Top 10 PJ Holiday Single Tracks: A Ranking/Memories Thread

[Anders]

The lyrics. They are like a stream of thoughts, where his mind was that day. Captures a moment in time.

[VinylGuy]

Coming back to the previous Kevin Davis post, im sad because this ending means the end of an era. When i learnt about the Christmas Singles on 45´s i was a kid and thought that was the coolest thing to do for a band. The newsletters, the artwork, the songs...it was the pre internet days, and it was a serious hunter job to get all the info you could about it. It was very difficult too.

My first time getting christmas 45s was because of RM. And Angi, of course. We chatted a lot about PJ back in the day in the chat and she and King Jeremy sent me this great box with a tons of 45s, from a promo one with I Got Id - Long Road to the 2005 Gone demo. I just couldnt believe it.

Thats how special this collection items were. And yeah, they kinda lost their charm with all the delays, and lack of original material but they still matter to me.

A short list of my favorites ones in no particular order.

Strangest Tribe - Driftin
Let Me Sleep
No Jeremy - Falling Down
Last Soldier - I just wanna have something to do
All Night- In The Moonlight
Gone- Little sister
Better Things - Devil Doll
Love Reign Oer Me
Alive
Hawaii 78
Santa Cruz
Angel
Crown Of Thorns 00
History Never Repeats.

[LoathedVermin72]

I haven’t heard a lot of these

[Kevin Davis]

To me, it's just tedious and bland, and sounds unfinished. I don't think a song is good just because it's simple or "honest". How do you gauge that anyway?

Because it's straight out of the Eddie Vedder surfer-dude book o' cliches, and no one would put any effort into faking lyrics this awful?

Spoiler: show

Heading South a compass reads
Look at our speed, we're going sixty-three
Look out the window as the trees go green
I look at them and they look at me

Got Neil Young on the stereo
He comes along whenever i go
Something different as i hear him now
Heading south on a familiar route (Oh yeah)

I can feel them lifting up my blues
I can see a white horizon, new
Got the feeling i just cant lose
Rolling into Santa Cruz (yeah)

I've got an old friend he remembers me
From way back when we were seventeen
We got kids and we're older now
But when i see him, we're still seventeen

I need the beach to set me free
I need the wind to make me breathe
I need the water to wash my soul
I need my love once to let me go

I can feel them lifting up my blues
I can see a white horizon blue
Got the feeling that i just cant lose
Rolling into Santa Cruz (Ah yeah)

(Ah ha)

Up in the North West, we got it good
Little soggy, but we've got it good
Can't help thinking that I wish i would
Move my ass down to Santa Cruz

I got the feeling that i just can't lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz
I got a feeling that i just can't lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz (Oh)

I got a feeling i don't want to lose
Pulling into Cruz
I got a feeling i just can't lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz (Yeah)

(Yeah, yeah, ah, ah, nah nah)

Also, when Eddie's not singing as himself, he tends to use phrases like "he's got a big gold ring what says Jesus saves" and "now, Johnny he be havin' lots of women," and while this isn't the most eloquent piece of writing he's done, nothing of that nature leaps immediately out at me.

[Norah]

How did I get lost looking for God in Santa Cruz?

[nomorecrackpipes]

Strangest Tribe/Drifting stands out to me because they were two new, solid songs (and atypical songs for the band to make) so close to an album release, plus it was delivered before Christmas.

The Drifting opening riff was used to launch the new PJ website, too. It kicked off me being really into everything the band did for four years. Then PRAMG happened.

[epilogue]

"Shattered" is the bottom of the barrel for me. That was the first time I really felt like there was nothing too marginal or ridiculous to be included on one of these.

I totally understand this but I also appreciate that the Xmas single is where it ended up. Taking these things too seriously is dangerous, I think. Having this one off, playful moment memorialized in this way is fun, I think. It's terrible but so is Turning Mist and Jingle Bells and the Ramblings series and on and on. These work best, for me, when there is an element of fun and even poking fun in them. Had it been released on Lost Dogs, I'd be bummed. But as a Christmas Single, it works, I think.

[Kevin Davis]

I appreciate that the holiday singles brought an element of lightheartedness to their catalog, but listening to Eddie Vedder and a random celebrity doing a cut-rate comedy sketch at some benefit dinner just isn't the sort of thing that interests or entertains or amuses me in any way. In its weird way that song sums up PRAMG Pearl Jam for me -- rich and famous people onstage doing any old bullshit because they're rich and famous and they can.

[epilogue]

I appreciate that the holiday singles brought an element of lightheartedness to their catalog, but listening to Eddie Vedder and a random celebrity doing a cut-rate comedy sketch at some benefit dinner just isn't the sort of thing that interests or entertains or amuses me in any way. In its weird way that song sums up PRAMG Pearl Jam for me -- rich and famous people onstage doing any old bullshit because they're rich and famous and they can.

Uh.... weird.

[epilogue]

Sorry... "weird" comes across as insulting. I don't mean that. It's interesting to me because that take never really occurred to me. Interesting take, and something to think about.

[Kevin Davis]

It probably doesn't warrant any thought, to be honest. It's a silly thing and ultimately no big deal; it's just nothing I'll ever find myself wanting to listen to.

[epilogue]

It probably doesn't warrant any thought, to be honest. It's a silly thing and ultimately no big deal; it's just nothing I'll ever find myself wanting to listen to.

I don't disagree, honestly. It's a complete throwaway. I've listened to it a handful of times but I'll never intentionally reach for it, to be sure.

[96583UP]

Drifting embodied the beginning of an era of PJ xmas singles that made me stop listening to PJ for several years

Santa Cruz represents the culmination years of that unchecked shittiness evolving into a higher gear of antipathy toward all things that are good in the universe

Shattered represents the apex of Mt. Fuck You

but back to the OP:

1. Let Me Sleep
2. Angel
everything else

[WtOB?]

I fucking hate "Santa Cruz", the perfect example of a nothing-song

I really liked it. I remember it got me super excited for Backspacer.

[washing machine]

I excluded live takes of album tracks on purpose. That is a great version of Smile.

Here's a memory that's not really a ranking: I didn't join the 10C until 2002, but there was a rumor floating around that if you sent cash to the 10C they would send you singles from previous years. I addressed an envelope to Seattle and put in something like $30 and asked for all the old singles they had in stock. They ended up sending me the singles from '95 and then '98-'01. Not bad.

baller

I did this too.

[Jorge]

I fucking hate "Santa Cruz", the perfect example of a nothing-song

I really liked it. I remember it got me super excited for Backspacer.

Hand to my heart, not saying this for shock value: I would without hesitation take every single Backspacer song over "Santa Cruz"

[epilogue]

I fucking hate "Santa Cruz", the perfect example of a nothing-song

I really liked it. I remember it got me super excited for Backspacer.

Hand to my heart, not saying this for shock value: I would without hesitation take every single Backspacer song over "Santa Cruz"

duh