in the strongest winds
31 Mar 1998
I still remember the first time I sat down for a listen of a Pearl Jam album. The night was cold, dark, and thoroughly Cape Breton, i.e. filled with snow and boredom. I had just gotten home from a week-long youth conference in PEI, and I was just itching to give a listen to the CDs and records I had managed to pick up at an obscure used music store in Charlottetown. Not wasting any time, I threw my suitcase into my room and rushed to the stereo in the basement and prepared for an evening of musical bliss. But something, or rather, someone was missing. Sprinting for the phone, I quickly dialed Edward's phone number and within ten minutes we were spinning the little black circle.
Edward had been telling me about the band for months. Sure, I had heard of them, seen a couple of videos, heard some of the songs. I had even heard the name on an episode of 'Wings' and 'The Simpsons' (not that I watch 'Wings' -- there must have been sunspots or something that night). But I had never really listened to them before.
Well, that night, I listened. Images of bugs, lightning bolts and corduroy pants (hey, I didn't know any better at the time) danced throughout the room like some sort of convoluted yet beautiful sonic collage... never before had I been so drawn into an album. Words cannot describe the joy I felt that night as that little black circle spun in that CD tray. The album played over and over, and did not stop until quite some time into the following day.
Well, suffice it to say, I was hooked. I felt the groove.
From that point on, things started getting crazy. I snagged every piece of Pearl Jam merchandise (which is fairly rare in Cape Breton, by the way) I could get my hands on, every single with a non-album track I could manage to afford... I'm telling you, man, it was nuts.
But things haven't been all beer and nuts since that day of reckoning. As I delved deeper and deeper into the dark and mysterious land of the Pearl Jam mythos, I began to uncover some very perpetually unnerving things concerning the aforementioned band.
After much thought and deliberation, I arrived at a couple of things I just didn't like about this band. It had nothing to do with the music or anything like that, and I still love 'em to tears. But there were just these little annoyances that, to this day, drive me crazy like nothing else can.
So to that end, I present to you 'Jay's Big-Ass Pearl Jam Pet Peeve' -- the biggest peeve that ever peeved ever. Okay, here goes. I gotta get this out. All right... let's do it up. 1... 2... 3...
More b-sides, please! What is with this severe lack of non-album songs coming from this band?! Don't get me wrong -- what's there is good. I've amassed for myself quite a collection of singles and miscellaneous releases featuring previously unreleased PJ songs, and most of them are damned fine, but the quantity, man, it just ain't there. I hate to make the comparison, but take a look at Oasis. Every single they've ever made contains one album song and three non-album tracks. On top of that, each album has had at least four singles, adding up to twelve non-album songs per album. In comparison, Pearl Jam has released an average of three singles per album, each containing no more than four tracks (excluding the 'Dissident' series, but they don't count). All told, a total of nine non-album releases can be found on various singles: 'Wash', 'Dirty Frank', 'Yellow Ledbetter', 'Footsteps', 'Alone', 'Out Of My Mind', 'Black, Red, Yellow', 'Dead Man' and 'Leatherman' cannot be found on any of their five albums. Comparatively, the bulk of single tracks are made up of either live versions of songs found on an album release or, even worse, a studio version of something previously available. Worse still, there is an inane amount of overlap found throughout the singles. 'Alive' can be found on four singles, for dog's sakes (and with 'Dissident' #3, five)! To further my annoyance at this single trend, many singles can only be found in certain countries or regions, and must be imported to be available to many fans, driving up the price of something that should be readily available. For instance, the 'Hail, Hail' single (and thusly, 'Black, Red, Yellow') was released in Europe and Australia only. The same goes for 'Off He Goes' and 'Dead Man'.
Now, being a rabid fan and all, I've managed to acquire all of these singles despite their origin, so that eases the pain to some degree. But it still bugs the hell out of me. If there's one good thing I can say about the singles, however, is that the 'Dissident'< series kicks much hole, which makes up for the lack of b-sides available somewhat. But... the 'Dissident' series is German! Import!! ARRGHH!!
Some reasons for this apparent lack of b-sides are somewhat apparent. One thing that comes to mind is the whole '45' thing -- on a vinyl single, there's just the a- and the b-side, so there's only two songs per single. This little convention was obviously the inspiration for the 'Spin The Black Circle' and 'Not For You' singles, which come packaged complete with '45'-like covers and everything. But in this day and age, the maxi-single is where it's at, and these two track singles kind of leave some fans (e.g. me) a little put out at times. The biggest smack has got to be those useless two-trackers containing two songs identical to their counterparts available on the album of origin! You know what I'm talking about -- 'Who You Are', 'Spin The Black Circle', the Brazilian 'Jeremy' CD...
I guess the fact that the band passes out '45's at Christmas kind of balances out the equation, and they do contribute to a pile of benefits albums and the like, so I guess I'm kind of just being an ungrateful knob right now. I mean, their covers of 'Crazy Mary' and Eddie and Mike's 'Masters Of War' were terrific, and their soundtrack contributions have been fantastic, so I guess I shouldn't whine. I mean, they do pump out quite a few non-album releases, every once in a while, you just gotta get annoyed with this whole single situation.
Well, I guess I'm done with this little spiel. It feels kind of good to get that out. If anybody feels the urge to give me a little backlash or support here, feel free to go nuts. I'm always willing to change my tune should someone provide a reasonable (and satisfactory) argument contrary to my thoughts.
Hmmm... guess that's it. That's all I feel like writing at this time.
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in the strongest winds |