Latest / Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars / Ten - Pearl Jam

Transcript

Ten - Pearl Jam · Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars

0:15
Welcome to Barbara Cuts, Beats and bars.
0:17
We're a father to daughter music podcast that slices into some of
0:20
the greatest albums, one cut at a time.
0:22
With no industry ties or formal training, just a shared love of
0:25
music, we explore albums across genres, writing favorites and
0:30
skips while digging into what makes each one iconic.
0:33
I bring the beats. And I bring the bars and
0:36
together we deliver real talk and fresh takes from both sides
0:39
of the sound. Hi, I'm Riley.
0:42
And I'm Todd, and welcome to this week's edition of Barber
0:46
Cuts. So this week we're talking about
0:48
quite possibly the greatest album of all time.
0:51
Of course in my own right but humble opinion 10 by Pearl Jam.
0:59
Can you guess who picked the album this week?
1:02
So we will start with least favorites and now that that is
1:08
concluded, we'll go to favorite. No, I'm just kidding.
1:12
So least favorites. So, Riley, go.
1:16
So before we start this, let's all say happy birthday to you.
1:22
Woohoo. Yesterday but when this comes
1:25
out but it hasn't been your birthday yet so we're in a weird
1:28
limo but that's true we. Recording pre birthday,
1:33
listening after birthday. Yes, but you picked this album
1:38
for your favorite album and I'm sure we'll get to some context
1:43
in a little bit, but as to why this is your favorite album.
1:48
But yeah, we can go into some least favorites.
1:52
Now. This is an album we've talked
1:54
about extensively, so you know what's coming.
2:00
The the the fans may not. OK, so I do have two
2:12
technically, but again, I'll spoil.
2:15
I don't think they're bad songs. I just out of like the like
2:22
almost perfect 10s. These are like the 99 point
2:25
fives. That's where I'm at and the
2:29
first one, so second to last is why go?
2:35
The more I listen to this one, the more I was just like, OK,
2:39
it's in there. That's fine.
2:40
And I for some reason the she's been diagnosed by some stupid
2:46
beep is so aggressive and turns me off with a song every single
2:50
time. It's like, whoa, OK, calm down.
2:53
Calm down, you know why that's there.
2:57
No. That's a That's a song about
3:01
parents that would send their kids to psychiatric hospitals
3:06
and listen more to just what some stupid person has diagnosed
3:13
and then agree with it and send them off.
3:16
It's a very cool message, yeah, but it musically, the way it
3:21
sounds, it's a lot. And my I hate saying least
3:27
favorite but on this album is alive.
3:31
Now let me explain myself. So 8 episodes in a disowner.
3:40
We had a good. Podcast.
3:42
The podcast is over. No, I think part of the reason
3:47
I'm live is there is it's the one I've heard the most growing
3:52
up. It's the one I hear the most
3:55
like in public or in general because it's a it's a good song,
4:00
but over time, it's just kind of lost its charm to me the way
4:05
some of these other songs haven't.
4:07
And I've heard a bunch of these songs many, many times, but they
4:10
haven't. They've upheld their charm,
4:12
whereas this one's been diminishing over time.
4:14
The more I hear it, the more I'm like, oh, OK, it's this song.
4:17
I get it and then move on. But that's not to say that I
4:21
don't like it. I often joke that I do not like
4:25
it for too annoying someone in this someone in this podcast.
4:32
Yeah, she does a very good job of that.
4:35
But yeah, I would say that one is the those two are mine.
4:40
The annoyance and music if I'll have to make sure that Charles
4:44
listens to this one because Charles is a Co worker of mine
4:47
that I often tease about Wham and The Beatles so he will take
4:55
great pleasure that you annoy me with music.
4:59
So I guess my least favorite, and I've only got 1 and it's
5:05
Oceans and said I like the song and and I like the live
5:13
versions, you know, whenever I hear them and I'll talk about
5:17
like MTV Unplugged, Pearl Jams, they kick off that set with
5:23
Oceans and it's really good. I think really what gets me is
5:28
on this album, it's it's the production of this one that
5:30
differs from the other sounds. And like you've talked about it,
5:34
it it's almost like they tried to make his voice sound
5:39
underwater or something, maybe the waves of the ocean.
