Song of the Moment: Alone

[VinylGuy]

i saw it also as Pareshar, so who knows

[Leatherhead]

The Lost Dogs version of this song is so clearly the best one. I'm honestly surprised people think it's the inferior version. Eddie's vocals are over the place and a bit ridiculous sounding on the original.

[Birds in Hell]

I think the best version is the unreleased Ten sessions recording, i.e. the one that formed the basis for the Lost Dogs version, but with the original 1991 vocals.

[wease]

The Lost Dogs version of this song is so clearly the best one. I'm honestly surprised people think it's the inferior version. Eddie's vocals are over the place and a bit ridiculous sounding on the original.

The updated lyrics suck tho.

The original released version on the Go single is the definitive version for me.

[McParadigm]

The Lost Dogs version of this song is so clearly the best one. I'm honestly surprised people think it's the inferior version. Eddie's vocals are over the place and a bit ridiculous sounding on the original.

The updated lyrics suck tho.

The original released version on the Go single is the definitive version for me.

The unupdated lyrics also suck tho

[wease]

The Lost Dogs version of this song is so clearly the best one. I'm honestly surprised people think it's the inferior version. Eddie's vocals are over the place and a bit ridiculous sounding on the original.

The updated lyrics suck tho.

The original released version on the Go single is the definitive version for me.

The unupdated lyrics also suck tho

But they weren’t improved. If they were better the second go-round I’d have no problem other than the truncated second verse.

[JuanHamm]

Wide awake like snakes in a panic

[Chris_H_2]

I always thought it was “wide awake and he shakes in a panic.” Huh.

And this song has aged horribly.

[JuanHamm]

I always thought it was “wide awake and he shakes in a panic.” Huh.

And this song has aged horribly.

The snakes line is from the LD version. No idea why Ed would change it.

[LetMeSleep]

I always thought it was “wide awake and he shakes in a panic.” Huh.

And this song has aged horribly.

It was the 90's, man.

[Birds in Hell]

There's another bizarre lyrical quirk about the song: there's a line in the second verse which, on the original recordings and all of the live versions from that period, is "anything to get his heart off of the coals".

On the Lost Dogs version, not only did they cut out the rest of that verse and jump straight to the next chorus (shortening the overall song), but Ed also bafflingly seems to have changed the line to: "anything to get his heart off of Nicole" - which is what's reflected on the PearlJam.com official lyrics!

I presume everyone remembers this but there was a time in the mid 2000s when Pearl Jam, who previously didn't have any official lyrics on the website, did a significant website update which included the addition of lyrics for most studio recordings by the band. The problem with this is that the lyrics are full of errors and mistakes and I believe were copied wholesale from fan websites. One of those "errors" is the "Nicole" lyric in Alone, which has now in a bizarre turn of events become retrospectively official as Ed now sings that lyric, even though he didn't before.

I genuinely suspect he couldn't remember the original lyrics when he went to re-record the song for Lost Dogs and found some online, including errors, and somehow decided he'd just roll with them - and has ever since!

They played Alone until Abbruzzese left the band in 1994 and didn't come back to it until the Vote for Change tour in 2004, around the release of Lost Dogs. Since it returned to the live sets, Ed has resolutely stuck to singing "Nicole" and cutting short the second verse. From a quick review of live tracks in my iTunes:

Boston 1991: "the coals" (full second verse)
Copenhagen 1992: "the coals" (full second verse)
Boston (Orpheum Theatre) 1994: "the coals" (full second verse)
---
St Louis 2004: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Prague 2006: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Los Angeles 2009: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Memphis 2014: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Wrigley 2018: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)

See my earlier post above (not originally in this thread).

Incredibly pleased to report that not only did the band play a solid version of this song at Philly 2 this year (albeit still shortening that second verse), Ed sang "heart off of the coals" (and not "Nicole") for the first time since 1994.

This is one of my all-time Pearl Jam crackpot issues, great to see this historic wrong put right.

[oasisfan35]

There's another bizarre lyrical quirk about the song: there's a line in the second verse which, on the original recordings and all of the live versions from that period, is "anything to get his heart off of the coals".

