I've spent the last hour watching Beatles videos on youtube. I didn't want to stop, except I have to get dressed, eat some breakfast and run some errands.
Here are the Beatles performing I've Got a Feeling from a rooftop, with some observations from passersby.
This is a different take on the same song. This 1992 live cover was performed by Pearl Jam in Den Haag, Netherlands. Eddie changes up the lyrics, which he's known for doing. They add in some interesting song tags of their own (if you're a hard core fan you can hear some Dirty Frank) and he mentions missing Andy, a reference to the deceased Mother Love Bone singer. He throws in lyrics from many different non Pearl Jam songs. All in all it's quite a treasure for any Pearl Jam fan. I think John Lennon would have been proud!
Have you seen Eat, Pray, Love? If you have did you hear the song while the end credits were running? It's Eddie Vedder singing Better Days, a song he wrote for the movie.
There is a wedding scene in the movie where they used a Pearl Jam song called Long Road. It's a version that Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament did with Rahat Fahet Ali Kahn. It's a short little snippet in the movie, the video version below is much longer, but definitely worth the time to listen.
Have a great Saturday. I'm scrapbooking for the rest of the weekend!
Yes, my band is celebrating 20 years of togetherness this year.
According to Rolling Stone magazine Pearl Jam is planning a year long celebration "Starting with a deluxe reissue of their second and third albums (1993’s Vs., 1994’s Vitalogy), the yearlong celebration will also include the unveiling of a Cameron Crowe-directed documentary about the band and a massive self-curated festival this summer."
Uh, yeah... I'm gonna need the dates of that "massive self-curated festival" real soon. All I've heard is "late summer". Is that August? September? I've got other really important summer plans to make.
Oh and where is it going to be? I've heard the possible locations of, Chicago... or East Troy? That's in Michigan right?
On top of Pearl Jam's 20th Anniversary, this summer is my 30th class reunion! GAH. I can't make plans to go to that until I know when Pearl Jam is playing!
It's really important that they announce those dates!!
In other Pearl Jam news they recently put out a live album called Live on Ten Legs. I don't have it yet, but do plan to get it, especially after hearing this:
Every year, in October, Neil and Pegi Young host a weekend of music to benefit The Bridge School. The school serves children with severe speech and physical impairments. The goal of the school is to help give these children the skills they need to successfully participate academically and socially with their typically developing peers. Many of the students and graduates are invited to sit on stage to be a part of the show. I was moved by how many of the artists spent a good deal of time with their backs to the crowd while singing to the very people the show was benefiting.
The participants change year to year, but there are many artists who have played the benefit multiple times. Pearl Jam has played the show 8 times. Each year I think about going, but that's about as far as I get. For the show in October my friend Chris said, "This year we should really go. Seriously, we really should." I said, "Let's do it." And just like that we ended up in the bay area to see the 24th Annual Bridge School Benefit.
After spending a couple days in San Francisco we boarded the train to Mountain View to enjoy a weekend of amazing music. The weather was horrible, cold, rainy and windy. Luckily I had packed a rain poncho, just in case.
Night one participants:
Grizzly Bear
Modest Mouse
Jackson Browne and David Lindley
Lucinda Williams
Kris Kristofferson (Merle Haggard was supposed to perform with Kris, but he was ill)
Billy Idol
Elvis Costello
Pearl Jam
Buffalo Springfield
We arrived at the venue while Modest Mouse was playing and met up with other Pearl Jam fans we hadn't seen in over a year. It was great to see everyone and get caught up on what was happening in our lives. By the time we got to the lawn seats we had for that night there weren't many places to sit other than the very back.
Chris and Nick:
Me and Chris (before the rain):
Then the rain arrived!
I couldn't see the stage, not even when standing, so I hunkered down and listened. It really was quite enjoyable even with the cold windy rain. The highlight of the night for me (aside from Pearl Jam) was Billy Idol. Yes, Billy Idol. I wasn't all that excited to see him. I thought it would be cool, but when he came out and started singing I was transported back to the 80's and I loved every minute of it. I even stood up and braved the cold, windy rain so I could see a corner of the screen. I'm embarrassed to say we left night one right after Pearl Jam finished. The next night, after watching Buffalo Springfield perform, I really regretted leaving early the night before.
