Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter"

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Are there really words to this song?

  • Yes, you can look them up online.

  • Nope, just another drunken mumble like we get here so often.

  • Crack. Just... crack.

Results are only viewable after voting.
slym2none

slym2none

"Lazy extract brewer."
Joined
Apr 3, 2015
Messages
7,294
Reaction score
2,460
Location
Durham
Is Eddie actually saying real words, or is it just incoherent mumbling for real?
 
Here's another one - are there words to Release? (Last track on Ten).
 
Scat, Celtic mouth music - there is definitely a history of singing and not using actual words.
 
There are absolutely words to release and there is absolutely not any real words to yellow leadbetter. I listen to PJ on zm all the time and I hear a lot of different versions of that song. It seems he has a few anchor lines he always uses that don't seem to mean anything but are coherent and real words but I think most if is just pretty sounding syllables.
I think this track was left off of ten because he never write lyrics to it and it sounds like Mike was just ****ing around with some barstardized little wing type thingy and someone hit record
 
Well, fair play to them as Eddie did kinda have to make this up on the spot (at least according to McCready). Guess he's still trying to work out the final version.

Still, I love the whole 'Ten' album - takes me to a very specific time and place.

Hmm - lemon yellow sun... sounds like a name for my next Saison.
 
GrumpyOldGit said:
Well, fair play to them as Eddie did kinda have to make this up on the spot (at least according to McCready). Guess he's still trying to work out the final version.



Still, I love the whole 'Ten' album - takes me to a very specific time and place.



Hmm - lemon yellow sun... sounds like a name for my next Saison.
Click to expand...


And "Pools of Maroon" for a red ale.
 
0d15f2c574492864bf7944395feaf605.jpg
 
It doesn't matter.

If you looked like this:
eddie vedder.jpg

Who cares?!?! :D

I LOVE Eddie Vedder. I love that he stood up to Ticketmaster before he was a big "star", and I love that he sang a song by Eagles of Death Metal today to send his message about the Paris attacks.

I don't care if he mumbles a bit- he's a songwriter I identify with and he's hot besides.

Ok, but I have to admit I don't quite "get" Yellow Ledbetter. But I would so go out on the porch with Eddie Vedder, if he'd let me!
 
Yooper said:
It doesn't matter.

If you looked like this:
View attachment 317755

Who cares?!?! :D

I LOVE Eddie Vedder. I love that he stood up to Ticketmaster before he was a big "star", and I love that he sang a song by Eagles of Death Metal today to send his message about the Paris attacks.

I don't care if he mumbles a bit- he's a songwriter I identify with and he's hot besides.

Ok, but I have to admit I don't quite "get" Yellow Ledbetter. But I would so go out on the porch with Eddie Vedder, if he'd let me!
Click to expand...


Ohh dont get me wrong lovely! He is 1 of my all time favorite artists! Honestly "BLACK" is 1 of my all time favorite songs. He can be a bit much to take in concert when he starts to go off on Political Mumbo Jumbo for 30 min but MAN can that dude preform!

Cheers
Jay
 
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be the sun
in somebody else's sky
but why, but why
can't it be, can't it be
mine"

Been listening to Ten tonight.
 
There's another Opera Man one that I couldn't find where he's like "Eeeeeeyyyyooooo zabba dabba doo ba Eddie Vedder's even better looking in person that he is on tv-ahh!"
 
Pearl Jam is really pretty good. I got TEN in the Jeep and dig into it sometimes, singing along.

Never heard this one, though. I really like it, although I might be able to make out 1-2 words out of the entire song. It's pretty classic PJ.

Maybe I'll just make up my own lyrics and sing along with it.
 
There are a couple tear jerker songs that come up from time to time.

Right after my dad died, "Man of the Hour" came on the satellite radio and I was a sobbing mess.

And when I feel a bit morose, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town comes on and over and over I just hear: Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away , hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away............
 
I love that clip from Storytellers where he talks about Alive and how the meaning changed for him over the years.
 
masonsjax said:
https://youtu.be/5vATTSpDZIM

Here's a very similar song from a young Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Much debate over why they are so similar, but I don't believe there was any conspiracy. I love both Pearl Jam and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Eddie's lyric-less vocals would go nicely on this tune as well ;)
Click to expand...

It's a pretty common blues chord progression. SRV sound IMO. Some Hendrix feel in there too. Have you heard Jimi's blues stuff? He isn't really known for that, but I had his blues album once and he was a wonderful blues player. I ain't even a blues fan.
 
