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Brain Of J

MayDay10MayDay10 Posts: 11,787
edited September 2009 in The Porch
This song caught me at an opportune moment in my truck today. Played it loud... Loved it.

This song never really got me that much.

I gotta say the studio version is AWESOME... and may be the one PJ song where the studio version exceeds the live performance.

Is this incorrect?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • WindNoSailWindNoSail Posts: 580
    YOur probably correct! I don't think I have seen it live, that I remember. But that song took awhile to grow on me, like maybe 3 years haha. Love the bridge, its Sooooo Yieldish.
    HOB 10.05.2005, E Rutherford 06.03.2006, The Gorge 07.22.2006, Lolla 08.05.2007, West Palm 06.11.2008, Tampa 06.12.2008, Columbia 06.16.2008, EV Memphis 06.20.2009, New Orleans 05.01.2010, Kansas City 05.03.2010
  • Rossum20Rossum20 Posts: 910
    Well does anyone remember the version that was voted the best over at theskyiscrape maybe 5 or 6 years ago...when they made the "best of" compilation based on fan votes? I think it was the Melbourne show in 96 or 98 that had a wicked version. As for which is better, the album or live, I almost always go with the live track if its a rocker like Brain of J is. Good tune.
  • yield2meyield2me Posts: 1,291
    Brain of J was the first PJ song I ever heard live. They opened with it at the Albuquerque NM show in 98 and it blew my mind! The entire arena went black and the crowd started cheering...then the opening notes of Brain of J start playing in total darkness and right when the drums came in they hit the lights on the stage and the entire place fucking erupted!! People from the seats jumped the railing to the floor and rushed the stage. From where I was sitting it looked like thousands of ants running toward the stage. Amazing sight to see and needless to say...Brain of J has a special place in my heart <3
    “May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.” - Frank Sinatra
  • SteveoSteveo Posts: 352
    the whole world will be different soon....
    Life has nothing to do with killing time.
    So why be satisfied?
  • pjamaholicpjamaholic Posts: 1,225
    Rossum20 wrote:
    Well does anyone remember the version that was voted the best over at theskyiscrape maybe 5 or 6 years ago...when they made the "best of" compilation based on fan votes? I think it was the Melbourne show in 96 or 98 that had a wicked version. As for which is better, the album or live, I almost always go with the live track if its a rocker like Brain of J is. Good tune.

    Bloody great rocker. Heard it live a few years ago, Melbourne 3, 2006. Hope I hear it live again. Listened to it today in the car from one of my '08 boots, it's great driving to it. ;)
  • doomponydoompony Wellington, NZ Posts: 4,501
    always loved it. yield is my favourite album and the whoooooooooooooole world will be diff-er-ent soon was the first part i whooooed to.
  • KloddzKloddz Posts: 2,573
    Perfect opener to a perfect album. I love how it stops after the first chord and then resumes after a second or so.
    Bern - September 13, 2006
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    http://www.last.fm/user/Kloddz
  • SpagsSpags Leigh-on-Sea, UK Posts: 3,052
    What does it mean to us now? LOL

    I always grab Vitalogy when I want to play this track, its the brother of Spin the Black Circle to me and when I realise its on Yield I'm all like WTF...!? Oh thats Last Exit.
    Nature drunk and High
  • ChrisileinChrisilein Vienna/Austria Posts: 3,905
    Its interesting that there are several other songs I haven been listening to for years but it took a long time to fall in love with them!!

    Brain of J
    You Are
    Of the Girl
    In Hiding
    The Whipping

    However, my top 10 list changes every day.. :)
    up here in my tree in Vienna
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  • PushinPaintPushinPaint Posts: 434
    as far as the last decade goes, i strongly prefer SOLAT studio vs. live..one of the few songs that are this way. and RVM to an extent
  • SpagsSpags Leigh-on-Sea, UK Posts: 3,052
    The overlaping vocal at the end of the RVM studio version bests the live imo.
    Nature drunk and High
  • dustinparduedustinpardue Las Vegas, NV Posts: 1,829
    Brain of J is even better when you've had a bad day and you can go home and plug in your guitar and belt out that opening riff to a deafening level. It's therapuetic
    "All I Ever Knew" available now in print and digital formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.
  • DewieCoxDewieCox Posts: 11,430
    I don't think you're correct about it being the only PJ song better in the studio. I enjoy listening to the live stuff, but I don't think it surpasses what they do in the studio. I take nothing away from their live sound and I play my bootlegs as much as the next person, but when I wanna LISTEN I like havin all the extra intricacies of the albums.
  • VINNY GOOMBAVINNY GOOMBA Posts: 1,819
    I loved this song so much when it came out that I made a stop-action animation music video for it with old school WWF action figures-- it's a "live concert video" if you could call it that, ha ha.

    Eddie: Rowdy Roddy Piper (the best resemblance out of all of them):
    http://media.photobucket.com/image/hasb ... 4Small.jpg (the one on the left)
    Mike: Shawn Michaels
    Stone: Butch from the Bushwhackers
    Jack: Scott Steiner
    Jeff: Brett Hart (the worst match for all of them-- looking back, I don't know why I used him-- it might have just been my limited collection, or his tank-top?)

    Sounds cheesey, I know, and it is, but it's actually pretty entertaining. The band actually ripped off the Fixer video from my Brain of J video-- well, not literally but I did it first! I had the camera pointed at the stage with a "huge" 13 inch TV behind them, which created a video feedback effect with the band playing "behind" themselves. Actually, it's WAY trippier than the Fixer, but similar.

