Pearl Jam Ten - Redux
Anyone who was in high school between 1992 and 1996 falls into one of three categories: a.) a Nirvana person, b.) a Pearl Jam person or c.) someone who didn't listen to either of these bands and missed out on the last great epoch in popular music (the grunge era). I say this because there have been other epochs in popular music since, e.g. 1997-2002 (the 3rd Bubblegum era), 1998-2001 (the Nu Metal era), 2006-2009 (the 4th Bubblegum era), these have all been either substandard or simply terrible. Again since the current epoch (2007-present - The Robot Voice Era?) is also an abomination, I cannot comment. If you think of one that is either equal or better, leave it in the comment section below.
Here's how the first two above mentioned categories break down: Nirvana people tended to listen to only Nirvana and groups that influenced Nirvana (e.g. The Pixies, Leomonheads, The Toadies, Vaselines, Meat Puppets, R.E.M., Sabbath, etc.) By extension, moving towards present day, Nirvana people have continued listening to Nirvana, groups that influenced Nirvana or groups that were, in some way, influenced BY Nirvana. Now this could mean either sonically or, more importanly, philosophically. A group influenced by Nirvana (sonically) could be The Foo Fighters (for obvious reasons) or Weezer or The White Stripes or The Strokes. A group influenced by Nirvana (philosophically) could be (again) The White Stripes or Wilco or Radiohead or Modest Mouse. The point I'm trying to make is, Nirvana people almost always tended to have the better taste in music.
A group that Nirvana people (most of them), didn't actively listen to Pearl Jam. Nirvana people are, to this day, still Nirvana people. They still actively listen to Nevermind, Unplugged, In Utero (their best album), Bleach, and even Incesticide at least a few times a year, or at least tracks from them and wax nostalgic. They also tend to listen to bands that either influenced Nirvana or were influenced by Nirvana. They also STILL regularly listen to music (more than an hour a day on average, I guess). Nirvana people tended to think that Pearl Jam (and by extension Pearl Jam people) were corporate whore sell-outs who were playing the equivalent of Guess Who or Journey covers and sucked. This is because Nirvana people believed that everything Kurt Cobain said was gospel truth. In a way, they were right.
Most Pearl Jam people, though, listened to Nirvana. They actually liked Nirvana. This was an outgrowth of the grunge movement and because MTV told them to. Pearl Jam people also tended to listen to Alice in Chains and Soundgarden as well. Pearl Jam people were, for the most, part following a trend. If I were to guess, I'd say that 75% Pearl Jam people from 1992 to 1996 are no longer Pearl Jam people (again with the trend thing). They fondly remember Ten and Vs. and Betterman, Courdoroy and Immortality from Vitalogy. Then they moved on. They stopped being Pearl Jam people at one of two critical junctions that occurred two years apart from one another: 1.) 2:48 into Hey Foxy Mophandle Moma, That's Me (AKA Stupid Mop, AKA Revolution 9, part 2) or 2.) after listening to No Code for the second time. I use these as points of emphasis because these are the two points of divergence for most of my friends who were Pearl Jam people mention when I ask them why they stopped listening to Pearl Jam.
Me: "Hey, have you heard Yield? It's great! Low Light might be my favorite song of all time!"
Friend 1: "No, man, some of that shit on Vitalogy was too weird. That mop song was fucking stupid. And what's ups with Bugs? I got bugs in my poop. Stupid. I gave up!"
Friend 2: "No man, I listened to No Code a couple times, but it didn't sound like Vs. I gave up!"
Friend 3: "No, man, I totally into Dave right now. Have you heard Crash? It's the greatest album in the history of mankind! I'm going to devote my listening to only Dave Matthews for the next 5 years until he makes a very good album, throws it in the toilet, and then pukes out a steaming pile of elephant shit album cowritten by the guy who made Jagged Little Pill. Then I'm either going to stop listening to music all together because I'm married and have kids or I'm going to listen to something else! Whoo HOO!"
It should be noted here that I am one of the 25% of original Pearl Jam people that is still a Pearl Jam person.
I'm not going to address the third category (the person who didn't listen to either band) at this time, because I have neither patience nor the means to explain.
When the reissue of Ten was announced in January I was extremely excited. The wealth of goodies contained in the Super Deluxe edition was overwhelming for a fan like me. Here's a picture of what I got in the mail last Saturday:
If you can't see it clearly, in the box, there were:
1 LP of Remastered Ten
1 LP of Remixed Ten
2 LP Set of The Drop in the Park show
1 CD of Remastered Ten
1 CD of Remixed Ten
1 DVD of Pearl Jam Unplugged
1 Reproduction Composition Notebook of pictures, notes, etc.
5 12 X 12 Prints of photos of the band along with reproduction backstage passes, stickers, and a Mookie Blaylock trading card
1 Poster
1 Reproduction cassette of the "Momason Tape" the 4-track recording of Eddie's vocals and lyrics dubbed over Stone, Jeff, Mike, and Matt Cameron's demos from the early Temple of the Dog sessions.
One thing you HAVE to credit Pearl Jam with is loyalty to their fans. This package is superior in every respect. In fact, it is one of the finest box sets I've ever had the priveledge of owning (along with Bob Dylan Biograph and Muddy Waters Chess Box). It will win a Grammy for packaging. One may ask, "But why? Ten is such a good album, why reissue it? Pearl Jam is just trying to make a buck. Corporate sellouts!"
The answer to this question lies in the second disc (or second LP) of the set. I have never especially been fond of the SOUND of Ten. The songs are amazing, and they form the backbone of most of Pearl Jam's live shows. The problem I've always had with Ten is that it sounded like it was recorded at the bottom of an aquarium. It's filled with reverb, echo, washed out guitars and tinny drums. It's never sounded the way I've wanted it to, by all accounts I've read, it didn't sound the way the band wanted it to, either. It seems they've been wanting to have the album remixed going all the way back to 1993, when Vs. was released. They even went so far as to re-record "Even Flow" for the Jeremy single because they were so unhappy with the Ten version. When the greatest hits compilation Rearviewmirror 1991-2003 came out, there was a glimpse of what might be coming. Brendan O'Brien (producer of Vs., Vitalogy, and Yield) came on board and remixed Alive, Once and Black, and upon my first listen of those remixed tracks, was looking very much towards the long rumored remix or the entire album.
When I first listened to it (on the turntable), I was stunned. It was better than my hyperbolic self could have even imagined. Everything sounds better. I heard things on that first listen that I'd never heard before. Piano on Black. Mike's shredding licks at the end of Porch. I could hear what Eddie was mumbling during the breakdown of Even Flow. Remarkably, it's a better record now than it was 19 years ago. By a large margin. It's restored my lost love of these songs. It's made me listen to this album again after only listening to the live versions from the official bootlegs or the unplugged. It's a revelation. I've used the phrase "blankety-blank is dead to me" often before in my life, but it's always been in a joking way. This time, I mean it. Old Ten is dead to me. I will most likely NEVER listen to it again unless it's for comparison purposes.
I am a Pearl Jam person. Now and forever. Cheers.
Posted by Hank Rischar on March 31, 2009 at 01:47 PM |
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