Give Way - Record Store 2023

[epilogue]

I'm actually pretty excited for this. Hopefully, I'll be able to snag a vinyl copy.

[VinylGuy]

What happened with Brett Eliason?

i think these days its mostly him or Josh Evans mixing their stuff

[Coach]

Do you guys want to keep fighting about the release of this?

[bodysnatcher]

just looking forward to joey trying to convince himself to buy the Give Way 10c hoodie

[AndySlash]

i posted this on the pit and probably have told it here a couple times, too, but i worked at best buy in the music/movies/software department at the time all this went down, and we got the give way cds in the store a couple weeks before the promotion, which was giving a free copy of the cd to anyone that bought a vhs copy of single video theory. i did a lot of the sorting in the back room and could listen to music back there. i knew i was going to be buying the video, so i opened a copy of the cd that i would just then take home on the release date. so give way was in the player pretty much every day i was in the back- this was a couple years before pearl jam started releasing live shows, and yield was only six months old or so at this point so this was the first release that had any of those songs played live. a day or two before the release, my supervisor comes up to me and tells me i need to give the cd back, that the entire stock was going to be collected and destroyed and if we were short any copies the store was going to get fined a LOT.

apparently best buy didn't have permission from sony to do this promotion, which never made any sense to me at all- there's just no way best buy goes through all of this without one of the biggest band's and/or biggest label's knowledge and approval. plus the cd was professionally produced and as far as i know is still the best sounding version of this show. i've always suspected that the decision for pearl jam to do live on two legs came shortly after any agreement with best buy was made - single video theory was released in august 98 and pearl jam was smack in the middle of the yield tour and were recording these shows - and the band/sony decided there was more money to be made rather than giving away a free live show because someone bought a $15 video, and so best buy took the fall. because the give way cd had already been advertised and promised, best buy ended up having to give away any single cd of the customer's choosing if they bought single video theory. even now, if you look at the archived news stories about the event, there's isn't a fully consistent story being told other than sony supposedly never approved it and they filed an injunction to prevent the distribution of the disc.

i had no warning this was going to happen so i didn't even consider making a copy- i just assumed i'd be bringing that same disc home. and i didn't even have a chance to copy it when i found out, i had to immediately hand over the one i had stashed in the sorting area when my supervisor came to tell me about it- she was normally pretty easy going but here she made it very clear i had no choice and no time. obviously not all best buy representatives were as diligent as her since copies made their way out into the marketplace, and that always stung. i also live in minneapolis where best buy is headquartered, and other local fans had found random copies in the used bins of the local shops over the years, but i was never so lucky. so i thought i would never see a physical copy again until pdalowsky on the pit sold me his copy a few months ago. it was a surreal feeling holding that cd in my hands once again. i am happy i have an original, finally, and a story to go with it. i'm not at all disappointed this new release is happening, i'm glad people will get to have their own copy, it's a good show and imo worth it for immortality alone.

[Coach]

i posted this on the pit and probably have told it here a couple times, too, but i worked at best buy in the music/movies/software department at the time all this went down, and we got the give way cds in the store a couple weeks before the promotion, which was giving a free copy of the cd to anyone that bought a vhs copy of single video theory. i did a lot of the sorting in the back room and could listen to music back there. i knew i was going to be buying the video, so i opened a copy of the cd that i would just then take home on the release date. so give way was in the player pretty much every day i was in the back- this was a couple years before pearl jam started releasing live shows, and yield was only six months old or so at this point so this was the first release that had any of those songs played live. a day or two before the release, my supervisor comes up to me and tells me i need to give the cd back, that the entire stock was going to be collected and destroyed and if we were short any copies the store was going to get fined a LOT.

