Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Pry, To

(A Guided Tour: Vitalogy)

PRY, TO


On the surface it as cute, jaunty little jam, seemingly thrown off. But Ed’s call for privacy, muted the entire time, becomes increasingly desperate until this turns into an urgent claustrophobic call for help. The casual air of the music obscures the real sense that the walls are closing in

The liner notes for pry, to are particularly telling in this regard.

Nightmare

In this disease the patient, in time of sleep, imagines he feels an uncommon oppression or weight about his breast or stomach, which he can by no means shake off. He groans, and sometimes cries out though oftener he attempts to speak in vain. Sometimes he imagines himself engaged with an enemy and, in danger of being killed, attempts to run away, but finds he cannot. Sometimes he fancies himself in a house that is on fire, or that he is in danger of being drowned in a river. He often thinks he is falling over a precipice, and the dread of being dashed to pieces suddenly awakens him.

So the call for privacy, for peace and space to clear your head, is speaking to a powerful sense of dread, not just the whining of a famous cry baby. This song helps establish the frame of mind and mood for Immortality, at the climax of the record.

And then of course there is the ‘play pry,to backwards moment, where you can hear Eddie chanting something along the lines of ‘Peter Townsend how you saved my life.’ The fact that this message is hidden is significant. Music, once an immediate form of escape and release, is perverted, taken from him, its healing properties now buried, hidden, difficult to extract

Pry, To is one of the reasons why I have some issues with Whipping’s placement on the record. There is some need to relieve the tension from the Tremor Christ/Nothingman run of songs, but the strides that are made are immediately lost in Pry, to. It cheapens them in a way, especially since Pry, to is such a short piece and it moves immediately into Corduroy. Plus the segue from Nothingman’s sad silence into Pry, To works well musically, and taking out whipping makes Corduroy, the centerpiece and probably the most important song on the record, even more cathartic as it comes without the temporary reprieve granted from Whipping. However, the A Side/B Side division, which does not come up on CD, could be a factor here. It's possible they wanted to end the A-side on a note of defiance, with Pry, to serving as more of a reprise, a 'previously on Vitalogy' moment before Corduroy.

So Pry, to is the first of the ‘filler tracks’. Is that a fair label? I don’t think so—certainly not here at any rate. Pry, to never makes any of my mixes—but I think it is pretty clear that it plays an important role in ratcheting up the tension before Corduroy, a reminder of what is at stake that makes its message of resistance all the more powerful.



OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES

Last Exit
Spin The Black Circle
Not For You
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Whipping
Pry, To
Corduroy
Bugs
Satan's Bed
Better Man 

Aye Davanita
Immortality
Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Whipping

WHIPPING

by stip

(A Guided Tour: Vitalogy)

Whipping is one of the outlier songs on Vitalogy, around the level Betterman or Nothingman. Connections can be made, but it isn’t immediately obvious what its relationship is to the broader themes of the record.

Musically it sounds like a protest song—a call to arms. STBC may be a harder, but it isn’t as angry or propulsive as Whipping is. STBC is more a moment of joy so intense you can’t stand it. Whipping is a song of defiance, and the music carries that feeling. It is music to take a beating to, complete with moments to catch your breath in the chorus, and some wordless howling by Eddie underneath the music leading into the first chorus (and during second chorus and outro as well).

So it’s a protest song of some kind. The album art clearly draws attention to abortion, but it isn’t a song about abortion per se. The lyrics make no specific reference to abortion as a political issue. Whipping is a template, to be used when and as necessary.

Whipping is a protest song, but it isn’t really a song about fighting back, which only makes sense in the context of Vitalogy. Vitalogy is a record about enduring, about Sisyphus continuing to push the rock despite the apparent futility of the act. The enemy is so big, so totalizing that resistance can only be personal, an act of self-purification rather than political engagement.

The choice of title is telling here. Whipping is associated with the image of the master and the slave, the punishment for disobedience, for not obeying the arbitrary rules that you never meaningfully consented to. And while there were occasional slave revolts, much of the resistance was personal, finding ways to keep your dignity and endure (and perhaps fight back in subtle ways) in the face of seemingly overwhelming, almost totalitarian force. It’s also worth considering that the reason the slave system lasted as long as it did was its effectiveness in keeping slaves isolated from one another. The numbers, and in important ways the power, were on the side of the slave, but what was missing was the communication and organization necessary to resist. As long as we fight back as individuals, rather than as a group, we cannot win. Defiance will be personal only. And there is a nice tie in later with the whip cracks at the start of Satan’s Bed, another song about personal defiance (although one centered more around authenticity than the bull headed endurance of whipping).

