Waiting For Stevie

Chazz

My favourite PJ song for a long time, gives me goosebumps.  Hope they play this in Manchester - I think all these Dark Matter songs are going to sound epic and massive live! 😁 

Dr. Stip Zoidberg

More thoughts on this ridiculous song

I've heard people identify the appeal of this song as nostalgia, and I don't think that fully gets at it. Waiting for Stevie didn't just remind me of an older era in a sentimental way. It wasn't even the familiarity of it. These things are present, but they are only part of the story (in the same way that just focusing on a 90s sounding riff is reductive). What I think this song did so incredibly well, that makes it so singular for me, was that it evoked and conjured those feelings (which i did not expect to feel again) but ALSO situated them in the present. It was that bridge between past and present it built so well that, at least for me was so powerful. The way it brought those pieces of my life into co-existence with each other. The live experience of some of these songs can produce that live, in the moment, but it lives in that singular moment. I can only take the memory with me. Not the actual experience. Now I can. What a gift.

Eddie is writing from inside the headspace of the young woman in the song, but he is writing from a place of understanding born of experience. He knows exactly what she fears, what she struggles with, and above all, what she is searching for, because that was once exactly who he was. He made it through, but did not forget, and is grateful for the chance to guide her/the listener through their journey - both legitimating her experience and promising a way forward. It's in the lyrics, the music, the performance. Everyone plays their part perfectly, and then pushes beyond. This is not just composition. There is a passion in the entire performance, a willing to be open and vulnerable and channel everything they have that appears in moments throughout Dark Matter (it's a great record) but is present in every second of this song. This song starts at the moment another song would peak, and somehow sustains it for almost 5 minutes. And there is NO pearl jam song that does that. Even if other songs have bigger and more emotional highs (and they do), none last this long.

Part of me thinks of Release- not the song itself, but the lyrical/thematic content. The feeling of hope and possibility in Waiting for Stevie is what the subject of Release is asking for. That feeling of oneness, the understanding of pain and inadequacy and desperate need for a home and community that understands. It's like Waiting for Stevie is reaching back to guide the subject of Release here.

But probably the better, simpler example is in Breath, the song where (musically) Waiting for Stevie finds its roots.  Probably my favorite Pearl Jam lyric of all time is in the bridge

"If I knew where it was I would take you there.
There's much more than this."

Waiting for Stevie is the fulfillment of that promise. It's sung by someone who found it, and is trying to show those still those still looking how to find the way.

demetrios

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyRYGH8x-rE

demetrios

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XudnJXXgejc

..

https://www.musicradar.com/news/a-guy-named-alexander-dumble-made-the-amps-andrew-watt-reveals-the-gear-behind-pearl-jams-new-album

But Watt also played an active role in inspiring Dark Matter's standout track Waiting For Stevie. A song that echoes Pearl Jam's younger days sonically and in Vedder's emotional reach, while also recalling Soundgarden's hypnotic mid-tempo songs like Mind Riot but also the day Watt and singer Vedder were waiting for Stevie Wonder to turn up to play harmonica on a song called Try from the Pearl Jam singer's 2022 solo album, Earthling, that Watt also produced.

"We were sitting around with guitars and waiting, and I said, I have this idea, check it out," remembers Watt of the riff. [Eddie] says, 'That is so fucking weird, because I’ve had this riff for literally years — since albums and albums and albums and albums ago'. He showed it to me, and it was almost exactly the same. So, they both kind of melded into each other. 

"We presented that to everyone in the first week, and they all wrote their parts and how the sections would move. It really only became a thing because the thing I showed Ed reminded him of something he’d written that was very similar. The drums on that song are fucking biblical to me. The Matt Cameron dirge! Matt is a pretty stoic guy [and was also Soundgarden's drummer]. He’s like Charlie Watts or something. I was screaming, go harder! Come on! It was like I was at one of their shows or something. At some point, he just had to laugh."

lastexitlondon

It's funny I said very first listen. Soundgarden mind riot. Go me.

HailHailVitalogy

Kind of hit me last night. This is Hold On. Imagining ‘91-93 Eddie singing WFS really puts it in perspective. 

beano.79

HailHailVitalogy said:

Kind of hit me last night. This is Hold On. Imagining ‘91-93 Eddie singing WFS really puts it in perspective. 

Yes! This was the closest PJ comparison I could come to also.

mcgruff10

Here s the intro.  Play these three lines of individual notes on your G string.  Very very easy.  

BF25394

mcgruff10 said:

Here s the intro.  Play these three lines of individual notes on your G string.  Very very easy.  

Leave my G string out of it! This is a family message board.

BF25394

cincybearcat said:

RS151862 said:

Did anyone figure out who Stevie is?

Stevie Wonder. Song written as Andrew watt and Vedder waited for Stevie who was late to add his parts to Earthling. 

Hey, that's Stevie Wonder you're talking about. He wasn't late. Ed and Watt were early!

Gern Blansten

mcgruff10 said:

lastexitlondon said:

mcgruff10 said:

Just heard Cornell s voice for the first time in this. Took a few listens to get it.    Holy shit.  

Where?

Sorry for not being more clear.   The way Ed sings this song sounds like Cornell.  Took me a few listens to hear it.  

I hope you will be rooting for my boys tomorrow at wembley!

I actually wondered if the lyrics were CC inspired

nicknyr15

Gern Blansten said:

mcgruff10 said:

lastexitlondon said:

mcgruff10 said:

Just heard Cornell s voice for the first time in this. Took a few listens to get it.    Holy shit.  

Where?

Sorry for not being more clear.   The way Ed sings this song sounds like Cornell.  Took me a few listens to hear it.  

I hope you will be rooting for my boys tomorrow at wembley!

I actually wondered if the lyrics were CC inspired

Yea the first line about being loved really made me feel the same thing. 

spankyMP

lastexitlondon said:

It's funny I said very first listen. Soundgarden mind riot. Go me.

Indeed!!

kramerica4

Will this be the next single?
Could either see this or 'Won't Tell'.

LukinAtU

really like this one. and mikes guitar takes me back to early PJ. Curious though about Ed's singing on this one...if they flirted with different tempos and timing...it just reminds me of some off Gigaton that I didnt care for...but still really enjoy this one.

demetrios

They just rehearsed Waiting For Stevie @ Climate Pledge in Seattle minutes ago! 

BrainofBGA

demetrios said:

They just rehearsed Waiting For Stevie @ Climate Pledge in Seattle minutes ago! 

👀

BrainofBGA

Makes me think they’re rehearsing other songs too!? 

Stone spoke of new elements to the stage ie lightning, maybe visuals? So maybe they’re getting in some full rehearsal. Trialling the new elements in an actual arena. 

opsopcopolis

Full production rehearsals are pretty common at that level. Gotta get in there and shake the dust off

mr bungle

demetrios said:

They just rehearsed Waiting For Stevie @ Climate Pledge in Seattle minutes ago! 

Surprise warmup show tonight or tomorrow here in Seattle going to happen?!?!