I'm submitting a song for SLS21 consideration. I'm submitting "Brother" by Pearl Jam.
I almost refused to submit "Brother" by Pearl Jam. A few weeks ago, while listening to 102.1 here in Toronto, the deejay teased us by saying they'd play new Pearl Jam after the break. I stuck around, pretty excited to hear new Pearl Jam, and then they played "Brother."
"Brother" is not new Pearl Jam. Yes, it's getting an official release now that they're reissuing Ten, but "Brother" is almost twenty years old. I first got my grubby mitts on a version of "Brother" with lyrics in the late 90s and I've been spinning that in MP3 format for over five years now.
It's not new, but it's new to many of you, and it's an awesome tune. That's why I'm putting it on SLS21.... because it rocks.
Alan Cross spoke with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and asked the question I've been curious about for years. We now finally know how Vedder came to record Indio's "Hard Sun" for the Into The Wild soundtrack.
Alan Cross: How did you come across “Hard Sun” for the “Into the Wild” soundtrack?
Eddie Vedder: Ah yeah the Canadian connection. When Shawn first showed me the movie it was in the film, him and I were just watching it in my living room.
And to be honest, it was the first time I have heard it; and I felt like I have heard it before. I couldn’t tell if it was from the late 60’s, mid 70’s. I couldn’t tell. It had this kind of timeless….
AC: So it was Sean Penn who found it?
EV: Sean at one point knew Gordon or had been in contact with him, or had friends that were friends of his, and Sean has really eclectic musical taste.
He can quote Phil Ochs at a drop of a hat or give you a 12 minute Bob Dylan song he could recite in your ear, and at the same time he’ll know stuff like David Baerwald [American singer-songwriter who used to be in David & David and now a solo performer]. He is a good friend of his and I think he knew this fellow Gordon, and loved this song. I think I wrote something for that piece as well.
And then he said “I think that’s good but I think we need to go with “Hard Sun;” and I thought “Great! That’s less work for me to do!” And he said “No, no! YOUR version of it.” And then I thought, "F%$^*!" [Laugh]
So I really tried to make it, you know, every element to mirror something in his... I tried to be really true to his delivery of it. It’s a really great song. I’ve not met him. I thought to write him but I never did. I had kids and things moved very quick for me. I hope he liked it.
AC: We don’t know because he has gone underground; he has been underground for like 15 years. And we don’t know anything about Gordon Peterson. He never resurfaces.
And the original album which is called “Big Harvest,” and it's from 1989. It's like a hardcore collector’s item now.
EV: Wow! Yeah, apparently he reached out to a website maybe a few years ago... and it seemed like he was alive and well.
And it sounds to me like he had a hard time consolidating music and the business atmosphere that sometimes you have to work with, or the pressures of being on labels and what their visions of music are. And as a solo artist and not a band, it's understandable.
I think it’s very hard, myself. It’s a great job but that’s the tricky part, and for someone that says they could not handle that part, I actually respect it.
For me, Pearl Jam flew in under a cloud of Nirvana dust. My ear buds were freaking out over Nirvana's Nevermind when our local alt rock station, CFNY, started playing Pearl Jam. The media lumped them together as part of Seattle's grunge scene. I didn't care what they called it, so long as they played it. Ten, released in the summer of 1991, was a play-through I played through about 4 zillion times. You can hear Alive, Evenflow, Black and Jeremy on any rock station on any day, but I preferred Porch, particularly this version from their Unplugged performance for MTV.
While waiting for Vs., we got a couple of great Pearl Jam tracks on the Singles soundtrack. State of Love and Trust was one of those soundtrack tunes that was way too good not to appear on a studio album.
Pearl Jam could rock out with Eddie's wail, but those ballads could carry the night. One moment you're yelling until your throat hurts and the next moment you've got the lighter out and you're swaying back and forth staring at the stars. Here's Eddie and his pal Ben Harper singing one such song.
On the morning of my first day of university, I awoke to one of my favourite covers of all-time. This is Pearl Jam singing Victoria Williams' Crazy Mary for the Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams LP and I still love it.
Studio album #3 was Vitalogy, another Pearl Jam album I got on its first day of release. Do kids even do that anymore? Did the internet kill that feeling you get when you'd peel off the plastic on day one and throw that disc you've anticipated for months into the player?
When I first spun Vitalogy, I couldn't get over one track that just got my heart racing. It's even better live. It's Corduroy.
I could go on forever about Pearl Jam, a band I've seen live six times. I've got lots more on my little Pearl Jam in Toronto page, if you're interested. The weight of the Pearl Jam catalogue is impressive, even without delving too deep into the rarities and b-sides. For my money, nothing beats Daughter with the extended It's Ok tag.
Let me just leave you with another cover... this one a recent cover of Hunters and Collectors' Throw Your Arms Around Me.