5:43
And and and and it just for me just doesn't quite fit as much
5:48
as the others. But again, you know, if I have
5:52
to if I have to put one in there, that's the one I'm
5:56
putting and you can't make me put 2, so there.
6:01
All right, so now. That.
6:03
That's over with now that. Yeah, so, so favorites.
6:08
All right, so I know you know my favorite.
6:13
I don't know if you know my second favorite.
6:16
I don't because technically my second favorite or after this,
6:21
most of my favorites come off of different albums.
6:24
So I don't know if you know my second favorite, but my second
6:30
favorite is Black. I think it's a good song.
6:34
Obviously, the part that sells it for me is towards the end
6:40
when the music is really, really loud and you just hear Eddie
6:44
Vedder like the clearest you're going to ever hear him.
6:47
But still like failing the I know someday you'll have a
6:51
beautiful life over again and all of that part.
6:57
I just love how it sounds. You're just.
7:00
Yes, I know someday you'll have a beautiful life.
7:04
I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky.
7:07
But why? Why?
7:09
Why can't it be or can't be me? It's all chill.
7:14
I have. Chilled.
7:17
Better outstanding. Why?
7:21
Oh, it's incredible. And the way he delivers it like
7:27
so clearly and like, but you can tell like this mournful and like
7:32
begging lyric, but oh, it gives me chills.
7:37
That song gives me chills in that part.
7:38
It's just beautiful. I would put that, I would put
7:43
that up there and and this would be something that maybe one time
7:46
we have to do is go find some really good like one line
7:49
lyrics. And I would put that up there as
7:52
one of the hardest hitting lyrics in a song ever, just
7:58
because of, like you said, the the song around it, the clarity
8:02
and just what it fits in the angst and his voice.
8:04
It's it's just a beautiful line. Yeah, it's it's incredible.
8:10
My favorite song, which I just talked about being annoyed
8:14
because Alive got played so much.
8:17
My favorite song is Jeremy. Now I know for the people your
8:23
age, they were out of the 90s. Jeremy got played non-stop.
8:28
I get that. It did not get played non-stop
8:31
for me. And so Jeremy became one of my
8:35
favourites. And in freshman or sophomore
8:41
year, I can't remember which one it was, I took a psych class and
8:46
we had to do short essays analyzing the media's
8:52
interpretation of a mental illness or a mental disorder.
8:56
And for what am I? Because I'm so unique, I picked
9:02
Jeremy and the song and the music video and wrote an
9:08
analyzation of Eddie Vedder's perception on depression and
9:14
anger issues and like, abandonment and a bunch of other
9:18
stuff poured into it. And so any kind of song plays.
9:23
I have the music video stuck in my head and I think it is
9:30
incredible. I mean, to tell a story like
9:34
that and tell it well, it's hard to do.
9:41
To which, sorry, I was thinking about a lot of it.
9:45
It faced some controversy with early on with the music video
9:51
because MTV shortened it without their permission to put it on in
9:56
place. So people thought that Jeremy
10:01
was about a school shooting. In fact, there was a school
10:05
shooter who said that Jeremy inspired him.
10:10
Well, that's not the case. The story of Jeremy is that a
10:14
kid down the road from his school killed himself in front
10:18
of the classroom. Still very dark, but very
10:20
different story. And you wrote a song about that
10:24
combined with a kid that he didn't know and kind of combined
10:29
those two stories. And that's actually why they
10:32
vowed to not make a music video again for a little bit.
10:35
So that's why they had a music video drought is because they
10:39
were so upset with what the shortening of their music video
10:43
did and created that they said, Nope, we're not doing that
10:46
anymore and stopped doing that. But in the music video,
10:53
especially whenever like Eddie Vedder's face is going all
10:57
around is just incredible with the song.
