oldsaxon wrote: 

Mmmm, I love chocolate cake. 

languid, uninspired, tired, blah ick.  

I'm a big fan of RP and I generally dislike negative comments. Still I have to say that Pearl Jam and Peter Gabriel are highly overplayed... both are depressogenic...

play it again, and again, and again ......

You guys actually like this better than music?

Best ever

Love this live!

 StoneyG wrote: 
Imagine how either of them felt. That is crowd love and I for one would have loved it. It's a brilliant tune, sung well by Eddie, played wonderfully by the band and the crowd ate it like chocolate cake....

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

Wow! You are tougher than me! I completely agree live versions are inferior to studio and indeed this is no exception. However, I actually like the studio version of this song so I rated this a 1.

 ri_shelton wrote: 
It's not exactly Eddie's though.  He wrote the lyrics, but Stone Gossard wrote the song.

Besides, what does the pot or beer intake of the crowd have to do with it?  I've heard far worse crowds.  And which are YOUR masterpieces?

 olivertwist wrote: 
If you got a sense of irony from the singing style, that would undermine the irony. It wouldn't be ironic anymore.

Yeah, I'm not fond of letting a drunk/stoned crowd sing one of MY masterpieces...

You should play some other songs from this show. Why not?  The entire performance is great.  It would help to illuminate many of the other good songs they've written that most are unaware of because they've heard Ten eleven thousand times, and very little else.

This is a top notch performance by a top notch band. That said, there are a few songs from this show that are unparalleled in PJ performance history. Of the Girl, I Believe in Miracles, Around the Bend are awesome, but the version of Immortality is untouchable. Mike McC is channeling the best of Clapton, Paige, and Hendricks for that song. Check it out.

Wow... all this angry commentary... and I just came here to say that I love/hate this song - love it because it's really the prettiest PJ song I've ever heard (not this live version; the original) ; hate it because even after 13 years of marriage to me, my husband still gets misty-eyed hearing it because it reminds him of a past love and an ancient (in my eyes) pain. I have nothing to add to the farmer/soldier theme!

though i am a hard core pearl jam fan i must admit that eddie's vocal performance on this take
is mediocre at its best. the crowd does the trick here, unbelieveable. as always at a pearl jam show.
goosebumps all over.

 FooledAgain wrote: 

OK, that's what I would hope, but the singing style is so earnest and intense that I don't get any sense of irony in the delivery of that line.

 Byronape wrote: 
You grew up on a farm?  That's a whole different thing, and I'm so angry about the way the farmers have been treated that I can't even form words).  No, I really hope I don't see sunshine shooting out your ass. I really hope I don't see your ass at all (no offense. Really.)

Taking this off-board, because I think we have a lot about which to talk.

 olivertwist wrote: 
I'm sure it's supposed to be. Frequently songwriters put words in the mouths of their "protagonists" that are meant to reveal the characters' flaws. A form of self-mocking.

Randy Newman does this a lot. It always amazed me that so many people were upset about the song "Short People"; I thought it was screamingly obvious that he was making his point by taking a view that was the exact opposite of his own, giving it voice, and showing how ridiculous it was.

 tphord wrote: 

An AIDS crisis, drug addiction, splintered families, Gulf War syndrome, Reaganomics...  There was plenty of opportunity for members of my generation to have legit angst.

 tphord wrote:
 
As a child of the grunge generation, I'd take issue with this assessment.  Sure, we didn't have Vietnam, we didn't have a major world wars, the economy was doing ok (but don't get me started on Reaganomics).  Not having all those attention grabbing issues did not mean that kids couldn't have a bad life.  I had a rough childhood despite not having the draft hanging over my head, instead I had a father that was working 12 hours a day to keep the family farm running and a disinterested mother.  Oh, but I didn't have to go to war or go hungry, so therefore sunshine should be shooting out my ass? 

The angst in grunge doesn't revolve around a singular event, instead the feelings of isolation that many of us couldn't get away from.  Protest songs of the 60's and 70's are protesting a world event or some singular theme that ties it all together, grunge does not.  To say that my generation didn't have anything to rage against clearly means that you don't understand how life had really changed between the generations. 

Plus, considering the biological issues involved in adolescence, we would have found something to be angry about anyway. 

Consider what your parents would have said about you.  Sure, Vietnam was horrible, but at least there wasn't a major world war going on.  60k soldiers killed in action is a nightmarish number, but compared to around 420k?  Your parents would say that you didn't have that much to be so upset about either.  You could keep taking that argument back if you want...  you have WW1, the depression, and I'm pretty sure that life was harder in 1900 then anything you ever faced, yet did anyone ever question your generation over it's right to be angry? 

You don't know what it's like to have been raised in my generation any more then I know what it is like to be raised in the generations after mine.  But, instead of judging, I try to understand. 

Hmm well now this is a mathematical conundrum.

Live versions are, generally speaking, inferior to studio versions and this is no exception. However, I have rated the studio version of this a 1. What to do, what to do?  

Pear Jam is Hot...like it or not

 sirdroseph wrote: 
If you think PJ sucks then RP can't be much fun..

 floydcaveman wrote: 
I too have found them growing on me, especially this song... I like how the melody and guitar solo dance with one another.

I also totally agree with your assessment on the "angry at the world" grunge rock and what I have always called the "rage rock" phenomena; which started with sex pistols/clash punk rock, and later developed into crap bands like Korn popular with teens.

These kids had everything in life handed to them on a china plate and never recognized or appreciated any of it. They inherited an world full of unearned bounty and opportunity when compared to their predecessors... yet they stormed around the room like angry spoiled asses way too often. No perspective on much of anything and way too much noise about trying to sort out their adolescent angst.

 forge wrote:  I agree, felt that way about the whole grunge thing.  Having been through the whole 60's-70's Viet Nam era of protests it always seemed to me that the problem these guys had was that they were so pissed off because they had nothing to be pissed off about.  I mean, the war was over, the economy was cranking up, and the National Guard hadn't shot a college student in a long time.  The only problems these guys had were the ones they created for themselves.

This feeling was validated back when Columbia Records held a 30 year tribute concert for Bob Dylan in MSG.  Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready performed "Masters of War", a really rocking "get down on the man" song.  EV sang louder and clearer than I've ever heard him sing.  In the video of the concert they showed some rehearsal shots, one with EV sitting out in the seats just watching, rapt, his whole body looking like he had just discovered the true meaning of life.

But as "forge" wrote, they're still around so they must be good, at least worth some attention.  This song, on RP, got my attention and made me a fan.  The studio version demonstrates the talent of the band.  The live version shows the intensity of the fans; the louder and clearer the sing-along, the more intense the connection is between them and the band.  That's what causes the goose bumps!

 htowncoog wrote: 

I agree with him so much it counts for like 1000 people, PJ sucks ass.