A Guided Tour of Lightning Bolt: Infallible

[darth_vedder]

Eddie has been trying to write this song for a while, though this is his best attempt yet.

The song starts with Eddie playing the latest variation of his palm muted guitar intro, the notes meant to shiver up your spine, intimations of something sneaking up behind you, intangible but real and about to take on form. Eddie’s voice compliments the effect, deep, whispered, almost like it’s stalking you, though it’s not exactly a predator/prey relationship. Something closer to your partner running their fingers down your back and breathing in your ear. You tense up, but you’re eager for what comes next. It would be better if it was a bit quieter, but the effect is there.

I agree with this bit for the most part, but I think I like LBC better. I think this one, the one about gems and rhinestones, and LBC all kinda feel similar. It's a toss up as to what I like better ( maybe we should rank them).

I think my favorite thing about this song is the first guitar solo. It's fun, it flows, the surrounding music is solid rock music. It just works. The song though is just these moments that somewhat tie together and someone don't, hence the Frankenstien affect.

I honestly haven't listened to this one in a few months, so maybe I'll fire it up now...

[Kevin Davis]

Another great read, Stip. The few thoughts this song has inspired from me have already been coughed up elsewhere, but I will go on record as saying that the live versions of this that I've heard have been consistently strong. The studio take doesn't really capture the song's potential, to my ears.

[stip]

Eddie has been trying to write this song for a while, though this is his best attempt yet.

The song starts with Eddie playing the latest variation of his palm muted guitar intro, the notes meant to shiver up your spine, intimations of something sneaking up behind you, intangible but real and about to take on form. Eddie’s voice compliments the effect, deep, whispered, almost like it’s stalking you, though it’s not exactly a predator/prey relationship. Something closer to your partner running their fingers down your back and breathing in your ear. You tense up, but you’re eager for what comes next. It would be better if it was a bit quieter, but the effect is there.

I agree with this bit for the most part, but I think I like LBC better. I think this one, the one about gems and rhinestones, and LBC all kinda feel similar. It's a toss up as to what I like better ( maybe we should rank them).

I think my favorite thing about this song is the first guitar solo. It's fun, it flows, the surrounding music is solid rock music. It just works. The song though is just these moments that somewhat tie together and someone don't, hence the Frankenstien affect.

I honestly haven't listened to this one in a few months, so maybe I'll fire it up now...

It's a good headphones listen. I almost included a paragraph talking about the ways this, LBC, and UK differ from each other and why I think this one is the most successful, but this went on long enough.

[stip]

Another great read, Stip. The few thoughts this song has inspired from me have already been coughed up elsewhere, but I will go on record as saying that the live versions of this that I've heard have been consistently strong. The studio take doesn't really capture the song's potential, to my ears.

It doesn't. Axing the outro solo is a major problem, but this is definitely a song, when I hear, where I'm listening around some things and maybe slightly filling in some others.

[Strat]

This song sounds the worst on headphones i think. There is way too much production on this song. Way too many flourishes. Its so stale.

Live is great but ed can rarely nail the outro vocals.

I have a love/hate relationship with this song.

[stip]

I like those flourishes!

[bada]

Its an OK song. The production is so sanitized....when did Brendan O'Brian become late 80's Mutt Lange? I don't like Eddie's delivery during the palm muted parts but he sounds fine in the other parts. I like the double vocals. I think they reinforce an average hook. Wish it was more raucous over all. Nothing really to say about the lyrics.

[McParadigm]

I don't hate the songwriting here. It reminds me at times of something off of Pete Townshend's All the Best Cowboys. If it were the first...or even the second...of these soft/loud low/high build-and-release template tracks, I'd probably like it more. Hell, it's probably better written than Given to Fly. It just happens to come at a point in their career where they've already done this exact thing...so very a lot...and have become truly professional in their studio performances.

They have basically created circumstances wherein a song like this cannot possibly feel new, exciting, or energized.

[bada]

Yeah I kinda think that at a certain point in a rock bands career going for the big rock anthem is a mistake unless you have like a out of this world singer like Freddie Mercury who can make an average song sound huge even when he's dying. I miss him. Instead you are more likely to sound like Steven Tyler who even though I respect that he's honest about desperately clinging to relevance its still sounds.....well desperate.

[stip]

I don't hate the songwriting here. It reminds me at times of something off of Pete Townshend's All the Best Cowboys. If it were the first...or even the second...of these soft/loud low/high build-and-release template tracks, I'd probably like it more. Hell, it's probably better written than Given to Fly. It just happens to come at a point in their career where they've already done this exact thing...so very a lot...and have become truly professional in their studio performances.

They have basically created circumstances wherein a song like this cannot possibly feel new, exciting, or energized.

Fair enough. When done well this is my favorite type of pearl jam song, so I may be an easy mark. Plus UK and LBC both fail to live up to their potential, so I was well primed to go for this in a big way.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

That's because BoB forced them to pull out before you were satisfied.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

That's because BoB forced them to pull out before you were satisfied.

Ooh! Let's rank BoB's bedroom moves.

now you're getting it!

[E.H. Ruddock]

stip's avatar is so distracting

[bada]

He's self lubricating.

[McParadigm]

I always feel like I have to move the browser window over so that the poster identity section hangs off-screen...because I shudder to think what that avatar might look like to someone briefly glancing over your shoulder as they hurry by.

[PHATJ]

I still love Lightning Bolt, especially live. But fuck, BoB absolutely kills my cum shot at the end of the studio take, and this is my number one with a bullet in a glut of reasons why I can't stand his consistantly baffling production choices. That solo wails, and should go on and on and on while I recover from said load blowing. I really feel like this could have been a top 10 PJ song if that bastard hadn't fucked it all up. I also would have liked a more interesting intro, as I'm well bored of the palm muted thing, but the rest of the track is right in my PJ sweet spot. I remember first hearing LB (from the leak) and thinking "my God, the PJ I love is back". I just wish that would have come to fruition.

Also, I so wish the band could perform this song as the 1998 version of themselves, but I guess that dream is dead on arrival.

And now I have blue balls, thanks Obama.

[daft twat]

I cannot get past "have you got yourself some sand?" One of the worst lyrics by anyone ever.

[MoreSense]

Eddie has been trying to write this song for a while, though this is his best attempt yet.

I agree with this bit for the most part, but I think I like LBC better. I think this one, the one about gems and rhinestones, and LBC all kinda feel similar. It's a toss up as to what I like better ( maybe we should rank them).

I think my favorite thing about this song is the first guitar solo. It's fun, it flows, the surrounding music is solid rock music. It just works. The song though is just these moments that somewhat tie together and someone don't, hence the Frankenstien affect.

I honestly haven't listened to this one in a few months, so maybe I'll fire it up now...

I agree with stip's comment that EV's been trying to write this song for a while. My initial thought was that Lighting Bolt was an evolution of Force of Nature, I guess I thought lyrically or thematically. Also, I've convinced myself that throughout the 2011 Canadian tour the band was working out parts of songs that ended up on LB. I swear you can hear tidbits of riffs from Lightning Bolt during the extended break in RVM from Toronto 2011.

And thanks for posting your thoughts on Lightning Bolt. Really love the discussion here.