The lyrics reflect this throughout the song. It begins with images of protracted suffering. Too wet for a raincoat to matter, so much blood spilt that a bandage would be useless. It continues in the second verse. Too suspicious for help—there are always consequences and strings attached. There is anger at the people responsible for making the decisions that trap us (a shot at the culture industry in the context of Vitalogy, but easily read as a shot at conservative politicians, or whatever the listener needs it to be). There is also a sense of inevitability about the fight at this point. Too late to turn back—no choice but to endure. And as the song progresses it moves from a solitary act of pushing the rock to a greater sense of solidarity (a la Not For You). Some of the I’s become We’s—why must WE trust, I’m just like you, think We’ve had enough, we all got scars (again—the whipping), they should have em too. There is a moment of hope here. That even if nothing can be done but push the rock, at the very least we don’t need to push the rock alone.

I’ve always been a little uneasy about the placement of Whipping on the record. It is a bit jarring after Nothingman, which is fine except the pace is immediately slowed back down with Pry, To. Thematically it works with Corduroy, Not for You, or Satan’s Bed—the other moments of imperfect resistance, and makes sense surrounded by those songs, but it isn’t quite clear where it works best (perhaps this was the best spot for it). Thinking on it a bit I wonder if it might have been better placed between Corduroy and Satan’s bed (or after Satan’s Bed), moving Bugs up to earlier in the record..


OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES

Last Exit
Spin The Black Circle
Not For You
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Whipping
Pry, To
Corduroy
Bugs
Satan's Bed
Better Man 

Aye Davanita
Immortality
Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

Sirius News: 2/9/2011

Today's guest was Rob Skinner, aka Santos L. Halper, Head of Ten Club (10C) Shipping.  I've got lots of good notes for you.  Next week's guest ... Matt Cameron!

• The 10C works hard to balance speed and cost in their shipping, but safety and quality of the product is the top priority.  There was a very informative discussion about how international shipping gets jacked up and how Amazon manages to beat 10C's shipping.
• Even though there are many numbered items, the total number of items made is rarely release.  It's a general consensus around the Pearl Jam offices that the process is "lame."
• The 2009 pre-show poster sale killed the demand for posters at the show, and the band likes the idea of fans walking away from shows with memorabilia, so that practice is unlikely to repeat.
• Tim declined to comment on the professional "Got Some" video from Philly.
• Lots of joking about the Pearl Jam Summer Festivalish-type Thing being in Alpine Valley, WI.  Tim was very clear that nothing is final, but ...
• There was a little more discussion about the Orpheum show being release with the Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions of Vs. and Vitalogy.  Our forum members have unearthed a setlist, and the discussion is going on there.

If you missed it, Gremmie.Net archives episodes of All Encompassing Trip for your on-demand enjoyment.

The Sky I Scrape Store is Here!

TheSkyIScrape.com is proud to announce the opening of our Zazzle Store!  Now you can sport your TSIS pride where ever you go with shirts, stickers, buttons, and one sweet coffee mug.  And yes, by popular demand, we're featuring Buggy's In My Tree design.

A small commission from each product supports server costs for the Red Mosquito Forum.  We hope you enjoy!

All That's Sacred, Episode #75

All That's Sacred, Episode #75 is now available.

A lot of guys have sat behind the kit for Pearl Jam over the last 20 years and all have made significant contributions to the band's musical output. It was suggested some time ago to take a concentrated listen to each. This isn't a debate or a comparison, but rather an appreciation for what each guy brought to the band during their tenure.

TSIS Archive Now Complete

OK, I've finished moving all of the posts from our old server to our new blogger site.  You should be able to find any old news items are articles.  


The next step is to clean up our articles and links so that everything looks pretty and takes people to the places they want to go.  Moving the posts was pretty boring, but editing old stuff is downright brain numbing.  This might take a little while, so please be patient with me when you click on an old story and it doesn't look as pretty.


Keep on jammin', 
B


P.S. - Watch that "Store" link.  We pretty close to offering up some goodies.

Given To Cast, 2/4/2011

The February 4th episode of Given To Cast is up.

Well, a couple of days late but here it is: the latest podcast. A lot more music on this one and a lot less me, which in my opinion is a good thing. Enjoy!!!


Show Notes:


Opening Tag: Kathy and John from Two Feet Thick Dot Com
Opening Song: Arms Aloft from Live on Ten Legs
Extra Song: Far Behind - Eddie Vedder live from Berkley, CA
Week in Review - Visiting Pearl Jam fan sites for latest news
Song of the Week: Down - Live from ???
Venture Between The Songs: Ed talks about Kanye West
Rare Song: Public Enemy from Live on ten Legs
Last Song: Glorified G live from ???

