Eddie Vedder - Earthling

[Ransom98]

https://consequence.net/2022/01/earthli ... der-album/

[Yield Often]

Honest question: is The Haves a legitimately terrible song OR is it knowing the composer is a Have that makes it hard to swallow?

If I listen to it like Daughter and consider the pov is not rich rockstar Eddie Vedder, I don’t hate it. This is setting up to be a forgettable album and yet one I will enjoy on the patio on a summer’s eve.

Daughter was believable because we know Ed has experienced doubt over his parentage and also abuse; but if he's ever experienced poverty or "having not", he's a million miles away from it now, so The Haves is different

There is nothing that stops a rich person from taking poverty seriously, but it needs to be done delicately, and not in the first person.

But is “The Haves” talking about wealth in a material or monetary way or more so about the love the character has for the other person being referenced?

[Ms Harmless]

Honest question: is The Haves a legitimately terrible song OR is it knowing the composer is a Have that makes it hard to swallow?

If I listen to it like Daughter and consider the pov is not rich rockstar Eddie Vedder, I don’t hate it. This is setting up to be a forgettable album and yet one I will enjoy on the patio on a summer’s eve.

Daughter was believable because we know Ed has experienced doubt over his parentage and also abuse; but if he's ever experienced poverty or "having not", he's a million miles away from it now, so The Haves is different

There is nothing that stops a rich person from taking poverty seriously, but it needs to be done delicately, and not in the first person.

agreed; he's written sensitively about the topic before by taking himself out of the equation and just commenting on corruption etc; this is not that

[Kevin Davis]

Honest question: is The Haves a legitimately terrible song OR is it knowing the composer is a Have that makes it hard to swallow?

If I listen to it like Daughter and consider the pov is not rich rockstar Eddie Vedder, I don’t hate it. This is setting up to be a forgettable album and yet one I will enjoy on the patio on a summer’s eve.

Daughter was believable because we know Ed has experienced doubt over his parentage and also abuse; but if he's ever experienced poverty or "having not", he's a million miles away from it now, so The Haves is different

I think the haves/have nots trope is just a weak vehicle for delivering the message this song is trying to deliver. The song overall really has nothing to do with this concept, so Eddie trying to make it the anchoring element of the whole piece ends up registering as out of touch on multiple levels -- he comes across as one of those people who can't get through any conversation about anything without obnoxiously finding some roundabout way to circle it back around to the same (usually unrelated) pet topic. I don't think it's so much that Eddie is out of line trying to write a song about economic disparity; it's that this specifically isn't that, and yet somehow in the middle of it not being that, its resonant message ends up being a cheap shot at a class of people that the singer himself seems terminally in denial about belonging to. It's a song with an extremely weak starting premise -- really it had no chance.

[Ms Harmless]

Honest question: is The Haves a legitimately terrible song OR is it knowing the composer is a Have that makes it hard to swallow?

If I listen to it like Daughter and consider the pov is not rich rockstar Eddie Vedder, I don’t hate it. This is setting up to be a forgettable album and yet one I will enjoy on the patio on a summer’s eve.

Daughter was believable because we know Ed has experienced doubt over his parentage and also abuse; but if he's ever experienced poverty or "having not", he's a million miles away from it now, so The Haves is different

There is nothing that stops a rich person from taking poverty seriously, but it needs to be done delicately, and not in the first person.

But is “The Haves” talking about wealth in a material or monetary way or more so about the love the character has for the other person being referenced?

"The Haves" as a concept is a political one, about material wealth inequality; for a rich guy to dilute that and make it into a metaphor about love is not evil as much as it's just completely tone deaf; the message is "we are the haves because we have each other!"

no Ed, you're a Have because you're stinking rich and I guess we thought you knew that

bleurgh

[Ms Harmless]

The Haves would genuinely work if Ed was actually poor or working class, and the song was ironically reclaiming "the haves" "for the people", as it were; he's just not in the position to be able to do that

[Yield Often]

Interesting to see the responses to this song.

Have to wonder if Springsteen fans reacted in a similar way to some of his songs concerning the working class.

(With that said, I have absolutely no idea if there are any direct/strong comparisons to the Haves.)

