Case in point, the third time I saw Pearl Jam, on May 10th of this year. They say the third time's the charm. "Vs." was my first Pearl Jam album and they started this show off with Go, followed by Do The Evolution and then Mind Your Manners off their last record, "Lightning Bolt". Then came Breakerfall, which is one of my faves from the underrated "Binaural" record (and one of my faves period). Then God's Dice was aired, also from "Binaural". Then Evacuation. Then Light Years. So I texted my friend Mark, a huge PJ fan, who was sitting in another section that night and said "do you think they are playing this entire record?" And sure enough Nothing As It Seems started picking up steam so we were in for history. First time "Binaural" played in its entirety (I believe). And it's weird but I have some sort of unexplained affinity for that record even though it's not my fave. I think it's because it's the record where I realized that Pearl Jam was my writing muse. Back in 2000, when that album came out, I was newly living on my own in Toronto and was still (attempting) to write short stories regularly in my spare time. I was in a rut trying to write a particular story and Breakerfall helped me to break through the wall if you will. Now, I ended up re-writing that short story in 2011, but I digress and the spirit of Pearl Jam was still flowing through it. That's actually the last short story I finished as well...maybe I haven't been listening to enough Pearl Jam. Maybe because their latest output hasn't been the most inspiring. Come on guys!
Something about the lyrics in PJ songs help to paint the characters I'm writing about and I really can't fully explain it. It's like a comfort. "Binaural" is not the most obvious or likely well-known choice to play in full but I was happy that they did it. I was then happy when they played Corduroy, Once and Rearviewmirror to end the first set. The rarities didn't stop though, they also played Let Me Sleep, Down and one of my personal faves, State Of Love And Trust from "Singles". They still played hits, like Alive, Black, Even Flow, Betterman, Given To Fly and I'm completely cool with this because they played zero songs of "Riot Act" and "Backspacer", my two least favourite albums. Plus, no Jeremy, which is also a bonus for me. Like the 2011 show, they ended with Rockin' In The Free World, this time joined by Donna Grantis, who I wasn't familiar with in the moment (my friend Bill set me straight), but she was in Prince's band and is from Mississauga. She crushed it on guitar. At the end of the day, this was my fave Pearl Jam show and a top 5 concert for me (and I've seen many).
So no I'm just going to rank the Pearl Jam albums from my least fave to fave because I know I always enjoy reading lists.
10. "Riot Act"
There's not a lot of positive things to say about this one. I didn't enjoy it really in 2002 and I haven't listened to it since. I guess I Am Mine and All Or None are okay, but if I'm making a Pearl Jam compilation, none of these songs are finding their way onto it!
9. "Backspacer"
It's pretty much a tie between "Riot Act" and this one for my least played / favourite PJ records. Though "Backspacer" edges out "Riot Act" because The Fixer and Just Breathe are pretty good. But Amongst The Waves and Johnny Guitar are terrible. Just terrible.
8. "Lightning Bolt"
I was going to rank this #7, but then I realized I don't really listen to it that often, nor do I love a lot of it. Sirens, Pendulum and the title track being the exceptions. It also has the distinction of housing one of, if not, the worst PJ song ever, Let The Records Play.
7. "Pearl Jam"
World Wide Suicide is pretty rocking as is Life Wasted. I also like Inside Job and Unemployable. Ditto Marker In The Sand and Severed Hand. I was going to rank this below "Lightning Bolt" but good thing I took the time to reflect on it. After "Riot Act", this was a pretty solid comeback!
6. "Binaural"
I like this one. Understated in points, rocking in others. Not really any filler here, just solid, workmanlike rock. Meat and potatoes if you will. Nothing As It Seems contains such great guitar work as well from Mr. Mike McCready.
5. "No Code"
I think I was in the camp who initially heard Who You Are and said "what the fuck"? But I'm glad I picked this up in 2nd year of University at Music In Orbit in downtown Guelph. Also purchased that night, "1977" by Ash. My mind when it comes to useless information is like a trap. "No Code" contains likely 2 of my top 10 PJ songs in Off He Goes and Smile. I'm Open is filler, but the rest is great. Also, Jack Irons is my fave PJ drummer, no disrespect to Matt Cameron.
4. "Vitalogy"
Contains some great ones and some (likely on purpose) filler so I can't rank it higher than 4. The songs it does have, Last Exit, Betterman, Corduroy, Nothingman, Not For You, Satan's Bed, Spin The Black Circle, Immortality, are killer. But Bugs...seriously.
3. "Yield"
I'm not sure what was wrong with me in university, but I never bought certain "legacy" bands' albums the day they came out, but I did buy Candlebox's "Lucy" the day it came out (no disrespect to Candlebox, they still making some decent music). PJ was one of those bands I hesitated buying their albums right away (again, not sure why, maybe I had more restraint back then). I picked up "Yield" used at The Beat Goes On in downtown Guelph and really, I'm glad I did. Every song on here works for me, even Push Me, Pull Me. Contains All Those Yesterdays, in my top 10 PJ songs forsure.
2. "Ten"
Aside from Jeremy, there are no bad songs on here and my dislike of this song is personal choice; obviously many disagree with me that it's a bad song. The guitar work on this album is exceptional. While the hits are great, the back half of the album starting with Porch and ending with Release just kills it.
1. "Vs"
Sometimes it's about what you hear or see first that sticks. Case in point, "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". I saw "Snatch" first and while I like "Lock, Stock", "Snatch" is my preference. Not sure if I'm in the minority. Same with "Vs". First PJ record I really heard and it just resonated with me from the opening of Go until the final chord in Indifference. I just listened to it again last week and it holds up really well. Even Rats (unlike Bugs), this song is not terrible at all.
Songs:
Hard, but these ones always bubble up for me (no particular order even though they have numbers beside them):
17. Faithfull
16. Daughter ("Live On Two Legs" version - the improv of Rockin' In The Free World and WMA is amazing)
15. Rearviewmirror
14. Sirens
13. Black
12. Do The Evolution
11. Long Road
10. Breakerfall
9. State Of Love And Trust
8. All Those Yesterdays
7. Smile
6. Off He Goes
5. Nothing As It Seems
4. Fatal
3. Not For You
2. Go
1. Corduroy
Live Albums and Misc.:
So many to choose from and I haven't likely heard half of what's out there. Probably more like I've only heard a quarter of what's out there. There are the official releases and I have to go with "Live On Two Legs" because it's pretty amazing. I also have "The Gorge", which is a lot of CDs (I think 7) and it's pretty comprehensive. In terms of bootlegs, there is one from Mansfield from 2003 where they open for themselves by playing a 12 song acoustic set and then like a 35 song main set. Pretty unreal. I have some bootlegs from the 2000 tour and London and Katowice stand out to me as being strong.
"Lost Dogs" is a great collection of b-sides, including Fatal, plus other gems. "Pearl Jam Twenty" includes some rare live tracks. Eddie Vedder's "Into The Wild" soundtrack is short but sweet, ditto "Ukulele Songs".
That is my journey through Pearl Jam. I do have another blog focused on B-Sides pretty much ready to go so hopefully there won't be such a huge gap between posts. Until next time...