After you listen, head to our forums to discuss it!

On a Side Note: Soundgarden Live on I-5 Presale

Soundgarden's live album is now available for purchase.  GrungeReport reports that you get a free soundcheck bonus disc.

Pearl Jam to be Featured on Friday Night Knicks

This Friday, the fourth, at 6:30pm ET on MSG.

Guided Tour of Vitalogy: Nothingman

(A Guided Tour: Vitalogy)

NOTHINGMAN


Nothingman can be seen as something of an outlier song on Vitalogy. On the surface it appears to be a simple love song, albeit a beautiful one. It is gentle, fragile, with a bittersweet melody and a wistful, regretful vocal performance. Nothingman sounds like a memory, from the opening sounds of a guitar coming into focus to the final goodbye. And it works well as a love song—the story of a man who took for granted a powerful, dynamic woman, stifling her until she finally had to emancipate herself from him. And is so often the case, he did not understand what he actually had until it was gone and it was too late to bring her back. And now he’s left with nothing but the memories of what could have been.

But Nothingman, could also be read another way—the woman as a stand in for art, music, purity, or any gift we have that we abuse and take for granted. And if that’s the case Nothingman fits perfectly into the general themes and conceptual arcs of Vitalogy. And given the fact that Nothingman was written during these sessions, when Eddie was clearly grappling with these issues, this seems plausible. The tone of the song, the sense of regret and loss, need not change under this interpretation. In fact the song is still trying to accomplish the same thing—it is only the object that is different.

So under this read Nothingman picks up right after Tremor Christ—in some ways it reflects the failure of Tremor Christ—the ship was turned around too late for redemption. And now the passion that the subject had, for art, for music, for life, has been permanently tainted by the commodification and objectification of art and artist. The music is lost to him, existing mostly as mockery rather than a source of hope, escape, and transcendence. He is no longer able to call on it, and it refuses to take him anywhere. He no longer deserves the gifts, and the muse has moved on to someone who will (hopefully) not make the same mistakes. There is clearly a sense of guilt animating Nothingman, but this isn’t surprising. Eddie has always (and especially in this period) struggled with a sense of his own worth—wondering why he received the attention, the money, and the fame when there were so many other artists (in his opinion) far more deserving than him.

So where does this leave the subject? Under this interpretation the outro lines make a great deal more sense, especially read as foreshadowing immortality. There is the reference to the sun, to fame, celebrity, inauthenticity, and the false light that it provides under which nothing can really grow. He’s stuck there, blinded and trapped while slowly burning away into nothingness, and we’re left only with the memory of what could have been, and a warning not to make the same mistakes.



OTHER SONGS IN THIS SERIES

Last Exit
Spin The Black Circle
Not For You
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Whipping
Pry, To
Corduroy
Bugs
Satan's Bed
Better Man 

Aye Davanita
Immortality
Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me

OTHER GUIDED TOUR SERIES:
Binaural 
Backspacer

Meet Your Blogger: TwoFeetThick.com II

ON-LINE PERSONA: @jjjrrr (Twitter), jr@twofeetthick.com (Synergy), JR@2ft (Red Mosquito)


WEBSITE: http://www.TwoFeetThick.com
TwoFeetThick.com is “a useful, quirky, detail-oriented site with completely original content: a unique, interactive resource of Pearl Jam information past present and future, with both perspective and a healthy sense of humor.


REAL NAME: John Reynolds


LOCATION: Cream Ridge, NJ


DAY JOB: Manager of Corporate Systems Development (i.e. I build websites), The McGraw-Hill Companies



OK, WELL, IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT PEARL JAM IS YOUR OBSESSION.  WHY PEARL JAM?
I first heard "Alive" in the summer of 1991 while on summer break from college. I think the obsession/passion had a lot to do with my age at the time: I could buy my own music, go see shows, and share music with all my college friends.

I was gradually coming out of my '80s metal obsession with Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Metallica, and was moving towards Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, etc and was a big fan of bands like Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors (their first studio record was released the same day as Ten), and Living Colour.

I had a diverse musical background as a guitar player and the bands I was listening to really started to hone in on what I really liked. The passion really hit in '92 seeing them on SNL, Unplugged, and the MTV VMAs, then seeing them live at Stanhope, NJ (8/12/92) and Reston, VA (8/14/92) Lollapaloozas. There was nothing staged about their act. I have a vivid memory of the "Porch" jam at Reston of this incredible volume and energy and Ed feeding off of that from the front of the stage. I wish I could bottle that experience up and share it with all of you.

