Vitalogy 20

igotid88

Pearl Jam: Vitalogy was released on vinyl 20 years ago today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvSTDho7GOI

diamond_marmalade

20 years ago I wasn't even aware of this band. I love this record. I understand they released it on vinyl first before releasing the CD two weeks later and it got to number 1 based on vinyl sales? What a great video to start off my Saturday. Thanks.

23scidoo

My fav record..at that time my sister was in London and she get me this as a christmas gift..she didn't knew the band and she said to me..''hey kid, they are satanic, they have a song called ''Satan's bed''..i still remember the smell of the inside book..VIVA LA VINYL..

igotid88

diamond_marmalade said:

20 years ago I wasn't even aware of this band. I love this record. I understand they released it on vinyl first before releasing the CD two weeks later and it got to number 1 based on vinyl sales? What a great video to start off my Saturday. Thanks.

the cd and cassette sales made it #1. The vinyl release debuted at #55

diamond_marmalade

igotid88 said:

diamond_marmalade said:

20 years ago I wasn't even aware of this band. I love this record. I understand they released it on vinyl first before releasing the CD two weeks later and it got to number 1 based on vinyl sales? What a great video to start off my Saturday. Thanks.

the cd and cassette sales made it #1. The vinyl release debuted at #55

I stand corrected. Giving it a spin now

SpinTheLastExit

I was just shy of being born when this was released, but nevertheless it is my favourite Pearl Jam album. Suppose I should take the duster to the vinyl and spin it then?

I wrote a few words about Vitalogy - its history, what it means to fans and what it means to me, and its importance on music. View it if you wish - and I would like to disclaim that I didn't plagerise Stereogum's idea. I had already written it when they published it.

http://thereviewal.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/20-years-of-vitalogy/

boyo79

igotid88 said:

diamond_marmalade said:

20 years ago I wasn't even aware of this band. I love this record. I understand they released it on vinyl first before releasing the CD two weeks later and it got to number 1 based on vinyl sales? What a great video to start off my Saturday. Thanks.

the cd and cassette sales made it #1. The vinyl release debuted at #55

34000 vinyl copies sold in the first week. They held that record until Jack White released 'Lazeretto' earlier this year.

ikiT

I bought the cassette the first day it was available.
I was just finishing college at the time and had made a pretty self indulgent film about myself and what my life was like at the time. It was entitled "It's a shame about Kurt Cobain.." In the closing credits (played over Satan's Bed...) there was the line Buy Vitalogy today! When I showed it at the screening for my final, I had a guy come up to me afterward and he pulled an unopened, price tag still on it, CD of Vitalogy from his backpack. It was pretty trippy.

boyo79

Playing it now

mcgruff10

I was a junior in high school amd was blown away by the studio version of corduroy. I think I played that song five times a day for a year.

cropdustdair

Made a trip on a very snowy night 20 years ago for a midnight release of Vitalogy on vinyl. I bought 2 copies, both of which I still have. One opened and one still sealed!
Still my 2nd favorite PJ album of all time. Everybody with a record player should STBC today. I know I will. Happy 20th Anniversary Vitalogy and Viva La Vinyl!

2-feign-reluctance

16 yrs old, Streetside Records St.Charles, MO on a day like day. Dreary & rainy.

pleatherman

First PJ album I bought on release day! To think there was actually a time when Corduroy, Betterman ...etc. were considered new material is kinda nutso.

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy Tour Film from DUNCAN SHARP FILMS on Vimeo.

Also, a movie to celebrate an era when they were simultaneously the biggest and most reclusive band in the world!

RS151862

My senior year.. still love that 1 2 3 punch of Last Exit, STBC and Not For You to start the album. Hearing all these tracks played live on Self Pollution Radio a few months later was equally as incredible. That and Atlanta 94 turned me into a bootleg junkie, I had to find any live recording I could.

jsvajgl

I put this on last night for a deep listen. It felt just like it did 20 years ago. I remember driving 20 miles to the closest record store to get the midnight release. A lot of great memories from that era: finding the March 95 Melbourne boot on cassette (title "Aussie Dynamos" and still one of my favorites); hanging out in my friend's garage on a cold fucking Iowa night trying to pick up Self Pollution on his shortwave; getting immersed in the album artwork ("it means sorrow if a robin sings close to a window"); etc. Vitalogy always hovers in my top 3 albums and always will.