    It's on VHS, and the sound is NOT edited in, so I actually have to start the CD simultaneously with the video to watch it. One day, I will pay someone to digitize it and sync the sound up and I will post it here. I missed my opportunity to enter it into the 10C music video contest-- not that I would have won, but it probably would have given the band a laugh to see themselves as steroid-freak action figures playing to a crowd of Jake the Snake, The Undertaker, Typhoon, Hulk Hogan, etc...

    Either way, I think the first time I heard this song was Monkeywrench Radio in 98 right before Yield came out, and it rocked my socks off. I taped it and listened to it non-stop till I had Yield in my hands, I couldn't believe how hard it rocked.

    It's probably in my top 10 PJ songs of all time, and I've yet to hear it live. I WILL flip out when I do!
  • BS90546BS90546 Toronto Posts: 144
    This song kicks my ass live. I think it's better live...faster more intense.
  • chris32482chris32482 Posts: 213
    I love the version from Hartford, CT 2008. Mike's using a different effect on the opening riff and it sounds bad ass. I think it's a Wah pedal, maybe.
  • joewalshdcjoewalshdc Posts: 948
    Kloddz wrote:
    Perfect opener to a perfect album. I love how it stops after the first chord and then resumes after a second or so.

    Never a truer word spoken...
  • megatronmegatron Posts: 3,420
    a few years back my buddy burned a copy of yield for me.
    fell in love but lost it after a year or so i bought my own..
    put it in.. :shock: WTF SONG IS THIS?
    my buddy's burn cd started at faithful. he didn't have brain of j from some reason..
    that really blew my mind. what a song

    on a side note. when i loaded my cd into itunes i picked the spanish setlist on accident so brain of j is listed as "Cerebro de JFK" :lol:
  • embraceembrace Posts: 849
    Crazy this thread was started today...I've been thinking the for the last couple how fantastic this song is- so truly great. If I were to request a song, this would be it- Turn it up LOUD!
    got a car...got some gas...oh let's get out of here-get out of here fast...
    I hope you get this message but your not home...I will be there in just a minute or so...
    I want to go but I want to go with you.

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  • ThrowUrArmsAroundMeThrowUrArmsAroundMe Posts: 113
    Kloddz wrote:
    Perfect opener to a perfect album. I love how it stops after the first chord and then resumes after a second or so.

    1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4...1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4
    Borgata II, Philly 05, ER 1 06, ER 2 06, Camden I 08, MSG I 08, MSG II 08, Mansfield II 08, EV 1 NYC, EV NJPAC

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  • InHiding19InHiding19 Posts: 2,385
    Yield Baby!
    Out of the Blue and Into the Black................Uncle Neil Philly 08 here I come!!!!
  • Black DiamondBlack Diamond Posts: 25,107
    Both my boys favorite song (9 AND 6) The do not like the live versions but rock out to the studio. They are going to their first shows in Cali and both have made signs asking for BOJ. Actually my 6 year old calls it Jay's Brain because it is his best friends name :D
    GoiMTvP.gif
  • slightofjeffslightofjeff Posts: 7,762
    PushinPaint wrote:
    as far as the last decade goes, i strongly prefer SOLAT studio vs. live..one of the few songs that are this way. and RVM to an extent

    This is correct.
    everybody wants the most they can possibly get
    for the least they could possibly do
  • Spot In The SkySpot In The Sky Posts: 1,175
    slightofjeff wrote:
    PushinPaint wrote:
    as far as the last decade goes, i strongly prefer SOLAT studio vs. live..one of the few songs that are this way. and RVM to an extent

    This is correct.

    The extended version of RVM live is what sets it apart from studio for me. If they just played the song straight through with out adding all the jam sessions then the studio would win, but when the whole band gets into that zone and its like the crowd doesnt exist for those 3-4 minutes when they are rocking out- holy fuck. When im talking about this im picturing Ottawa 05 in my head when they were doing the extended breakdown in the middle and none of them were facing the crowd, just huddled around each other- super super intense!
    "The world is dangerous, feel safe here tonight..." EV 9/17/06

    38+6 shows at the age of 27 and counting...but still no Undone

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  • dannydanny Posts: 2,279
    MayDay10 wrote:
    This song caught me at an opportune moment in my truck today. Played it loud... Loved it.

    This song never really got me that much.

    I gotta say the studio version is AWESOME... and may be the one PJ song where the studio version exceeds the live performance.

    Is this incorrect?


    great fucking song!!!!!!!!
    danny d
  • TT8270TT8270 Posts: 429
    They did "Brain of J" live as early as 1995. I remember hearing it and thinking what a nice rocker. It wasn't on No Code so I thought the band forgot about it but it was eventually released on Yield which was nice. Same fill as on Habit...Oh well, Jack Irons :?
    134xxx
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  • dimitrispearljamdimitrispearljam Posts: 139,721
    Whipped into shape, now they got you in line
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  • spearheadspearhead Posts: 600
    When they whipped this out at Hartford last year it was awesome ... it was one of the best live versions I have ever heard...check it out!
    I was alone and far away when I heard the band start playing!

    ...I was always a DeadHead, but when I first heard Winston Rodney, aka the Burning Spear, sing, I became a SpearHead too!
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