Why is Vitalogy absent from Lost Dogs?

Back_Pedal · January 2009

Has this ever been explained? Vitalogy is one of my top 3 PJ albums.

Eduardo Veduardo · January 2009

I'm confused...what do you mean?

12345AGNST1 · January 2009

He means why aren't there any B sides from Vitalogy. My answer is just simply that there probably weren't much or any. The album was released a year after VS and there are 14 tracks, I wouldn't really expect there to be much B sides.

mickeyrat · January 2009

and didn't some of Vs. make to Vitalogy?

eldarion75 · January 2009

hard to imagine is technically from the vitalogy sessions.

PJRock75 · January 2009

eldarion75 wrote:

hard to imagine is technically from the vitalogy sessions.

No it's not.....way before....in between Ten and VS.

eldarion75 · January 2009

PJRock75 wrote:

eldarion75 wrote:

hard to imagine is technically from the vitalogy sessions.

No it's not.....way before....in between Ten and VS.

Last time HTI was recorded innanstudio was for inclusion on Vitalogy. Wanna get trekkie about it off you go but you'll be wrong.

gusturtle · January 2009

hopefully there are some b-sides that will surface on the Vitalogy re-release that's coming up.

deadmosquito · January 2009

because the b-sides were included on the album. they are called "pry, to," "aye davanita," "bugs," and "hey foxymophandlemama, that's me."

DewieCox · January 2009

deadmosquito wrote:

because the b-sides were included on the album. they are called "pry, to," "aye davanita," "bugs," and "hey foxymophandlemama, that's me."

I'll give you Pry To, Bug and Foxy..........., but Aye Davanita is a very cool little piece of music. Not quite as abstract as what I always thought it was.

2010 Fire · January 2009

deadmosquito wrote:

because the b-sides were included on the album. they are called "pry, to," "aye davanita," "bugs," and "hey foxymophandlemama, that's me."

That seems correct.

In My Dreams · January 2009

DewieCox wrote:

deadmosquito wrote:

because the b-sides were included on the album. they are called "pry, to," "aye davanita," "bugs," and "hey foxymophandlemama, that's me."

I'll give you Pry To, Bug and Foxy..........., but Aye Davanita is a very cool little piece of music. Not quite as abstract as what I always thought it was.

No, this seems correct.

corduroy10 · January 2009

While not technically a studio b-side, we did get the excellent "Out of my Mind" improv on the Not For You single.

dreamweaver · January 2009

eldarion75 wrote:

PJRock75 wrote:

eldarion75 wrote:

hard to imagine is technically from the vitalogy sessions.

No it's not.....way before....in between Ten and VS.

Last time HTI was recorded innanstudio was for inclusion on Vitalogy. Wanna get trekkie about it off you go but you'll be wrong.

I will second that you are wrong.. it was recorded for VS.

sickwillie · January 2009

I never got the impression that there were many other songs recorded during those sessions. Like a previous poster said, the album came out only 14 months after Vs. (and was completed much sooner; Sony sat on it for months because Vs. was still selling). A lot of it was written on the Vs. tour. And relations in the band weren't exactly at a high point. I can't see them hammering out very many extra songs in that kind of environment over such a short period of time.

NewJPage · January 2009

No it's not.....way before....in between Ten and VS.[/quote]

Last time HTI was recorded innanstudio was for inclusion on Vitalogy. Wanna get trekkie about it off you go but you'll be wrong.[/quote]

I will second that you are wrong.. it was recorded for VS.[/quote]

i think vitalogy as well...it may have been re-recorded in '98 too, but i might be remembering that incorrectly.

PJRock75 · January 2009

You guys are being silly...the last time something was recorded doesn't mean it was from that era.....usually when the song was created is what era it was from. I remember getting the Hallucinagenic Recipes box set back in '92 and being blown away by HTI...pretty sure that was before Vitalogy and it was a studio recording (case in point).

primussucks · January 2009

PJRock75 wrote:

You guys are being silly...the last time something was recorded doesn't mean it was from that era.....usually when the song was created is what era it was from. I remember getting the Hallucinagenic Recipes box set back in '92 and being blown away by HTI...pretty sure that was before Vitalogy and it was a studio recording (case in point).

So then 'Whipping' & 'Betterman' are Vs. era songs because they were recorded during the Vs. sessions? I know what everyone is trying to say fact is HTI was recorded during both Vs. & Vitalogy sessions and then I believe tried again during Yield sessions. So there are several studio versions of this song. Ya I think they pretty much emptied the vaults for Vitalogy.

PJRock75 · January 2009

Basically...yes. All though, Betterman if you remember is really pre Pearl Jam. If that's when they were recorded, then that's what era they are from...the band just decided to put them on later albums. I had/still have boots with Brain Of J from '95 yet they weren't put on No Code...but later obviously on Yield.

