Want do you think is the best and worst decision the band has made over their career?

pledgeagrievance said:

Go Beavers said:

pledgeagrievance said:

Best: varied sets, official boots, getting fans good seats as much as they can

worst: I agree we can’t say “fans” as the band can’t control their fans craziness, entitlement. But, at times I think the band gets a pass on how the fans are treated due to the early days of how well the fans were treated. The last 15 years I don’t think this band is anywhere near as fan friendly as they used to be or as good to fans as other bands are today. I could cite some examples I’ll just leave it at that. 

Did you ever try to get tickets in the early days? I'll take the fan friendly process of the last 20 years over how it used to be.

Yes I did try to get tickets in the early days. I didn’t mention tickets or fan club tickets in my “worst” part. 

But since you brought it up, I am shut out more now, and tickets have been harder to get, and fan club seats have got progressively worse over the years. But I don’t think of any of it as the worst part of their career and that why’s I didn’t originally say it in my post. 

And directly in my post I say they get a pass today due to how it was in the early days 

I suppose the ambiguity in your post about 'fan friendly' leaves it up to interpretation. I don't know what the band used to do that was so fan friendly, maybe exclusive 10c shows? I find the ease of getting tickets to for a band with a high demand live show fan friendly, as well as bringing back GA shows.

LBC^

Best Always playing different sets
Worst Getting Boom to play on songs that have no keyboards such as Alive & Porch, WHY?

BALLBOY said:

Best Always playing different sets
Worst Getting Boom to play on songs that have no keyboards such as Alive & Porch, WHY?

Definitely agree with your worst!

igotid88 said:

OceansJenny said:

igotid88 said:

Habit4me said:

Controversial hot take:

Best: The creative writing process (non lyrics - I'm talking the music/riffs/instruments)

Worst: Eddie taking primary lead on creative writing process 

I don't think he took the lead. I think he wants them to contribute more.

Ed still steers the ship. 

The other guys do contribute - they have mentioned many times that everyone brings their work in and they decide if they want to move a piece forward. I still get the sense that Ed had final veto though, based on whether something sits well with him at the time (gut feeling).

Remember Stone trying again and again to get someone interested in (I think) the G2F riff?

In Hiding I believe. I think mostly because he's the main lyricist. I don't think he went in saying "I'm the captain now". Like most people are making it out to be.

The dude decided to take a higher percentage of the album profits than the rest of the band in the 90s -- how is that not a "i'm the captain now" ?

Or am I misremembering Kim Neelys book?

Spiritual_Chaos said:

igotid88 said:

OceansJenny said:

igotid88 said:

Habit4me said:

Controversial hot take:

Best: The creative writing process (non lyrics - I'm talking the music/riffs/instruments)

Worst: Eddie taking primary lead on creative writing process 

I don't think he took the lead. I think he wants them to contribute more.

Ed still steers the ship. 

The other guys do contribute - they have mentioned many times that everyone brings their work in and they decide if they want to move a piece forward. I still get the sense that Ed had final veto though, based on whether something sits well with him at the time (gut feeling).

Remember Stone trying again and again to get someone interested in (I think) the G2F riff?

In Hiding I believe. I think mostly because he's the main lyricist. I don't think he went in saying "I'm the captain now". Like most people are making it out to be.

The dude decided to take a higher percentage of the album profits than the rest of the band in the 90s -- how is that not a "i'm the captain now" ?

Or am I misremembering Kim Neelys book?

Ouch!!

igotid88 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

igotid88 said:

OceansJenny said:

igotid88 said:

Habit4me said:

Controversial hot take:

Best: The creative writing process (non lyrics - I'm talking the music/riffs/instruments)

Worst: Eddie taking primary lead on creative writing process 

I don't think he took the lead. I think he wants them to contribute more.

Ed still steers the ship. 

The other guys do contribute - they have mentioned many times that everyone brings their work in and they decide if they want to move a piece forward. I still get the sense that Ed had final veto though, based on whether something sits well with him at the time (gut feeling).

Remember Stone trying again and again to get someone interested in (I think) the G2F riff?

In Hiding I believe. I think mostly because he's the main lyricist. I don't think he went in saying "I'm the captain now". Like most people are making it out to be.

The dude decided to take a higher percentage of the album profits than the rest of the band in the 90s -- how is that not a "i'm the captain now" ?

Or am I misremembering Kim Neelys book?

He writes most of the lyrics. That's how it usually goes. Plus the music. Then yes he's going to get more. My point was that he's not telling the other band members to shut up and only play my songs. They're the ones are deferring most of it to him. And plus you guys crap on Stone's contributions the last few albums. 

Referring to the book - it didn’t have to do with percentage of lyrics written like you guys claim. 

OceansJenny said:

EV admitted in his last interview that he took more control during Vitalogy as he felt like he was, like it or not, the face of the band. So he wanted the songs to sound like they were his, not someone else’s.

Maybe work on not being the face of the band instead of making Pearl Jam into your E Street Band.

1ThoughtKnown said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

igotid88 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

igotid88 said:

OceansJenny said:

igotid88 said:

Habit4me said:

Controversial hot take:

Best: The creative writing process (non lyrics - I'm talking the music/riffs/instruments)

Worst: Eddie taking primary lead on creative writing process 

I don't think he took the lead. I think he wants them to contribute more.

Ed still steers the ship. 

The other guys do contribute - they have mentioned many times that everyone brings their work in and they decide if they want to move a piece forward. I still get the sense that Ed had final veto though, based on whether something sits well with him at the time (gut feeling).

Remember Stone trying again and again to get someone interested in (I think) the G2F riff?

In Hiding I believe. I think mostly because he's the main lyricist. I don't think he went in saying "I'm the captain now". Like most people are making it out to be.

The dude decided to take a higher percentage of the album profits than the rest of the band in the 90s -- how is that not a "i'm the captain now" ?

Or am I misremembering Kim Neelys book?

He writes most of the lyrics. That's how it usually goes. Plus the music. Then yes he's going to get more. My point was that he's not telling the other band members to shut up and only play my songs. They're the ones are deferring most of it to him. And plus you guys crap on Stone's contributions the last few albums. 

KISS split everything compoetely equal. 

Also, refering to the book - it didn’t have to do with percentage of lyrics written like you guys claim. 

KISS is far from the only band to have done this. 

I have to say that was the one nugget from that book which really stuck out.  The uneven split of the pot seems to somewhat contradict the perceived ethos of the band (EV in particular). I give Stone, Mike and Jeff and to a lesser extent, Matt most of the credit for the longevity of the band. 
I also thought EV’s reasoning behind getting the larger cut was pretty weak and demonstrated a “rock star” mentality he was vehemently trying to admonish. To me, it reeked of self-importance.  Having said that, if the band are all good with it, then I don’t worry about it. It’s kind of like a swinger couple, I highly doubt that type of arrangement would work for me, but who am I to tell another couple how to operate their marriage? 

If you read Springsteen’s autobiography he is very open about how things work financially and organizationally between him and the E Street Band.  He makes no apologies for being “the boss” and and taking the lion’s share of the profits and making the creative decisions.  He writes that he is very generous in how he compensates the band members but there are limits to what he will pay people.  And these were guys he was friends with since the beginning. This eventually led to Steven Van Zandt leaving the band due to disagreements about money and how much input he had into the music. No surprise, Van Zandt said years later that it was a huge mistake and that he was wrong for leaving.