11:00
And my personal favorite part of it is whenever he sings and he
11:08
hit me with the surprise left is like the only time the tempo and
11:12
like everything changes. Like he does it a beat early or
11:15
like a beat and a half early and he switches up.
11:18
So it surprises you that he's singing.
11:20
And so it kind of gives you the feeling of like being hit with
11:23
something surprising. And I.
11:25
Like surprise left. Yes, and there's so much like
11:29
there's so much thought into stuff like that and to just like
11:33
change the entire song for and he hit me with a surprise left
11:36
and like all of that. And it's just a it's a all be it
11:42
short. It's a pretty decent
11:44
representation of like the effects of abandonment and
11:47
depression and like child, the way children think and all of
11:50
that in like the dark places it can go.
11:53
And I am sad I got overplayed so much to where it lost kind of
11:57
some of its power. And I'm also sad that MTV cut it
12:00
short. You can find the full music
12:03
video now, because that's what I watched.
12:04
It's very clear what happened. You see the children all still
12:08
very much alive versus not, and they didn't show that.
12:14
But just a very good song that I've spent a lot of time with.
12:21
Yeah, and that video did win 4 awards at the 93 MTV Video Music
12:30
Awards. So like really good music video.
12:35
It is I it's. One of the and I would almost
12:37
call that maybe their most popular song.
12:40
I I know if you go look at streams on 10 it it's not their
12:44
highly or most highest, but even Flo is the one that has the most
12:49
streams. But you know, Jeremy may be up
12:52
there too, just because of that video, yeah, as well.
12:56
So. And because unfortunately,
12:59
because it was very publicized that he cited Jeremy as an
13:04
inspiration. So which I think better.
13:08
I think all of Pearl Jam like really were like, that's not
13:12
what the song means. They they came out a lot and was
13:16
like, that's not what we're writing about.
13:19
I also know that although it's my favorite song, I did read
13:23
that some of some of the people at the school that the boy
13:28
killed himself in front of the classroom.
13:31
The classmates that were actually there for that were a
13:34
little upset with Vetter for writing this song because they
13:38
were like, you act like you experienced it and you didn't.
13:41
You just heard about it. And so they got kind of upset
13:45
that he wrote a song from their experience and never and like
13:49
kind of passed off on his own, which he didn't really.
13:51
He's very open about it. Happened to school over.
13:54
And my school just had a kid that was like struggling.
13:57
So he combined like those two people.
14:00
But I thought that was interesting.
14:03
But yeah, in case you're wondering, it's not a song about
14:06
a school shooting, in case you've heard that from all of
14:10
this time. It's not.
14:12
Go watch the full music video. Makes a lot more sense.
14:16
But yeah, just a really great song in my opinion.
14:18
Yeah, I agree. So my second favorite of this
14:23
album would be alive and and again and and you knew this was
14:31
coming like this is a a nostalgic type of it fit the
14:38
moment in time of what it was and you can't recreate that
14:45
later. And so, so it, it is, it is
14:49
going to be odd to hear how that song stack up, stacks up later,
14:54
later in life. You know, this song, along with
14:58
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana from Nevermind, they
15:03
really defined the beginning, the mainstream beginning really,
15:09
to put it correctly, of the grunge movement.
15:12
And so Teen Spirit really kicked it off with Nevermind and it
15:18
skyrocketed Alive and 10 as an album came on a little bit
15:24
slower, but the it's got a great iconic guitar slide intro guitar
15:34
to begin the song. And then the song and, and I
15:40
said in my notes and, and the angst or victory, depending on
15:45
how you look at it, it really builds as the song builds.
15:49
And then it's odd because most songs, even on this album,
15:54
you've got verse, guitar solo, verse and then the end Alive has
15:59
got the guitar solo at the end. So it keeps building with that
16:03
almost maybe minute long guitar solo.
16:06
I mean, it's a long guitar solo and it's really good.
