Deep is the definition of a heavy pj song...musically, lyrically, vocal delivery, loud guitars A song can definitely be fast without bring heavy. Blood is very heavy too
Yes, Deep always seemed heavy metal to me. And, for me, that made it an ill fit for Ten.
Gozzo
Montreal '98
Toronto '00
Buffalo Toronto '03
Kitchener London Hamilton Toronto '05
Late Show NYC Toronto x2 Cleveland Pittsburgh Mountain View '06
Hartford Mansfield '08
Toronto Philadelphia x3 '09
Cleveland Buffalo Mountain View x2 '10
East Troy x2 Toronto x2 Ottawa Hamilton '11
London Buffalo '13
I think this discussion may need to be re-visited since there have been 2 full studio albums released since it was last talked about.
The word heavy is definitely subjective. There's "Heavy" in subject matter, and "Heavy" in sound. In this case, I'm going to mostly discuss "Heavy" in terms of sound. Heavy, to me, could mean how much a song resembles a classically heavy metal song, of which I don't think Pearl Jam has very many. They closer resemble Zeppelin or Sabbath than Metallica, though so they do have a classic metal side that's more late 60s / early 70s than 80s. But the things I think about when I think about Heavy music, I think deep and dark sounding, and a lot of bass sound in the guitars, obviously high gain / distortion, loud, rhythmic, controlled, riffy, syncopated, not necessarily blaring chords, not necessarily wild. I think that may even be the difference between "heavy" and "hard" where Pearl Jam has dozens of hard songs. Blood is a great example of possibly being Pearl Jam's hardest song, but not its heaviest. Spin the Black Circle is a bit less wild and a bit more syncopated, and a bit bassier than Blood (Blood is actually tuned up and it's deepest note is a G). It toes the line between hard and heavy. The one that wins the title for both being hardest and heaviest simultaneously is probably Habit. In the context of their peers, Habit is probably the grungiest thing they've ever done. I love all PJ, but the aggressive stuff has a special place in my heart.
But being compared to more metal music, I believe You Are may be their heaviest song. It's just deep sounding, deeper tuning (I think it's some sort of C or Drop C tuning?), sludgy. Honorable mention may to Dark Matter, the song. Great grooves all over that one.
Then of course, you've got Heavy in terms of both subject matter and sound... The title may go to Deep there.
I'm super grateful for this band and their amazing catalog that affords us to the pleasures to rock out and chill out and everything in between. I love their diversity of songwriting.
on the live front the double of Go/Animal, esp. at the start of a set!
Manchester 04.06.00, Leeds 25.08.06, Wembley 18.06.07, Dusseldorf 21.06.07, Shepherds Bush 11.08.09, Manchester 17.08.09, Adelaide 17.11.09, Melbourne 20.11.09, Sydney 22.11.09, Brisbane 25.11.09, MSG1 20.05.10, MSG2 21.05.10, Dublin 22.06.10, Belfast 23.06.10, London 25.06.10, Long Beach 06.07.11 (EV), Los Angeles 08.07.11 (EV), Toronto 11.09.11, Toronto 12.09.11, Ottawa 14.09.11, Hamilton 14.09.11, Manchester 20.06.12, Manchester 21.06.12, Amsterdam 26.06.2012, Amsterdam 27.06.2012, Berlin 04.07.12, Berlin 05.07.12, Stockholm 07.07.12, Oslo 09.07.12, Copenhagen 10.07.12, Manchester 28.07.12 (EV), Brooklyn 18.10.13, Brooklyn 19.10.13, Philly 21.10.13, Philly 22.10.13, San Diego 21.11.13, LA 23.11.13, LA 24.11.13, Oakland 26.11.13, Portland 29.11.13, Spokane 30.11.13, Calgary 02.12.13, Vancouver 04.12.13, Seattle 06.12.13, Trieste 22.06.14, Vienna 25.06.14, Berlin 26.06.14, Stockholm 28.06.14, Leeds 08.07.14, Philly 28.04.16, Philly 28.04.16, MSG1 01.05.16, MSG2 02.05.16
Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, Wisconsin (September 03, 2011); Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, Wisconsin (September 04, 2011); Deluna Fest Pensacola, FL (September 21, 2012); Wrigley Field (July 19, 2013); Milwaukee, WI (October 20, 2014); Wrigley Field I (August 20, 2016); Wrigley Field II (August 22, 2016); Home Shows Seattle Night 1 (August 08, 2018), Home Shows Seattle Night 2 (August 10, 2018), Apollo Theater (September 10, 2022), Madison Square Garden (September 11, 2022), Bourbon & Beyond Louisville (September 17th, 2022).
