Pearl Jam Writing Credits by Album

[harmless]

Ed needs to get his percentage down to about 20%. He just isn't a dynamic song writter. Doesn't use the talents of the band members as much with his style of music. He doesn't make his teammates better to use a sports analogy. He's like Carmelo Anthony, doesn't bring the level of the guys around him up. He's a great player and a stud, but it's one on one basketball...And Ed has mad some amazing songs for PJ, but I think he's better at the solo gig nowdays for his style of music.

sorry have to disagree. hands down ed is the most consistent and the most diversified songwriter in the band. sure, there are clunkers, but here's the guy that's done porch to elderly woman to immortality to off he goes to i am mine to the present day with something like just breathe. his style is just so diverse and strong no matter what the style. again, i'm not defending every song the guy has written, but he's the strongest of the band.

mike is the most unoriginal, derivative songwriter in the band and that may sound like a slam, but it's not. his songs tend to be poppy and largely a take on someone else's riff whether it's Social D or Hendrix or Kiss or whatever. He writes some great songs that I love but they are concurrently kinda shallow.

jeff is the most obtuse writer in the band. he's almost too out there. stuff like pilate or sleight of hand are cool but they are more in my mind attempts at high art. that's not to say he can't write a hit, a la jeremy. but he's the most "artsy" in the band.

i could go on, but in the end what i think makes the band great are all these personalities working together and i like this post because it's interesting to see the wealth of each member's contributions and how that produced that particular album.

You missed out Stone and Matt. What Jeff, Stone and Matt write isn't 'high art' at all, but it's among the cleverest stuff and the most interesting to listen to. Those Ed songs you listed really aren't that 'diverse' at all. Apart from Porch, they're all vaguely-acoustic vaguely-folk songs, and that's the one PJ style that has most influenced Ed's solo work.

[Lament]

Know what would be cool to accompany this?
A breakdown album by album of who wrote what, track by track.
I've always wondered.
Ed and to a far lesser degree, Stone are the only two whose songs I can identify.

I posted a list of who got credit for each individual post-Merkinball track in another thread a while back. I still have it saved, so I can post it again here if you'd like. I don't remember which thread it was in (I believe it was in one about the new album, but it may have been from before it was named).

[melonhead4]

So it looks like Mike is most expendeble person in PJ, so just go ahead and replace him with Buckethead already......KIDDING!!!!!!......

[Mine]

Ed needs to get his percentage down to about 20%. He just isn't a dynamic song writter. Doesn't use the talents of the band members as much with his style of music. He doesn't make his teammates better to use a sports analogy. He's like Carmelo Anthony, doesn't bring the level of the guys around him up. He's a great player and a stud, but it's one on one basketball...And Ed has mad some amazing songs for PJ, but I think he's better at the solo gig nowdays for his style of music.

sorry have to disagree. hands down ed is the most consistent and the most diversified songwriter in the band. sure, there are clunkers, but here's the guy that's done porch to elderly woman to immortality to off he goes to i am mine to the present day with something like just breathe. his style is just so diverse and strong no matter what the style. again, i'm not defending every song the guy has written, but he's the strongest of the band.

mike is the most unoriginal, derivative songwriter in the band and that may sound like a slam, but it's not. his songs tend to be poppy and largely a take on someone else's riff whether it's Social D or Hendrix or Kiss or whatever. He writes some great songs that I love but they are concurrently kinda shallow.

jeff is the most obtuse writer in the band. he's almost too out there. stuff like pilate or sleight of hand are cool but they are more in my mind attempts at high art. that's not to say he can't write a hit, a la jeremy. but he's the most "artsy" in the band.

i could go on, but in the end what i think makes the band great are all these personalities working together and i like this post because it's interesting to see the wealth of each member's contributions and how that produced that particular album.

You missed out Stone and Matt. What Jeff, Stone and Matt write isn't 'high art' at all, but it's among the cleverest stuff and the most interesting to listen to. Those Ed songs you listed really aren't that 'diverse' at all. Apart from Porch, they're all vaguely-acoustic vaguely-folk songs, and that's the one PJ style that has most influenced Ed's solo work.

Yeah but you have to take Corduroy, Habit, Insignificance, Sad and the like in consideration here.