16:10
And then about 12 seconds to go, it almost seems like this
16:16
momentum that you've got going crumbles.
16:20
And then it seems like all the instruments do their own thing
16:23
and then come back with A and the song ends, you know, and,
16:30
and so it, it's, it's, it's a, it's an odd ending, but it
16:34
really fits with kind of what the the song is about.
16:39
Yeah, I I wrote down in mind that like the redeeming quality
16:44
of a live was like that last little guitar solo.
16:48
That and also the the lyrics. You're still alive, she said.
16:57
Am I supposed to be? Is that the question?
16:59
And if so, if so, who answers that line?
17:04
It also gives me chills. And the way he like starts
17:07
screaming it at the end, like it's very gentle and then he's
17:10
like who answers? Who answers like I?
17:12
Mean. That line also gives me chills.
17:17
Yeah. And so just to, you know,
17:19
piggyback on that the and, and I think you you know this because
17:24
I've mentioned it before. Alive is the lead song of a of a
17:28
Pearl Jam trilogy and Mama son is what it's called and there's
17:37
no official name. That's just what I guess Pearl
17:40
Jam people call it. But it's alive then once, which
17:45
is the first song on this album and then footsteps is the third
17:47
one. And it's it's not on on this
17:51
album, but it, it's the that that trilogy really built in a
17:59
way Pearl Jam. And so the, the back story of
18:04
that is there's a, a A5 song instrumental demo that was
18:09
making its way around looking for really a drummer and A and a
18:13
singer. Eddie Vedder got it from Jack
18:16
Irons, who was the drummer at Red Hot Chili Peppers.
18:19
They asked him to be a part of it.
18:21
He passed at that point. He he did join him a little bit
18:24
later for a bit, but Vedder put lyrics to three of the songs
18:31
alive once and footsteps and mailed it back.
18:35
And so those those three are the trilogy and and really it it's
18:41
it's quite dark, which we'll see with a lot of the lyrics on this
18:46
song as as we talk about different ones.
18:48
But alive is about a young man who is told that his father is
18:53
actually a stepfather, but his mother's grief in doing that
18:58
leads her to an intimate relationship with her son.
19:03
So wow, little dark once continues that drama and the sun
19:10
then descends into madness and goes on a killing spree.
19:14
So that's what once is about. And then footsteps is about the
19:17
sun sitting on death row in a cell looking back at his life.
19:24
And so that's what those 3 songs and that little is about.
19:30
And and the part about Eddie Vedder not knowing his father is
19:36
actually true. His mom did tell him that his
19:39
stepfather was his father. And I think he found out at 13
19:42
or so that his actual father had died.
19:45
And so when he wrote the song, when he wrote the song, the
19:48
lyric I'm Still Alive for him was a curse.
19:51
And he has since said that the audience and fans have lifted
19:54
that curse due to the response of the song.
19:57
So like, that's that's pretty neat to to hear from his side of
20:00
things. But my favorite song is Black
20:05
and that's going to be, if I have to rank them, it's probably
20:09
my favorite Pearl Jam song. So Black and then a live even
20:13
flow, State of Love and Trust and Yellow Ledbetter are
20:15
probably my top five songs. Black never released as a
20:19
single. The band really fought against
20:21
it. They fought against making a
20:24
video of it as well because for better the lyrics, the song was
20:30
very personal and it's it was another one of the instrumentals
20:35
that was on that demo tape and but this one wasn't one of the
20:41
ones that he put original lyrics to when he shipped it back.
20:45
Supposedly he wrote these lyrics on his way to Seattle after they
20:51
invited him to come up and and try out for the band.
20:55
And so it reached #3 on the mainstream rock chart.
20:59
But again, to get that high on a chart never being released as a
21:04
single just shows you how much people love that song and
21:07
calling in requesting it to get it played, you know?
21:11
And, and again, softer musically and but yet the power in this
21:18
song is really the lyrics and the way he sings it and it's
21:26
really, really good. So those I think are, are my
21:31
favorite 2 songs off of this album.