Basically they just became my favorite. Like many, I played TEN to death, and each b-side I collected and new album that came out kept getting better and better. I also started collecting live shows on cassette and DAT, and that only fueled the fire.

I changed careers from Electrical Engineering to Web Programming in the late '90s, and creating those early Pearl Jam sites www.MonkeywrenchRadio.org and www.DigiJAM.org really were natural extensions of my passion. Since 2003, TwoFeetThick.com has been the main outlet of this passion. It's for "impassioned" fans, and I thank "Jessica the Wordsmith" for coming up with that perfect tagline for what we were trying to express.

I really feel fortunate that this scene has given me not just enjoyable music, but great friends, great events and great experiences.

Lastly, to collaborate with Kathy Davis and Jessica Letkemann for so many years has been such a rewarding experience. It's helped foster so much creativity. I encourage anyone to do it. Go create an app, start a blog.


FAVORITE ALBUM: 
TEN. Has to be TEN, probably because there were no pre-conceived notions about it. I had heard the song on radio, then pre-ordered it. I wasn't slanted by reviews or affected by hype, like later albums. It's a time capsule. Mind you, I might think some later albums are better, but TEN is my favorite.



FAVORITE SONG(S):
Last Exit. I don't know why, and I don't care. When I hear it, I go nuts.



FAVORITE BAND MEMBER:
Probably a tie between Eddie and Stone going back to TEN being mostly Gossard / Vedder collaborations.



HOW MANY SHOWS HAVE YOU ATTENDED? 
22. Most NY/NJ, PA shows since 1992. I never traveled to concerts when I was younger because I didn't think anyone did that besides Grateful Dead fans.



WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST PEARL JAM EXPERIENCE?  
There are a lot I could list, but inheriting the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology on Two Feet Thick from FiveHorizons.com was a pretty big deal for me. I probably read some part of the Concert Chronology on 5H every day for a number of years, and the detail and history of that document was near and dear to my passion for the band. When Caryn and Jean asked me, Kathy and Jessica to keep it going, we were thrilled. It's a lot to maintain, and we know there is a lot of missing information, but it's fun to maintain together and to interact with other fans, who without, there would be no Concert Chronology.



HOW EXTENSIVE IS YOUR PEARL JAM COLLECTION? 
I was always a music collector and when Pearl Jam started to issue b-sides and imports in '91 I would spend all my spare change buying them up. I thought I had everything there was to have until in '95 or '96, there was a PJ website that listed all the collectibles and there were hundreds and hundreds of things. At that point it seemed silly to have *everything*, so I just kept everything that had original music on it and traded off duplicates. I kept all the Fan Club vinyl, all the newsletters, and tons of magazines. Probably the rarest things I have are the Stickman Doormat and the TEN Basketball Picture Vinyl.

As far as live shows, I think I have most of the audio and video that's out there. One reason is that I'm just obsessive about it, but having more shows than I could possibly listen to keeps the interest for me instead of having to listen to their studio material over and over. Lastly with TwoFeetThick.com, we often need performance information and transcriptions for the CC and our articles, so in some way I *need* to have all these shows available.



IS THERE A SPECIFIC LYRIC THAT MOVES YOU?  
I listed five lyrics then scrapped them to write this: there are just too many to count. Ed's lyrics are an artform, and I love digging into those songs to find different meanings in them time after time.









WHAT ELSE IS ON YOUR IPOD RIGHT NOW?
Phish, Strike Anywhere, Avail, UnderOath, High on Fire, Iron Maiden, 311, Deftones, Casting Crowns



WHEN YOU WALK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Trying to be the best possible husband and father of three. It's the toughest job on earth.  I also coach youth soccer and am active in my Church and our Knights of Columbus council



WHAT PASSIONS DO YOU HAVE BEYOND PEARL JAM?
I love to watch, coach and play Soccer. I don't watch much TV, but when I do, it's usually Soccer.



WHAT IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE?
I like to write. About Pearl Jam. A lot. See above ;)

---

OTHER BLOGGERS IN THIS SERIES
KathyTFT, TwoFeetThick.com
Donny, All That's Sacred
Jason Leung, This All Encompassing Trip
Jed, Twitter.com/DirtyFrankDahmr
Matt, Gremmie.net
Stip, The SkyIScrape.com
Victor Nogales, PJCollectors.com

Sirius News: 2/2/2011

Not a terrible amount of insight this week on Pearl Jam Radio's call in show, All Encompassing Trip, but the interview with Danny Clinch was awesome!  Next week, we're going to be learning a lot about the inner workings of Pearl Jam HQ.

