Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Pearl Jam Shuffle

As I recover this morning from Sundance Head slaughtering Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" on American Idol last night, I'm going to do a Pearl Jam post to clear my sinuses.



So, today we have a special Pearl Jam shuffle. Which means most of you will want to skip this post entirely, I guess.

So, here, are the first five songs shuffled, using only the 853 Pearl Jam tracks on the BilliPod.



1) "Release," originally from the album Ten, but this particular track is from a batch I have labelled as "First Week Rehearsal Demos," circa 10/23/90.

Listen: "Release" (mp3) from their performance at Limelight in New York on April 12, 1992, courtesy of The Sky I Scrape



2) "I Am Mine," live at Madison Square Garden, July 8, 2003, also known as MSG1, one of the band's highest-regarded concerts. I attended my first Pearl Jam show the following night, aka MSG2. This was one of two singles from 2002's Riot Act

Here's them performing the song on The Late Show with David Letterman on November 14, 2002:



3) "Improv," also from the "First Week Rehearsal Demos". This track is an early incarnation of the concert staple "Yellow Ledbetter," which originally appeared as a b-side to "Jeremy."

Since this is one of the earliest versions, I'll give you a relatively decent recording of the last time they played "Ledbetter", in Honolulu on December 2, 2006:



Do take some time to watch, as lead guitarist Mike McCready throws a version of Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" into the mix.

4) "Sleight of Hand," the studio version, from the album "Binaural."



Listen: "Sleight of Hand" (mp3) live at the House of Blues in Orlando, April 12, 2003. Mp3 courtesy of The Sky I Scrape.

and lastly, in my self-indulgent Pearl Jam shuffling quintet:



5) "Who You Are," also the studio version, from No Code. This song was the lead single off the album. Here's a recently-added clip to YouTube that uses the song. Not sure what the video is about, but it's kind of cool.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you re: the Sundance slaughter. He absolutely ruined "Jeremy". I can't believe the judges liked it. I was cringing.

Tattoosday said...

Yes, the lights come up for Yellow Ledbetter or whatever song they end on. That clip reminded me of how small a venue that is, as well, and how intimate the show must have been. There were a lot of empty seats too, since lots of folk inexplicably leave at the end of the shows to beat the traffic. They do have a very liberal recording policy, as well. In this day and age it is almost impossible to police such things. This is one of the best and longest cellphone/camera clips I have seen. Glad you enjoyed it!

michael gilchrist said...

Its great to see that Pearl Jam is still at the top of their game after nearly 20 years. I have been a huge fan since the mid 90's when they came out with Yellow Ledbetter and Black, which are still my two favorite songs.