[iceagecoming]

Ed needs to get his percentage down to about 20%. He just isn't a dynamic song writter. Doesn't use the talents of the band members as much with his style of music. He doesn't make his teammates better to use a sports analogy. He's like Carmelo Anthony, doesn't bring the level of the guys around him up. He's a great player and a stud, but it's one on one basketball...And Ed has mad some amazing songs for PJ, but I think he's better at the solo gig nowdays for his style of music.

sorry have to disagree. hands down ed is the most consistent and the most diversified songwriter in the band. sure, there are clunkers, but here's the guy that's done porch to elderly woman to immortality to off he goes to i am mine to the present day with something like just breathe. his style is just so diverse and strong no matter what the style. again, i'm not defending every song the guy has written, but he's the strongest of the band.

mike is the most unoriginal, derivative songwriter in the band and that may sound like a slam, but it's not. his songs tend to be poppy and largely a take on someone else's riff whether it's Social D or Hendrix or Kiss or whatever. He writes some great songs that I love but they are concurrently kinda shallow.

jeff is the most obtuse writer in the band. he's almost too out there. stuff like pilate or sleight of hand are cool but they are more in my mind attempts at high art. that's not to say he can't write a hit, a la jeremy. but he's the most "artsy" in the band.

i could go on, but in the end what i think makes the band great are all these personalities working together and i like this post because it's interesting to see the wealth of each member's contributions and how that produced that particular album.

You missed out Stone and Matt. What Jeff, Stone and Matt write isn't 'high art' at all, but it's among the cleverest stuff and the most interesting to listen to. Those Ed songs you listed really aren't that 'diverse' at all. Apart from Porch, they're all vaguely-acoustic vaguely-folk songs, and that's the one PJ style that has most influenced Ed's solo work.

Yeah but you have to take Corduroy, Habit, Insignificance, Sad and the like in consideration here.

RVM, Grievance, Severed Hand, Gonna See My Friend, too. The 'acoustic'/'folk' tracks are less than half of what he brings to the table overall.

[harmless]

Ed needs to get his percentage down to about 20%. He just isn't a dynamic song writter. Doesn't use the talents of the band members as much with his style of music. He doesn't make his teammates better to use a sports analogy. He's like Carmelo Anthony, doesn't bring the level of the guys around him up. He's a great player and a stud, but it's one on one basketball...And Ed has mad some amazing songs for PJ, but I think he's better at the solo gig nowdays for his style of music.

sorry have to disagree. hands down ed is the most consistent and the most diversified songwriter in the band. sure, there are clunkers, but here's the guy that's done porch to elderly woman to immortality to off he goes to i am mine to the present day with something like just breathe. his style is just so diverse and strong no matter what the style. again, i'm not defending every song the guy has written, but he's the strongest of the band.

mike is the most unoriginal, derivative songwriter in the band and that may sound like a slam, but it's not. his songs tend to be poppy and largely a take on someone else's riff whether it's Social D or Hendrix or Kiss or whatever. He writes some great songs that I love but they are concurrently kinda shallow.

jeff is the most obtuse writer in the band. he's almost too out there. stuff like pilate or sleight of hand are cool but they are more in my mind attempts at high art. that's not to say he can't write a hit, a la jeremy. but he's the most "artsy" in the band.

i could go on, but in the end what i think makes the band great are all these personalities working together and i like this post because it's interesting to see the wealth of each member's contributions and how that produced that particular album.

You missed out Stone and Matt. What Jeff, Stone and Matt write isn't 'high art' at all, but it's among the cleverest stuff and the most interesting to listen to. Those Ed songs you listed really aren't that 'diverse' at all. Apart from Porch, they're all vaguely-acoustic vaguely-folk songs, and that's the one PJ style that has most influenced Ed's solo work.

Yeah but you have to take Corduroy, Habit, Insignificance, Sad and the like in consideration here.

RVM, Grievance, Severed Hand, Gonna See My Friend, too. The 'acoustic'/'folk' tracks are less than half of what he brings to the table overall.

He writes very fast and heavy, or very slow and soft. Different-sounding songs but they can all be lumped in one of those two categories.

[stupidmop]

Couldn't everyones? If you really wanted to make them fit. Idk if i'd call sad and insignificance heavy and fast, and habit is heavy and slow.

I found this Binaural era quote the other day and thought it was funny/interesting, i'm wacking it here cause its to do with song writing. I wonder what song they're talking about.

Spoiler: show

Ultimately, though, Pearl Jam's biggest recent gains have been internal ones. They're the elements that you don't necessarily hear on a recording, but without them you'd have to wonder how many more recordings there would be. But you can see it in the way Vedder, Gossard, and Ament interact. "We communicate much better with each other now," Gossard explains. "We bring up issues instead of skulking away and leaving and not showing up for two days. Our fights are shorter..."

