For anyone that has never been completely won over by the song 'Bushleaguer', know this- that is not the original version! Before the spoken-word verses were recorded, there existed a different "singing" version with a strong vocal melody. Unfortunately, Eddie found it too catchy and it was unceremoniously dismissed in favor of what became the album track.
OH GOD THIS PISSES ME OFF! I would probably love that other version!
Here is how Ed rationalized his decision:
"It's a fun song. And it's interesting, because that song has such a melodic verse, but anything I was initially singing over it sounded too pretty." So he opted for spoken-word instead.
Before the release of 'Vs.' and 'In Utero,' Eddie Vedder and Krist Novoselic reached an agreement based on one The Rolling Stones and The Beatles supposedly made to never release their albums simultaneously.
Because of this, Vs. was postponed so as not to coincide with In Utero's Sept. 21st release. The informal agreement was imposed nine years later when Riot Act and Nirvana's eponymous greatest hits both set Nov. 12th as the release date. This time, the date for Nirvana moved up to Oct. 29th.
Strangely enough, another nine years after that, the PJ 20 soundtrack and Nevermind reissue were intended for a Sept. 20th release. About two months before that date, Nevermind got pushed back a week to the 27th.
Pleatherman I love this stuff you are posting. Going back to our Against the 70's recording date discussion, I long for them to release exact dates of every recording. I was even today trying to find when Ed recorded the horrible Croon Spoon with Susan Surandon in 99. I think they know we want this because they have many official publications where they show portions of the master tapes with dates and songs. I say this with all do respect to them band....Fuckers!!!!
Again, thanks for this post and let's keep it going!
PJ intended to do an acoustic pre-show in Copenhagen 2012. The heat was almost unbearable and in an effort to cool off the crowd from the beginning they asked for permission to open the side doors while doing the sit-down set but unfortunately weren't allowed to because the venue staff would probably receive complaints from the neighbours living close to the venue. Had they accepted, this easily would have become an instant classic show and the show would have had an entirely different vibe. The latter part is just being speculation on my part, but I have the rest straight from the horses' mouth. Eddie told me this after the show!
Roskilde 2000, Berlin 2006,
Athens 2006, Dusseldorf 2007, Copenhagen 2007, New York NY 1 + 2 2008, Berlin
2009, London 2009, London 2010, Berlin 2010, Manchester 2 2012, Berlin 1 2012,
Stockholm 2012, Oslo 2012, Copenhagen 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 (EV solo) 2012,
Amsterdam 1 + 2 2014, Stockholm 2014, Oslo 2014, Leeds 2014, Milton Keynes
2014, Heartland Festival DK (EV solo) 2017, Berlin 2018, Barcelona 2018, Copenhagen 2022, Prague 2022 (Cancelled)
Pleatherman I love this stuff you are posting. Going back to our Against the 70's recording date discussion, I long for them to release exact dates of every recording. I was even today trying to find when Ed recorded the horrible Croon Spoon with Susan Surandon in 99. I think they know we want this because they have many official publications where they show portions of the master tapes with dates and songs. I say this with all do respect to them band....Fuckers!!!!
Again, thanks for this post and let's keep it going!
I hear 'ya. And Croon Spoon can be a bit tricky. The Kim Gordon duet was initially publicized for inclusion on "Cradle Will Rock" soundtrack until it was subsequently replaced in favor of the Susan Sarandon version. Although I don't have the best ear for this stuff, besides the female singer switch, it seems everything about the two versions are identical, including Ed's vocal take. Plus, who knows when/where the instrumentation was recorded. But like Against the 70's, the most important part to document would be Ed's contribution. Phew! Good luck!
2 million dollars is the lump sum Pearl Jam sacrificed just to have Vitalogy released in its unique packaging with the nifty gold ink. And that amount was even after they split the cost with Epic.
Dec 11, 1991 PJ plays two shows! They opened up for The Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the now demolished Bronco Bowl in Dallas, then packed up their gear and played the club Trees that night. That drive was about 20 minutes tops so if they finished their opening act 8 ish they could have played Trees by 10 no problem!
