Unreleased Pearl Jam Song "Better Days" Leaks

am195090

Yes, most definitely a mandolin. I posted this back around page 12 or so, but people keep insisting on calling it a ukelele or spanish guitar. It is not. So I'd have to agree, at least that part of the recording came into being in the into the wild era going forward. Is it so crazy to think Eddie is playing the solo there, by the way? Interesting to see him take the lead for a change of pace. And actually, that would fit in to the spanish tinge they may hear in the solo. If you remember back around 2000, he used to begin Betterman with Romanza, a little classical guitar piece. So it could stand to reason that he still may have carried that over to the mandolin solo here. Then again, mandolin solos just sound like that naturally since you can easily reach those notes on a much smaller fretboard.

vedderman

wolfamongwolves wrote:

I'd be thinking it's Into the Wild/Backspacer era.

Cos that sounds like a mandolin to me...

It's actually a Riot Act outtake. Check it out:

http://www.pearljamonline.it/outtakes.htm#riotact

vedderman

It's a Riot Act outtake. Check it out:

http://www.pearljamonline.it/outtakes.htm#riotact

SoonForgotten2

vedderman wrote:

wolfamongwolves wrote:

I'd be thinking it's Into the Wild/Backspacer era.

Cos that sounds like a mandolin to me...

It's actually a Riot Act outtake. Check it out:

http://www.pearljamonline.it/outtakes.htm#riotact

That doesn't confirm anything. It could be re-worked/rerecorded or it could be a coincidence. Perhaps working from similar lyrics or chord progression. I would highly doubt this is the same song.

mavi

am195090 wrote:

Everyone keeps referring to the "guitar" solo. I don't see how I'm the only one to realize this, but it is definitely a mandolin there.

Yes. I agree.

BF25394

rolenrock wrote:

Aren't there examples of Pearl Jam doing this? Wasn't "Better Man" originally slated for "Vs.," and then re-recorded in the form that ended up on "Vitalogy"? (Yes, I know "Better Man" dates back to pre-Pearl Jam days, but I'm specifically referring to the fact that the band recorded a version when they were making "Vs." that got reworked for "Vitalogy.") I think the same was true of "Brain Of J."-- originally recorded for "No Code," then re-worked for "Yield."

Better Man is not even a Pearl Jam song.. it was written with Bad Radio and originally released with the band. It was rearranged for Vs. and then held til Vitalogy.. geeeeez haha

That's why I said, "Yes, I know 'Better Man' dates back to pre-Pearl Jam days."

Gonzo1977

I finally got to hear this on my home stereo for the first time last night and couldn't believe how great the song sounded on a real stereo with good speakers...It was a good song already on bad speakers...but obviously alot easier to pickup the nuances on a real stereo as opposed to the embarassingly awful piece of dog shit speakers I have at work.

Anyways...It's obviously a Mandolin...painfully obvious in fact.

As for Eddie playing the solo...Well...I've never really heard him do that before.
So I really don't have much reference as to the faculty of his guitar soloing. But then again...When you have someone like Mike in Pearl Jam...I guess it's obvious for fans to not have many opportunities of watching Eddie Vedder rip out a blistering guitar solo.

I think I've only ever heard him tackle a solo twice...No...three times.

1) "Society" solo on his "Into The Wild" tour
2) C-Average on "Driven To Tears"
3) The Mike Watt Tour..."Against The 70's"???

None of which resemble or stylistically reference the solo in "Better Days"...So it's understanable to immediately assume this is someone taking the lead other than Ed.

Pretty cool if it is Eddie. Jack of all trades that one

Mandolin
Uke
Accordian
Banjo
Guitar
Harmonica
Typewriter

inlet13

Ed plays the solo in wishlist.

WWS

Gonzo1977 wrote:

As for Eddie playing the solo...Well...I've never really heard him do that before.
So I really don't have much reference as to the faculty of his guitar soloing. But then again...When you have someone like Mike in Pearl Jam...I guess it's obvious for fans to not have many opportunities of watching Eddie Vedder rip out a blistering guitar solo.

.

For Real??

The entire Eddie solo tour
Just Breath
The End
Betterman
Wishlist
Soon Forget
Speed of sound

on and on....

inlet13

dmm121182 wrote:

"Better Days"
Vedder / Vedder

I feel part of the universe opened up to meet me.
My emotion so submerged, broken down to kneeling
once listening
voices they came

Had to somehow read myself
read myself
heard vibration within my cells
in my cells

Singing ah ah ah ah ah ah

My love is safe for the universe
See me now I'm bursting
On one planet so many turns
different worlds

singing ah ah ah ah ah ah

From my heart with discipline
Put there for the teaching
In my head see clouds of stairs
Help me as I'm reaching
The future's paved with better days

I'm running from something
I'm running towards the day
wide awake

A whisper once quiet
Now rising to a scream
I am me.

I'm falling free fallin
World's calling me
Above my needs

Oh I'm soaring
Yeah and darlin', you'll be the one that I can need,
Still, be free

Our futures paved with better days

By the way, yes, it's a Riot Act recording session outtake.

