Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter"

[Homercidal]

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

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.

 

[burninator]

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.

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.

 

[masonsjax]

Band of Gypsies is my favorite stuff, but yeah I'm a huge Jimi fan. And SRV.

 

[DromJohn]

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.

 

[Homercidal]

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.

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!)

 

[slym2none]

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.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

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.

 

[Homercidal]

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.

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.