"...And filled with laughter and humor," Vedder interjects. "The tensions don't build up like they used to, which I think is the key in any relationship. I think we're all just a lot more..."

"...Old," Gossard jokes.

"Well, we're just more settled," Vedder continues. "You learn to pick your battles, and not to over-react before you know what the situation is. I remember there was one song we were working on--one that I wrote--and I was in the basement typing the lyrics and I had asked Jeff to just play really straight, just really straight, just kind of really thump your way through and keep it straight because that's what the bass needs to do. So I went down to the basement to type something and I could hear the bass and it was just crazy, like eight notes in two bars..."

"...The lyrics got more and more angry as he was writing them," Gossard adds.

"I was thinking 'what the fuck is he doing? Goddamn it, if I didn't look him in the eye and ask him to keep it simple," Vedder goes on, "I was just pissed and it was building up and building up, and I walked upstairs and they're playing back the track, and it was just this one little tag, this one little tag that he kept replaying. And I'm just so glad that I didn't run up there going, 'What the fuck?!' because the part was beautiful, you know, it was great."

When Ament hears the story later on, he laughs, claiming not to know which song Vedder's talking about.

[harmless]

Fair point regarding 'Sad' and possibly 'Insignificance', but I would call Habit a 'fast' song, although not quite punk fast. Also, yeah, maybe you could put any one of the members' songs into those categories, but (for example) Matt's songs include the more quirky time signature changes and accents, and Stone's songs tend to be more groovy mid-tempo a lot of the time. Not always, sure, but Ed's songs are more easily called 'folky' or 'punky' generally I think.

[iceagecoming]

I'd put I am Mine, Education, Hitchhiker, Sad, Insignificance, In My Tree, Who You Are, Can't Keep, Drifting, Of the Earth, Unthought Known and half of Into the Wild outside both of those categories.

[stip]

eddie is easily my favorite songwriter in the band these days.

[nustang70]

There must have been an easier way to convey this information.

Probably.

[iceagecoming]

For sure. Eddie's an easy target, but song for song he's still the guy I'm most interested in. GSMF, Just Breathe, Unthought Known, Speed of Sound and The End are just about the spine of the album for me. Backspacer's problems mainly lie outside those tracks. The only song I like more than some of those is Johnny Guitar.

Stone is a puzzle to me. Moonlander has some great moments but, Parachutes aside, he hasn't brought anything great to the PJ table in the last two albums.

[nustang70]

Know what would be cool to accompany this?
A breakdown album by album of who wrote what, track by track.
I've always wondered.
Ed and to a far lesser degree, Stone are the only two whose songs I can identify.

You can find the writing credits breakdown track by track on wikipedia. Some wonderful people have even tracked down the credits for the albums that didn't list individual credits. See, for example, the Vs track listing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vs._(Pearl ... ck_listing

[Lament]

Know what would be cool to accompany this?
A breakdown album by album of who wrote what, track by track.
I've always wondered.
Ed and to a far lesser degree, Stone are the only two whose songs I can identify.

You can find the writing credits breakdown track by track on wikipedia. Some wonderful people have even tracked down the credits for the albums that didn't list individual credits. See, for example, the Vs track listing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vs._(Pearl ... ck_listing

Eh, fuck it. Here it is again, Writing credits for everything from the release of Merkinball through Mind Your Manners...

Vedder (39) – I Got Id, Long Road, Sometimes, Off He Goes, Habit, Lukin, Around The Bend, Black, Red, Yellow, Dead Man, Wishlist, MFC, Leatherman, U, Drifting, Breakerfall, Insignificance, Grievance, Soon Forget, Parting Ways, Sad, Hitchhiker, Education, Can't Keep, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Green Disease, Arc, Undone, Man of the Hour, Worldwide Suicide, Severed Hand, Gone, Santa God, Santa Cruz, Gonna See My Friend, Just Breathe, Unthought Known, Speed of Sound, The End
Gossard/Vedder (9) – Do The Evolution, In Hiding, Bu$hleaguer, All or None, Life Wasted, Parachutes, Wasted Reprise, Amongst The Waves, Supersonic
Ament/Vedder (9) – Smile, Push Me, Pull Me, Sleight of Hand, Ghost, ½ Full, Big Wave, Army Reserve (with Damien Echols), Got Some, Ole
Gossard (9) – Mankind, Don't Gimme No Lip, No Way, All Those Yesterdays, Strangest Tribe, Thin Air, Of the Girl, Rival, Fatal
McCready/Vedder (9) – Present Tense, Brain of J., Faithfull, Given to Fly, Marker In The Sand, Come Back, Inside Job, Force of Nature, Mind Your Manners
Ament (7) – Pilate, Low Light, God's Dice, Nothing As It Seems, Sweet Lew, Help, Help, Other Side
FULL BAND (3) – Red Mosquito, All Night, Save You
Gossard/McCready/Vedder (3)– Light Years, Down, Comatose
Cameron/Vedder (3) - Evacuation, Cropduster, You Are
Irons (3) - Happy When I'm Crying, Red Dot, Whale Song
McCready (2) – Last Soldier, Turning Mist
Cameron (2) – In the Moonlight, Get Right
Gossard/Vedder/Irons (2) – Who You Are, In My Tree
Gossard/Cameron/Vedder (1) – Johnny Guitar
McCready/Cameron/Vedder (1) - Unemployable
Ament/Gossard/McCready/Vedder (1) – Hail, Hail
Gossard/McCready/Cameron/Vedder (1) – The Fixer
Vedder/Gaspar (1) – Love Boat Captain
Vedder/Irons (1) – I'm Open

