Ed's Original Ukulele Inspiration

beachbelle

"Blue, Red and Grey". Makes me wanna dust off my Who By Numbers vinyl. Check out Pete Townshend's rendition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqWP7uDsjPo



And a PJ performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJtgpYwA ... creen&NR=1

Here's an excerpt from a UT-San Diego article written by George Varga from 6/30/11 where Ed discusses the song's influence:

[Vedder] readily acknowledged, it was hearing Townshend’s ukulele playing on The Who song “Blue, Red and Grey,” from the 1975 album “The Who By Numbers” that made him aware the ukulele had untapped musical potential.

“The song resonated with me as a kid – I was probably 12 or 13 – in 1976,” said Vedder, 46, who first picked up a ukulele more than a decade ago. “That song always stuck with me, because it seemed to legitimize the (ukulele). This wasn’t a souvenir song, a tourist song, which is what the ukulele at some point mutated into. (‘Blue, red and Grey’) always stuck deeply inside me, until I actually picked up my first real ukulele, which was maybe 13 years ago. That’s when I could put my hands on it and know that that (Townshend-inspired) sound existed. And that made it feel like, no question, it was a legitimate instrument and you could write music on it.”