Happy Birthday, Eddie Vedder

This is just an awesome little clip, with Eddie and Pete Townshend from an appearance on Letterman in 1999, performing "Heart to Hang Onto":

Pearl Jam performs The Who's "The Real Me" on VH1 Rock Honors

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One thing is all it takes to make a bad day fine.

Click here to preview Adam Sandler performing "Magic Bus," Foo Fighters doing "Bargain" and more awesomeness!

Pearl Jam covers The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me"

It was only a matter of time before I put on my Ten Club hat and posted about Pearl Jam. Aren't you impressed I lasted eight days?

Last month, I dropped a YouTube clip of a preview for a Don Cheadle-Adam Sandler film called Reign Over Me. Without mentioning it, I really only posted it because there was a snippet of the unreleased cover of the Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me" in the preview.





Digression: the beloved Melanie said she had something for me to watch from yesterday's Today Show last night. She DVR'd it. I said Ok. It was a story about menopause. I shifted uncomfortably. What was she trying to tell me? She's way too young for "the change". Half-way through, I hear the familiar opening bars of Pearl Jam's "I Am Mine," (off of 2002's Riot Act) maybe ten seconds worth. That was it. Cool that NBC used the song. Cooler that she thought it DVR-worthy.

Anywho, last night in Seattle, this morning in New York (read: midnight), radio station KISW played the whole track, the first public airing in full. Of course, rabid PJ fans had recorded it and I floated it over to Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, one of my favorite music bloggers. She also uncannily posted about Lucinda Williams the same day I did, and dropped the same film clip last month on the same day also. Heather, however, is a much more dedicated blogger and runs an amazing site. I strongly recommend BillyBlog regulars to check her out. She has a far greater grasp on the music scene, and a much longer dedication to Pearl Jam. She posted the new track here.

It's fairly true to the original, but instead of Daltrey's soaring vocals, we get Eddie Vedder's gravelly roar (and I mean that in a complimentary way). I am particularly struck by what I assume is Boom Gaspar's keyboard prowess, especially at the beginning of the song.

Shifting gears completely, Michiko Kakutani has a glowing review of Martin Amis' new book House of Meetings here, in the New York Times (registration required).



And yesterday, new inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced. Honorees are:



Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Kid Creole, Cowboy, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Mr. Ness, Raheim),



Listen: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash and the Wheels of Steel (mp3), courtesy of blog So Much Silence.

R.E.M. (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe),

Listen: "Radio Free Europe" (mp3) courtesy of the blog, The Music Slut.

The Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector, Nedra Talley),

Listen: "Be My Baby" (mp3), courtesy of the blog Dreams of Horses.

Patti Smith,

Listen: "Gloria" (mp3), courtesy of blog Looking at Them.

and

Van Halen (Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth).

Watch: "Eruption," Eddie's trademark performance:

Heatwave

It's Saturday, January 6 and the forecast is for a high of 69 degrees. In New York. We are two days past the record mark for the longest November-December-January without a trace of snowfall, which includes flurries.

The following YouTube clip of the Who covering a popular song from the 60's seems rather appropriate. I'd never seen this before and love it from the German hostess' introduction and the smoking cameraman at the end of the clip. Watch and enjoy.

A Who Grows in Brooklyn's Endless Wire

Here's another shot of the world-famous BillyBlog Tree, photographed on the morning of October 31. That happened to be the day that the Who released their new album, as orginally reported here. Go to that link to find another link to some sample tracks from the new album, which I downloaded from iTunes and listened to for the first time this morning.

It's exceptionally good and I do recommend. Check out Rolling Stone's excellent review here.

One of my favorite songs is called "The Man in the Purple Dress". Here's the band performing it on Letterman earlier this year:



Find a way to listen to this and enjoy.