A triad of locations in Seattle are inextricably linked to Pearl Jam's inception. There is the Galleria Potatohead- the rehearsal space Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike, and Dave first wrote and recorded together. And Mookie Blaylock's public debut happened at The Off Ramp, of course. But another important setting during that formative time is B&O Espresso. This is the place the band met in early 1991 to decide on the group's official name, putting an end to the 'Mookie Blaylock' moniker for good. The only prerequisite being it had to consist of 2 words because, according to Jeff, many of the great rock bands had a two-word name (e.g. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols). Here is Mike McCready's recollection about their game of mix-and-match:
"I remember this list of names and we were sitting around the B&O coffee shop on Broadway. Pearl was up here and Jam was there amongst all these other words and we were putting them together. Jeff put those two together and we were like that’s it."
During the course of that meeting at B&O, the band became hence forth known as... Pearl Jam
And I'm sure if the coffee shop still existed, it would make a nice addition to a PJ historical tour.
Eddie Vedder planned to create a musical play adaptation of Quadrophenia.
In one sense, the burgeoning friendship between Pete Townshend and Eddie Vedder began with the elder's advice against Vedder forgoing a music career in favor of living out his days as a beach bum. But not everything was doom-and-gloom on that fateful night in 1993. Amidst such harrowing thoughts, Vedder had a more ambitious motive during those early conversations with his musical hero. As you well know, The Who's rock opera, Quadrophenia, holds lasting resonance for Eddie, stemming all the way back to his adolescence. As much as he coveted that album, in 1993 the world at large perhaps had not given it the same attention as other seminal works by The Who. Despite that lapse in the public's attention, Vedder sought to conceive a theatrical adaptation of Quadrophenia and proceeded to lay out his plans to Townshend. Although it never came to fruition, Eddie's pitch to develop it into a stage vehicle proved quite prescient. Only a few years later, Quadrophenia rose to prominence when The Who embarked on their first major tour in several years for the sole reason of performing the entire rock opera in full. Townshend and Daltrey ventured into Quadrophenia territory yet again in 2010, this time with special guest Eddie Vedder. As for Eddie's interest in a musical play version, it finally occurred without his involvement in 2005.
PJ intended to do an acoustic pre-show in Copenhagen 2012. The heat was almost unbearable and in an effort to cool off the crowd from the beginning they asked for permission to open the side doors while doing the sit-down set but unfortunately weren't allowed to because the venue staff would probably receive complaints from the neighbours living close to the venue. Had they accepted, this easily would have become an instant classic show and the show would have had an entirely different vibe. The latter part is just being speculation on my part, but I have the rest straight from the horses' mouth. Eddie told me this after the show!
Would have been so great.
The heat easily destroyed part of the feeling for me that night. Worried about my friend - who the staff refused to get water to (or any of us)!
Lousy night for a concert. Great concert nonetheless.
"Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
From the PJ 20 book:
“After finishing his second year at the University of Montana, Ament dropped out and moved to Seattle to pursue music with his then band, Deranged Diction.”
As idealistic as it sounds for Jeff to transplant to Seattle for the sole reason of following his punk rock dreams, the truth is much more pragmatic. He simply wanted to continue his college education after the University of Montana began phasing out the graphic design program.
"Patrick: Now, did you get an art degree at U of M? That’s what I heard.
Jeff: Well, I was in the art program. I actually went to school for two years, so I didn’t get a degree. They were kind of shutting their graphics design program down, they were gonna focus more on fine arts. Trying to get me to go that direction. I kind of was more interested in graphics arts than I was in painting and stuff. So I moved to Seattle with the intention of going to college out there, which never happened (laughs)."
And it was actually a couple months after he moved away that other members of Deranged Diction followed suit, and came out to Seattle.
At various points in Jeff's life, the notion of going back to art school has crossed his mind. I always understood that to be his backup plan. As it turns out, college was Plan 'A' all along!
The original plan for recording 'Thin Air' pegged Stone on lead vocals. His desire not to sing it throughout the ensuing tour led to the known version on Binaural.
Side note: After listening to Stone and Jeff's respective solo albums, it's hard for me not to hear their voices in any Pearl Jam song they wrote lyrics and vocal melodies for. As much as I love most of those songs, I do appreciate Ed back at the helm.
In the 1998 Vitalogy Health Club newsletter PJ claimed to be touring the US to make the profile of Marlin Brando when you connect the dots....tongue planted in cheek I believe.
In the 1998 Vitalogy Health Club newsletter PJ claimed to be touring the US to make the profile of Marlin Brando when you connect the dots....tongue planted in cheek I believe.
Tongue-in-cheek, you say?
Too bad--that tour could've had class. It could've been a contender. It could've been something, instead of a joke, which is what it was.