My point is the first time a song is created, then that's what era it's from.....when your born in the '70s, do you say that your from the '90s or whenever you turn 21 which in the U.S. makes you a legal adult??

rrivers · January 2009

sickwillie wrote:

I never got the impression that there were many other songs recorded during those sessions. Like a previous poster said, the album came out only 14 months after Vs. (and was completed much sooner; Sony sat on it for months because Vs. was still selling). A lot of it was written on the Vs. tour. And relations in the band weren't exactly at a high point. I can't see them hammering out very many extra songs in that kind of environment over such a short period of time.

Right and Ed was doing a lot of the writing on his own so with less collaboration there will be less songs.

I will put my vote in for HTI being from the Vs. sessions. Re-recording it during Vitalogy sessions doesn't make it from then. Even in the "Lost Dogs" booklet, it says Vs. for the album HTI is a b-side of.

restlesssoul · January 2009

In the annals of PJ fandom, there are a handful of unreleased songs that have obtained "legendary" status. To us, "Hard to Imagine" was at the top of that list, mostly because it never seemed to entirely disappear. It would surface now and then during live shows, as an improv, or just as Stone noodling on the guitar (go listen to any 92 Lolla show and see what we mean), it would get mentioned in interviews, it almost surfaced on albums. As Stone mentions in the interview excerpt below, HtI was originally recorded during the Vs. sessions (but, obviously, wasn't included on that album), and can also be found on Vitalogy session tapes (with slightly different lyrics, again, as discussed below). Complete versions were played live in shows during 1993 and 1994 (see the Concert Chronology for further details.) No other unreleased song in PJ's repertoire has really had this kind of mysterious staying power.

This song came to the forefront of everyone's minds again two years ago, when a tape surfaced of a lengthy soundcheck before the 1996 Barcelona show. This soundcheck featured a haunting, ethereal 16 minute version of HtI. This led to much discussion and speculation that the song would surface on PJ's next album.

When the announcement came that HtI was going to be appearing on the Chicago Cab soundtrack, there was a loud, collective cheer. This is a track that is beloved not just because it is rare, but because it is a beautiful, poignant, moving song.

But why "Hard to Imagine"? And why now? Here's an excerpt from a recent interview with Stone that explains (almost) all:

TMN: What made you, but not just you -- the rest of Pearl Jam too - decide to dig up "Hard To Imagine?" That song is so cool to fans. I'm a big fan and I've had that on bootlegs for years and always hoped that you guys would release it.
Stone: Right, well, I think that was one aspect of it: that we knew that people liked the song. I think it fits well with the movie. I don't know if you've seen the movie or not.
TMN: Oh yeah, I saw it last week.
Stone: I think the mood of that song is very melancholy and I think it fits with the movie. I think the band was excited about helping the label raise awareness about the movie. First and foremost, I know Ed's a big fan of the movie and was excited about letting them use "Who You Are," as I was. I think when I approached the band and Sony about saying, "Hey, is there a possibility that we can release an unreleased track on it, too, to kind of give a little bit more weight and kind of maybe draw a little more attention to it?" Everyone was really understanding and cooperative, which was great. It meant a lot to the label in trying to have a little success at the record company thing.
TMN: How come you guys never released the song before?
Stone: There's no specific answer to that. I know the first time we recorded it, during the Vs. sessions, it just didn't seem like it fit. It seemed like we had covered our bases as far as the mellower stuff. Nobody felt like we needed to do it, and it has kind of a b-side feel to it in my mind. It's one of those songs that's pretty raw and it's not really overly produced or anything like that. Not that anything else is that we've done, it just didn't seem to fit with that record. And then, after that, when we were moving on to making other records, we were so kind of involved in that period of time of what songs we were writing, it just didn't seem like that song fit in.
TMN: I know there were a bunch of different takes, ones that had different lyrics and stuff like that. And I think that I heard that you were the one that picked that particular take.
Stone: Well, I picked that one because that was the one that was the most complete. That particular take was the one. I think the ones that have different lyrics are probably versions of the same take but just with different vocals on them, maybe a scratch vocal. Or maybe there was another version that we recorded later. Well, actually, I guess we did try to record it during the No Code era. We just took a wild stab at playing it once or twice. It didn't really move anyone at that particular time. We went back and listened to the old one. The old one was actually a lot better than everyone imagined.

With the song's impending release this summer, we all imagined that we would get to hear it live. It was another popular "sign request," with at least one sign at every show, requesting the song. However, while the song occasionally surfaced in soundchecks, HtI did not have its live debut until the Montreal show on August 20; from the way the song is introduced, it sounds like this performance was as the result of a sign - of course, they did soundcheck it that day as well! But it doesn't matter how or why the band played it, this live version has all the beautiful qualities of the studio version.

That should settle that. Would like to get my hands on that 16 minute version soundcheck, that's for sure.

rrivers · January 2009

It's funny this is one of those songs that I have never really been a fan of. I'm actually glad it never made it to an album. Just doesn't work for me. Thanks for the info, restlesssoul. I've never heard a lot of that.

Why is Vitalogy absent from Lost Dogs?

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