Stipe's influence on Vedder

DH62179 · February 2010

I've always thought that PJ was inspired by REM to make a leaner album like Backspacer after REM made Accelerate. They seemed to say similar things as in they wanted to cut out the BS and just make straightforward, leaner songs and I think they both succeeded.

pleatherman · February 2010

DH62179 wrote:

I've always thought that PJ was inspired by REM to make a leaner album like Backspacer after REM made Accelerate. They seemed to say similar things as in they wanted to cut out the BS and just make straightforward, leaner songs and I think they both succeeded.

Accelerate is their best album since New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It totally prepared me for Backspacer. While others complained how short Backspacer was going to be prior to its release, Accelerate already provided all the proof I needed that a 36 minute/11 song album can work exceptionally as a complete piece of music.
In a nice example of symmetry, did you know that the conception of New Adventures in Hi-Fi was actually inspired by Vitalogy? Upon Hi-Fi's release, Peter Buck said "What was kind of an inspiration to us was to see Pearl Jam go out and do like a week of shows and then stay in the last town of the tour and record all the things they jammed on at soundcheck."

DH62179 · February 2010

I didnt know that, I read that Hi-Fi was inspired by Time Fades Away by Uncle Neil but not Vitalogy which is pretty cool. Hi-Fi is my favorite album of all time by anyone.

Evacuation Rules · February 2010

Hi-Fi is my favorite too. I remember it was kind of a bomb when it came out. I think Monster killed their momentum.

morello · February 2010

Wow, I didn't know about the PJ/REM links & in fact other than when Hi-fi tracks come up when my ipod's on shuffle haven't listened to REM that much recently. This has reminded me about them & might just have to check out Accelerate which I hadn't even heard of. Thnx all. :-)

locked · February 2010

IMO:

Stipe and REM's sound/ song styles are in a totally different catgeory than Vedder / Pearl Jam.

As a long time fan / concert go-er (bootleg collector of both) its clear to me that they have little in common other than most of the songs in each band's catalogue are centered primarily on the strength of the lead vocals.

REM came out of the early 1980's "Indie" label scene (Like the Replacements, Throwing Muses, etc.) and leans more toward a sparse guitar melodic jangling sound... especially their early stuff.

Pearl Jam came out of the early 1990's "Grunge" label scene, which in a way is the Seattle version of "Indie" but leans (very heavily IMO) on a heavy Metal / Hard Rock style in the vein of Led Zeppelin .
Their song catalogue is bi-cameral in its focus on
1) Hard rock / Punk
2) Torch song / accoustic ballads

Led Zeppelin was an innovator in this two-pronged song style and but relied more heavily on blues based numbers.

Pearl Jam's hard rock songs are influenced by Ament, Stone & McCready's love of Led Zep, Hendrix, SRV, AC/ DC, Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath .

Pearl Jam's accosutic stuff smacks of other infludences (Pete Townsend, James Taylor and Crowded House in particular).

and I will assert that Eddie Vedder introduced a new style of rock vocals with the band's debut of "Ten" that was copied by some many poser bands in the grunge aftermath.

nothing at all like Stipe's "confused / shy child" type vocals..

pleatherman · February 2010

locked wrote:

IMO:

Stipe and REM's sound/ song styles are in a totally different catgeory than Vedder / Pearl Jam.

As a long time fan / concert go-er (bootleg collector of both) its clear to me that they have little in common other than most of the songs in each band's catalogue are centered primarily on the strength of the lead vocals.

REM came out of the early 1980's "Indie" label scene (Like the Replacements, Throwing Muses, etc.) and leans more toward a sparse guitar melodic jangling sound... especially their early stuff.

Pearl Jam came out of the early 1990's "Grunge" label scene, which in a way is the Seattle version of "Indie" but leans (very heavily IMO) on a heavy Metal / Hard Rock style in the vein of Led Zeppelin .
Their song catalogue is bi-cameral in its focus on
1) Hard rock / Punk
2) Torch song / accoustic ballads

Led Zeppelin was an innovator in this two-pronged song style and but relied more heavily on blues based numbers.

Pearl Jam's hard rock songs are influenced by Ament, Stone & McCready's love of Led Zep, Hendrix, SRV, AC/ DC, Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath .

Pearl Jam's accosutic stuff smacks of other infludences (Pete Townsend, James Taylor and Crowded House in particular).

and I will assert that Eddie Vedder introduced a new style of rock vocals with the band's debut of "Ten" that was copied by some many poser bands in the grunge aftermath.

nothing at all like Stipe's "confused / shy child" type vocals..

