Pearl Jam – Alive
A evening pause: If you look closely, past the hard rock angst and anger and clothing and hairstyles and performance cliches, what you can see here are some very serious and skilled musicians.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
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Interestingly, the lyrics are also very personal to Mr. Vedder. His parents split up when he was an infant and after his mother remarried, he grew up thinking that the new husband was his real father. There is a verse to two about that in this song.
TimArth:
Thanks–was not aware of that factoid. Compelling song.
Q: What’s the background for the tune “Off He Goes?” >The single best tune I have ever heard, describing mental illness. It’s touchingly-eerie in it’s exactness.
(Similar for “Why Go Home.” The anthem for a large cohort of young, disaffected, girls, during the 90’s.)
Good taste in music Wayne!
Wayne – First – sorry for the extreme delay. You may not even see this. Second, sorry in advance for the disappointing response. I do not know the background for those other songs, but I do know, in general, Vedder does lean very sympathetic to the plight of women and young women in general. Most of that comes from his relationship with his mother and the sympathy he had for her troubled relationships with his real father and step-father. “Alive” from Ten demonstrates this as well as “Deep” and “Daughter” from Vs. for just three examples. He is also very, very pro-choice as an example. He is also good buddies with Sean Penn – which says a lot. Now, I do not agree with him on much, but I have always been a big fan of his talents. He was also a thespian early on and you can see that briefly, and early on, in Cameron Crowe’s movie Singles. One of my favorite songs of Eddie’s is on the sound track of Sean Penn’s “Into The Wild” and it was called “Hard Sun” (Sean Penn directed – not acted in).
TimArth:
Hey!
Oh yeah– Eddie is a left-wing nut-job as far as his politics, but he can certainly pen a tune.