Ticketmaster is forever engraved in Pearl Jam lore. It looms so large that between then and now, the U.S. '95 concerts went from being part of the "Vitalogy" tour to becoming the "Ticketmaster Boycott" tour; an indication of how their music took a backseat to business practices in the eyes of the public. In 1998, the band recanted to reaffirm their role as a rock band, first and foremost.
It took all but a year for Pearl Jam to institute another boycott on a different corporation. This time their target was the concert promoter, House of Blues. A move that might prompt some insiders to believe the stubborn group had not learned their lesson from last time. But during this go-around Pearl Jam did not let idealism cloud the practicality of sustaining a large-scale tour.
First, let's backtrack to the reason Pearl Jam severed ties with House of Blues in 1999. During the Yield tour, the concert promoter undercut Pearl Jam's fan-friendly policies by selling the best seats in the house to ticket brokers i.e. scalpers. With zero tolerance for such shady maneuvers, Pearl Jam disassociated with them for their next tour in 2000. To cunningly execute this boycott, the band simply signed an exclusive deal with one of the largest concert promoters at the time, SFX, for the entirety of the N.A. Binaural tour. Unlike the tactics instituted for PJ's mid-nineties tours, this sound business plan kept the focus on music and avoided the toil of multiple deals with local promoters.
However, a facet of this evoked a predicament identical to their previous boycott, in that Pearl Jam could not perform at places under exclusive contract with House of Blues. For example, an outside amphitheatre presented or owned by House of Blues, like Blossom Music Center, meant Cleveland had to be omitted from the tour itinerary.
H.O.B. subsequently established new restrictions to prevent scalping and not long afterwards, in 2003, Pearl Jam played at the House of Blues concert hall in Florida.
Oh, and one more important difference in the boycott between Ticketmaster and H.O.B. is that Pearl Jam was not the lone crusader for the latter. In fact, by their side was arguably the most popular group of the late '90s- The Backstreet Boys!
Pearl Jam history confuses "Sick o' Pussies" with a children's song.
Like "Better Man," "Sick o' Pussies" dates way, way back to Eddie's pre-Bad Radio demo days. According to Pearl Jam's official website, the band has performed, or rather tagged "Sick o' Pussies" more than a couple times during the Vs. tour. pearljam.com/music/lyrics/all/all/20755/sick_o_pussies The very credible Concert Chronology from Two Feet Thick also confirms those dates along with additional performances in '95 (e.g. Constitution Hall and Soldier Field). However, this actually turns out to be a case of mistaken song identity. The beginning of the old demo starts as follows: "Alright, here's a message for the pro-life pussies: My body's nobody's body but mine You run your own body, let me run mine"
The portion in bold are the lyrics Eddie has sung at the aforementioned PJ shows, which is where the confusion sets in. Those words were not actually written by Ed; rather, they are a direct quote from an old sex-education song called "My Body." It is actually written by Peter Alsop back in 1983 and can be found on the album "Songs On Sex and Sexuality." I wonder how the original author feels an excerpt from the song has been adopted by Vedder to vindicate women's right to choose.
MY BODY
My body’s nobody’s body but mine You run your own body, let me run mine! My nose was made to sniff and to sneeze To smell what I want, and to pick when I please! My lungs were made to hold air when I breathe, I am in charge of just how much I need! My legs were made to dance me around To walk and to run and to jump up and down! My mouth was made to blow-up a balloon I can eat, kiss and spit, I can whistle a tune! No one knows my body better than me It tells me, “Let’s eat!”, it tells me “Go pee!” Don’t hit me or kick me, don’t push or shove Don’t hug me too hard when you show me your love Sometimes it’s hard to say “No!” and be strong When those ”No!” feelings come, then I know something’s wrong ’Cause My body’s mine from my head to my toe Please leave it alone when you hear me say “No!” Secrets are fun when they’re filled with surprise But not when they hurt us with tricks, threats and lies Our body’s one body, one voice is heard We each sing for freedom when we sing these words!