I don’t think many people would disagree with a lot of those statements. To repeat my earlier post, Eddie Vedder has one of the most original voices out there. And, with natural talent, he worked hard to get it that way. But nothing is created in a vacuum, as you indicated with mention to their musical influences. Even Eddie’s many different ways of singing have their reference points somewhere. In interviews we’ve found they are as disparate as Frank Black and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Yet, no one would confuse Vedder’s voice for either of those singers. The reason being Eddie takes his influences and dilutes them enough to make it wholly his own. As a result, he is derivative of nobody, unlike those poser bands in the grunge aftermath. What I am trying to get at is Vedder and Stipe’s singing has intersected at times. I don’t mean with Stipe’s “confused/ shy child” type vocals, either. Specifically, there are parts within such R.E.M. songs as So. Central Rain, (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville, Can’t Get There from Here, and Driver 8 that I find similarities. It is known Eddie became a diehard R.E.M. fan during his embryonic years as a singer-songwriter.
I am willingly to concede it could be a coincidence. After all, I remember an interview with Stone, commenting how he hears a Sting influence in Eddie’s singing; and personally, I don’t hear that one at all.

Smellyman · February 2010

i could find similarities be between Karen Carpenter and Vedder.

It doesn't make it true.

guypjfreak · February 2010

listen to Eddie vedders voice he IS one of a kind
............GOD................................................
all bands hail to be this band

pleatherman · February 2010

Eddie's voice is Eddie's voice. doubt he is emulating anybody.

I think everyone knows Eddie isn't emulating anyone.

Smellyman wrote:

i could find similarities be between Karen Carpenter and Vedder.
It doesn't make it true.

So what is true, in terms of his singing influences? Besides, I don't think Eddie has that strong of a connection with Karen like the one with R.E.M., as described in his R&R Hall of Fame speech. Of course, that doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.

On a related note, here is a poorly recorded cover of pearl jam by R.E.M.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8UpVx6zCDM
Vice versa, except a little better audio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODV4JT5DQw0&feature=related

Wobbie · February 2010

FenwayFaithful wrote:

norm wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XaoF8bDMcM

They are both goofball dancers too!

FenwayFaithful wrote:

They are both goofball dancers too!

ya think? :wtf:

http://www.remhq.com/hqtv/index.php?bcp ... 8852065001

check out Can't Get There From Here (page 2) for dancing

...and Radio Free Europe (page 2) for hair.

dmftraveller · March 2010

locked wrote:

IMO:

Stipe and REM's sound/ song styles are in a totally different catgeory than Vedder / Pearl Jam.

As a long time fan / concert go-er (bootleg collector of both) its clear to me that they have little in common other than most of the songs in each band's catalogue are centered primarily on the strength of the lead vocals.

REM came out of the early 1980's "Indie" label scene (Like the Replacements, Throwing Muses, etc.) and leans more toward a sparse guitar melodic jangling sound... especially their early stuff.

Pearl Jam came out of the early 1990's "Grunge" label scene, which in a way is the Seattle version of "Indie" but leans (very heavily IMO) on a heavy Metal / Hard Rock style in the vein of Led Zeppelin .
Their song catalogue is bi-cameral in its focus on
1) Hard rock / Punk
2) Torch song / accoustic ballads

Led Zeppelin was an innovator in this two-pronged song style and but relied more heavily on blues based numbers.

Pearl Jam's hard rock songs are influenced by Ament, Stone & McCready's love of Led Zep, Hendrix, SRV, AC/ DC, Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath .

Pearl Jam's accosutic stuff smacks of other infludences (Pete Townsend, James Taylor and Crowded House in particular).

and I will assert that Eddie Vedder introduced a new style of rock vocals with the band's debut of "Ten" that was copied by some many poser bands in the grunge aftermath.

nothing at all like Stipe's "confused / shy child" type vocals..

I think locked's assessment of REM and PJ's influences has the ring of truth (and is really well-written). If I were to throw my 2cents in, according to Vedder (and I'm thinking of his speech at REM's induction to the RRHOF), he was influenced by Stipe. I also recall an interview from the 90's in which he mentioned "The Wrong Child" specifically (one of my favorite REM songs). How Stipe's influence manifests in Ed is hard to say. IMO it's the content of what Ed chooses to write about and the overall tone of some of his lyrics. Vocally I don't see much similarity, but again, that's me.

Must say I love locked's descriptions of the band's sounds...REM "leans more towards sparse guitar melodic jangling sound" and Stipe's "confused / shy child" type vocals. So well put...

dmftraveller · March 2010

cdp1223 wrote:

Yeah love them both....have never once thought about them together though. They just fit in two compartments of my brain I think.

But also I LOVE early REM, which is pretty different than the stuff they have put out of late.

that's how I see them too... within two compartments in my brain. Both complex, multi-faceted bands, but fundamentally different

A combined tour is an interesting though though....would be amazing, but don't think it'll ever happen....

Stipe's influence on Vedder

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