21:34
Any any other thoughts about songs or anything like that
21:38
before we get to maybe Wyatt? I got a couple before.
21:41
Why we think it's a such a great album besides the obvious.
21:48
No, I think, I think mine is. I just think it's really
21:53
impressive how Vedder can tell such personal stories in his
22:00
music. So I I know that's like part of
22:02
being a like songwriter is pouring yourself, but like,
22:06
these are very like personal stories that he's telling.
22:10
And that's why I think part of the stardom scares him a little
22:16
bit and makes him feel uncomfortable.
22:18
I know there's another lyric in one of his songs somewhere.
22:20
I can't remember which song it is where it's like, or it may be
22:24
a quote. I can't remember.
22:25
I know Eddie Vedder said it where it's they can buy my
22:28
clothes, but they can't wear them.
22:31
And it's he has a song kind of about like the me and me and
22:36
them and like this, like they think they know me, they don't
22:41
like in all of that. And that's one of the lyrics.
22:45
And so I think like, it's it's really hard to be OK being a
22:50
star and hearing these people screaming your songs when
22:53
they're so personal to you. And like with a live that's a
22:58
beautiful example of like, oh, it turned into like this chant
23:01
or this like, yeah. And still alive rather than this
23:04
curse. But I think that's why you saw a
23:07
lot of Grudge artist Flounder in the spotlight is because
23:12
something about grunge that's overlooked is how personal a lot
23:15
of these songs are and how like, deeply rooted anger or
23:20
frustration or some feeling at the time.
23:24
And I think that just made a lot of people uncomfortable, that
23:26
people were taking it and making it theirs and acting like they
23:29
understood when they didn't And like having your art being taken
23:35
away from you like that. I'm sure it's not easy, but I
23:40
think Federer has obviously a talent, but crazy talent for
23:46
making these personal stories that don't seem like they would
23:50
fit lyrically. Fit lyrically.
23:53
It's not your classic heartbreak.
23:55
It's, you know, like you said, figuring out your dad, it's not
24:00
your dad and then like having this relationship and like
24:03
breaking this relationship and like a school shooting and not a
24:07
school shooting as we mentioned. But you get what I'm saying
24:10
Like. But suicide, which is what
24:13
Jeremy is about. I mean, it's and, and those are
24:17
really hard subjects. You know, I do notice, you know,
24:21
we mentioned just a couple episodes back the Pink Floyd's
24:23
got the heartbeat that starts off and then they.
24:26
Have the same. This has got the same type of
24:29
thing going on the instrumental before once if you listen to
24:33
release, when it ends, there's about 5 seconds of 10 seconds of
24:39
silence and then that musical instrumental picks back up
24:43
again. It sounds almost western to me.
24:47
Yeah, I can. I can see that.
24:49
So, you know, we we we mentioned last songs, I guess you know,
24:57
now, I guess that's when you know, you've made it when all
25:00
your episodes are running together.
25:01
But and there hadn't been that many.
25:04
It's either that or you're old. The so I think release for this
25:12
is a great ending song, you know, and and in two ways
25:18
actually that that I haven't seen before.
25:20
The song itself is like calling for a father to release him and
25:27
say, OK, let me, let me be and and it and it's probably given
25:32
the lyrics and all these way deeper than that.
25:35
But yet it's also a release from all the other items that have
25:40
been explored throughout the throughout the album and that
25:45
slow build throughout the song to the ending, just him belting
25:52
out release me, I guess, four or five times at the end.
25:56
Like wow, that is an incredible way to end an album like this.
26:04
So your thoughts on how that ends as ending a song?
26:09
It kind of completely relates back to alive of finding out
26:15
like your dad has died or it's not your dad in this past.
26:20
And now it's saying, dear dad, can you see me now and myself
26:24
like you somehow. And then this released me and it
26:29
almost, it's like that loss of a relationship there.
26:33
And then it's also like saying like release this emotional
26:37
stress, which he's just, like you said, explored.