Alright, here's a message for the pro-life pussies: My body's nobody's body but mine You run your own body, let me run mine Jumbalama I'm sick Sick of pussies Sick of pussies in my way I'm sick Sick of pussies Sick of seein' pussies every day Rich pussies Pretty white pussies Never seen a workin' day I'm sick Sick of pussies Sick of pussies, sick with me Fuck that pussy shit, yea I am a workin' man Got blood on my fingers Got cracks in my hands Gotta --- today, gotta pay to play I'm sick of these pussies Fuckin with me! Fuck that pussy shit Fuck that pussy shit I'm sick Sick of pussies Sick of pussies in my way I'm sick Sick of pussies Sick of seein' pussies every day Rich pussies Pretty white pussies Never seen work before I'm sick Sick of pussies (x2) Sick with me Fuck that pussy shit Fucka fucka fucka fucka fucka Fuck that pussy shit Let's fuck 'em Just fuck 'em Fuck that pussy shit....fuck 'em Jam-a-lam-a-ding-dong
"I'm just gonna live in a fuckin' cave... I don't think I'll be showing my face for a while." -Eddie Vedder, April 1994
And so he did, much to chagrin of his bandmates. Despite that Eddie's conviction prompted Pearl Jam's dispute with Ticketmaster, Jeff and Stone were the ones left to testify at the congressional hearing. As prepared as they were for it, the duo's presence owed more to a lack of unity in the band than anything else. Mike, of course, had the more pressing matter of sobriety to contend with. And even if Dave wasn't on his way out, the apolitical drummer disagreed with any stance against Ticketmaster. As for the most recognizable band member, Ed's disappearance was nothing short of a mystery, even to Kelly and the group. The decision for Stone and Jeff to represent Pearl Jam for the testimony was based partly on necessity, because, as Jeff put it "we didn't even know where Eddie was hanging out. It was all very confusing." As it turns out, he was out of the country, in Rome.
In April of 94 Pearl Jam was already gearing up for a fight with Ticketmaster over their planned summer tour (which was cancelled)
"One really good thing is how much we've learned being on the road, in terms of the business aspect of it, and how exciting it is to be changing the way that people perceive things from a financial point of view, actually being able to get cheaper tickets, and forcing promoters to deal with only taking 20% of the merchandising. This summer, if Ticketmaster's gonna do something with us, they're gonna have to come around, or we've gonna deal with this tour ourselves. Ticketmaster wants to charge $4 a ticket this summer to print [the tickets] and sell them. The tickets are going to be $18, but when you put a $4 service charge on it, it ends up being 22% of the ticket price, which is more than we're making. When things get to that point, it starts to get a little bit ridiculous. It's the same way with merchandising. All promoters and record companies are in bed with the venues, so they allow each other to charge 35% or 40% of the t-shirts prices, when in a lot of instances, the bands are only making 30%. And the only way the band can make any money is by charging $24 a t-shirt. The one thing that's really, really great about being in the position we're in is having the power to go in there and fuck with those people. It's a beautiful thing", Jeff Ament.
"I loved Mother Love Bone, so when I was writing the movie that would end up being [1992's] Singles, I wanted to interview Jeff and Stone to explore the whole coffee-culture, "two or three jobs, one of which is your band" lifestyle. The terrible turn of events that took place was that Andy died. And everybody just instinctively showed up at Kelly [Curtis]'s house that night. For me it was the first real feeling of what it was like to have a hometown—everybody pulling together for some people they really loved. That was a pivotal moment, I think, for a lot of people there. It made me want to do Singles as a love letter to the community that I was really moved by. Few people know this, but Stone is actually in [Crowe's 1989 film] Say Anything.... He plays a cab driver, and Ione Skye looks at him and kind of flirts with him a little bit as they're stuck in traffic on her way to graduation", Cameron Crowe (Singles Director).
This postcard from Eddie Vedder to his roommates in San Diego really alludes to the magical serendipity of Pearl Jam's inception, captured while it was happening.
Throughout Eddie's transplant to Seattle, he bounced around different places to crash before a permanent residence was found. A few include Kelly Curtis' home, Ament's apartment, or other times just spending the night at Galleria Potato Head. The return address on the postcard reveals Eddie's posh stay at the hip Vance Hotel prior to Mookie Blaylock's first show. It is now dubbed Hotel Max and prides itself on the city's musical heritage, with an entire floor dedicated to Sub Pop.
The perils of an unknown band. Vinyl lovers that they are, Pearl Jam could not win over that ideal on Epic for their first release. August 27, 1991 marked the U.S. date for 'Ten' on compact disc and cassette tape only. As a compromise, the cd cover-art folded out to record sleeve-like proportions. It was not until a few years later (1994) a vinyl pressing of 'Ten' was issued in the U.S. After all, being the biggest band in the country did have its benefits.