Ok, I lied. There's only one fitting way to close out a Pearl Jam show, and that's with Yellow Ledbetter. G'night, all.
Eddie Vedder feels about the Chicago Cubs the way I feel about the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's in his blood, and he holds out hope, despite never seeing a championship in his lifetime.
Eddie wrote a great song for his team called "All the Way". I've embeded it below. As I listen to his passion and hope, I think about my Leafs. Some day, we too will go all the way... and many a tear will be shed.
I want a song like this. Who should write and sing it? Is Hayden a Leafs fan? Should The Rheostatics reform and make it happen? Can Blue Rodeo pull it off?
The 65th annual Golden Globe Awards were awesome, weren't they? The biggest casualty of the writer's strike to date, the Golden Globes were awarded via some kind of a press conference thing. It somehow seems fitting that Eddie Vedder would win in a year when the pomp and circumstance is completely absent. He always was rather shy about his fame.
Vedder won Best Original Song for "Guaranteed" from Into the Wild. Here's the video for that tune if you haven't seen the video yet.
Eddie Vedder has unveiled his first solo music video for "Guaranteed," taken from his Into the Wild soundtrack. My brother lent me this soundtrack on Christmas Day and I love it.
As a long time Pearl Jam fan, I remember when they stopped making videos. The video for "Jeremy" was everywhere and won big at the MTV Video Music Awards, and I remember Eddie making a comment about how they're not going to do that anymore. They were true to their word until "Do The Evolution". It's a shame, because those great Pearl Jam songs from Vs., Vitalogy and No Code would likely have been accompanied by some wicked vids.
Coach Carter made sure I had the MP3 of Eddie Vedder's solo song from the Into The Wild soundtrack. As I was listening to it for the first time, I realized it wasn't an Eddie original but a song I had heard many times on local radio stations. It was a cover, but for the life of me I couldn't name the original artist.
The song is called "Big Hard Sun" and a local band called Indio released it on their 1989 LP Big Harvest. Indio isn't really a "them" but a guy named Gordon Peterson who hasn't been heard from since. If you were listening to Toronto radio in the late 80s and early 90s, you'll recognize this tune.
Eddie does a nice job with it. Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker fills in for Joni Mitchell on this version. Listen to Ed Vedder's "Big Hard Sun" below.
Note: I've been told the player above disappears in IE. It works fine with my Firefox. If you can't see the player above, Teddy Vedder left a link in the comments that will let you stream the song.
AT&T's webcast of Lollapalooza is making the news this week because Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush rant was censored during Pearl Jam's performance of "Daughter". Pearl Jam, my favourite non-Canadian band, always tags on another song at the end of "Daughter". On this night, they tagged on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". The censored lyrics were "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home."
From Pearl Jam's web site:
What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band. AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.
Pearl Jam is hitting the nail on the head with that comment. As big corporations swallow up smaller media and cow tow to political leaders there's an ever increasing danger of this kind of censorship becoming more prevalent. Here's the AT&T edit vs. the uncut version.
For a very long time, Porch was my favourite Pearl Jam song. On April 11th, 1992, Sharon Stone hosted Saturday Night Live and Pearl Jam was the musical guest. First they played Alive, and then they played Porch.
Eddie Vedder's been busy with his solo stuff. He's finishing some new music for the upcoming Sean Penn-directed film "Into the Wild" and an album of his songs is due in September. Vedder likes to work on Penn films. He's all over the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack and he recorded a cover of the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" for "I Am Sam."
Vedder has also contributed two new songs, "No More" and "Long Nights," to the documentary "Body of War", and he's recording his favourite Sonic Youth song for the compilation "Hits Are for Squares."
That's a whole lot of new Vedder, which is a very good thing, but when's the next Pearl Jam show? When's the next Pearl Jam album? It's cool to moonlight, but let's not forget the 9-5 that got you here.
Here's Ed Vedder and some guy performing Long Road on the 9/11 benefit telecast "America: A Tribute to Heroes".
I'm submitting a song for SLS21 consideration. I'm submitting "Brother" by Pearl Jam.
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Alan Cross spoke with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and 
Eddie Vedder feels about the Chicago Cubs the way I feel about the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's in his blood, and he holds out hope, despite never seeing a championship in his lifetime.
The 65th annual Golden Globe Awards were awesome, weren't they? The biggest casualty of the writer's strike to date, the Golden Globes were awarded via some kind of a press conference thing. It somehow seems fitting that Eddie Vedder would win in a year when the pomp and circumstance is completely absent. He always was rather shy about his fame.
Eddie Vedder's been busy with his solo stuff. He's finishing some new music for the upcoming Sean Penn-directed film "Into the Wild" and an album of his songs is due in September. Vedder likes to work on Penn films. He's all over the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack and he recorded a cover of the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" for "I Am Sam."