Black (TEN)
Indifference (V's)
Corduroy / Nothingman (VIATLOGY)
Present Tense (NO CODE)
In Hiding (YIELD)
Light Years ( BINAURAL)
I Am Mine (RIOT ACT)
Fatal (Lost Dogs)
Every album they have helped. Each song in a different way at a different time in life.
Betterman is the song that always seems to put a smile on my face no matter how shitty i feel. especially listening to it live and hearing everyone sing along to it. that's such an amazing feeling. Given to Fly is another song that picks me up when i'm down. Thumbing My Way, Indifference, Footsteps and Fatal are helping with a lot of stress I have right now. Pretty much any PJ will help, but those songs have found themselves on repeat lately.
Listened to Black not long after the death of my father, it just seemed to fit with me at that time, its a beautiful song and one i'll never grow tired of
In Hiding
Save You
Indifference
State of Love and Trust
Porch
Go
Footsteps
Present Tense
Corduroy
These are the ones that haven helped me most recently and still are. Not sure I could name too many of their songs that haven't touched me some how, some way....
believe it or not, we don't "need" anything. that is only the spoiled brat in us trying to fill some temporary solution to an emptyness that does not exist.
I have eaten so much gold I crapped excellence - drtyfrnk29
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all!
Well, as in my siggy, "Rearview Mirror" inspired me in hard times (an abusive relationship) and continues to strike a chord in me.
"Black" is a fave...a busker friend of mine in Ottawa used to play it for me and it always made me cry.
"Drop the Leash", "Betterman", "Porch", "Oceans", all have affected me in hard times.
"Rats" makes me chuckle, "Spin The Black Circle" reminds me of my brother and his record collection.
Ahhh...the "Ten" album entirely, and pretty much every other damn song they've ever released.
I can't narrow the list down any. LOL.
~I guess it was the beatings made me wise. But I am not about to give thanks or apologize~
"Rearview Mirror": my inspiration.
I wish that the band would read this thread! very cool!!
For me its:
Black
Long Road
Release
I Got Shit
There's more but this all I could think at the moment.
2000 - Toronto 2003 - Toronto 2005 - Toronto 2006 - Toronto I, Toronto II 2009 - Toronto 2011 - Hamilton 2013 - Pittsburgh, Buffalo 2014 - Detroit 2016 - Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Ottawa, Toronto I, Toronto II, Wrigley I, Wrigley II 2018 - Seattle I, Seattle II, Fenway I, Fenway II 2020 - Toronto, Hamilton 2022 - Las Vegas, Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto 2023 - St. Paul I, St. Paul II
Indifference has had the single strongest impact over any song, poem, or book I have ever read. I sort of latched onto that song at a time in my life when I was at rock bottom and I needed to find the strength to start reclaiming my life from the people and feelings that put me in such a painful place.
" I will stand arms outstretched, pretend I'm free to roam
I will make my way, through, one more day in hell..."
That absolutely was my life at that point, and that song made me realize that it's time I just let all of the negative influences in my life just shead off my back like water and move forward fucking hard as rock burning up anger and apathy as fuel for a strong will and the determination to make my life better. Ed was like the voice of reason, telling me that it's time I stop worrying about what other people had to say about me and start living for ME.
Other important songs to me:
Sleight of Hand:
Ever since this came out this has been the true synthesis of my state of mind. I've left everything I ever new in life from my small town blue collar upbringing, and I'm now off in some fucking souless big city persuinga business lifestyle and all the associative "perks" it comes with which I have never had any need for. I've really been fighting with myself and trying to find the reasons why I'm doing this, but I'm slowly coming around to acept it. Much of it is my bullshit "teenage rebellion ideals" that keep tripping me up (I'm never going to drive an SUV, I'm never going to wear a suit to work, etc.). Now I'm closer to the resignation of those ideals and I'm starting to realize that I am not simply what I look like or where I work, everything that I think, feel, read, listen to, and DO makes me who I am. As the song says, I am closer to reaching the "other side", and I'm starting to accept that fact.
