Song of the Moment: Lightning Bolt

[Hatfield]

It's a grower. I downright hated it at first. That happy riff... Ughhh...
Somehow it doesn't make me cringe anymore. Who knows, maybe it'll sound rich in the studio. I do like the melody when the lyrics go "always something, never nothing". And I do like the solos and the outtro. It may have a yield kind of sound in the end, and that's a good thing.

I'm guessing it is going to sound less polished than Yield and Undone.

[Blenheim Augustine]

He does play guitar.

Oh.

It still doesn't feel very Vedder-esque (to me, anyway) but I guess we'll find out in due course.

What non-Ed songs does Ed play guitar on? I can't think of one?

[harmless]

He does play guitar.

Oh.

It still doesn't feel very Vedder-esque (to me, anyway) but I guess we'll find out in due course.

What non-Ed songs does Ed play guitar on? I can't think of one?

Live? Probably most of them, no? Did he write Corduroy?

[Release_Me]

Yup, as far as I remember. Corduroy was an Ed song and I remember Mike talking about the fact that he hated playing it live initially

Most of Vitalogy was Ed, if I remember correctly. The band was at their most dysfunctional and close to quitting. Ed came up with a bunch of songs and the band played music over them. Voila, we had an album. Or maybe it's a huge oversimplification. This is what I recall after reading several interviews from that era. It was not a very collaborative period.

[Birds in Hell]

He does play guitar.

Oh.

It still doesn't feel very Vedder-esque (to me, anyway) but I guess we'll find out in due course.

What non-Ed songs does Ed play guitar on? I can't think of one?

Come Back, bits of Present Tense.

[Birds in Hell]

Most of Vitalogy was Ed, if I remember correctly.

The only songs I believe Ed had a hand in musically on Vitalogy are those he plays guitar on: Not for You, Whipping, Corduroy, Bugs, Better Man and Immortality (and Stupid Mop if we're being exhaustive).

As an aside, the writing credits during the 1993-1994 period (largely attributing songs to the entire band) are clearly inaccurate; I'm sure the band didn't stop bringing in ideas as individuals for two years. We already know the authorship of some of that material from interviews, eg. Go by Dave and Stone, Spin the Black Circle by Stone, Small Town by Ed and so on.

[stip]

I thought stbc was mike?

[digster]

Most of Vitalogy was Ed, if I remember correctly.

The only songs I believe Ed had a hand in musically on Vitalogy are those he plays guitar on: Not for You, Whipping, Corduroy, Bugs, Better Man and Immortality (and Stupid Mop if we're being exhaustive).

As an aside, the writing credits during the 1993-1994 period (largely attributing songs to the entire band) are clearly inaccurate; I'm sure the band didn't stop bringing in ideas as individuals for two years. We already know the authorship of some of that material from interviews, eg. Go by Dave and Stone, Spin the Black Circle by Stone, Small Town by Ed and so on.

However, according to interviews with Jeff as well as O'Brien, there was apparently a lot of jamming that went into Vitalogy (I believe O'Brien talks about it in that Rolling Stone interview). He said that most days they'd come in with nothing and just jam something up. I could see that; there's a lot of songs on Vs. and Vitalogy (Not for You, Indifference, etc.) that seemed like they could have happened that way.

But anyway, yeah, it's probably a whole mess of different approaches.

[digster]

I think Lightning Bolt is most likely Ed; he doesn't typically play on songs he doesn't have a hand in writing the music for, and also that verse riff employs a trick he uses in a lot of his songs; the guitar line mirrors the vocal melody pretty closely. This happens a lot in his slower songs (Off He Goes, Man of the Hour, Skipping, etc), but it shows up in his more uptempo numbers sometimes, as well.

[epilogue]

Also, it's a song about surfing. So, yeah.

[harmless]

I see it as a better attempt at Big Wave. We can only hope that Matt jams it out like that.

[Birds in Hell]

I thought stbc was mike?

Nope, Stone's recalled before that he wrote the music to the song but he intended it to be slower and groovier; it was Ed's idea for the band to play it faster.

[stip]

[harmless]

In 0:59, Stone floats backwards across the floor. It's funny.

[LetMeSleep]

Who has that gif handy? I love that Ed has to wait before throwing da bolt.

edit: sorry that was in MYM, wasn't it?

[harmless]

Stone does the floating across the floor thing on that MYM gif too. There's a point where Ed and Stone float backwards in unison.

[Walker Bait]

I see it as a better attempt at Big Wave. We can only hope that Matt jams it out like that.

You and I always seem to be on the same page. lol I was listening to LB a couple of days ago when it hit me that the riff reminded me a lot of Big Wave but that it was executed better. It sounds raw and aggressive but not overly aggressive or messy. And I know that the live version we've heard is "technically" messy, but that's just for lack of playing it live and having it down tight. I'm sure the studio version will fix that. But the tone of the song and overall flow of it is a better executed Big Wave for sure....for me anyway.

[Blenheim Augustine]

He does play guitar.

Oh.

It still doesn't feel very Vedder-esque (to me, anyway) but I guess we'll find out in due course.

What non-Ed songs does Ed play guitar on? I can't think of one?

Come Back, bits of Present Tense.

He has a writing credit on Come Back. That leaves one song and a high probability that he wrote this one.

[Blenheim Augustine]

Most of Vitalogy was Ed, if I remember correctly.

The only songs I believe Ed had a hand in musically on Vitalogy are those he plays guitar on: Not for You, Whipping, Corduroy, Bugs, Better Man and Immortality (and Stupid Mop if we're being exhaustive).

As an aside, the writing credits during the 1993-1994 period (largely attributing songs to the entire band) are clearly inaccurate; I'm sure the band didn't stop bringing in ideas as individuals for two years. We already know the authorship of some of that material from interviews, eg. Go by Dave and Stone, Spin the Black Circle by Stone, Small Town by Ed and so on.

However, according to interviews with Jeff as well as O'Brien, there was apparently a lot of jamming that went into Vitalogy (I believe O'Brien talks about it in that Rolling Stone interview). He said that most days they'd come in with nothing and just jam something up. I could see that; there's a lot of songs on Vs. and Vitalogy (Not for You, Indifference, etc.) that seemed like they could have happened that way.

But anyway, yeah, it's probably a whole mess of different approaches.

I think we did a thread on this once - music credits for Vitalogy - pretty sure these are verified by ASCAP.
Last Exit - Stone (main riff) + band
STBC - Stone
Not for You - Ed
Tremor Christ - McCready/Ament
Nothing Man - Ament
Whipping - Ed
Corduroy - Ed
Satan's Bed - Stone
Betterman (live) - Ed
Immortality - Ed
Stupid Mop - Jason Statham

[Lounge Lizard]

Stupid Mop - Jason Statham

WTF, I always thought it was Rowan Atkinson