Red Mosquito

sometimes when i get annoyed with modern day eddie's singing, i think back to DTE on live on two legs. if his voice is shot now because of that (and similiar performances back then), then the trade off is totally worth it.

dprival78 wrote:

That's a lotta cameras - this Wrigley DVD is looking more and more likely

Given the 20th anniversary of Charlotte '96 - I uploaded a couple of bits of MTV's coverage of the show. One's a pre-show clip from MTV News, the other is a Week in Rock piece about the show.

Notable almost solely because the Week in Rock clip contains some pro-shot footage from the show.

By coincidence (?), right after the Charlotte piece in the Week in Rock is a profile of your favorite and mine, Brendan O'Brien.

(Starts with a lengthy piece about the release of Nirvana's From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah.)




(Actually, the other thing that always caught me about the first clip was Kurt Loder's reference to Ed's comment at Randall's Island about what the band would do if anyone ever died at a Pearl Jam show. When Roskilde happened, all I heard was Loder's voice in my head.)

Nice to read the discussion on how Ed's voice has changed over the years. My 2 cents:

His initial style involved a lot of singing from the chest (think Release) and especially for the low notes, his voice was very resonant and 'smooth'. For the higher notes, he employed both the smooth sounding upper chest voice as in the chorus of Release but also the gritty upper chest notes like in the chorus of Why Go, Deep and pretty much most of the hard rock songs on Vs. The gritty singing wasn't something that was done very technically by Eddie in those days. Pulling that much chest into his higher notes because he didn't have much of a 'head' voice (think Cornell's high notes and how effortless they sound; that's head voice) did have an effect on his vocal endurance. You can hear it start to affect him from 95 onwards. Shouting and straining excessively during much of those tours wasn't very good for him. He started to learn to sing more 'technically' by 98 and even on songs where he's apparently ripping his larynx to shreds (DTE), he's doing it with less wear and tear. This was also the time he stopped pulling so much chest voice into his higher notes (the gritty ones) and started shouting less. The grit was still there but he didn't sound like he was straining excessively like in 95.

From then on, he's never sounded much like he did on Ten partly because it's a stylistic choice what with all the imitators around at the time and partly because of the drinking and smoking plus touring which made his voice sound a bit more gritty. Even on the lower notes, he does not sound as smooth and pristine as on Ten simply because his tone has roughened up. He can actually sing lower now with age such as on Dream a Little Dream but that type of low register singing isn't usually compatible with PJ songs nor does he seem interested in exploring it too much. His upper chest voice still sounds great when he's singing those operatic notes such as on Nothingman or Release... unless it breaks. I blame that on the smoking primarily. Nothingman at GCF 2016 is great because his voice rarely breaks and he's not holding back in fear that it will. The counter-intuitive thing is that he attempts to sing a lot of higher notes these days that are more likely to cause a voice break. Since he doesn't pull as much chest in them, these notes will also sound 'thinner'. I still think giving up smoking, not that I expect him to, will allow him to avoid excessive voice breaks.

Technically, his most accomplished higher register singing is probably in LROM where he consistently is pushing himself to use head voice in those screams while still sounding gritty. He doesn't seem to have a 'clean' head voice. The only example of that is the high note at the end of Dissident which was something he rarely ever attempted to replicate live, even in the 90s. The only time I remember him going for it was in some show from '03. Sounds grittier than in studio because of the change in tone but still nails it. That kind of clean head voice is a skill that Ed has never really honed. He's a self taught singer of course and singing high notes in head voice is asking for a lot from a baritone. Cornell can do it but he honed the skill decades ago. When he shifted exclusively to the kind of upper chest gritty screams that Ed does routinely in many songs, even Cornell blew his voice. I'm talking about the Audioslave era when Chris sounded really bad live. Goes to show that Ed has a very resilient voice despite killing it with bad technique earlier in his career. He just doesn't have the technical skill of Cornell to sing in high head voice. I'd take Ed's lower register over Cornell's any day though.

