General Pearl Jam Bitching

[stip]

They meant "songs we can play with our eyes closed."

eddie needs to learn he sings better with his eyes open

[digster]

I wonder if what they meant was songs that will elicit a particular crowd response

If that's the case, I think they're needlessly stunting their creative instincts by trying to find the easiest sells to the crowd. Their best song may be in one of those germs that they never bother to pursue because it won't get people cheering quickly enough? I don't know if that's laziness, but it would seem like they're taking the easiest way out.

[Lament]

They meant "songs we can play with our eyes closed."

eddie needs to learn he sings better with his eyes open

[Birds in Hell]

For all their yammer about writing songs with live performance in mind, it's curious that it's exclusively the new material that Ed has to sing in a lower key.

[Norah]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

[Birds in Hell]

Quite right, old bean!

[Heathen]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

I don't know, they seem to take hand gestures and crowd interaction quite seriously.

[Norah]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

I don't know, they seem to take hand gestures and crowd interaction quite seriously.

Yeah, but still not as seriously as they'd lead you to believe.

[Heathen]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

I don't know, they seem to take hand gestures and crowd interaction quite seriously.

Yeah, but still not as seriously as they'd lead you to believe.

Is there room for improvement? Sure. But on a good night Pearl Jam's hand gestures are as good as any other band's. And when they're on fire it's a quasi-religious experience.

[Norah]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

I don't know, they seem to take hand gestures and crowd interaction quite seriously.

Yeah, but still not as seriously as they'd lead you to believe.

Is there room for improvement? Sure. But on a good night Pearl Jam's hand gestures are as good as any other band's. And when they're on fire it's a quasi-religious experience.

You think so, but then you check the recording and find they're sloppy at least 40% of the time on any given night. If Ed would just limit himself to one bottle of wine a night his finger precision would improve drastically.

[stip]

I wonder if what they meant was songs that will elicit a particular crowd response

If that's the case, I think they're needlessly stunting their creative instincts by trying to find the easiest sells to the crowd. Their best song may be in one of those germs that they never bother to pursue because it won't get people cheering quickly enough? I don't know if that's laziness, but it would seem like they're taking the easiest way out.

Yeah, at least in terms of studio output it would be, especially since only a few songs will survive into heavy rotation.

[Mine]

I think RM puts much more thought into PJ writing songs with the live shows in mind and what that means in practice than PJ does.

[Heathen]

Hmmm, it leads you to believe that the members of Pearl Jam are full of shit in every aspect of their work as a band.

I don't know, they seem to take hand gestures and crowd interaction quite seriously.

Yeah, but still not as seriously as they'd lead you to believe.

Is there room for improvement? Sure. But on a good night Pearl Jam's hand gestures are as good as any other band's. And when they're on fire it's a quasi-religious experience.

You think so, but then you check the recording and find they're sloppy at least 40% of the time on any given night. If Ed would just limit himself to one bottle of wine a night his finger precision would improve drastically.

I took a casual fan to a show last tour, one who had stopped caring about any hand gesture the band came up with post-Vitalogy and he was really impressed.

[stip]

I think RM puts much more thought into PJ writing songs with the live shows in mind and what that means in practice than PJ does.

I think it's pretty clear rm puts as much time into resenting pearl jam as the pit does adoring them

[McParadigm]

So the only people in this equation not thinking about Pearl Jam's songwriting very often is Pearl Jam.

[stip]

Exactly!

[Mine]

I think RM puts much more thought into PJ writing songs with the live shows in mind and what that means in practice than PJ does.

I think it's pretty clear rm puts as much time into resenting pearl jam as the pit does adoring them

I wouldn't know, the last time i checked (in the middle of guitardroppinggate) they made RM look relatively apologetic, but i presume they're worshipping most of the time.
My post wasn't about RM's negative attitude. I think the quote i posted earlier doesn't really offer much room for a strong argument. Ed's 1st reaction to the notion of writing music with the live shows in mind is "bad idea" so he seems to very much agree with RM here.

[Mine]

So the only people in this equation not thinking about Pearl Jam's songwriting very often is Pearl Jam.

My impression since s/t, and i vaguely remember debating it on the old boars, is that their songwriting in practice comes down to "something cool for the individual members to do in their little corners" rather than shaping the overall sound of the song with everything it comprises. This seems to find some confirmation in their describing their dynamics in the last years in the sense that "better communication" could be translated to "we get to do whatever we want and everybody else agrees more than they used to".

[McParadigm]

So the only people in this equation not thinking about Pearl Jam's songwriting very often is Pearl Jam.

My impression since s/t, and i vaguely remember debating it on the old boars, is that their songwriting in practice comes down to "something cool for the individual members to do in their little corners" rather than shaping the overall sound of the song with everything it comprises. This seems to find some confirmation in their describing their dynamics in the last years in the sense that "better communication" could be translated to "we get to do whatever we want and everybody else agrees more than they used to".

Or, "Nobody's invested in their songs enough to care what I play over them."

[Thejambi]

It's too bad the band doesn't see how thin of a line it is between great Pearl jam and current Pearl Jam.