Off He Goes - Pearl Jam

Know a man, his face seemed pulled and tense

Like he’s riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds

So I approach with tact

Suggest that he should relax, but he’s always moving much too fast

Said he’ll see me on the flip side of this trip he’s taking for a ride

He’s been taking too much on

There he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes

There he goes

He’s yet to come back but I see his picture

It doesn’t look the same up on the rack

We go way back

I wonder about his insides

It’s like his thoughts are too big for his size

He’s been taken, where I don’t know

Off he goes with his perfectly unkept hope

There he goes

And now I rub my eyes for he has returned

Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned

For he still smiles.

And he’s still strong

Nothing’s changed but the surrounding bullshit.

That has grown

And now he’s home and we’re laughing like we always did

My same old, same old friend

Until a quarter to ten.

I saw the strain creep in

He seems distracted and I know just what is going to happen next

Before his first step he is off again