Ever wonder what might have been?

Backspacer_Backer

with PJ seemingly reaching out to broaden its fan base with Backspacer, the question entered my mind, purely speculative, but I wonder where PJ would be today if they hadn't intentionally shunned fame and had promoted themselves more (or really at all) in the mid-to-late '90s. if they did a couple of videos for each album. the sort of sad thing that crossed my mind while listening to my 2 free boots and chicago 1, i think it was during either marker in the sand or insignificance, they made all these great songs for the last 12-15 years that most people were never really exposed to. while i always respected their anti-corporate/anti-establishment stance, where did it really get them? did they really win anything? would you not be a fan if they had been more willing to let their guard down like say a U2 or Greenday? Would they even be around anymore? Maybe the pressure of being ultra-famous and working together would have led to a breakup, who knows. ultimately, we'll never know the answers for sure. trying to imagine is almost impossilbe. i can think of several songs that would have been huge hits had they been promoted with any real effort. i almost think that maybe we wouldn't have seen such a trend towards shitty bubble gum pop and boy bands in the late '90's had bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, etc. been more present in the spotlight.

Oh well, who knows? I'm kind of glad people stopped thinking of Eddie as a deity.

slightofjeff

If they hadn't pulled back, I firmly believe they wouldn't be a band anymore. And then nobody would have heard those songs, because they wouldn't have existed.

bettielee

I don't think they cared about how "big" they are. They just wanted to make music. And maybe they never would have come to this great place they've come to. They wouldn't be the great live band they are today.

Backspacer_Backer

bettielee wrote:

I don't think they cared about how "big" they are. They just wanted to make music. And maybe they never would have come to this great place they've come to. They wouldn't be the great live band they are today.

oh, clearly that's true, if they wanted to be big, there was a time when they could have blown up as big as there hearts desired. in fact, it's true that they cared that they had gotten too big and thus they pulled back.

if they were still together, i don't see why they wouldn't be a great live band. i mean they would still be the same guys playing the same songs - although vitalogy would have been a much different album if they didn't mind their own fame (or at least eddie).

eddieved24

I Also think that everything PJ has done in the past is exactly what was needed in order to preserve the bands sanity and enable them to still be pumping out the tunes for us in 2009. I think that Ed would have become so worn out and defensive, of course maybe others in the band may have lasted longer, but look, I think Ed once used the whole "The higher you are the farther you have to fall" type thinking. I think that they could have sucked in a lot more " fans" but maybe those folks would be the type of people at the shows that only stands when Jeremy is played? I think Albums like Binaural kind of trimmed the fat, and maybe we would not have been given such great music in the last 10 years if they were more influenced by the outside world.

mfc2006

slightofjeff wrote:

If they hadn't pulled back, I firmly believe they wouldn't be a band anymore. And then nobody would have heard those songs, because they wouldn't have existed.

that sounds about right. well said.