Stipe's influence on Vedder
pleatherman
Posts: 472
No giant revelation here. We've all seen the R&R Hall of Fame speech. Two other things I think Eddie may have adopted from some early R.E.M (circa 1983-84). The first is the move away from clear enunciation in vocals; putting more emphasis on vowels, and only partial lip service to consonants. Vedder is one of the most original singers, capable of a wide range in style. That's why it is interesting to find some of the seeds from which his musical identity arose. The second is more blatant, as seen from these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi7Kt0iOH4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWu5KZM8weo&feature=related
What is my point? Just killing time until today's poster goes on sale. Like Pearl Jam, R.E.M. made some of the best songs/albums that rock music has to offer. Unlike Pearl Jam, they also have been guilty of mediocrity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi7Kt0iOH4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWu5KZM8weo&feature=related
What is my point? Just killing time until today's poster goes on sale. Like Pearl Jam, R.E.M. made some of the best songs/albums that rock music has to offer. Unlike Pearl Jam, they also have been guilty of mediocrity.
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funny you should post this, I was reading this earlier today:
http://www.fivehorizons.com/tour/01/rem/ev_rem.shtml
it's a review of a Crocodile Cafe concert (EV solo with R.E.M.), pretty funny /weird evening as you can see, I'd forgotten about it
Judging by the videos I linked, I'd say Stipe selflessly donated his hair for Eddie to use in the mid-90s. He never returned it afterwards, but they're still friends
if these two bands ever do a joint tour that would probably be the ultimate concert experience as far as I'm concerned
Agreed. That reminds me of when they both played the GroundWork benefit concert in 2001. R.E.M. begged pearl jam to close out the show because, in Peter Buck's words, PJ rocked more. Out of reverance, pearl jam declined so R.E.M. could have the honor as headliner. I wonder if they would run into the same problem again, should a joint tour happen. You know there is no way pearl jam would ever let R.E.M. open up for them. Even though the ratio of pearl jam fans these days is greater than R.E.M.'s (at least in the U.S.).
On another tangent, R.E.M.'s "Live at the Olympia" album is about as good as it gets.
Dublin 02 Arena - 22/6/10. Belfast Odyssey Arena - 23/6/10. London Hyde Park - 25/6/10. Berlin Wuhlheide - 30/6/10.
Manchester MEN - 20/06/12. Manchester MEN - 21/06/12
But also I LOVE early REM, which is pretty different than the stuff they have put out of late.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
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EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
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Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
The comments I put in red made me laugh. I'm sorry to ruin your naivete about this but this is how good singers are taught to sing. You stay on the vowels and drop the consonants quickly between. It's not something Micheal and Eddie invented!! :?
Uh-oh. Maybe I should clarify. Anyone instinctively knows to generally center on the vowels when singing. That is just common sense. When it comes to these good singers, whether Sinatra or Whitney, they do tend to be fairly proficient in articulating consonants. Yet, certain phrasing Vedder and (early 1980's) Stipe use can be hard to decipher for some listeners. It is this same type of singing I was referring to in the original post. This is somewhat the result of emphasizing vowel sounds and barely grazing, or at times, omitting the consonants. There is a lot more to it than that. But I just wanted to scratch the surface. Due to my naivete, this description was understandably much too broad for you. Perhaps examples will prove better. You see, Michael Stipe, in the early r.e.m. days, intentionally shaped vowel sounds to obscure lyrics or cover up instances when there were no actual words, such as in the song '9-9'. This manner of singing played a vital role in pearl jam numbers, like 'Yellow Ledbetter'. That both singers' respective vocal traits sound ideal, with or without words, in a given song is an indication of their departure from, as you stated, "how good singers are taught to sing".
^^^^^ What he/she said!