Homercidal said:
It's a pretty common blues chord progression. SRV sound IMO. Some Hendrix feel in there too. Have you heard Jimi's blues stuff? He isn't really known for that, but I had his blues album once and he was a wonderful blues player. I ain't even a blues fan.
Click to expand...

I really liked that blues album, though I can't remember why I picked it up, originally. I bet I still have it rattling around somewhere.
 
But then Vedder can excel when covering "Love, Reign O'er Me."
So he put's in full effort with a clone and half asses his own recipes.
 
burninator said:
I really liked that blues album, though I can't remember why I picked it up, originally. I bet I still have it rattling around somewhere.
Click to expand...

I think I got mine through some crazy record club deal. I would never have bought it of my own free will.

But it was really good. I gave mine to a friend's kid who was getting to Jimi because his deadbeat dad liked him (not my friend, this kid's real dad, who is a complete loser in pretty much every identifiable category.)

I love Vedder's voice, but he REALLY sounds wasted on this song. I think if I were that wasted they lyrics would go like:

Flrfyr glo man. flyg... (BARF!)
 
I am so glad I started this thread!

:)

A bit of backstory - I LOVE this band. PJ is one of my all-time faves. I saw them first on SNL and went right out to by "Ten". I have one of the "v/s' CDs with no writing on it.

My sister worked with caterers when she lived in Washington DC, and PJ played a show one certain weekend at James Madison University, just outside DC. She got my brother & I assistant jobs, so not only did we get to see the concert for free, but it was us that took care of PJ's room, making sure they had all the stuff on their lists, from Throat Kote tea & vegetables for their juicers, to cases of wine & beer, we even had to time the final encore so that Domino's had a stack of pizzas waiting for them when they went backstage for good (nothing stupid like "no green M&Ms, though!) and, best of all, we got to meet the band. I still have a drum-head from D'Abruzzio's kit, and the mic-stand that EV trashed during one of his more "spirited" performances.

To top the whole story off, and what makes it all the more remarkable - this was the weekend that Kurt Cobain had been found dead at his home.

I will truly never forget that night.
 
There's certainly lyrics, some are non-sensical. This song was basically released as the second take. Yellow Ledbetter was basically McCready's baby that Vedder came up with lyrics pretty much on the spot and he basically has said it's about his friend Tim Ledbetter who received a letter that his brother died, and other things involved with it.

I think him changing the lyrics live was a big telling point that he doesn't really have verse lyrics.
 
DromJohn said:
But then Vedder can excel when covering "Love, Reign O'er Me."
So he put's in full effort with a clone and half asses his own recipes.
Click to expand...

I think that some genres of music are especially suited for unrehearsed, or very "raw" sound. As a comparison I'll refer to an SNL episode the family watched the other day. It had Tracy Morgan, back from the dead, and the music guest was Demi Lovato.

Now I'm not a Demi Lovato fan. Her music is too "pop" and she's too much a kind of diva I think. Her second performance was a crazy raw song and I won't say it sounded like it was recorded in a studio with effects and post-processing. It was kind of out there, but she put a lot of emotion and energy into it, even if she didn't hit all the notes precisely like you'd expect from her. My wife thought she was a terrible singer. I know how hard it really can be to hit all the notes when you are really pushing the boundaries and I thought it was a fabulous effort and really made me appreciate her as a singer and performer to make that risk and put everything she had into it.

It's the same with some of the "grunge" sound bands. They often eschew a polished, produced sound for a raw one. Not everyone can do it, either because they are afraid of making "mistakes", or because they simply don't have the sound for it.

PJ is one of those bands that I like mostly because they can sound raw and sound good doing it. You can really feel what they are trying to get across in the music, and it's still "musical". There are a lot of grunge bands that have a raw, natural sound, but don't have good song structure, or they're not interesting sounding, sometimes to the point of simply sounding formulaic.

Of course, this is all my personal opinion.
 

Similar threads

Clint Yeastwood
Pickled Eggs, Beer Cheese, and McSorley's Cheddar Plate
Replies
10
Views
981
shavy
shavy
P
What happened to IPA?
2
Replies
49
Views
3K
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
R
Home grown hops
Replies
7
Views
711
day_trippr
day_trippr
Clint Yeastwood
Best Faucet for Beer Gas Oatmeal Stout?
Replies
18
Views
1K
camonick
camonick
Djangotet
Pressure vs esters
Replies
20
Views
2K
NSMikeD
N

Latest posts

Back
Top