On the Lost Dogs version, not only did they cut out the rest of that verse and jump straight to the next chorus (shortening the overall song), but Ed also bafflingly seems to have changed the line to: "anything to get his heart off of Nicole" - which is what's reflected on the PearlJam.com official lyrics!

I presume everyone remembers this but there was a time in the mid 2000s when Pearl Jam, who previously didn't have any official lyrics on the website, did a significant website update which included the addition of lyrics for most studio recordings by the band. The problem with this is that the lyrics are full of errors and mistakes and I believe were copied wholesale from fan websites. One of those "errors" is the "Nicole" lyric in Alone, which has now in a bizarre turn of events become retrospectively official as Ed now sings that lyric, even though he didn't before.

I genuinely suspect he couldn't remember the original lyrics when he went to re-record the song for Lost Dogs and found some online, including errors, and somehow decided he'd just roll with them - and has ever since!

They played Alone until Abbruzzese left the band in 1994 and didn't come back to it until the Vote for Change tour in 2004, around the release of Lost Dogs. Since it returned to the live sets, Ed has resolutely stuck to singing "Nicole" and cutting short the second verse. From a quick review of live tracks in my iTunes:

Boston 1991: "the coals" (full second verse)
Copenhagen 1992: "the coals" (full second verse)
Boston (Orpheum Theatre) 1994: "the coals" (full second verse)
---
St Louis 2004: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Prague 2006: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Los Angeles 2009: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Memphis 2014: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Wrigley 2018: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)

See my earlier post above (not originally in this thread).

Incredibly pleased to report that not only did the band play a solid version of this song at Philly 2 this year (albeit still shortening that second verse), Ed sang "heart off of the coals" (and not "Nicole") for the first time since 1994.

This is one of my all-time Pearl Jam crackpot issues, great to see this historic wrong put right.

RE: Philly 2
Holy Christ they should not have the track start with Ed's banter.

[wease]

There's another bizarre lyrical quirk about the song: there's a line in the second verse which, on the original recordings and all of the live versions from that period, is "anything to get his heart off of the coals".

On the Lost Dogs version, not only did they cut out the rest of that verse and jump straight to the next chorus (shortening the overall song), but Ed also bafflingly seems to have changed the line to: "anything to get his heart off of Nicole" - which is what's reflected on the PearlJam.com official lyrics!

I presume everyone remembers this but there was a time in the mid 2000s when Pearl Jam, who previously didn't have any official lyrics on the website, did a significant website update which included the addition of lyrics for most studio recordings by the band. The problem with this is that the lyrics are full of errors and mistakes and I believe were copied wholesale from fan websites. One of those "errors" is the "Nicole" lyric in Alone, which has now in a bizarre turn of events become retrospectively official as Ed now sings that lyric, even though he didn't before.

I genuinely suspect he couldn't remember the original lyrics when he went to re-record the song for Lost Dogs and found some online, including errors, and somehow decided he'd just roll with them - and has ever since!

They played Alone until Abbruzzese left the band in 1994 and didn't come back to it until the Vote for Change tour in 2004, around the release of Lost Dogs. Since it returned to the live sets, Ed has resolutely stuck to singing "Nicole" and cutting short the second verse. From a quick review of live tracks in my iTunes:

Boston 1991: "the coals" (full second verse)
Copenhagen 1992: "the coals" (full second verse)
Boston (Orpheum Theatre) 1994: "the coals" (full second verse)
---
St Louis 2004: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Prague 2006: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Los Angeles 2009: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Memphis 2014: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)
Wrigley 2018: "Nicole" (shortened second verse)

See my earlier post above (not originally in this thread).

Incredibly pleased to report that not only did the band play a solid version of this song at Philly 2 this year (albeit still shortening that second verse), Ed sang "heart off of the coals" (and not "Nicole") for the first time since 1994.

This is one of my all-time Pearl Jam crackpot issues, great to see this historic wrong put right.

I’m glad this bothered someone other than me.