An example of bad technique when singing in head voice is Plant. Unlike Cornell's, his style was very damaging and he blew his voice pretty quickly. Plant did become a good crooner later on. Ed on the other hand doesn't want to go that route exclusively yet. I don't I feel his voice is blown either like Plant's was. He still has plenty but some of the stylistic choices put people off as does the lack of effort during some of their live shows. If everyday was GCF, he'd probably put more into it.

Maybe I see what I want to see, but I've felt that most of the 'Ed's singing' frustration has mirrored my own: I have no problem whatsoever with the sound of his voice as he ages, and every problem with how he has responded to it. Plenty of singers with less than great voices, and plenty of older singers, find ways to adjust to their own changing instrument in a way that allows it to remain a direct pathway to the emotional core of the song. Ed still has a remarkable voice, in my opinion, but there's a detached quality that is terribly off-putting.

UglyRedHonda wrote:Given the 20th anniversary of Charlotte '96 - I uploaded a couple of bits of MTV's coverage of the show. One's a pre-show clip from MTV News, the other is a Week in Rock piece about the show.

Notable almost solely because the Week in Rock clip contains some pro-shot footage from the show.

By coincidence (?), right after the Charlotte piece in the Week in Rock is a profile of your favorite and mine, Brendan O'Brien.

(Starts with a lengthy piece about the release of Nirvana's From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah.)




(Actually, the other thing that always caught me about the first clip was Kurt Loder's reference to Ed's comment at Randall's Island about what the band would do if anyone ever died at a Pearl Jam show. When Roskilde happened, all I heard was Loder's voice in my head.)

I was in the front row at that Sat night Randall's Island show and after awhile I raised my two hands and asked the security guard to pull me up. Couldn't take the crush of the pit. It was so intense. I broke off a piece of the foam padding that they used on the metal rail that separated the crowd from the stage and still have it today. Thanks for posting that video; cool to see.

I'd be down with a technical singing/production thread with Release_Me and Trag talking to each other about every Pearl Jam song.

tragabigzanda wrote:Following this conversation here just made me realize that part of the problem with Pearl Jam is that individual pieces of that band reached their respective peaks at different times. For example, Ed in 93, 98, 05, are notable highlights; Mike peaked in 98; Stone was on fire '93-'98. Etc.

Ed´s voice in 05 and 06

tragabigzanda wrote:Following this conversation here just made me realize that part of the problem with Pearl Jam is that individual pieces of that band reached their respective peaks at different times. For example, Ed in 93, 98, 05, are notable highlights; Mike peaked in 98; Stone was on fire '93-'98. Etc.

Jeff is at it's peak right now (Tres Mts, RNDM, solo,..). A force to be reckoned with. Said it before, the band needs a new powerstruggle. Move it to Jeff!

evenslow wrote:I'd be down with a technical singing/production thread with Release_Me and Trag talking to each other about every Pearl Jam song.

It would be great to do something like that if I had the time. All I can say is I understand people's issues with some of Ed's stylistic singing choices these days. Most here appreciate the stylistic choices he made on No Code, Binaural and Riot Act while I personally was put off by them mostly. I love certain songs on those albums no doubt but overall, I would much prefer he kept singing the way he does on LB than either of those albums. Those albums made me feel detached from PJ emotionally even if I admired the songs. I feel Ed channels emotions better when he doesn't hold back with his singing and on most of LB (or Backspacer or S/T), he doesn't.

...

I think I'll post a video in the video thread.

I had this cd many years ago, not sure where it went but this performance is really nice.

I wore out my DVD of that ^^^.

Ed was in peak form throughout - Take a Walk, I See Red, Parting Ways... awesome.

I See Red from that is awesome

E.H. Ruddock wrote:I See Red from that is awesome

Fuzzcharger wrote:I had this cd many years ago, not sure where it went but this performance is really nice.

Thanks for sharing this, I've never seen it before.