Life (Alt. Vitalogy)

[ridleybradout]

I was recently reading the Vitalogy chapter in the PJ20 book and came across this:

"Late in the game, the band gathered scraps of recorded ephemera to shape into interstitial music, such as the minute-long "Pry, to," on which Vedder half sings, half mumbles the phrase "P-R-I-V-A-C-Y, it's priceless to me," and "Aye Davanita," a "just screwing around" studio jam with a chanted nonsense lyric that O'Brien looped and stretched to three minutes.

"We got interlude crazy," O'Brien says. "Stone was very much into hip-hop, and we were also Urge Overkill fans. They'd done a record we loved called Saturation with a bunch of interludes. So we started taking bit and pieces and adding them to things."

This got me thinking - what if the band had released the album as quickly as they originally intended, in a stripped down no-nonsense form without all the added interludes? So I went ahead and made this:



'Life' as many will know was the original working title for Vitalogy. Edits have been made to remove 'Stupid Mop' , the above mentioned interludes and the intros to 'Last Exit' and 'Better Man', and I substituted the "wank-off accordion piece" (Ed's words) 'Bugs' for 'Hard To Imagine', which I think actually works quite well between 'Corduroy' and 'Satan's Bed'.

This is hardly an essential compilation, it's just for shits and giggles. I just hope it isn't perceived as sacrilegious to one of PJ's best albums, which is of course pretty close to perfect as it is.

Tracklist:

01 Last Exit
02 Spin The Black Circle
03 Not For You
04 Tremor Christ
05 Nothingman
06 Whipping
07 Corduroy
08 Hard To Imagine
09 Satan's Bed
10 Better Man
11 Immortality

[Norah]

you monster

[PHATJ]

I can dig it.

[h2sublime]

Another cool thing you could do would be to switch out Betterman and Corduroy for the alternate cuts found on the Vitalogy reissue.

[ridleybradout]

Another cool thing you could do would be to switch out Betterman and Corduroy for the alternate cuts found on the Vitalogy reissue.

That did cross my mind but I don't think the organ/piano version of Better Man would have worked in the context of the album very well, and many of the early Corduroy lyrics are pretty cringeworthy. The main thing though is that the mixing/mastering of the alternate cuts on the 2011 Expanded Edition is way too different to the original 1994 release.

I did however want to include Ed's pre-bridge scream from the alternate version of Corduroy (right before "everything has chains" - one of my favourite Ed screams ever), however it just wouldn't overlay onto the original version very well.

P.S. Forgot to say you can find this project where all good RB projects are found

[Anders]

Where do you find all good RB projects?

Edit: Thank you.

[ducko]

Thank goodness they changed the album name to Vitalogy. 'Life' is a pretty shit title…well i think it is anyway.

[doone]

I can dig it.

[Chris_H_2]

oh what i wouldn't give to hear the studio recording of better man from the vs. sessions.

[VinylGuy]

Where do you find all good RB projects?

Edit: Thank you.

Platy have everything. PM him. Good guy.

[gatherspeed]

Nice.

Any chance for a jewel case insert? It would be killer on my shelf.

[Anders]

Where do you find all good RB projects?

Edit: Thank you.

Platy have everything. PM him. Good guy.

I know, he’s quite the oracle.

[stip]

i prefer vitalogy without the interludes. I hadn't added hard to imagine to it before, though

[CopperTom]

i prefer vitalogy without the interludes. I hadn't added hard to imagine to it before, though

[liebzz]

This is fascinating. I would have thought the best fits to replace interludes would have been Habit and Lukin, or to potentially cull from Merkinball and include I Got Is and Long Road.

Come to think of it, if Vitalogy were the songs minus the interludes and plus Merkinball, it would probably be my favorite album. Something like:

1) Long Road
2) Last Exit
3) Spin the Black Circle
4) Not For You
5) Nothingman
6) I Got Id
7) Tremor Christ
8) Whipping
9) Corduroy
10) Better Man
11) Satan’s Bed
12) Immortality

[Higgs]

As ever, thanks Riddles.

[gatherspeed]

This is fascinating. I would have thought the best fits to replace interludes would have been Habit and Lukin, or to potentially cull from Merkinball and include I Got Is and Long Road.

Come to think of it, if Vitalogy were the songs minus the interludes and plus Merkinball, it would probably be my favorite album. Something like:

1) Long Road
2) Last Exit
3) Spin the Black Circle
4) Not For You
5) Nothingman
6) I Got Id
7) Tremor Christ
8) Whipping
9) Corduroy
10) Better Man
11) Satan’s Bed
12) Immortality

I never thought of this. Stellar.

[liebzz]

And on this inspiration, the final track list I came up with based upon the songs that were generated in and around this time period (post Vs. but pre No Code):

1) Long Road
2) Last Exit
3) Spin the Black Circle
4) Not For You
5) Nothingman
6) I Got Id

7) Tremor Christ
8) Whipping
9) Lukin
10) Corduroy
11) Habit
12) Better Man
13) Satan’s Bed
14) Immortality

As a super fan, I thought about mood, timing, how the songs play off each other in sequencing, and creating a viable side one and side two. Thanks to the op for the muse on this time burning exercise.

[Anders]

If that last list actually came out back then, I would have been so happy. Not that I wasn't anyway.

[liebzz]

I think in terms of great songs and band chemistry, despite the apparent personal issues they had with ea h other, this was them at their best.

A number of these songs are great because they are on the verge of breakdown and the band just pushes through it by sheer force of will (i.e. the breakdowns at the end of Last Exit and in the middle of Habit).

Another point in this time period’s favor is that they were at the height of pissed off and the music just exudes purpose in a way they never accomplished before or since.