The next day started earlier, but no less rainy. We vowed to get there early so we could buy merch and see all the bands. We scored seats for that night and were thrilled!
Day two participants:
Grizzly Bear
Modest Mouse
Kris Kristofferson
T-Bone Burnett's Speaking Clock Revue featuring:
Ralph Stanley
Jeff Bridges
Neko Case
Elvis Costello
Elton John & Leon Russell (!)
Pearl Jam
Buffalo Springfield
(Sorry about the blurry picture, it's hard to find a good guest photographer.)
Being in seats was so much better than the lawn! We still got wet, but at least we could see the stage. Too bad the amphitheatre cover didn't protect us from the rain! It looked really cool though.
Didn't take too many pictures because of the rain, but later in the evening after it dried out for a bit I could take some shots. For this trip I was using a small Canon point and shoot. It's a lot easier to get into a show than the big Nikon. The close up shots were taken of the big screen.
Jeff Bridges might not be the best singer, but he sure is nice to look at! At the end of the show everyone came out to sing together... Eddie Vedder, Jeff Bridges and Kris Kristofferson all shared a microphone. It was almost more hotness than I could handle.
Part of what helped my decision to go travel to the Bridge School Benefit was the appearance of Elton John. I'm a big fan, but have never seen him perform live. While this was not, technically, an Elton John performance I was blown away nonetheless. In the fall Elton John and Leon Russell made an album together, The Union. This performance was from that album. I loved all the songs and writing this has reminded me that I really need to buy the album! Rolling Stone magazine rated it the 3rd best album of 2010!
I was so ready when my beloved Pearl Jam took the stage. I may have been in attendance the night before, but I couldn't see a thing and I couldn't wait to feast my eyes on my favorite band.
Another downside to the cold, wet weather was that Eddie was wearing a hat, boo hoo!
Later "Uncle" Neil came out to play "Walk With Me" with Pearl Jam.
Then came Buffalo Springfield! There are really no words to describe the vibe of their set. It's really hard to believe they hadn't performed in over 40 years. Here is a Rolling Stone article describing how the reunion came to be. To say they sounded amazing is really understating it. Stephen Stills still has "it".
It really was an amazing trip. Chris and I planned to catch flights at the same time from the San Jose airport and I'm so glad we did. While walking to the gates I spotted Stephen Stills walking toward his gate!! It was shocking, but I managed to stop him to tell him how much I enjoyed the show! Later, after Chris boarded her plane she texted me that he was on her plane and she got his autograph!!
These are video highlights from the weekend. They are a little long but worth watching.
Thanks so much for your great questions from yesterday's post! I love them all and will spend the next few days answering them.
Today I'm answering this question from my friend Reva who is not a blogger yet, but should be...
"Here is the question;
What CD do you recommend of Pearl Jam that I run out today and buy. (I
hope my little music shop in Langley has it) I need something that is
inspiring and uplifting as I am dealing with being fired for a job well
done, seriously. Another question, where are you moving to"
I'll answer the moving question first. In September 2007 we bought a house I fell in love with in Burien. We tried the sell the Des Moines house, but the market was really dead and the house just needed too much work. Instead we rented it out. We had a great renter for almost 2.5 years until she decided to move to a smaller place. At that point we decided to sell it. We hired a sharp agent who told us what needed to be done to get the house to sell quickly and we did everything she said. We priced it to sell and within a week had three offers. Tomorrow we close and we are very relieved.
On to Pearl Jam, one of my favorite subjects!
There are probably a few of you out there who have thought about getting some Pearl Jam music but don't know where to start. So this is for Reva and anyone else out there who would like to have some Pearl Jam in their music collection.
If you are like Reva and looking for inspiring and uplifting I'd start with their latest album Backspacer. It's definitely the "happiest" and most uplifting of their albums. It's fun, snappy and short, coming in at just under 40 minutes. My favorite song off this album is Unthought Known!