Agree 100%. REM and PJ are two of the best live bands i've ever seen, much, much love for them both. A joint tour being announced would result in me having a fit and being the happiest gal alive :oops:
... and I still think Drive-By Truckers are better.
i just liked the fans dancing did my wife ever dress like that :?:
Accelerate is their best album since New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It totally prepared me for Backspacer. While others complained how short Backspacer was going to be prior to its release, Accelerate already provided all the proof I needed that a 36 minute/11 song album can work exceptionally as a complete piece of music.
In a nice example of symmetry, did you know that the conception of New Adventures in Hi-Fi was actually inspired by Vitalogy? Upon Hi-Fi's release, Peter Buck said "What was kind of an inspiration to us was to see Pearl Jam go out and do like a week of shows and then stay in the last town of the tour and record all the things they jammed on at soundcheck."
PJ - Auckland 2009; Alpine Valley1&2 2011; Man1, Am'dam1&2, Berlin1&2, Stockholm, Oslo & Copenhagen 2012; LA, Oakland, Portland, Spokane, Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle 2013; Auckland 2014
EV - Canberra, Newcastle & Sydney 1&2 2011
Stipe and REM's sound/ song styles are in a totally different catgeory than Vedder / Pearl Jam.
As a long time fan / concert go-er (bootleg collector of both) its clear to me that they have little in common other than most of the songs in each band's catalogue are centered primarily on the strength of the lead vocals.
REM came out of the early 1980's "Indie" label scene (Like the Replacements, Throwing Muses, etc.) and leans more toward a sparse guitar melodic jangling sound... especially their early stuff.
Pearl Jam came out of the early 1990's "Grunge" label scene, which in a way is the Seattle version of "Indie" but leans (very heavily IMO) on a heavy Metal / Hard Rock style in the vein of Led Zeppelin .
Their song catalogue is bi-cameral in its focus on
1) Hard rock / Punk
2) Torch song / accoustic ballads
Led Zeppelin was an innovator in this two-pronged song style and but relied more heavily on blues based numbers.
Pearl Jam's hard rock songs are influenced by Ament, Stone & McCready's love of Led Zep, Hendrix, SRV, AC/ DC, Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath .
Pearl Jam's accosutic stuff smacks of other infludences (Pete Townsend, James Taylor and Crowded House in particular).
and I will assert that Eddie Vedder introduced a new style of rock vocals with the band's debut of "Ten" that was copied by some many poser bands in the grunge aftermath.
nothing at all like Stipe's "confused / shy child" type vocals..
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
I don’t think many people would disagree with a lot of those statements. To repeat my earlier post, Eddie Vedder has one of the most original voices out there. And, with natural talent, he worked hard to get it that way. But nothing is created in a vacuum, as you indicated with mention to their musical influences. Even Eddie’s many different ways of singing have their reference points somewhere. In interviews we’ve found they are as disparate as Frank Black and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Yet, no one would confuse Vedder’s voice for either of those singers. The reason being Eddie takes his influences and dilutes them enough to make it wholly his own. As a result, he is derivative of nobody, unlike those poser bands in the grunge aftermath. What I am trying to get at is Vedder and Stipe’s singing has intersected at times. I don’t mean with Stipe’s “confused/ shy child” type vocals, either. Specifically, there are parts within such R.E.M. songs as So. Central Rain, (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville, Can’t Get There from Here, and Driver 8 that I find similarities. It is known Eddie became a diehard R.E.M. fan during his embryonic years as a singer-songwriter.
I am willingly to concede it could be a coincidence. After all, I remember an interview with Stone, commenting how he hears a Sting influence in Eddie’s singing; and personally, I don’t hear that one at all.
It doesn't make it true.
............GOD................................................
all bands hail to be this band
So what is true, in terms of his singing influences? Besides, I don't think Eddie has that strong of a connection with Karen like the one with R.E.M., as described in his R&R Hall of Fame speech. Of course, that doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.
On a related note, here is a poorly recorded cover of pearl jam by R.E.M.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8UpVx6zCDM
Vice versa, except a little better audio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODV4JT5DQw0&feature=related