RVM:
Of course this song is just as much about moving foward on a catapult of will and strength, just like Indifference, but it didn't have quite the impact Indifference did.
I got id:
Somewhat less of these feelings stay with me now, but I got id is a song I often think of when I feel outcast or out of place in a crowd. It doesn't really bring to mine feelings of longing for a girl, to me I just attach it to wanting to be loved or accepted by ANYONE.
SOLAT:
This song has always been very powerful to me. I hold the strong belief that when you are at the end of your rope, only YOU can find understanding and do what is necessary to change your life for the better. The lyrics "and I listen oh for the voice inside my head, nothing, i'll do this one myself" ring so true to my feelings about that.
Untitled:
"got a car...i got some gas
oh, let's get out of here...get out of here fast
ah, everyone's confused so i stay in my room
if i go, i don't want to go alone
i hope you got this message...oh, you're not home
i could be there in ten minutes, or so
oh, i got my things
we'll make it up as we go along
oh, with you i could never be alone
never be alone"
Two years ago I was broke, ashamed to be asking my parents for money to support me, in a new town, and I thought my car was toast. I was so angry and worried that night that any time I just sat down and thought of these issues it just made me feel sick. Then finally I decided that I had to do something, anything, to take my mind off these problems. I sat down on the porch with a six pack and watched the traffic go by as I listened to this song on repeat for hours. The meaning I take from this song is ESCAPE. Fuck it all, pack up the car, fill up the gas tank, and leave it all behind. Whenever I'm really frustrated with my current situation I listen to this song and dream of doing that.
Sometimes:
It's just this short beautiful little song, and to me it speaks of religious devotion ("Ed's an atheist though!", yeah fuck you, get off my cloud), and how no matter what we do in life God is still there to forgive us and help us move forward. Ed may have wrote it as a question of faith, but I look to my faith as a reassurance when I listen to it. Whenever I listen to this it just calms me down compeletely.
Songs about memories and what people mean to me:
Long Road
Thumbing my Way
Light Years
Elderly Woman
Other Side
All of these songs remind me of the people that are important to me in my life, past or present, alive or dead. I often turn Long Road on in my car as I enter or leave my hometown, it seems fit to signify the passing and returning to the place where I belong. Other Side has particularly touched me since I first heard it on LD because it reminds me of the people important to me that I have lost. The last few lines "sit and stare, stare, begging for a prayer" really capture that feeling of slowly losing someone you love, and the fact that you are powerless to stop that.
Songs that make me feel GOOD:
Do the Evolution
Wish List
Given to Fly
Daughter
Push Me Pull Me
Release
These are the songs that I scream out loud in the car with the sun roof open while I'm doing 85 on the freeway.
I won't change direction, and I won't change my mind - E.V.
____________________________
99 Tibetan Freedom Concert, 00 Detroit, 03 Alpine Valley, 04 Grand Rapids
06 Chicago I, 06 Chicago II, 06 Grand Rapids, 07 Lollapalloza, 08 DC, 08 MSG I, 08 MSG II, 08 EV Solo Milwaukee, Chicago I & II 09, Portland 09, Nobelsville 10, Cleveland 10, PJ20 I & II, Wrigley 13, Brooklyn I & II '13, St. Paul 14, Moline 14, Milwaukee 14
This is only 3rd post. Feel like an old guy here at 30 years old!
My first year of college through now, their music has had great effect on me- musically, personally, interpersonally, etc...singing to the choir...I know.
Most impact? Easy.
RearviewMirror.
My wife only recently let me listen to it again, because she remembers how much it would effect me. Cripple me, really, then enrage me, then settle me down, then cripple me.
Just when you think you can't go anymore, and the past and present are pushing you beyond where you can bear it, I think something is sent into your life. Vs. and RVM was that gift. I'm not the cussin type anymore, but back then RVM showed me that LIVING was the way out. LIVING was the best way to say FUCK YOU ALL! I'M STRONGER! Really, knowing what I know now, it was a great way to get all the horrors of life out in front of me, make me look at it, and then realize that I have to move on.