• The Vs. and Vitalogy reissues don't have very many bonus tracks because at that time in the band's career, they were releasing just about everything they did, and there wasn't a lot of songs left on the shelf.
• Six songs were cut from the Opheum show due to a combination of poor performances and technical difficulties.  The cost to include another LP was determined to not be worth it for the quality of the performance.  Fans will be able to get digital downloads of the missing songs.
• Next week's guest: Ten Club Powerhouse and TSIS's own: Santos L. Halper

If you missed it, Gremmie.Net archives episodes of All Encompassing Trip for your on-demand enjoyment.

On a Side Note: Three Mountains Presale

Tres Mountains' debut album, Three Mountains, is now available for presale on the Ten Club website.  Vinyl (available 3/22) is $19.98 (+$7.50 S&H US).  CD (available 3/15) is $12.00 (+$5.50 S&H US).  Digital download (available 3/8) is $9.99.

FINALLY! Vs. and Vitalogy 20th Anniversary Editions

The Ten Club has officially announced the release of the Vs. and Vitalogy reissues.  The remastered albums are coming to us in any of SIX different editions.  It makes the Analog/Digital decision look like a walk in the park.  The official release date is March 29th, except for the vinyl which will release on Record Store Day, April 12th.  


All versions are available for presale.  Fanboys are surely going to lament the fact that six songs have been left off of the Opheum show (we don't know which songs yet), but if you preorder now, you can get a digital download of the full show to compliment your box.  Read more about what to expect below.

WHAT BONUS TRACKS ARE WE GETTING?

• a previously unreleased acoustic version of "Hold On" (Vs.)
• "Cready Stomp" - a previously unreleased studio outtake (Vs.)
• the band's cover of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary" featuring Williams on backing vocals and guitar (Vs.)
• the previously unreleased guitar/organ-only mix of "Betterman" (Vitalogy)
• a previously unreleased alternate take of "Corduroy," recorded by Brendan O'Brien (Vitalogy)
• a previously unreleased demo version of "Nothingman," taken from the original DAT, recorded at John and Stu's in Seattle on October 14, 1993, featuring Richard Stuverud on drums (Vitalogy)

SUPER DELUXE: WHAT DO I GET?

• Definitive Legacy edition of Vs. remastered with bonus tracks on CD;
• Definitive Legacy edition of Vitalogy remastered with bonus tracks on CD
• Remastered vinyl edition of Vs. (single LP);
• Remastered vinyl edition of  Vitalogy (double LP);
• Double vinyl LP of Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
• Double CD of Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
• An exclusive digital download of Live at the Opheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
• Exclusive collector's cassette featuring live tribute and studio performances from a number of Pearl Jam's fellow artist friends. Broadcast on January 8, 1995, this recording is part of the legendary Monkeywrench/Self-Pollution Radio series produced by the band;
• 80-page composition book filled with photos, drawings and artwork by Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament;
• A glassine envelope containing a collection of Vs. and Vitalogy- era memorabilia including beautiful lithographs of each band member, postcards, posters and much more.

WHAT IF I'M NOT A SUPER DELUXE KINDA GUY (OR GAL)?

• The definitive Legacy edition of Vs. (CD or digital download) -- including the original studio albums, newly remastered, along with album-era bonus tracks 
• The definitive Legacy edition of Vitalogy (CD or digital download) -- including the original studio albums, newly remastered, along with album-era bonus tracks 
• Deluxe Edition CD version of Vs. and Vitalogy -- including the Legacy edition CDs and a double CD of Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
• Record Store Day Vinyl Edition (LP) of Vs. (remastered), available at independent record retailers April 12th, 2011.
• Record Store Day Vinyl Edition (LP) of Vitalogy (remastered), available at independent record retailers April 12th, 2011.

*

On A Side Note: Tres Mountains Announces Tracklist and Tour

... and according to the Ten Club, it includes McCready!!!

ALBUM TITLE
Three Mountains




RELEASE DATES

• Digital, March 8, 2011
• CD, March 15, 2011
• Vinyl, March 22, 2011

TRACKLISTING

1. My Baby
2. Oh, Lord
3. God Told Me
4. Makes Me Feel
5. Holes in the Road
6. In the Middle
7. Life
8. Afrosheena
9. She's My New Song
10. Utah
11. Break
12. Mystery
13. She's My New Reprise

TOUR DATES

• March 16, 2011: Seattle, WA: Showbox at the Market
• March 21, 2011: Washington, DC: Black Cat
• March 23, 2011: Philadelphia, PA: Theatre of the Living Arts
• March 26, 2011: New York, NY: Gamercy Theater
• March 27, 2011: Boston, MA: Paradise Rock Club