26:40
Yeah, and. This whole album.
26:43
And it's it's, it's like a release from his biological
26:47
father that he didn't know to say, OK, let let me go.
26:52
Like a a release from his stepfather that claimed him as
26:55
his own. The light.
26:56
No, let me go like I'm not really yours and y'all fooled
27:01
me, you know, and and it's just such a release, you know, again,
27:06
getting personal, but then all like you mentioned all these
27:10
other things that were talked about.
27:12
So you know, I know you like the way albums build and kind of go
27:17
and have a good last song. I was just wanting to see what
27:19
you thought of this as a. Was it a?
27:22
Oh, I think it's great. I think it's great.
27:25
Not, not that I'll ask you this for every album coming out, just
27:28
this this, this one holds a special spot for me.
27:31
So I thought I'd ask So what? Yeah.
27:35
So what makes this album and, and why is it on our list of
27:40
ones that we gotta tell people to listen to?
27:45
You know, and, and I guess I'll, I'll start on it and say because
27:49
it, it, it picks in with some of the things that, that you just
27:52
mentioned too. It upheld grunge along with
27:57
Nirvana. So Nirvana had Nirvana was the
28:00
kick start, you know, but, but grunge really started in the mid
28:05
80s in Seattle and it merged really genres of punk and metal.
28:13
And so often times, depending on the, the grunge band, you can
28:17
hear one more than the other. But the thing that's missed is
28:24
that I, I think that the lyrics, and this was with a lot of, a
28:31
lot of the groups of, you know, Nirvana as well, Soundgarden,
28:37
Alice In Chains are really your BIG4 that everybody talk about.
28:41
Of course, there were many others, but the lyrics are just
28:46
angst filled and very, very introspective, which was also
28:53
something new at the time, especially the introspection and
28:59
and personal nature of the lyrics.
29:03
And again, like that's that's carried on in in various streams
29:07
and genres of music. And so you know, it's it's and
29:12
we and we see it in this. We've talked about alive and
29:15
once even flows about homelessness.
29:18
Wygo we mentioned Jeremy, we mentioned you know, but it's
29:23
it's just lyrically, this album has got some deep dark themes
29:28
that quite frankly, a lot of grunge did too.
29:31
And when you're credited with saying we're going to kick start
29:34
that or you're you're credited with kick start, kick starting
29:38
that, you know, they've got some some of their influences and
29:43
just ones that I'll mention or ones that maybe we've already
29:45
talked about or that I know we'll get to Beatles, Zeppelin,
29:51
Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones.
29:54
They've influenced other bands such as Silver chair, The
29:58
strokes, The White Stripes. We just talked about the
30:01
Killers, Incubus, My morning jacket, Amy Winehouse, Lincoln
30:06
Park and John Mayer of all listed Pearl Jam as as
30:11
influences. Hopefully there's some in there
30:14
that you and people outside of my age group would know.
30:21
Yes, I actually, I listened to a podcast yesterday where Neil
30:26
Young was mentioned a bunch because it was talking about
30:29
Kurt Cobain's suicide note where he left Neil Young.
30:35
The is it better to burn out or to fizz?
30:40
It's like a Neil Young line. And Neil Young in his book has
30:45
talked about, like, what that meant to him, to have his lyric
30:50
being used as, like, a reason for someone's death.
30:55
And I better talk about it, too. But yeah, I mean, I also think
30:59
you should tell a little bit about why this album, you picked
31:05
it as your favorite other than it's my favorite.
31:08
It's music that when you hit and you're finally able to start to
31:13
say, OK, this is my music. It's not my parents music.
31:18
It's not things that, you know, of course I'm influenced by what
31:21
they had me listen to, but yet it's now my music and I can
31:27
start to use my money to buy an album and to buy music.
31:31
And again, we've talked about this like CDs and cassettes and
31:35
things like that, you know, and, and so there is some nostalgia
31:41
to it from from them, but it was just a combination to me of the
31:53
the hint of bluesy rock'n'roll guitar driving.