Gee, you'd think they knew I needed to hear those words!
Follow RVM up with MFC and just drive, baby, drive!
Originally posted by Angus Black
In my Tree
Nothingman
the whole Yield album, really
i definitely have to agree with u on the yield album.
hmm...black's always been a great favourite song of mine to drag me out of my abyss of depressedness.
with or without you by U2 is another great one...
either little wing or wind cries mary by hendrix- definitely.
and so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually...
BLACK. The Most Personal I Can Think Of. It Is Just Insane With Mine And Eddie's Thoughts, We Are Almost A Like, Mostly All The Songs He's Written I Would Have Written If He Did Not, Like Black, Or In Hiding, Even Hail, Hail. I Go And Write A Song. Then I'd Like Listen To A New Pearl Jam I'd Never Heard Of, And They Are Almost The Same.
One Flew East, One Flew West
One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest
great topic. it's been enjoyable reading everyones responses. as far as my answers go, i gotta just take the easy way out and say there are just way too many to even try to talk about. i could almost list every song if i honestly wanted to. i know this topic is about songs helping to get through hard times and many have helped me do that but also many have helped me through good times as well. thats the great thing about pearl jam's music. it can comfort you when you're sad or lonely, and it can add to your joy when you're happy. it really is like having a great friend there for you no matter what is happening in your life.....no matter what you're going through or what you're feeling there is always a pearl jam song you can listen to.
Stunned by my own reflection, it's looking back sees me too clearly and I swore I'd never go there again. Not unlike a friend that politely drags you down.
Footsteps... it took me through my teenage years and it saved my life on more than 1 occasion.
But aside from that, there's been various others that have really hit home at various times which were just like a friendly helping hand along the way.
"...to love some silly piece of music... or some band so much that it hurts"
I've been a PJ fan since 94 but it hasn't been until this last year that I realized important their music is to me.
It was one year ago today that I held my mother's hand while she died in a hospital bed of cancer at 58 years young. I've had a horrible time dealing with it, so today I'm sitting in my room, crying, and coping through music.
Well, i'm kinda new to the board and let me tell ya PJ fans are as awesome as PJ itself....as for which songs helped me the most it is impossbile to say....any PJ song helps smooth out the rough patches....i think of the first time i heard black live in new orleans or when eddie came on in buffalo before the opening band and did a solo performance of hide your love and i still get the chills....but, the song of the hour is thumbing my way....i know people say i relate to their music, but this song relates to me if that makes sense...."i'm just walking the miles...every once in a while, get a ride" and thats just it, life in a nutshell...lifes a journey and i'm in for the long haul....i know i'll have to bust my hump most of the way, but i sure appreciate a lift every once in awhile.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. JFK
Comments
release
leash
indifference
my tree
of the girl
no way
2-1-0
4-3-2-1-0
2---2--3---3--2----1
---0
0
0
2-2-2-3-3-3-2-2-0
M
Indifference (V's)
Corduroy / Nothingman (VIATLOGY)
Present Tense (NO CODE)
In Hiding (YIELD)
Light Years ( BINAURAL)
I Am Mine (RIOT ACT)
Fatal (Lost Dogs)
Every album they have helped. Each song in a different way at a different time in life.
~Lindsay
given to fly - the soaring feeling this song gives, pulls me out and upward.
the "it's okay" tag by dead moon - absolutely comforting to me, i'ts like a sonic hug.
-Release
-Parting Ways
-Long Road
-Betterman
-Present Tense
-Off He Goes
-Hard To Imagine
just for one day
Save You
Indifference
State of Love and Trust
Porch
Go
Footsteps
Present Tense
Corduroy
These are the ones that haven helped me most recently and still are. Not sure I could name too many of their songs that haven't touched me some how, some way....
I have eaten so much gold I crapped excellence - drtyfrnk29
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all!
