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Question Of the Month...
Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin etc. would not have been as popular if they had not died at young age. Do you agree? Why or why not? Best answer wins Yamaha FG-301 acoustic guitar.

  
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Pearl Jam - The best band ever
5/17/2009 11:44:31 PM
Posted By : Shivam  

All right! So here I start my blogging career... And what better thing to write about than the most wonderful thing in this world called – Music! Let me tell you that I always have hundreds of opinions about every sort of music out of which many are controversial. But I still love to give them anyways. That is why when I was given the chance to write for School of Symphony I took it hands down. Now it comes to the subject. My first blog is about my favorite band - Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam is the best band that this planet earth has ever seen (Caution: I am choosing to ignore consistency as a criterion for deciding the best band ever). They are no Dream Theatre when it comes to musical technicality (although technically also they are right up in the top 50 bands of all time) but definitely they are the best when it comes to playing original compositions in a very original way. Sounds absurd? I guess what I am trying to say is that they have a very unique style (Nope! it is not like Nirvana or Alice in Chains) and their original compositions are one of the best - musically and lyrically.

If god had a voice it would be like Eddie Vedder's "Release". (Sidebar - I do not believe in god but we can come to that later). The way he starts singing "Om"! I wish I could keep listening to it forever. He may not sing as high as Freddie or his competitor (may be) Chris Cornell. But nonetheless whatever he sings it sounds as if it is the voice from heaven. So calm, composed, mature and soothing. And if you think he is just about that then you are completely mistaken. Listen to "Blood" (one of the less popular Pearl Jam songs, but what is popularity anyway). It has the best scream of all time. Yes, even better than "Cochise" and "Since I've been loving you".  Some other must listen Eddie's vocals - "Jeremy", "Wash", "Alive", "Black", Porch", "Gone", "Arc" (Sidebar - You will be amazed at this 1 minute track), "All or none" and "Wishlist".

 They have one of the best lyrics ever written. Eddie Vedder has himself written most of the songs and nobody does it better than him. He uses some brilliant metaphors which may be sometimes open to interpretation and he does it really artistically. One of his most memorable lines – “Heart and thoughts they fade, fade away”. A simple sentence says so much. Some other absolutely outstanding works are – “Jeremy” (Arms raised in a ‘V’), “Off he goes”, Elderly woman behind a counter in a small town” (I changed by not changing at all), “I am mine” (I know that I’d been living and I know that I’ll die, the in between is mine), “Wash” (What she don’t know today might kill us both tomorrow), “Nothingman” (Once divided nothing left to subtract), “Black” (I know she gave me all that she wore), “Wishlist” (I wish I was the messenger and all the news was good), “Betterman” and so many more that to mention all I would have to miss my lunch as well as dinner.


Let us come to guitars, the heart of any rock band. Mike is the perfect guitarist for Pearl Jam. He is so talented and so witty. He doesn’t mind not being in the lead. But he keeps the song alive with some brilliant (and in many ways nonchalant) work. But that doesn’t mean that he can not play those fiery long solos. Listen to “Alive”, one of the best guitar solo of all time. His guitar work is as dispersed as the colors of rainbow. Right from the darkest bluesy solo of “Nothing as it seems” to the crazy solo of “Even flow” to acoustic brilliance of “Yellow Ledbetter”, Mike has done everything. One of my favorite guitar parts are done in “Jeremy”. It sounds not that difficult on the record as such. But when I was trying to cover with one of my earlier bands I realized that it is one of the most difficult songs to reproduce. Stone Gossard has been a perfect foil to Mike all these years. For people who do not know, the opening riff of “Alive” is actually played by Stone and so is the amazing riff of “Even Flow”. The double attack by Stone and Mike is heard best in “Glorified G” (again not so popular song). 

Jeff Ament is definitely one of the best bass players ever. And when he starts jumping on the stage you can not help but wonder if he is actually playing the bass or is it sequenced on some hidden keyboards. The ending bass part in “Jeremy” is breathtaking (mind you it is not very difficult to play). And so is the fluidity in “Oceans” that is so rarely seen in the more recent bass players. You might be surprised to know that some of the astonishing album art work of Pearl Jam is also done by the man himself.

The last piece of Pearl Jam is the drummer. And this is the most controversial (as you may say) for the band. They have tried five drummers till now. Now there is good news and a bad news. The good news is that the last drummer has been the most stable drummer for Pearl Jam (Matt Cameron since 1998). The bad news is that he is not the best drummer that Pearl Jam has had, the best drummer being Dave Abbruzzese (1991–1994). I do not mean to disrespect Matt or fans of his previous band ‘Soundgarden’. But the fact remains that Dave was one of the best drummers ever. He looks so relaxed while playing (much like U2’s Larry Mullen) but what he plays is absolutely mind numbing. One of his best performances was on MTV unplugged. When he plays you would never see a cymbal not moving even for a microsecond. Other three drummers who have played for Pearl Jam are Dave Krusen (1990-1991), Matt Chamberlain (1991) and Jack Irons (1994-1998). And by the way Dave Krusen was also no less than Dave Abbruzzese (Any drummer who composed for ‘Ten’ has to be great in his own way).

I always wanted to do what I am going to do next – My Pearl Jam 30 all time best list. Here I go:

30. Arc

29. Yellow Ledbetter

28. Comatose

27. Tremor Christ

26. Animal

25. Parachutes

24. Inside job

23. Corduroy

22. Blood

21. Sleight of hand

20. Soon forget

19. Not for you

18. Once

17. Rearview mirror

16. Daughter

15. Elderly woman behind the counter in a small room

14. Light years

13. Wash

12. Off he goes

11. Parting ways   

10. State of love and trust 

9. Porch

8. Better Man 

7. Immorality 

6. Gone 

5. Oceans 

4. Nothing as it seems

3. Alive

2. Jeremy

1. Black

By the way I had wanted to make this list as top 10 only at first. But then I was missing so many of my best songs that I first increased it to 20 and then finally to 30. And I still miss so many of my favorites like “Nothingman”, “All or none” and “Indifference”. Such a bummer!

A final word about my best song ever (not just by Pearl Jam) – “Black”… It is the best written, best sung and best performed song in the history of rock music. Whenever I listen to this song I am transported into a different world, a world of memories and truth - something that is so anesthetic that it is almost inexplicable. If I ever get stranded on an island (like the one in the TV series ‘Lost’) I just hope I have an iPod with “Black” on the playlist (and even if it is the only song I would be able to live happily ever after).


 

Disclaimer: The above stated opinions are just my personal preferences and I would not mind even one bit if you chose to disagree. I would be the first one to agree that they have done some ‘not so impressive’ stuff as well in their long career. But as I said earlier I am choosing to ignore consistency as a criterion. Beg your pardon for that.

Cheers!

Shivam

Leave A Comment   
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6/16/2009 9:39:44 PM
Add to this the soul crunching music of the movie "Into the Wild" . Once someone jokingly told me that Eddie Vedder is the "Lata Mangeshkar" of the west. I found it humorous, but later listening to albums made me realize, he is one of the best.
 
Comment By: Neeraj
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6/25/2009 9:03:27 PM
You are spot on man!... The soundtrack is absolutely amazing... But I have not included it as it is not a work by "Pearl Jam"... That work is mostly done by "Eddie" as solo with help from 1 or 2 other songwriters and musicians... But may be under another subject, my views on "Into the wild"... Stay tuned!
 
Comment By: Shivam
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2/22/2010 7:18:36 AM
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2/22/2010 7:19:00 AM
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