Song of the Moment: Thumbing My Way

[stip]

old thread archived here

[stip]

somebody convince me this is a good song.

[Kevin Davis]

Try listening to it in the context of the PJ20 soundtrack, Stip--a slightly warmer, more immediate version, set against a different, less fundamentally eclectic backdrop of material. I like the song a lot but it may be a little too plain-jane for "Riot Act," an album that promises surprises and challenges that this song just isn't up to.

[stip]

I wonder if I have PJ20 on my ipod. I'll add it tonight.

[nyquillyn]

I really like the off-kilter parts of this song around "I can't be free" and "I let go of the rope." I wish there was less "echo" on Eddie's voice. It would have been better with less polish in general.

[stip]

I think Ed sounds nice, in the way he sounds nice on FD. It's a vaguely pretty song to me in an uninteresting way. The only reason I care about it at all is the lyrics, which are strong. But I think I might prefer every slow song in the catalog (album catalog, anyway) to TMW.

[Lament]

It helps if you're wallowing in depression and self-loathing. At least it always has for me.

When he sings "I smile, but who am I kidding?" it hits close to home in more ways than I'd ever care to go on about.

[harmless]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Not a single bad word I can say about this song. Not many PJ songs can reduce me to tears but this, Man of the Hour and sometimes Long Road...

[harmless]

somebody convince me this is a good song.

It's melancholy in the best way: downbeat and very, very pretty at the same time. In contrast, something like FD is just pretty, which on its own has little depth.

[harmless]

And Matt's brush work is simply perfect.

[Kevin Davis]

I wonder if I have PJ20 on my ipod. I'll add it tonight.

I've posted it before but I think the second half of the first disc of the PJ20 soundtrack is the most thoughtful program of officially released Pearl Jam music since "Riot Act." You start with "Not For You" from the 1995 Far East tour, a snapshot of the band at the ends of the earth, at their fiercest and most uncompromising; from there you get "Evolution" from the 1998 Monkeywrench set, the band back in their hometown, privately banging away like a garage band; then on to "Thumbing My Way," a warm, subdued performance from Chop Suey in 2002, Eddie's voice wiser, deeper (a far cry from the man who sang "Not For You" just two tracks ago); then to "Crown of Thorns" from the PJ10 show, a huge, emotional celebratory moment at an arena in front of thousands of fans (another far cry from the catharsis happening just three tracks ago). From that massive public display you go to a field recording of Ed and Mike playing "Let Me Sleep" on the side of the road in Italy, six years later, for no one except themselves, the guy with the tape recorder, and any fortunate passersby; then onto the Bridge School, an essential part of PJ's peripheral history, to play "Walk With Me," a then-new song almost assuredly destined for obscurity, alongside one of their heroes and mentors; lastly, it's "Just Breathe" on SNL, one of the best live performances of the song to date, casting a sort of retroactive light across the entire compilation. Seven songs that I never would have really thought to put together in this sequence, or in these versions (all of which are immaculate), but in a weird way it manages to document every side of this band in a sort of lovely, mini-vignette.

So yeah, listen to that.

[harmless]

Also, the 'keys' on this song really enhance it.

[Heathen]

somebody convince me this is a good song.

the only proof you need

[knee tunes]

somebody convince me this is a good song.

the version from Live at the Garden is good.

I try to ignore the chorus "no matter how long the winter, there's a spring time ahead" which is cliché** city

the bridge in the song (as in most PJ songs) is wonderful "I let go a rope, thinking this would help me back, but in time I realized, its now wrapped around my neck.... I can't see what's next from this lonely overpass......."
(holy shit the words are good, arent' they?)

The song has a shit-ton of chord changes, which in and of itself means nothing to the value of a song except for in the context of how better it makes a song, and it might in this case. I don't know.

to me this song was always a skipper.....but then one time I didn't skip and "all the rusted signs we ignore throughout our lives, choosing the shiny ones instead," just hit me hard and I wept and love this song now instead.

Sincerely,

knee tunes

**thank you for the thingy, spellcheck

[harmless]

The song is full of cliches, but then so are most songs, especially PJ ones.

[knee tunes]

Also, the 'keys' on this song really enhance it.

boom don't play the "keys", he plays the thing that makes a dome over the songs

[harmless]

Also, the 'keys' on this song really enhance it.

boom don't play the "keys", he plays the thing that makes a dome over the songs

There's organ in it, though, so whoever's playing it, I like it.

[knee tunes]

The song is full of cliches, but then so are most songs, especially PJ ones.

well I don't think that's true. I'm sure there's PJ somes but not especiallys

[knee tunes]

Also, the 'keys' on this song really enhance it.

boom don't play the "keys", he plays the thing that makes a dome over the songs

There's organ in it, though, so whoever's playing it, I like it.

yeah, that's what I mean. I usually associate the word "keys" to a piano or/and organ tinkering kind of sound, but boom just makes that bellowing encasement type of sound instead

[harmless]

Also, the 'keys' on this song really enhance it.

boom don't play the "keys", he plays the thing that makes a dome over the songs

There's organ in it, though, so whoever's playing it, I like it.

yeah, that's what I mean. I usually associate the word "keys" to a piano or/and organ tinkering kind of sound, but boom just makes that bellowing encasement type of sound instead

Oh OK. Well yeah, it's nice.