1. Black (the all time greatest sad song)
2. The long road
3. Smile
4. Betterman
5. Hard to imagine
I will walk the long road.
slow songs bring me down... rocking one bring me away....
you can never go back...
"Black" is a fave...a busker friend of mine in Ottawa used to play it for me and it always made me cry.
"Drop the Leash", "Betterman", "Porch", "Oceans", all have affected me in hard times.
"Rats" makes me chuckle, "Spin The Black Circle" reminds me of my brother and his record collection.
Ahhh...the "Ten" album entirely, and pretty much every other damn song they've ever released.
I can't narrow the list down any. LOL.
"Rearview Mirror": my inspiration.
For me its:
Black
Long Road
Release
I Got Shit
There's more but this all I could think at the moment.
2003 - Toronto
2005 - Toronto
2006 - Toronto I, Toronto II
2009 - Toronto
2011 - Hamilton
2013 - Pittsburgh, Buffalo
2014 - Detroit
2016 - Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Ottawa, Toronto I, Toronto II, Wrigley I, Wrigley II
2018 - Seattle I, Seattle II, Fenway I, Fenway II
2020 - Toronto, Hamilton
2022 - Las Vegas, Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto
2023 - St. Paul I, St. Paul II
Indifference has had the single strongest impact over any song, poem, or book I have ever read. I sort of latched onto that song at a time in my life when I was at rock bottom and I needed to find the strength to start reclaiming my life from the people and feelings that put me in such a painful place.
" I will stand arms outstretched, pretend I'm free to roam
I will make my way, through, one more day in hell..."
That absolutely was my life at that point, and that song made me realize that it's time I just let all of the negative influences in my life just shead off my back like water and move forward fucking hard as rock burning up anger and apathy as fuel for a strong will and the determination to make my life better. Ed was like the voice of reason, telling me that it's time I stop worrying about what other people had to say about me and start living for ME.
Other important songs to me:
Sleight of Hand:
Ever since this came out this has been the true synthesis of my state of mind. I've left everything I ever new in life from my small town blue collar upbringing, and I'm now off in some fucking souless big city persuinga business lifestyle and all the associative "perks" it comes with which I have never had any need for. I've really been fighting with myself and trying to find the reasons why I'm doing this, but I'm slowly coming around to acept it. Much of it is my bullshit "teenage rebellion ideals" that keep tripping me up (I'm never going to drive an SUV, I'm never going to wear a suit to work, etc.). Now I'm closer to the resignation of those ideals and I'm starting to realize that I am not simply what I look like or where I work, everything that I think, feel, read, listen to, and DO makes me who I am. As the song says, I am closer to reaching the "other side", and I'm starting to accept that fact.
RVM:
Of course this song is just as much about moving foward on a catapult of will and strength, just like Indifference, but it didn't have quite the impact Indifference did.
I got id:
Somewhat less of these feelings stay with me now, but I got id is a song I often think of when I feel outcast or out of place in a crowd. It doesn't really bring to mine feelings of longing for a girl, to me I just attach it to wanting to be loved or accepted by ANYONE.
SOLAT:
This song has always been very powerful to me. I hold the strong belief that when you are at the end of your rope, only YOU can find understanding and do what is necessary to change your life for the better. The lyrics "and I listen oh for the voice inside my head, nothing, i'll do this one myself" ring so true to my feelings about that.
Untitled:
"got a car...i got some gas
oh, let's get out of here...get out of here fast
ah, everyone's confused so i stay in my room
if i go, i don't want to go alone
i hope you got this message...oh, you're not home
i could be there in ten minutes, or so
oh, i got my things
we'll make it up as we go along
oh, with you i could never be alone
never be alone"
Two years ago I was broke, ashamed to be asking my parents for money to support me, in a new town, and I thought my car was toast. I was so angry and worried that night that any time I just sat down and thought of these issues it just made me feel sick. Then finally I decided that I had to do something, anything, to take my mind off these problems. I sat down on the porch with a six pack and watched the traffic go by as I listened to this song on repeat for hours. The meaning I take from this song is ESCAPE. Fuck it all, pack up the car, fill up the gas tank, and leave it all behind. Whenever I'm really frustrated with my current situation I listen to this song and dream of doing that.