On it's 1993 40-city tour, Pearl Jam lowered it's ticket prices to $18 -- over the objections of concert promoters who urged the band to charge up to three times that amount -- and negotiated lower commissions from T-shirt and souvenir vendors. The result, in the case of T-shirts, was a price lowered from $23 to $18. Promoters estimate the total loss to the band in ticket and merchandise revenues for the '93 tour alone at around $2 million
The exact role Damien Echols had in the making of 'Army Reserve.'
'Army Reserve' is not the first time an outsider has contributed lyrics to a Pearl Jam song. In a band with five songwriters, all of which can more than hold their own in the lyrical department, the task to live up to those standards is not an enviable one. But Damien's writing skills suited the song perfectly. However, none of this occured to him when he wrote it down. The collaboration between Echols and Pearl Jam began quite independently of one another. Initially, 'Army Reserve' was just a poem, one of many he wrote during his prison sentence. As perhaps the ultimate compliment, the best lyricist on the planet, Eddie, decided to transplant his poetry and arrange, edit, and embellish it in such a way to take on new life in song. And Ta-daa, it fit in perfectly with Eddie's narrative for a concept record. Although that sequence was later scrapped, 'Army Reserve' doesn't suffer in the least for it.
"If I want to make a song based on sound effects from the movie Mars Attacks, I can do that." - E.V.
Eddie Vedder may have written some of the catchiest Pearl Jam songs to date, but an experimental streak runs through his past work, as well. One example, an aural collage created with nothing more than pocket change. The unmistakeable sound of coins reverberating off the ground chime melodiously without a hint of the cacophonous clamor easily rendered from the small metallic objects. Recorded during the Binaural sessions, a snippet of it is sparsely added to 'Of the Girl.' On its own, the coin medley is a few minutes long and even has a title. It's called 'Change.'
Comments
Here is how Ed rationalized his decision:
"It's a fun song. And it's interesting, because that song has such a melodic verse, but anything I was initially singing over it sounded too pretty." So he opted for spoken-word instead.
Because of this, Vs. was postponed so as not to coincide with In Utero's Sept. 21st release. The informal agreement was imposed nine years later when Riot Act and Nirvana's eponymous greatest hits both set Nov. 12th as the release date. This time, the date for Nirvana moved up to Oct. 29th.
Strangely enough, another nine years after that, the PJ 20 soundtrack and Nevermind reissue were intended for a Sept. 20th release. About two months before that date, Nevermind got pushed back a week to the 27th.
Again, thanks for this post and let's keep it going!
Roskilde 2000, Berlin 2006, Athens 2006, Dusseldorf 2007, Copenhagen 2007, New York NY 1 + 2 2008, Berlin 2009, London 2009, London 2010, Berlin 2010, Manchester 2 2012, Berlin 1 2012, Stockholm 2012, Oslo 2012, Copenhagen 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 (EV solo) 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 2014, Stockholm 2014, Oslo 2014, Leeds 2014, Milton Keynes 2014, Heartland Festival DK (EV solo) 2017, Berlin 2018, Barcelona 2018, Copenhagen 2022, Prague 2022 (Cancelled)
I hear 'ya. And Croon Spoon can be a bit tricky. The Kim Gordon duet was initially publicized for inclusion on "Cradle Will Rock" soundtrack until it was subsequently replaced in favor of the Susan Sarandon version. Although I don't have the best ear for this stuff, besides the female singer switch, it seems everything about the two versions are identical, including Ed's vocal take. Plus, who knows when/where the instrumentation was recorded. But like Against the 70's, the most important part to document would be Ed's contribution. Phew! Good luck!
A triad of locations in Seattle are inextricably linked to Pearl Jam's inception. There is the Galleria Potatohead- the rehearsal space Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike, and Dave first wrote and recorded together. And Mookie Blaylock's public debut happened at The Off Ramp, of course. But another important setting during that formative time is B&O Espresso. This is the place the band met in early 1991 to decide on the group's official name, putting an end to the 'Mookie Blaylock' moniker for good. The only prerequisite being it had to consist of 2 words because, according to Jeff, many of the great rock bands had a two-word name (e.g. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols). Here is Mike McCready's recollection about their game of mix-and-match:
"I remember this list of names and we were sitting around the B&O coffee shop on Broadway. Pearl was up here and Jam was there amongst all these other words and we were putting them together. Jeff put those two together and we were like that’s it."