apparently best buy didn't have permission from sony to do this promotion, which never made any sense to me at all- there's just no way best buy goes through all of this without one of the biggest band's and/or biggest label's knowledge and approval. plus the cd was professionally produced and as far as i know is still the best sounding version of this show. i've always suspected that the decision for pearl jam to do live on two legs came shortly after any agreement with best buy was made - single video theory was released in august 98 and pearl jam was smack in the middle of the yield tour and were recording these shows - and the band/sony decided there was more money to be made rather than giving away a free live show because someone bought a $15 video, and so best buy took the fall. because the give way cd had already been advertised and promised, best buy ended up having to give away any single cd of the customer's choosing if they bought single video theory. even now, if you look at the archived news stories about the event, there's isn't a fully consistent story being told other than sony supposedly never approved it and they filed an injunction to prevent the distribution of the disc.

i had no warning this was going to happen so i didn't even consider making a copy- i just assumed i'd be bringing that same disc home. and i didn't even have a chance to copy it when i found out, i had to immediately hand over the one i had stashed in the sorting area when my supervisor came to tell me about it- she was normally pretty easy going but here she made it very clear i had no choice and no time. obviously not all best buy representatives were as diligent as her since copies made their way out into the marketplace, and that always stung. i also live in minneapolis where best buy is headquartered, and other local fans had found random copies in the used bins of the local shops over the years, but i was never so lucky. so i thought i would never see a physical copy again until pdalowsky on the pit sold me his copy a few months ago. it was a surreal feeling holding that cd in my hands once again. i am happy i have an original, finally, and a story to go with it. i'm not at all disappointed this new release is happening, i'm glad people will get to have their own copy, it's a good show and imo worth it for immortality alone.

How much did you pay for that copy?

[AndySlash]

How much did you pay for that copy?

$275 total, basically the discogs median and shipping.

[epilogue]

just looking forward to joey trying to convince himself to buy the Give Way 10c hoodie

[96583UP]

i remember waiting out front of best buy for it to open

and then a worker walked up to the front window and put a sign that Give Way was not available

there were like 5-10 freaks waiting out front for copies too

then the rest is a blur

the one that got away

[Coach]

How much did you pay for that copy?

$275 total, basically the discogs median and shipping.

Wow, congrats, that's a great piece of history.

[injuddstree]

Will this drop on Spotify?

[VinylGuy]

i dont know. Live At Easy Street is not on Spotify.

[Coach]

Someone here will post a digital copy, no worries. Of course, we encourage everyone to just buy the thing.

[smallest_oceans]

Yeah, I'm going to try and get this. The boot has been an all time favorite.

Went to a 98 Australian show and it was awesome.

[lecherouslittlestump]

I remember waiting in line at best buy too. I'd been camped out with other Faithful members of the Jamily for about 3 days.

We were treated like dirt by the best buy employees but we peservered

When the best buy employee told us that we couldn't have the Give Way cd, we lost. our. shit

I grabbed the best buy employee by his dollar and threw him against the wall. I screamed at him "I will NOT be leaving here without my Give Way CD"

he called security, at which point I fell to the floor and and started convulsing, screaming "I want my Give Way cd! I want my Give Way cd!"

I then bolted down the aisles of the store, security chasing me, knocking down stands and breaking wine bottles

in the end I managed to evade security and escape the store...but not before nabbing a copy of Give Way

[Chris_H_2]

something about that story seems ... off

[B]

something about that story seems ... off

The wine bottles on the shelves at a Best Buy?

[lowlight79]

Funny story, back in 98, I was working at Virgin Megastore, we accidentally got some packages from the best buy down the block, one of those packages was about 30 give way cd's. The sony rep for our store was told, he came down to the store that night to grab them. We never got a chance to take it or play it. When he showed up, he counted the 30 slot, took all 30 and made sure none had been open.

The story we got directly from our Sony rep at the time, and he was a pretty high up rep, he handled on the distribution for the Northeast before Streaming, napster and iTunes. He explained that the CD had been planned to be released prior to the conclusion of the Aussie Tour, that something from that tour would be part of some promotion in the fall. But the band had informed Sony to scrap it after Jack had left the band, no reason was given.

[wease]

something about that story seems ... off

The wine bottles on the shelves at a Best Buy?

Grabbing an employee by the dollar?

[B]

something about that story seems ... off

The wine bottles on the shelves at a Best Buy?

Grabbing an employee by the dollar?

I saw that, but I forgave him the typo.