Red Mosquito

What are your favorite (and least favorite) songwriting contributions from each individual band member?
Meaning songs where they're credited as songwriters, whether it's the whole song or just the music.

Here are mine:

Jeff
Best: Sleight of Hand
Worst: He wrote Rats, right? I know a lot of people love it, but I can't stand that song.

Matt
Best: Cropduster. Love that tune.
Worst: The Fixer.

Mike
Best: Present Tense
Worst: Turning Mist

Stone
Best: Strangest Tribe
Worst: Let the Records Play

Ed
Best: Corduroy
Worst: Does No More War count as a Pearl Jam song? Otherwise, probably Gone

Jeff
Best: Nothing As It Seems
Worst: Sweet Lew

Matt
Best: Get Right
Worst: The Fixer

Mike
Best: Yellow Ledbetter
Worst: Inside Job

Stone
Best: Of The Girl
Worst: Mankind

Ed
Best: Corduroy
Worst: Speed of Sound

Jeff
Best: Sleight of Hand
Worst: Sweet Lew

Matt
Best: You Are
Worst: The Fixer

Mike
Best: Brain of J
Worst: Inside Job

Stone
Best: Of The Girl
Worst: Amongst the Waves

Ed
Best: Immortality
Worst: Future Days

Boom:
Worst: Love Boat Captain

Dave A:
Best: Go

i almost went w/ brain of j, too.

elliseamos wrote:i almost went w/ brain of j, too.

one of my favorites. Mike was so good back then...

Jeff--
Best: "Nothingman"
Worst: "Sweet Lew"

Matt--
Best: "In the Moonlight"
Worst: "Evacuation"

Mike--
Best: "Yellow Ledbetter"
Worst: "Sirens"

Stone--
Best: "Do the Evolution" (it's probably "Alive," actually, but I've just heard that song too many goddamned times)
Worst: "Don't Gimme No Lip"

Ed--
Best: "Immortality"
Worst: "Future Days"

I knew someone would say "Evacuation" sooner or later, but I never thought it would be you, BR.

One of my favorite Pearl Jam songs.

Cameron
best: Cropduster
worst: The Fixer
McCready
best: Brain Of J
worst: Sirens
Vedder
best: Porch
worst: Just Breathe
Ament
best: Nothingman (the most difficult choice, I chose that because we had to pick one)
worst:Sweet Lew
Gossard
best: Rival
worst: Amongst The Waves

The correct answer for Mike is Faithfull.

I change my vote for Mike to be Yellow Ledbetter.

theplatypus wrote:I knew someone would say "Evacuation" sooner or later, but I never thought it would be you, BR.

One of my favorite Pearl Jam songs.

I had kind of a hard time choosing between that and "The Fixer." I don't despise "Evacuation" the way a lot of other fans seem to, but at the same time it's never been a song that particularly resonated with me. I've never liked "The Fixer" all that much either, but in the past few years I've come to appreciate it for the big, dumb pop song that it is. At this particular moment, it seemed like the right call.

On a different note, I did almost choose "Cropduster" as my favorite Matt tune. That's a hell of a song.

I change my best Gossard tune to Rival.

It's a pretty hilarious exercise, really, since 90% of the time "songwriting" amounts to "dude wrote one riff and a strummy thing, and we worked it out later." Especially with Mike.

The Fixer represents a whole different kind of question mark, since it was birthed by Matt but haters need to aim their loathing straight at King Edward.

McParadigm wrote:It's a pretty hilarious exercise, really, since 90% of the time "songwriting" amounts to "dude wrote one riff and a strummy thing, and we worked it out later." Especially with Mike.

The Fixer represents a whole different kind of question mark, since it was birthed by Matt but haters need to aim their loathing straight at King Edward.

You seem fun

Jeff's best: Sleight of Hand
Jeff's worst: Yellow Moon

Matt's best: Evacuation
Matt's worst: The Fixer

Mike's best: Faithfull
Mike's worst: Force of Nature

Stone's best: Do the Evolution
Stone's worst: Supersonic

Ed's best: Rearviewmirror
Ed's worst: Future Days, I guess

McParadigm wrote:The Fixer represents a whole different kind of question mark, since it was birthed by Matt but haters need to aim their loathing straight at King Edward.

I seriously dig Matt's demo of the basic idea, Ed really fucked it up.

It's manifestly unfair to blame Matt for the purposes of this exercise but, hey, got to pick something.

For the most part, I have no idea who wrote what.

Birds in Hell wrote:

McParadigm wrote:The Fixer represents a whole different kind of question mark, since it was birthed by Matt but haters need to aim their loathing straight at King Edward.

I seriously dig Matt's demo of the basic idea, Ed really fucked it up.

It's manifestly unfair to blame Matt for the purposes of this exercise but, hey, got to pick something.

I felt like the demo would have made a decent Wellwater song, but I'm not sure it could have ever worked as a PJ song. The Fixer was far worse than I could have imagined, though.

theplatypus wrote:

McParadigm wrote:It's a pretty hilarious exercise, really, since 90% of the time "songwriting" amounts to "dude wrote one riff and a strummy thing, and we worked it out later." Especially with Mike.

The Fixer represents a whole different kind of question mark, since it was birthed by Matt but haters need to aim their loathing straight at King Edward.

You seem fun

Rank the various songwriters in the band based on the average number of stars their contributions warrant, adjusting scores accordingly based on the level to which you believe the group contributed to the song's quality and to eliminate the production factor.

Jeff
Best: Nothingman
Worst: Gods dice

Matt
Best: The fixer
Worst: In the moonlight

Mike
Best: Yellow Ledbetter
Worst: Inside Job

Stone
Best: Alive
Worst: Mankind

Ed
Best: Corduroy
Worst: Hitchhiker