Funny, the difference between 'fast' and 'heavy'. Are there PJ songs that are heavy, but not fast? I think about Zeppelin and their ability to be heavy without being fast. Dazed and Confused is a super heavy song (not particularly fast) but Achilles Last Stand is very fast, but not particularly heavy. It was the beauty of zeppelin. Before them, (and Sabbath), heavy just meant louder. They changed the meaning.
So are there PJ songs heavy, but not fast?
The beauty of stealing songs already written and moding them? Yeah my 13 year old does that shit too
Chicago 6/29/98, Alpine Valley(EV) 6/13/99, Alpine Valley 10/08/00, Chicago 10/09/00, Phoenix 10/20/00, Orlando 4/12/03, Tampa 4/13/03, San Diego 6/05/03, Vegas 6/06/03, Phoenix 6/07/03, Chicago 6/18/03, Alpine Valley 6/21/03, Orlando 10/08/04, D.C. 10/11/04, Chicago 5/16/06, Chicago 5/17/06, LA 7/12/08, Chicago 8/23/09, Chicago 8/24/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09 (Front Row Center, Finally), Phoenix(EV) 11/4/11, Wrigley 7/19/13, Phoenix 11/19/13, Denver 10/22/14, Wrigley 8/20/16, Wrigley 8/22/16
Deep and Why go pulled me in. I was a metal head, heard Evenflow like a breath of fresh air...bought Ten, and then Deep, Why Go, even Once all kept me listening.
1993 - Dallas ~~~ 1995 - Red Rocks I & II | Austin ~~~ 1998 - St Louis | Kansas City | Dallas | Raleigh | Atlanta | Birmingham | Greenville | Knoxville | Virginia Beach ~~~ 2000 - New Orleans | Memphis | Nashville | Noblesville | Cincinnati | Columbus | Houston I & II | Dallas | Las Vegas | LA | San Diego | San Bernardino | Sacramento | San Francisco ~~~ 2003 - OKC | San Antonio | Houston | Dallas | Little Rock | Camden I & II | MSG I & II ~~~ 2004 - Boston I & II | St Louis ~~~ 2005 - Gorge | Vancouver | Kitchener | London | Hamilton ~~~ 2006 - Las Vegas | Gorge I & II | Honolulu ~~~ 2008 - MSG I & II ~~~ 2009 - Seattle I & II | Vancouver | Portland | ACL | Philly I-IV ~~~ 2010 - Kansas City | St Louis ~~~ 2011 - PJ20 I & II ~~~ 2013 - Wrigley | Dallas | OKC ~~~ 2014 - ACL I | Tulsa | Moline | St Paul | Milwaukee | Denver ~~~ 2022 - OKC ~~~ 2023 - FW I & II | Austin I & II ~~~ 2024 - Seattle I & II [80]
Comments
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
Montreal '98
Toronto '00
Buffalo Toronto '03
Kitchener London Hamilton Toronto '05
Late Show NYC Toronto x2 Cleveland Pittsburgh Mountain View '06
Hartford Mansfield '08
Toronto Philadelphia x3 '09
Cleveland Buffalo Mountain View x2 '10
East Troy x2 Toronto x2 Ottawa Hamilton '11
London Buffalo '13
The word heavy is definitely subjective. There's "Heavy" in subject matter, and "Heavy" in sound. In this case, I'm going to mostly discuss "Heavy" in terms of sound. Heavy, to me, could mean how much a song resembles a classically heavy metal song, of which I don't think Pearl Jam has very many. They closer resemble Zeppelin or Sabbath than Metallica, though so they do have a classic metal side that's more late 60s / early 70s than 80s. But the things I think about when I think about Heavy music, I think deep and dark sounding, and a lot of bass sound in the guitars, obviously high gain / distortion, loud, rhythmic, controlled, riffy, syncopated, not necessarily blaring chords, not necessarily wild. I think that may even be the difference between "heavy" and "hard" where Pearl Jam has dozens of hard songs. Blood is a great example of possibly being Pearl Jam's hardest song, but not its heaviest. Spin the Black Circle is a bit less wild and a bit more syncopated, and a bit bassier than Blood (Blood is actually tuned up and it's deepest note is a G). It toes the line between hard and heavy. The one that wins the title for both being hardest and heaviest simultaneously is probably Habit. In the context of their peers, Habit is probably the grungiest thing they've ever done. I love all PJ, but the aggressive stuff has a special place in my heart.
But being compared to more metal music, I believe You Are may be their heaviest song. It's just deep sounding, deeper tuning (I think it's some sort of C or Drop C tuning?), sludgy. Honorable mention may to Dark Matter, the song. Great grooves all over that one.
Then of course, you've got Heavy in terms of both subject matter and sound... The title may go to Deep there.
I'm super grateful for this band and their amazing catalog that affords us to the pleasures to rock out and chill out and everything in between. I love their diversity of songwriting.
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
Of the Earth
1/2 Full
[80]
Habit
Lukin
Deep
STBC