During the course of that meeting at B&O, the band became hence forth known as... Pearl Jam
And I'm sure if the coffee shop still existed, it would make a nice addition to a PJ historical tour.
In one sense, the burgeoning friendship between Pete Townshend and Eddie Vedder began with the elder's advice against Vedder forgoing a music career in favor of living out his days as a beach bum. But not everything was doom-and-gloom on that fateful night in 1993. Amidst such harrowing thoughts, Vedder had a more ambitious motive during those early conversations with his musical hero. As you well know, The Who's rock opera, Quadrophenia, holds lasting resonance for Eddie, stemming all the way back to his adolescence. As much as he coveted that album, in 1993 the world at large perhaps had not given it the same attention as other seminal works by The Who. Despite that lapse in the public's attention, Vedder sought to conceive a theatrical adaptation of Quadrophenia and proceeded to lay out his plans to Townshend. Although it never came to fruition, Eddie's pitch to develop it into a stage vehicle proved quite prescient. Only a few years later, Quadrophenia rose to prominence when The Who embarked on their first major tour in several years for the sole reason of performing the entire rock opera in full. Townshend and Daltrey ventured into Quadrophenia territory yet again in 2010, this time with special guest Eddie Vedder. As for Eddie's interest in a musical play version, it finally occurred without his involvement in 2005.
The heat easily destroyed part of the feeling for me that night. Worried about my friend - who the staff refused to get water to (or any of us)!
Lousy night for a concert. Great concert nonetheless.
“After finishing his second year at the University of Montana, Ament dropped out and moved to Seattle to pursue music with his then band, Deranged Diction.”
As idealistic as it sounds for Jeff to transplant to Seattle for the sole reason of following his punk rock dreams, the truth is much more pragmatic. He simply wanted to continue his college education after the University of Montana began phasing out the graphic design program.
"Patrick: Now, did you get an art degree at U of M? That’s what I heard.
Jeff: Well, I was in the art program. I actually went to school for two years, so I didn’t get a degree. They were kind of shutting their graphics design program down, they were gonna focus more on fine arts. Trying to get me to go that direction. I kind of was more interested in graphics arts than I was in painting and stuff. So I moved to Seattle with the intention of going to college out there, which never happened (laughs)."
And it was actually a couple months after he moved away that other members of Deranged Diction followed suit, and came out to Seattle.
At various points in Jeff's life, the notion of going back to art school has crossed his mind. I always understood that to be his backup plan. As it turns out, college was Plan 'A' all along!
Side note: After listening to Stone and Jeff's respective solo albums, it's hard for me not to hear their voices in any Pearl Jam song they wrote lyrics and vocal melodies for. As much as I love most of those songs, I do appreciate Ed back at the helm.
Tongue-in-cheek, you say?
Too bad--that tour could've had class. It could've been a contender. It could've been something, instead of a joke, which is what it was.
Let's face it--it was us, Ten Club.
Ticketmaster is forever engraved in Pearl Jam lore. It looms so large that between then and now, the U.S. '95 concerts went from being part of the "Vitalogy" tour to becoming the "Ticketmaster Boycott" tour; an indication of how their music took a backseat to business practices in the eyes of the public. In 1998, the band recanted to reaffirm their role as a rock band, first and foremost.
It took all but a year for Pearl Jam to institute another boycott on a different corporation. This time their target was the concert promoter, House of Blues. A move that might prompt some insiders to believe the stubborn group had not learned their lesson from last time. But during this go-around Pearl Jam did not let idealism cloud the practicality of sustaining a large-scale tour.
First, let's backtrack to the reason Pearl Jam severed ties with House of Blues in 1999. During the Yield tour, the concert promoter undercut Pearl Jam's fan-friendly policies by selling the best seats in the house to ticket brokers i.e. scalpers. With zero tolerance for such shady maneuvers, Pearl Jam disassociated with them for their next tour in 2000. To cunningly execute this boycott, the band simply signed an exclusive deal with one of the largest concert promoters at the time, SFX, for the entirety of the N.A. Binaural tour. Unlike the tactics instituted for PJ's mid-nineties tours, this sound business plan kept the focus on music and avoided the toil of multiple deals with local promoters.
However, a facet of this evoked a predicament identical to their previous boycott, in that Pearl Jam could not perform at places under exclusive contract with House of Blues. For example, an outside amphitheatre presented or owned by House of Blues, like Blossom Music Center, meant Cleveland had to be omitted from the tour itinerary.
