| Push Me, Pull Me | All Those Yesterdays |
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All Those Yesterdays is the thirteenth song of Pearl Jam's fifth album, Yield. Its lyrics and music were written by Stone Gossard, being the one of the only two songs to be mainly written by the guitarist, alongside "No Way".
Analysis[]
This songs is typically the whole idea of yielding. A protagonist advises someone, who can be understood that have been under a lot of pressure, fighting something, exiled by some reason or tired of some struggle, to rest and sleep. This is recommended under the questions if this person haven't done enough and got enough, so that's why it is time to yield and rest. On the chorus, it is also advised that the person let all those yesterdays, it means, all things that came in the past (probally bad), to be washed away, to be forgotten, to be gone.
The protagonist asks to the person what is he/she running from, because the person is blocking own behavior, even through medicine, and creating social and psychological barriers between him/her and the rest of the world, trying to hide and forget actions considered to be mistakes, that in fact, are normal, because we all do.
Once again the protagonist advises to let all those yesterdays to be washed away, and forever forgotten. In the end, it is repeated that the directed person has time to escape. Maybe there's still time to escape the problems contained on all those yesterdays, or maybe, following the idea of MFC, of getting away from everything. Considering Yield's idea, this advise must be of escaping the shackles that bound the person on past mistakes, to yield to good things and stop fighting, giving preference to what's not superficial.
Music & Lyrics[]
Don't you think you oughtarest
Don't you think you oughta lay your head down
Don't you think you want to sleep
Don't you think you oughta lay your head down...tonight
Don't you think you've done enough
Oh, don't you think you've got enough, well maybe…
You don't think there's time to stop
There's time enough for you to lay your head down, tonight,
Tonight
Let it wash away
All those yesterdays
What are you running from??
Taking pills to get along
Creating walls to call your own
So no one catches you drifting off and
Doing all the things that...we all do
Let them wash away
All those yesterdays
All those paper plates
All those yesterdays
All those yesterdays
You've got time, you've got time to escape
There's still time, it's no crime to escape
It's no crime to escape, it's no crime to escape
There's still time, so escape...
It's no crime, crime…
All those yesterdays...
Trivia[]
- At 5:03, there is a hidden song calld "Hummus".