[Kevin Davis]

Interesting to see the responses to this song.

Have to wonder if Springsteen fans reacted in a similar way to some of his songs concerning the working class.

(With that said, I have absolutely no idea if there are any direct/strong comparisons to the Haves.)

Being unqualified to write anthems for the working class is absolutely a criticism that has been leveled at Springsteen over the years. Though to be fair, chronicling the lives of working class people (or rather, young people who would go on to become working class people) is something Springsteen has been doing more or less from the beginning, and a lot of his later works seem like logical extensions (sorry) of those early stories. There are definitely some on-the-nose moments where he sounds like an out-of-touch buffoon, but he's also able to get inside characters' heads in more nuanced, individualized ways; he's much better at show-don't-tell than Eddie is.

[Ransom98]

@brainofjoacohen
The Dark is fast and poppy with shades of Split Enz;
Good and Evil and Rose of Jericho are breakneck rockers
reminiscent of Pearl Jam's Brain Of J/Comatose; Try is
like a Social Distortion song with a Stevie Wonder
harmonica solo; Picture is a fun, rollicking duet w/F€=;
John.

[Yield Often]

Interesting to see the responses to this song.

Have to wonder if Springsteen fans reacted in a similar way to some of his songs concerning the working class.

(With that said, I have absolutely no idea if there are any direct/strong comparisons to the Haves.)

Being unqualified to write anthems for the working class is absolutely a criticism that has been leveled at Springsteen over the years. Though to be fair, chronicling the lives of working class people (or rather, young people who would go on to become working class people) is something Springsteen has been doing more or less from the beginning, and a lot of his later works seem like logical extensions (sorry) of those early stories. There are definitely some on-the-nose moments where he sounds like an out-of-touch buffoon, but he's also able to get inside characters' heads in more nuanced, individualized ways; he's much better at show-don't-tell than Eddie is.

Good to know. Appreciate the response.

[Ransom98]

Some thoughts on #eddievedder forthcoming
Earthling LP: Invincible has Red Rain-era Peter
Gabriel musical vibes with a Joe Strummer-esque
vocal delivery; Power of Right shifts nicely from a
dark verse to a sunny chorus; Fallout Today has
acoustic angle with T. Rex swagger.
1:15 PM • Jan 20, 2022
Read the full conversation on Twitter

[liebzz]

The CoS review has me convinced that this is either genius or an absolute train wreck. There may be no in between.

[scrub12]

As long as there’s a few songs I enjoy, I’m good.

[B]

Some thoughts on #eddievedder forthcoming
Earthling LP: Invincible has Red Rain-era Peter
Gabriel musical vibes with a Joe Strummer-esque
vocal delivery; Power of Right shifts nicely from a
dark verse to a sunny chorus; Fallout Today has
acoustic angle with T. Rex swagger.
1:15 PM • Jan 20, 2022
Read the full conversation on Twitter

Can I have a link so that I can read the full conversation on Twitter?

[B]

Nevermind.

[B]

Little easier to sort through

• Invincible has Red Rain-era Peter Gabriel musical vibes with a Joe Strummer-esque vocal delivery;
• Long Way
• Power of Right shifts nicely from a dark verse to a sunny chorus;
• Brother the Cloud
• Fallout Today has acoustic jangle with T. Rex swagger.
• The Dark is fast and poppy with shades of Split Enz;
• The Haves
• Good and Evil and Rose of Jericho are breakneck rockers reminiscent of Pearl Jam’s Brain Of J/Comatose;
• Try is like a Social Distortion song with a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo;
• Picture is a fun, rollicking duet w/ Elton John.
• Mrs. Mills has Ringo on drums for a Beatles-style piano romp;
• On My Way is an overture/collage w/ an affecting vocal from Eddie’s late father.

[spike]

Seems he’s shortened “waves” to just “way” now.

[Monkey_Driven]

Seems he’s shortened “waves” to just “way” now.

and yet it is still three syllables when sung

[evenslow]

this sounds like a complete trainwreck. should be fun!

[Chris_H_2]

Good and Evil and Rose of Jericho are breakneck rockers reminiscent of Pearl Jam’s Brain Of J/Comatose

not a chance