H.O.B. subsequently established new restrictions to prevent scalping and not long afterwards, in 2003, Pearl Jam played at the House of Blues concert hall in Florida.
Oh, and one more important difference in the boycott between Ticketmaster and H.O.B. is that Pearl Jam was not the lone crusader for the latter. In fact, by their side was arguably the most popular group of the late '90s- The Backstreet Boys!
Pearl Jam history confuses "Sick o' Pussies" with a children's song.
Like "Better Man," "Sick o' Pussies" dates way, way back to Eddie's pre-Bad Radio demo days. According to Pearl Jam's official website, the band has performed, or rather tagged "Sick o' Pussies" more than a couple times during the Vs. tour.
pearljam.com/music/lyrics/all/all/20755/sick_o_pussies
The very credible Concert Chronology from Two Feet Thick also confirms those dates along with additional performances in '95 (e.g. Constitution Hall and Soldier Field).
However, this actually turns out to be a case of mistaken song identity. The beginning of the old demo starts as follows:
"Alright, here's a message for the pro-life pussies:
My body's nobody's body but mine
You run your own body, let me run mine"
The portion in bold are the lyrics Eddie has sung at the aforementioned PJ shows, which is where the confusion sets in. Those words were not actually written by Ed; rather, they are a direct quote from an old sex-education song called "My Body." It is actually written by Peter Alsop back in 1983 and can be found on the album "Songs On Sex and Sexuality." I wonder how the original author feels an excerpt from the song has been adopted by Vedder to vindicate women's right to choose.
MY BODY
My body’s nobody’s body but mine
You run your own body, let me run mine!
My nose was made to sniff and to sneeze
To smell what I want, and to pick when I please!
My lungs were made to hold air when I breathe,
I am in charge of just how much I need!
My legs were made to dance me around
To walk and to run and to jump up and down!
My mouth was made to blow-up a balloon
I can eat, kiss and spit, I can whistle a tune!
No one knows my body better than me
It tells me, “Let’s eat!”, it tells me “Go pee!”
Don’t hit me or kick me, don’t push or shove
Don’t hug me too hard when you show me your love
Sometimes it’s hard to say “No!” and be strong
When those ”No!” feelings come, then I know something’s wrong
’Cause My body’s mine from my head to my toe
Please leave it alone when you hear me say “No!”
Secrets are fun when they’re filled with surprise
But not when they hurt us with tricks, threats and lies
Our body’s one body, one voice is heard
We each sing for freedom when we sing these words!
A live rendition can be heard at 5:20
youtu.be/109qwzYz4A0
Also, here are a couple links to Pearl Jam's cover of "My Body"
at the 3:50 mark
youtu.be/dJKnbAzMbBk
19:27 mark
youtu.be/p0gx1i6s-xE
Sick o' Pussies
Alright, here's a message for the pro-life pussies:
My body's nobody's body but mine
You run your own body, let me run mine
Jumbalama
I'm sick
Sick of pussies
Sick of pussies in my way
I'm sick
Sick of pussies
Sick of seein' pussies every day
Rich pussies
Pretty white pussies
Never seen a workin' day
I'm sick
Sick of pussies
Sick of pussies, sick with me
Fuck that pussy shit, yea
I am a workin' man
Got blood on my fingers
Got cracks in my hands
Gotta --- today, gotta pay to play
I'm sick of these pussies
Fuckin with me!
Fuck that pussy shit
Fuck that pussy shit
I'm sick
Sick of pussies
Sick of pussies in my way
I'm sick
Sick of pussies
Sick of seein' pussies every day
Rich pussies
Pretty white pussies
Never seen work before
I'm sick
Sick of pussies (x2)
Sick with me
Fuck that pussy shit
Fucka fucka fucka fucka fucka
Fuck that pussy shit
Let's fuck 'em
Just fuck 'em
Fuck that pussy shit....fuck 'em
Jam-a-lam-a-ding-dong
-Eddie Vedder, April 1994
And so he did, much to chagrin of his bandmates. Despite that Eddie's conviction prompted Pearl Jam's dispute with Ticketmaster, Jeff and Stone were the ones left to testify at the congressional hearing. As prepared as they were for it, the duo's presence owed more to a lack of unity in the band than anything else. Mike, of course, had the more pressing matter of sobriety to contend with. And even if Dave wasn't on his way out, the apolitical drummer disagreed with any stance against Ticketmaster. As for the most recognizable band member, Ed's disappearance was nothing short of a mystery, even to Kelly and the group. The decision for Stone and Jeff to represent Pearl Jam for the testimony was based partly on necessity, because, as Jeff put it "we didn't even know where Eddie was hanging out. It was all very confusing." As it turns out, he was out of the country, in Rome.
