Song of the Moment: Lightning Bolt

[stupidmop]

Lmao

" It's fine. He's totally not being serious. Really. The cutting wit is just flying over your head, you just don't understaaaaaaannd. Eddie's still coooolll"

[harmless]

[Release_Me]

He was a lot better at that singing over the band thing in the past, and I dont mean just the sound of his voice. He kind of aimlessly heeeheee's and heeyyaaaaa's over things regardless of if it sounds good. It's not as bad on this I thought but he does it on of the earth, black occasionally, middle of rvm... he needs to listen back to some of the boots lol.

Linking LB to nothingman makes the lyric worse for me tbh. It's like the no middle any more, its been said before from half full. Bleh. I don't mind this chorus though.

I do get the feeling its about a unhappy relationship rather than a happy one though. I thought the 'she's a lightning bolt, never let her go' could be sarcastic or mocking.

Fair enough. But I do think it's the fact that he sounded better (or more appropriately, more resonant and powerful) which made his singing over the band's jamming such a cool thing. Songs like Garden where he's singing lyrics over Mike's solo, his wailing in Black's outro, ending of RVM, the random sounds in the second half of Jeremy, etc. These are all PJ classics. Hear him do any of those songs live now and they don't sound that impressive anymore because his voice is not quite as resonant now. It's not that he was extremely tasteful with it back then and now does it at every opportunity he gets. He was always kind of over the top melodramatic and that's what made PJ what they were. The hee hees he does now are falsetto highs. Those are simply easier to sing than full voice notes and easier on his voice. That's just what he does these days instead of the random wailing a la Jeremy which is much more demanding. There are some recent songs where he's singing actual lyrics in the outro and singing them powerfully. Amongst the Waves comes to mind which despite the so called cheesiness is made a much better song by Ed's vocals, especially towards the end.

For LB, I'm pretty sure the reference to Nothingman is purposeful. You can make of it what you will. It's clearly about a screwed up relationship which is why I think the uplifting music is ironically the perfect foil to it's theme.

[harmless]

I kind of wish he'd do more lower register mumbling and talking to himself, like he did some times. I'm on the red wine so I can't remember any examples, but yeah, that 'speaking as a child of the 90s' thing he used to do over the top of stuff... That was cool. He seems to have taken the least appropriate things forward into older age. You're right that he didn't try so much high register wailing when he was younger, that's a frustration. Maybe it's midlife crisis and he'll grow out of it.

[stupidmop]

He was a lot better at that singing over the band thing in the past, and I dont mean just the sound of his voice. He kind of aimlessly heeeheee's and heeyyaaaaa's over things regardless of if it sounds good. It's not as bad on this I thought but he does it on of the earth, black occasionally, middle of rvm... he needs to listen back to some of the boots lol.

Linking LB to nothingman makes the lyric worse for me tbh. It's like the no middle any more, its been said before from half full. Bleh. I don't mind this chorus though.

I do get the feeling its about a unhappy relationship rather than a happy one though. I thought the 'she's a lightning bolt, never let her go' could be sarcastic or mocking.

Fair enough. But I do think it's the fact that he sounded better (or more appropriately, more resonant and powerful) which made his singing over the band's jamming such a cool thing. Songs like Garden where he's singing lyrics over Mike's solo, his wailing in Black's outro, ending of RVM, the random sounds in the second half of Jeremy, etc. These are all PJ classics. Hear him do any of those songs live now and they don't sound that impressive anymore because his voice is not quite as resonant now. It's not that he was extremely tasteful with it back then and now does it at every opportunity he gets. He was always kind of over the top melodramatic and that's what made PJ what they were. The hee hees he does now are falsetto highs. Those are simply easier to sing than full voice notes and easier on his voice. That's just what he does these days instead of the random wailing a la Jeremy which is much more demanding. There are some recent songs where he's singing actual lyrics in the outro and singing them powerfully. Amongst the Waves comes to mind which despite the so called cheesiness is made a much better song by Ed's vocals, especially towards the end.

For LB, I'm pretty sure the reference to Nothingman is purposeful. You can make of it what you will. It's clearly about a screwed up relationship which is why I think the uplifting music is ironically the perfect foil to it's theme.

Yeah I definitely prefer the wailing to the hee hees. When he does it well I really love it, I posted a version of crazy Mary in the LB album thread where he's doing it and its awesome, and there's a few 06 blacks where he's doing this really high pitched oooing that almost sounds like mikes guitar. I do think he's doing it a lot more nowadays than say 00-06 I might be wrong though.

Vaguely related I wish they'd do a reworked Jeremy again like the 95 ones and Eddie could do some interesting things with his voice instead of trying to pull it off the way he sang it before.

[Release_Me]

Ha! Well, he is after all a rock vocalist. He's spent most of his career cashing in on his awesome tone; the way he sounds. Now, he's trying a few things which take him out of his comfort zone. Maybe it makes him feel better as a singer, to test his not so renowned skills. This vocal approach started with S/T and continued into Backspacer. Before that, he was very mumbly in Riot Act and even on Binaural. I found those two albums quite dull from a vocal perspective. It's as if he was not trying. Sure, he sounds good singing low and mid-range, we know that. He is Eddie Vedder, the guy Scott Stapp and several others have imitated in trying to sound cool. But sometimes, listening to Riot Act and Binaural, I would think to myself, "Goddammit Ed! Open your mouth and just f*cking sing!". Maybe he went overboard on S/T and Backspacer with the higher parts, but the nature of those two records demanded a much more aggressive vocal approach. It would have been awesome to hear the Ed from 91-94 singing higher more often but he rarely did. There are some vocal moments where he displays that skill, like the ending of Dissident: "Escape is never the sa-fest place". But besides live improvs, he rarely ventured into that territory. He now has the technique to sing higher, but doesn't have the voice he used to which makes it sound less impressive than we would like. I can't blame him for trying something challenging. I can also understand why people would prefer his low baritone singing. He can't go wrong with that.

[harmless]

Generally I love his lower register, 'tired' sounding stuff on Riot Act, but we've debated that to death. I think the tone of the album and the songs suit that. It wouldn't have suited these last two, maybe, I don't know. I hope for more of it in the next album. Generally I think he sings this live version of LB quite well considering he's doing stuff he struggles with. It's only that ending that feels uncomfortable.

[Release_Me]

Agreed. That last part (when he gets mad at Mike?) seems to throw him off his game a bit too. Expect it will sound better in studio.

[harmless]

I'm also looking forward to hearing what Mike was supposed to do.

[Release_Me]

Yes, that too

[VinylGuy]

I'm also looking forward to hearing what Mike was supposed to do.

poor guy..i still remember ed´s face with that Come Back solo from 2011 or 2012..

[harmless]

I'm also looking forward to hearing what Mike was supposed to do.

poor guy..i still remember ed´s face with that Come Back solo from 2011 or 2012..

LOL yeah I did feel sorry for him on the LB clip. Ed seemed like he was being a bit of a dick. Not seen the Come Back one, I don't think.

[super nintendo chalmers]

This one?

[VinylGuy]

This one?

yeah!!! really funny...Ed hated that so much they didnt include the song in the bootleg.

[harmless]

I can't see anything

[VinylGuy]

I can't see anything

it was there, i think...

[BurtReynolds]

ha. definitely looks like they weren't on the same page.

[harmless]

I don't want to play this game anymore.

[stupidmop]

That solo is better than the entire rest of the song. Ed should have just gone with it and sang in a different key, gone all moody.

[BurtReynolds]

That solo is better than the entire rest of the song. Ed should have just gone with it and sang in a different key, gone all moody.

yeah