Yield is still my favorite album, taken in from beginning to end it's a masterpiece. I wouldn't call it uplifting necessarily, but it's definitely inspiring, plus it has my all time favorite song, Given To Fly.
Their most special album might be No Code. In fact I was having a hard time coming up with words to describe this album so I turned to my great friend Nick. He LOVES this album. I asked him to describe it in a few words and he said "brilliant and brave in the sense that they were courageous to break the mold from their first three (albums)". He is so right. They also wrote and recorded this after (or during) hanging out with Neil Young, so it has a slight Neil Youngish vibe.
In the "lost gem" category I'm putting Riot Act. I forget about this album all the time, then when I listen to it I can't understand why I forget about it. There is a lot of anger on this album as it was written during the Bush years.
Best workout album... Vs. which is their second album. This album is filled with loud, angry music that really gets you motivated to move and get your blood pumping. I love the energy of this record.
I would be remiss if I didn't recommend Rearviewmirror, it's their greatest hits album and I actually don't own it! But this could be a good place to start.
Another good album for a sampling of music and a taste of how they sound live is Live on Two Legs, I highly recommend this one for getting the "live" experience, plus a couple of my most favorite songs are on it, Given to Fly and Nothingman.
This is not all of their albums, but I don't want to overwhelm you. These give you good options for staring out. Reva, I hope this answered your question on where to start with Pearl Jam and I hope some of you will be inspired to check them out.
To say I've been uninspired lately would be an understatement. Many times I've sat down at the computer to write something and absolutely nothing comes to mind. It's been frustrating. I've even found it difficult to come up with comments on posts written by all my favorite bloggers.
Today my friend Chrissy challenged me to write a blog post. Under normal circumstances, like if we weren't selling a house (signing papers today) and if I had a job, I'd be in Boston right now with my friend Chrissy. We would be talking, laughing and preparing to meet people before going to see Pearl Jam performed. We would be people watching and with just one look at each other would know what the other one was thinking. I'm so sad I'm not there and I know she's sad I'm not there, she loves her sister, but going to a show with me is much different than going with anyone else.
So in honor of Chrissy and because she requested it, I'm creating a post today about my favorite song. After she posed this challenge I spent a few hours thinking about it. I scanned through "my faves" playlist on my ipod and played a few songs. The song I kept coming back to was a Pearl Jam song... No big surprise there.
The song is from the album Yield which came out 12 years ago. This song still give me goosebumps whenever I hear it. The song is called Given To Fly. My favorite line from the song is... "he still gives his love, he just gives it away... The love he receives is the love that is saved." I just love that!
This version is from the 1998 documentary about the making of Yield called Single Video Theory. I hope you enjoy it.
Now it's your turn to kick my butt into gear encourage me. Feel free to ask me anything you want about absolutely anything and I'll answer in a post. Maybe that will be my creative juices flowing.
This month at the Pearl Jam message board where I hang out we are celebrating the band's 7th studio album, Riot Act.
This album will always have a special place in my heart.
It was the first album I ever got before the release date.
First album tour when I saw Pearl Jam perform multiple times (6) and traveled to see them perform in other states, Nevada and Massachusetts. The picture below shows some of us at the Vegas meet up in June 2003... The two on the right are now married with a baby girl, the guy on the left we lost track of and the three of us in the middle, chrissy, buby and myself still talk regularly.
I spent my 40th birthday seeing them play in Key Arena in Seattle.
Most importantly it was the first time I anticipated an album release and tour with friends who "got it". This was the point when I had newly made Pearl Jam friends through the internet and we chatted in excitement every day about rumors we heard.
When I listen to this album all those great first time feelings come back to me and for that I am very grateful!
I had one interview that went very well and I had one group interview/testing that was also successful.
Almost all the work on the rental is complete. Today is the last day we will be working over there, except Handy Man going over to mow the lawn. We met with the agent yesterday and she's hoping to have it on the market by Wednesday.
Star Wars Son is considering going to prom. This is big news, up until this weekend he had no desire. He was telling me about what he and his friend plan to wear and it made me smile.
I smiled a lot last week! I hope this makes you smile...