[Mine]

Fair point regarding 'Sad' and possibly 'Insignificance', but I would call Habit a 'fast' song, although not quite punk fast. Also, yeah, maybe you could put any one of the members' songs into those categories, but (for example) Matt's songs include the more quirky time signature changes and accents, and Stone's songs tend to be more groovy mid-tempo a lot of the time. Not always, sure, but Ed's songs are more easily called 'folky' or 'punky' generally I think.

How does that exactly make a song better? The emphasis on this is fairly recent too. You can probably find a bunch of videos on youtube of the late Ray Manzarek bragging about the simplicity of The End.
I think all this can sometimes even hurt a song it really depends.

[Mine]

.

Vedder (39) – I Got Id, Long Road, Sometimes, Off He Goes, Habit, Lukin, Around The Bend, Black, Red, Yellow, Dead Man, Wishlist, MFC, Leatherman, U, Drifting, Breakerfall, Insignificance, Grievance, Soon Forget, Parting Ways, Sad, Hitchhiker, Education, Can't Keep, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Green Disease, Arc, Undone, Man of the Hour, Worldwide Suicide, Severed Hand, Gone, Santa God, Santa Cruz, Gonna See My Friend, Just Breathe, Unthought Known, Speed of Sound, The End

Interesting how many of those aren't from actual albums.

[Lament]

.

Vedder (39) – I Got Id, Long Road, Sometimes, Off He Goes, Habit, Lukin, Around The Bend, Black, Red, Yellow, Dead Man, Wishlist, MFC, Leatherman, U, Drifting, Breakerfall, Insignificance, Grievance, Soon Forget, Parting Ways, Sad, Hitchhiker, Education, Can't Keep, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Green Disease, Arc, Undone, Man of the Hour, Worldwide Suicide, Severed Hand, Gone, Santa God, Santa Cruz, Gonna See My Friend, Just Breathe, Unthought Known, Speed of Sound, The End

Interesting how many of those aren't from actual albums.

Yeah, but twenty-five of them still are. Which is a lot. That's an average of over four per record.

[Coach]

First thought that comes to mind after reading that first post: Let Stone and Jeff write the majority of the tunes, and give Ed the rest.

[Mine]

First thought that comes to mind after reading that first post: Let Stone and Jeff write the majority of the tunes, and give Ed the rest.

yup more Big Waves and Supersonics is the way to go

[harmless]

Fair point regarding 'Sad' and possibly 'Insignificance', but I would call Habit a 'fast' song, although not quite punk fast. Also, yeah, maybe you could put any one of the members' songs into those categories, but (for example) Matt's songs include the more quirky time signature changes and accents, and Stone's songs tend to be more groovy mid-tempo a lot of the time. Not always, sure, but Ed's songs are more easily called 'folky' or 'punky' generally I think.

How does that exactly make a song better? The emphasis on this is fairly recent too. You can probably find a bunch of videos on youtube of the late Ray Manzarek bragging about the simplicity of The End.
I think all this can sometimes even hurt a song it really depends.

Of course it depends, but there's nothing objective to brag about in terms of simplicity either. Unthought Known's 'simplicity' killed it towards the end. Songs which aren't straight 2/4 or 4/4, fast or slow, are more interesting to me personally, and if you want to talk about variety, it's these you look at. It's just my opinion and in the end (boom boom) it doesn't matter much, they're just PJ songs and I like most of them.