"One really good thing is how much we've learned being on the road, in terms of the business aspect of it, and how exciting it is to be changing the way that people perceive things from a financial point of view, actually being able to get cheaper tickets, and forcing promoters to deal with only taking 20% of the merchandising. This summer, if Ticketmaster's gonna do something with us, they're gonna have to come around, or we've gonna deal with this tour ourselves. Ticketmaster wants to charge $4 a ticket this summer to print [the tickets] and sell them. The tickets are going to be $18, but when you put a $4 service charge on it, it ends up being 22% of the ticket price, which is more than we're making. When things get to that point, it starts to get a little bit ridiculous. It's the same way with merchandising. All promoters and record companies are in bed with the venues, so they allow each other to charge 35% or 40% of the t-shirts prices, when in a lot of instances, the bands are only making 30%. And the only way the band can make any money is by charging $24 a t-shirt. The one thing that's really, really great about being in the position we're in is having the power to go in there and fuck with those people. It's a beautiful thing", Jeff Ament.
"I loved Mother Love Bone, so when I was writing the movie that would end up being [1992's] Singles, I wanted to interview Jeff and Stone to explore the whole coffee-culture, "two or three jobs, one of which is your band" lifestyle. The terrible turn of events that took place was that Andy died. And everybody just instinctively showed up at Kelly [Curtis]'s house that night. For me it was the first real feeling of what it was like to have a hometown—everybody pulling together for some people they really loved. That was a pivotal moment, I think, for a lot of people there. It made me want to do Singles as a love letter to the community that I was really moved by. Few people know this, but Stone is actually in [Crowe's 1989 film] Say Anything.... He plays a cab driver, and Ione Skye looks at him and kind of flirts with him a little bit as they're stuck in traffic on her way to graduation", Cameron Crowe (Singles Director).
Twitter: @cacarr1
This postcard from Eddie Vedder to his roommates in San Diego really alludes to the magical serendipity of Pearl Jam's inception, captured while it was happening.
Throughout Eddie's transplant to Seattle, he bounced around different places to crash before a permanent residence was found. A few include Kelly Curtis' home, Ament's apartment, or other times just spending the night at Galleria Potato Head. The return address on the postcard reveals Eddie's posh stay at the hip Vance Hotel prior to Mookie Blaylock's first show. It is now dubbed Hotel Max and prides itself on the city's musical heritage, with an entire floor dedicated to Sub Pop.
And how about that, an Eddie Vedder door!
Vinyl lovers that they are, Pearl Jam could not win over that ideal on Epic for their first release. August 27, 1991 marked the U.S. date for 'Ten' on compact disc and cassette tape only. As a compromise, the cd cover-art folded out to record sleeve-like proportions. It was not until a few years later (1994) a vinyl pressing of 'Ten' was issued in the U.S. After all, being the biggest band in the country did have its benefits.
'Army Reserve' is not the first time an outsider has contributed lyrics to a Pearl Jam song. In a band with five songwriters, all of which can more than hold their own in the lyrical department, the task to live up to those standards is not an enviable one. But Damien's writing skills suited the song perfectly. However, none of this occured to him when he wrote it down. The collaboration between Echols and Pearl Jam began quite independently of one another. Initially, 'Army Reserve' was just a poem, one of many he wrote during his prison sentence. As perhaps the ultimate compliment, the best lyricist on the planet, Eddie, decided to transplant his poetry and arrange, edit, and embellish it in such a way to take on new life in song. And Ta-daa, it fit in perfectly with Eddie's narrative for a concept record. Although that sequence was later scrapped, 'Army Reserve' doesn't suffer in the least for it.
Eddie Vedder may have written some of the catchiest Pearl Jam songs to date, but an experimental streak runs through his past work, as well. One example, an aural collage created with nothing more than pocket change. The unmistakeable sound of coins reverberating off the ground chime melodiously without a hint of the cacophonous clamor easily rendered from the small metallic objects. Recorded during the Binaural sessions, a snippet of it is sparsely added to 'Of the Girl.' On its own, the coin medley is a few minutes long and even has a title. It's called 'Change.'