Red Mosquito

McParadigm wrote:Part of what makes Vitalogy interesting to me is that it defines what makes Pearl Jam interesting.

What is supposed to be their most self centered, "I'm angry because I'm famous" record is actually completely incapable of separating the experienced from the witnessed. It cannot let go of the big picture long enough to be self-centered, even when it wants to be...and as a result it's not really a record about self-pity or anger or even doubt (even if it indulges in each of those qualities)...it's a very primal and unedited expression of the desire for change.

Part of this means that it cannot dismiss or purposefully shun the fans that the band mattered most to...so it cannot let go of the music's most inviting emotional core, or intentionally disengage the way more internal (possibly more artistically direct) statements like In Utero try to do.

The other part is that it spends almost as much time in narrative or outward-looking concerns as it does in confessing its own sins and fears.

That's what makes this record more interesting to me than a lot of its contemporaries: that want for something better, not just for the self or the society, but just that feeling of running up against forces that deny or refuse change, even though you already have.

If I were to try and explain this band's output from the mid-90s until the self-titled record, I would say that they worked hard to limit their commercial standing but were too empathetic and emotionally honest to attempt the purposeful destruction of Neil Young or the massive tectonic shifts of David Bowie or Radiohead. This was a band of fans, at heart, and they couldn't bring themselves to actively dismiss the people who they really, genuinely mattered to. Genuineness is important, here. So they introduced subtle shadings, instead…Vitalogy was claw-mark intense, No Code almost sounded like a studio outtake bootleg (a la Basement Tapes) of a band whose collective voice was blown out, and even if Yield was a return to more inviting sounds it was still willful and a little bit backwards.

So Whipping has a place in the story. I never really understood the Vitalogy-as-anti-hero storyline. It weeps for the unloved, it aches for the one record that will change your life (as opposed to the one million that make you famous), and it rages as much about other people's problems as it does it's own. Even at its central core, it can't help promising that it doesn't want to take what you, the listener, can't give.

The subject of divinity (or perfection) pops up repeatedly on that record, as a force or idea or even a source of pressure. Mistrust or the comfort that skepticism provides are there, as well. Whipping is a good song for that record, because it wants both.

McParadigm wrote:3,000+ posts. We all win at least one on those odds.

I'm off to the bedcave.

McParadigm wrote:Part of what makes Vitalogy interesting to me is that it defines what makes Pearl Jam interesting.

What is supposed to be their most self centered, "I'm angry because I'm famous" record is actually completely incapable of separating the experienced from the witnessed. It cannot let go of the big picture long enough to be self-centered, even when it wants to be...and as a result it's not really a record about self-pity or anger or even doubt (even if it indulges in each of those qualities)...it's a very primal and unedited expression of the desire for change.

Part of this means that it cannot dismiss or purposefully shun the fans that the band mattered most to...so it cannot let go of the music's most inviting emotional core, or intentionally disengage the way more internal (possibly more artistically direct) statements like In Utero try to do.

The other part is that it spends almost as much time in narrative or outward-looking concerns as it does in confessing its own sins and fears.

That's what makes this record more interesting to me than a lot of its contemporaries: that want for something better, not just for the self or the society, but just that feeling of running up against forces that deny or refuse change, even though you already have.

If I were to try and explain this band's output from the mid-90s until the self-titled record, I would say that they worked hard to limit their commercial standing but were too empathetic and emotionally honest to attempt the purposeful destruction of Neil Young or the massive tectonic shifts of David Bowie or Radiohead. This was a band of fans, at heart, and they couldn't bring themselves to actively dismiss the people who they really, genuinely mattered to. Genuineness is important, here. So they introduced subtle shadings, instead…Vitalogy was claw-mark intense, No Code almost sounded like a studio outtake bootleg (a la Basement Tapes) of a band whose collective voice was blown out, and even if Yield was a return to more inviting sounds it was still willful and a little bit backwards.

So Whipping has a place in the story. I never really understood the Vitalogy-as-anti-hero storyline. It weeps for the unloved, it aches for the one record that will change your life (as opposed to the one million that make you famous), and it rages as much about other people's problems as it does it's own. Even at its central core, it can't help promising that it doesn't want to take what you, the listener, can't give.

The subject of divinity (or perfection) pops up repeatedly on that record, as a force or idea or even a source of pressure. Mistrust or the comfort that skepticism provides are there, as well. Whipping is a good song for that record, because it wants both.

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:

McParadigm wrote:3,000+ posts. We all win at least one on those odds.

I'm off to the bedcave.

I always get a brain boner when an McP post appears.

LetMeSleep wrote:

harmless wrote:

LetMeSleep wrote:

Anders wrote:Whipping is overrated.

Not true. It just suffers without Dave A.

Some of those early songs were written for Dave A. They pale without him. This is half the song without his aggression.

This guy gets it.

stip wrote:

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:

McParadigm wrote:3,000+ posts. We all win at least one on those odds.

I'm off to the bedcave.

I always get a brain boner when an McP post appears.

I admire his ability to be so concise.

McParadigm wrote:

stip wrote:

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:

McParadigm wrote:3,000+ posts. We all win at least one on those odds.

I'm off to the bedcave.

I always get a brain boner when an McP post appears.

I admire his ability to be so concise.

I give it triangle stars with an in-album rank of 2 1/2.

harmless wrote:

McParadigm wrote:

stip wrote:

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:

McParadigm wrote:3,000+ posts. We all win at least one on those odds.

I'm off to the bedcave.

I always get a brain boner when an McP post appears.

I admire his ability to be so concise.

I give it triangle stars with an in-album rank of 2 1/2.

I hope you're grading on a curve.

stip wrote:yes, but what do you grade with?