Sometimes:
It's just this short beautiful little song, and to me it speaks of religious devotion ("Ed's an atheist though!", yeah fuck you, get off my cloud), and how no matter what we do in life God is still there to forgive us and help us move forward. Ed may have wrote it as a question of faith, but I look to my faith as a reassurance when I listen to it. Whenever I listen to this it just calms me down compeletely.
Songs about memories and what people mean to me:
Long Road
Thumbing my Way
Light Years
Elderly Woman
Other Side
All of these songs remind me of the people that are important to me in my life, past or present, alive or dead. I often turn Long Road on in my car as I enter or leave my hometown, it seems fit to signify the passing and returning to the place where I belong. Other Side has particularly touched me since I first heard it on LD because it reminds me of the people important to me that I have lost. The last few lines "sit and stare, stare, begging for a prayer" really capture that feeling of slowly losing someone you love, and the fact that you are powerless to stop that.
Songs that make me feel GOOD:
Do the Evolution
Wish List
Given to Fly
Daughter
Push Me Pull Me
Release
These are the songs that I scream out loud in the car with the sun roof open while I'm doing 85 on the freeway.
____________________________
99 Tibetan Freedom Concert, 00 Detroit, 03 Alpine Valley, 04 Grand Rapids
06 Chicago I, 06 Chicago II, 06 Grand Rapids, 07 Lollapalloza, 08 DC, 08 MSG I, 08 MSG II, 08 EV Solo Milwaukee, Chicago I & II 09, Portland 09, Nobelsville 10, Cleveland 10, PJ20 I & II, Wrigley 13, Brooklyn I & II '13, St. Paul 14, Moline 14, Milwaukee 14
Hard to Imagaine
Footsteps
Black (especially LO2L version)
Thumbing My Way
Well there's more but every song has helped me get over a relationship at one point or another. Pearl Jam is so great for that...
Present Tense makes me determined to get things right in the future and not let events in the past get to me.
Do The Evolution makes me feel so defiant and think fuck the doubters.
Thankyou Pearl Jam.
Of which we're caught in the middle.
A couple of lucky ones
Tangled up in too much love
~cowboy junkies
My first year of college through now, their music has had great effect on me- musically, personally, interpersonally, etc...singing to the choir...I know.
Most impact? Easy.
RearviewMirror.
My wife only recently let me listen to it again, because she remembers how much it would effect me. Cripple me, really, then enrage me, then settle me down, then cripple me.
Just when you think you can't go anymore, and the past and present are pushing you beyond where you can bear it, I think something is sent into your life. Vs. and RVM was that gift. I'm not the cussin type anymore, but back then RVM showed me that LIVING was the way out. LIVING was the best way to say FUCK YOU ALL! I'M STRONGER! Really, knowing what I know now, it was a great way to get all the horrors of life out in front of me, make me look at it, and then realize that I have to move on.
Gee, you'd think they knew I needed to hear those words!
Follow RVM up with MFC and just drive, baby, drive!
Betterman is also my favorite song, for the same reason....
i definitely have to agree with u on the yield album.
hmm...black's always been a great favourite song of mine to drag me out of my abyss of depressedness.
with or without you by U2 is another great one...
either little wing or wind cries mary by hendrix- definitely.
One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest
Black
Hold On
Indifference
Nothingman
That part hits home for me...
But aside from that, there's been various others that have really hit home at various times which were just like a friendly helping hand along the way.
It was one year ago today that I held my mother's hand while she died in a hospital bed of cancer at 58 years young. I've had a horrible time dealing with it, so today I'm sitting in my room, crying, and coping through music.
Sad
Lightyears
Thumbing my way
Release
Long road
Thank you, PJ
"we were but stones, your light made us stars"