Would have loved to have seen Dave A. play some of these live. I know he played some of the tracks (SNL; the above-mentioned Atlanta show had 3 Vitalogy tracks) but would've been great to hear him play Corduroy live.

Last-12-Exit

I love Jack irons

PJ_Soul

I carried this tape and then CD around with me everywhere i went in '94/'95. It blew my mind completely... although I never warmed to STBC. I like it more now, but I really couldn't stand it back then.

moozeekfan

Posted this in TSIS forums a few years back, but since today is the 20th anniversary, this is what I did that night.

Vitalogycame out during a time where your average suburb had at least one record store (and no, I'm not talking about Best Buy or Target). Near the town I grew up in, there was a store, albeit a chain called Title Wave. A couple of weeks before, they had announced a midnight record store sale with Vitalogy on vinyl! Don't know if this was posted yet, but back in their days of mega-super-crazy popularity, PJ had started putting out their albums a week before the CD. I had gone in to another record store to grab the vinyl when Vs came out, and I would be damned if I was going to miss out when Vitalogy went on sale.
I was in high school at the time, and trying to be a responsible teen, I calmly announced to my parents my plans of leaving the house at 11:30 PM on a school night to drive to Title Wave to purchase the album.
They did not agree with my plans.
"Why don't you get it tomorrow after school?"
"Well, because it will probably be sold out by then. Title Wave probably won't have a lot of copies in stock."
"It's too late for you to go out on a school night."
"I know, but I'd come right home afterwards."
"You'll be too tired to get up tomorrow morning."
"No, I won't. C'mon, please!"
Questioning turned to bickering than arguing then yelling and ended with me slamming the door to my room in a fit of rage. In my anger, I might have quoted Langston Hughes, exclaiming "A dream deferred is a dream denied!" I thought this might work, being they were both English majors who loved poetry and then could see the extent of my desire to go get this album. No dice.
Frustrated, I then came up with a plan. I would wait until they fell asleep, sneak out of my bedroom window, "borrow" the car, and go to Title Wave. They didn't get to bed until super late, and I remember it being almost 12 by the time I carefully opened the window and snuck outside.
My mom's car thankfully wasn't in the garage, but on our driveway. I couldn't start it up without anyone hearing, so I put it in neutral, and with my foot, backed it down the driveway. I waited until I got on the street, started it up as quietly as I could, and took off to the store.
(Now, I'm not advocating anyone steal a car or commit some felony to obtain Pearl Jam records, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.)

I got to the store at 12:25. There was no one there except for two clerks. I didn't see the record out in the Pearl Jam section, and so I began to panic. Frantic, I ran to the counter and asked if there were any copiesof the vinyl left.
The clerk beamed and said, "Yes, there is! In fact, this is the last one left."
I might have squealed like a little girl when he told me that. I bought the record, and took off for home, hoping like hell no one would notice that a) I was not in bed and b) The Plymouth Sundance was missing from the driveway.
I couldn't pull the car into the driveway without my parents hearing, and so I took my chances and parked it on the street. I climbed back through the window, quietly shut it, and then...
Nothing. I had gotten away with it. The feeling I had then was one of pride, defiance, and serious
accomplishment. Let's face it, at 18, you haven't accomplished much with your life most likely, and so this felt like a major life-step in a way.
I had a turntable in my room and so I slipped open the vinyl, put my headphones on and listened straight-through. It was better than I could imagine. I played it over and over that night; I think I might have gotten an hour's worth of sleep before school. I remember taking the record with me in my backpack and showing it off to all my friends, leaving out the part about grand theft auto.
My parents must have noticed in the morning the car was parked in the street, but they never said anything to me. Maybe they were wary of bringing it up with me, or maybe they realized that I was old enough to make my own decisions. I was tired as hell that day, but exhilarated. Vitalogy was mine, and I'd like to think that 'the study of life' somehow applied to my experience here, but really I was more focused on what the hell 'Heyfoxymophandlemamathat'sme' was all about.

Last-12-Exit

Awesome story mooze. Definitely a great memory.