Only thing I'd change is the following:

I feel part of the universe opened up to meet me.
My emotion so submerged, broken down to kneeling
once listening
voices they came

Had to somehow greet myself
read myself
heard vibration within my cells
in my cells

Singing ah ah ah ah ah ah

My love is safe for the universe
See me now I'm bursting
On one planet so many turns
different worlds

singing ah ah ah ah ah ah

From my heart with discipline
Put there for the teaching
In my head see clouds of stairs
Help me as I'm reaching
The future's paved with better days

I'm running from something
I'm running towards the day
wide awake

A whisper once quiet
Now rising to a scream
I am me.

I'm falling free fallin
World's calling me
Above my needs

Oh I'm soaring
Yeah and darlin', you'll be the one that I can need,(is this... up off my knees?)
Still, be free

Our futures paved with better days

wolfamongwolves

vedderman wrote:

It's a Riot Act outtake. Check it out:

http://www.pearljamonline.it/outtakes.htm#riotact

I stand corrected. Well found. I look at that site all the time & never saw that page before (probably because it's in Italian!).

aspoonfulweighsaton

pjsteelerfan wrote:

Watch posting links- Kat was editing them out yesterday

I really don't get this since several media outlets seem to have the okay to post it (I'm only assuming this since it has only been pulled here). Can't this board just be proactive rather than reactive for once?

mavi

aspoonfulweighsaton wrote:

pjsteelerfan wrote:

Watch posting links- Kat was editing them out yesterday

I really don't get this since several media outlets seem to have the okay to post it (I'm only assuming this since it has only been pulled here). Can't this board just be proactive rather than reactive for once?

Well, they did not put it out, it leaked. So I think it's fair to respect the house rules. Although it seems they've given up now, there's been a couple of links up since last night.

am195090

WWS wrote:

Gonzo1977 wrote:

As for Eddie playing the solo...Well...I've never really heard him do that before.
So I really don't have much reference as to the faculty of his guitar soloing. But then again...When you have someone like Mike in Pearl Jam...I guess it's obvious for fans to not have many opportunities of watching Eddie Vedder rip out a blistering guitar solo.

.

For Real??

The entire Eddie solo tour
Just Breath
The End
Betterman
Wishlist
Soon Forget
Speed of sound

on and on....

What we mean by solo is taking a solo within the song. And there are very few examples of this. Songs like Just Breathe, The End, etc are examples of Ed playing without accompaniment on guitar, but he doesn't play a solo during the course of the song. Much less a fairly long solo played pretty fast and up and down a scale. It hasn't been the style at all that we've seen from him. Then again, he obviously had to take the time to sit down and learn how to play the mandolin pretty decently in order to write a song like Rise, so I don't think it's unreasonable to think he could have learned a couple scales and let fly on this recording. It's not like the solo is incredibly complex or technical, like the guy from Nickel Creek can do, for example. It's just a little scale played on the first 6 frets.
...Then again, maybe it is Mike.

DewieCox

am195090 wrote:

he obviously had to take the time to sit down and learn how to play the mandolin pretty decently in order to write a song like Rise,

I disagree. Chords transfer from one instrument to the next pretty easy, and it's generally the way "odd" instruments are used by rock and rollers.

Laddie

mavi wrote:

aspoonfulweighsaton wrote:

pjsteelerfan wrote:

Watch posting links- Kat was editing them out yesterday

I really don't get this since several media outlets seem to have the okay to post it (I'm only assuming this since it has only been pulled here). Can't this board just be proactive rather than reactive for once?

Well, they did not put it out, it leaked. So I think it's fair to respect the house rules. Although it seems they've given up now, there's been a couple of links up since last night.

I'm actually surprised the website or sites allowing access to the song still have it up. I would have expected some sort of cease and desist action by now.

pearljamnewf

Ok so after being on here for proabably 60 days in a row, I decide to slack off and not check it for 2 and I miss this! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. I'm going to jump off a bridge now, unless someone can talk me down. I need to hear this one asap.

clarkkent

Ed also played the solo on Insignificance.

am195090

DewieCox wrote:

am195090 wrote:

he obviously had to take the time to sit down and learn how to play the mandolin pretty decently in order to write a song like Rise,

I disagree. Chords transfer from one instrument to the next pretty easy, and it's generally the way "odd" instruments are used by rock and rollers.

A mandolin has an entirely different tuning than a guitar, and the chord fingerings are pretty different. Now, while already knowing how to play one stringed instrument certainly makes it much easier to learn another, it is still different and takes practice to get used to. I'm not saying that Ed is a virtuoso, or even an above average mandolin player. But I think that in order to compose a song like Rise, or to play the solo on Better Days, as I have theorized, you have to spend a little time and learn the instrument a bit. I don't think Ed would have completely half assed it.

gndcd402

aspoonfulweighsaton wrote:

pjsteelerfan wrote:

Watch posting links- Kat was editing them out yesterday

I really don't get this since several media outlets seem to have the okay to post it (I'm only assuming this since it has only been pulled here). Can't this board just be proactive rather than reactive for once?

i got a one day ban for posting the title of a freaking song in this thread :roll:

i'm sorry but that is ridiculous...