the point where the contrived easily passes for the real thing. I found myself overwhelmed by the power of the real thing as I heard about this incredible story. This is what it feels like to feel inspiration. It’s an amazing thing to feel something so deeply and then to experience the feeling of not being able to describe that feeling.
The look on Hawking’s face is the look of pure joy. Hawking is a prisoner of his own body, but for a few moments his soul and spirit soared higher than most of us will ever reach in the physical and I daresay in the spiritual sense. Once again, Pearl Jam’s “Given to Fly” came to mind.
The eruption of music and the emotion in Eddie Vedder’s vocal — I’m not saying it captures moments like this, but it comes damn close. I’ve always loved this song, but I wonder if I will ever hear it the same way again. I hope not.
sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
a human being that was given to fly…he’s flying
Filed under: Tags: Billboard Beatdown, Pearl Jam
all i know about hawking is that, every couple of years of so, i convince myself to make yet another attempt at getting all the way through a brief history of time.
…and i do. and it’s all going on swimingly and i’m gettin’ it…and then all of a sudden, i no longer know that the ‘ef he’s talking about.
curved time-space? geezuz.
You’re braver than I am… I haven’t even tried it and don’t think I ever will.
This song gets to me every time… there’s something about the way it builds and explodes.
To be fair, Hawking lets his intentions be known at the beginning of A Brief History of Time in terms of trying to make the book as accessible as possible when he gives an anecdote about his publisher saying that each equation featured in the text would half the readership, and so Hawking decides that the only one he’ll include is the old e=mc2. And thank fuck for that, I hate maths.
Not a huge fan of this song, give me Rearviewmirror or Better Man any day. Still, nice combination of uplifting song and uplifting moment, man!
The maths scare the fuck out of me. That’s why I majored in communication- well, one of the reasons, anyway.
I like both of the songs you mention, Sir Fleming, they’re both good ones.