RunIntoTheRain

What a great story!

javis el errante

Moose: Best vinyl anecdote ever...

My fav album, PJ was MY band at the time, Vitalogy was released on CD on Nov 25th in Buenos Aires, or so, I got it later, I wanted the US version, not the Brazilian, still my fav abum, I still remember being freaked out by Tremor Christ, Corduroy and Satan's bed...

Last-12-Exit

I got the CD and the tape. I had a walkman I used for wrestling tournaments. I can remember being a junior in hs that winter and playing the tape in that walkman 100 times when we made the 2 hour trip to the Kokomo duals. Every time I hear the studio version of any song from Vitalogy it reminds me of that bus ride and that tournament. Good memories.

whispering hands

I was living in my car, travel king from ranch to ranch trying to find foremen that would let me intern there fir my Equine psychology credits, and I remember parking outside of The Wherehouse, a record store in Temecula Ca. (This was the same week I applied to intern for Reba Macentire on her Tennessee Walker ranch out there). There was a midnight sale for the CD, ( I didn't even know they were reading albums on vinyl then!!) I had a camping alarm, that failed to go off, but I had asign in my windshield window that said Vitalogy or death.. And at 11:45 some guy knocked on my window and with the most excited smile on his face, woke me up in time enough to get in the long ass line. His girlfriend looked at me when I hot out, and asked her boyfriend, do you know that girl?? And he said no.. But she is here for the same reason we are! I'll never forget that! I bought the cassette and the CD, and I don't know why. I only had a cassette player in my car!! I didn't get to open or play that cd for almost a year, when a bunk mate saw I was carrying around an opened CD, bought me a boo box type CD player for my birthday that summer! Lmao and the card was signed his name followed by, just fucking listen to your fucking Pearl Jam CD already! By then, No Code was almost out!! Lol Ahhhhh memories!!

Ledbetterman10

I don't even know where to begin praising this album.

MSnider44

Happy birthday, Vitalogy.

BALLBOY

This is their most challenging album & their best. You cannot praise enough & it would take forever☺☺

joseph33

When i was a freshman in high school,i remember a classmate singing the opening lines of Betterman. That day i went out and bought it on cd. The next day at school i was humming the same opening lines.

whispering hands

Do you know how crazy it is to think, I was finished with the in house portion of my University work, and doing internships, while some were still in HS?? Or worse yet not even born yet?? God I feel old.. I've grown old with this best band in the world!! Kinda beat really.. Crazy and freaky, but neat!

whispering hands

whispering hands said:

Do you know how crazy it is to think, I was finished with the in house portion of my University work, and doing internships, while some were still in HS?? Or worse yet not even born yet?? God I feel old.. I've grown old with this best band in the world!! Kinda beat really.. Crazy and freaky, but neat!

It's even worse thinking this about Ten!! Oh good god.. I think I need to go rest my old bones and contemplate this..... ;-)

Abe Froman

I posted this in another thread about Vitalogy too...

Ill never forget getting this vinyl at midnight a week before the cd release, coming home to my parents house, put on my dads headphones and dropping the needle. Wow. I had no idea how fucking mind blown I was about to be! Now, I already loved the first two records and was fully hooked on PJ at this point (18 yrs old) but this record for lack of better words just "sealed the deal" for me. Vitalogy for me took things to a new level. Probably at first due to a lot of the experimentation factor on it. My only knock on PJ at the time was they were too "commercial". Ha! so stupid and snobby but it was how I felt. The kinda avant garde tracks on it somehow made Pearl Jam seem "real" to me. It made a snobby music fan feel like he was right all along about these guys being different than the other cookie cutter shit bands at the time. Not to mention that the rest of the tracks on Vitalogy are obviously fantastic and still some of my favorites (STBC, Corduroy). Anyway, enough rambling. Just got sentimental for a minute seeing this thread. Took me back 20 yrs laying on my parents living room floor that night, not knowing I would be hooked forever.

evsgjamm

best thread in a long time IMO.

I picked up 3 copies of Vitalogy on vinyl over the last 10 years and have given away two of them to very deserving fans in that time. The vitals of vitalogy invite vigor in my veins & on their vingt 'versary I vill enjoy the vintner's vino. Mooze: your story brought joy into my face today.