32:01
But yet there's still and and we call it a dirty like the raspy
32:07
vocals, a vetter that no, I don't think anybody would ever
32:13
say that he's the best singer and hits every note correctly.
32:19
But yeah, that's part of what makes Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam and
32:24
and. It's the unintelligible.
32:27
Right, you know, go go listen to, you know, yellow, that
32:32
yellow Ledbetter for that. Which again, might be my only
32:37
disappointment with this album is that Yellow Ledbetter was an
32:43
outtake from the 10 sessions when they recorded this album,
32:48
but yet the lyrics weren't 100% finished as the story so it
32:52
didn't make the album wow if Yellow Ledbetter had been on
32:56
this album. Yeah, that would have been if
33:00
only Ledbetter was on there instead of oceans.
33:03
Yeah, true, true. I I would just just add yellow
33:06
Ledbetter to it. I'd still be happy, you know,
33:10
Nirvana hit it big with with teen spirit, but then 10, you
33:17
know, just the the turtle and the hair is really what this
33:20
what this was, you know, 10 actually eventually outsold
33:26
never mind in the US. And so it, it just had a slow,
33:32
slow build and you know, and, and it also in in let's see,
33:40
Rolling Stone had a reader poll in 2013, had 10 is the #1
33:45
greatest debut album. So the and it was actually tied
33:52
by another one that we'll hit to later in our list, which is a
33:58
great debut album, Guns N' Roses, appetite for Destruction.
34:04
But you know, it's, it's just for me, it and even now it, it
34:11
brings back a time when again, and and you'll be at this moment
34:17
years in the future of being able to listen to an album and
34:21
and remember, like, OK, times I can place myself in this time of
34:28
senior year of high school, freshman, sophomore year of
34:32
college, when, when this album and and never mind, we're really
34:38
popular, you know, like, OK, life is good, you know, you
34:43
really have no cares. Maybe I should have when it
34:47
taken me that long to get out of school.
34:49
But that's a different subject altogether, you know, But it's
34:54
it's still still very neat and love listening to it and
35:00
watching different videos of different shows.
35:03
So Speaking of which, October 4th, 1996 they had it did a show
35:09
in Charlotte group from us in in college traveled to see that
35:14
show. Found a recording of it on
35:16
YouTube. Again, like the recordings, not
35:20
that great quality, but I'll put a link in the show notes.
35:25
But they in the show is yellow Ledbetter, which is the one that
35:30
they and a lot of times. Is that the one that you got the
35:34
flannel from? No that is not.
35:36
That is from a show in Little Rock.
35:40
I think this was probably the first Pearl Jam show I went to
35:43
in 93 and that's where I got the the ticket stub.
35:47
That still an actual paper ticket stub for all you young
35:52
UNS out there that was literally ripped in half and they kept 1/2
35:58
you kept the other half and that's a show.
36:02
I've tried to find pictures and I and I can't and I'm still
36:05
looking because I want to verify if it's his shirt.
36:07
But it it is documented that they started ripping off their
36:15
clothes, their tops and throwing them out and into the crowd.
36:20
And so they eventually at the end of the show.
36:23
So when they left, they were wearing their shorts and shoes
36:25
and that was it. And I have a chunk what I'm
36:33
showing you on screen. So nobody, nobody listening.
36:37
It's probably about 8 to 10 inches long of a flannel shirt
36:41
with two knots on the end. So I'd love to see if it is his
36:47
I, I. I think it is.
36:50
But again, I'll probably get a picture.
36:52
It's like, no it wasn't. But we'll, we'll just say it's
36:55
his. We'll say it is, but you know,
36:58
so that's a neat memory of that that I've got.
37:02
So anything else or anything you wanted me to mention as we talk
37:08
about it? Because I know, I know you like
37:09
the album, but this is obviously a little bit more nostalgic and
37:14
meaningful for for me. Yeah.
37:16
I mean, I will say that for me, it's not my music, it's your
37:24
music, but it's what I tell people I was raised on for the
37:29
most part. This and Caleb maybe what a what
37:35
a genre shift. So it still holds the, I guess,
37:41
nostalgia that growing up when I knew the lyrics to these songs,
37:47
my dad thought that was funny or my dad would laugh or like there
37:51
was, there's like a something in getting to share something with
37:55
you musically that we have the same taste on.
37:59
That's not forced or anything like that.
38:02
Is, has always been and is something that's special to me.
38:07
So it may not be my genre of music, but it's still in my top
38:11
five albums. The first five albums that I got
38:15
on vinyl. It's one of those just because
38:19
it holds that like when I listen to it, it may not be listening
38:23
to like, oh, time is free, but I get to think of like you and
38:27
like, oh, like, oh, I found a new part.
38:29
I'm so excited. I get to tell my dad about that.
38:31
Or like I I get to cure it and try to hear what my dad was
38:35
saying whenever he hears this part.
38:38
Or like, knowing that I have that connection and this music
38:42
is what always draws me to it. Plus, I mean, I love Eddie
38:46
Batter and how he sounds, and I love Pearl Jam and how they
38:49
sound and still. But I think it's a different
38:55
type of nostalgia and a different type of admiration.
39:00
Yeah, definitely still there. So I do.
39:04
I think after all that, no one's going to be surprised by our
39:06
ratings. Yeah, true.
39:10
I will. I will start personal rating 10
39:15
and objective rating. I you know, I did step it down
39:19
and say 9 looking at some of the others want to be fair, but
39:26
still the fact that it did along with nevermind like kick start
39:31
this musical revolution. You know that grunge and now you
39:36
got a post grunge genre. Like all this happens because of
39:42
or in large part because of this album.
39:44
So it's got to be a pretty highly rated album in that sense
39:48
too. Yeah.
39:49
What about you? I did 9.5 for both, I think.
39:56
I think we can give it a little bit more credit objectively and
39:59
not be blinded by our like of it.
40:02
I think most people agree that I mean other than me, obviously
40:08
that. Oceans this really the only week
40:10
song on this album. Some people throw in garden
40:13
sometimes that's just from what I've read, but most other people
40:21
up help hold it as like one of the best best put together best
40:27
filtered best like recorded like objectively best out in small
40:33
time. Even if you hate grunge, even if
40:35
you hate him. Like it's put together so
40:39
perfectly and meticulously that I think I think we can go past
40:45
just our blindness of loving it and give it a pretty high score
40:50
on that as well. Yeah, and your moment of trivia,
40:55
and you know this, but just so listeners will know this as
40:58
well, the album name 10 comes from the band's love of Mookie
41:07
Blaylock, who is a, or was a professional basketball player
41:12
and he wore the number 10. So that is why it is called 10.
41:17
It was That was also almost their band name, not ten.
41:20
That was, that was their band. That OK?
41:24
No, this is my favorite piece of better, better specific trivia
41:28
is yeah. Was it Blaylock or like, was it
41:31
the Mookie? Was it the full name?
41:34
They, they were Mookie Blaylock until they figured out like,
41:37
hey, we may get sued for naming rights when he signed a big
41:40
contract with like Nike or something.
41:42
And so they're like, all right, we got to come up with a
41:44
different name. Have you, have you heard the
41:47
Have you heard the story? I so I've I've heard the I've
41:52
heard the grandma story and but I've also heard it refuted.
41:56
No, not, not. That the action.
41:58
I don't know the actual true name of where they got their.
42:02
Name. Not where they got their name
42:04
from, but how their name got announced was in a random
42:09
interview. Eddie Vedder just started
42:12
calling them Pearl Jam. Oh yeah, yeah, I did.
42:16
I did know that. But behind the behind the
42:19
scenes, they've they've talked about where the name came.
42:21
From yeah, no, that's my favorite piece.
42:24
Of somebody's got a grandma name Pearl who made some psychedelic
42:28
jam and then some other people better with the way he started
42:32
saying. That.
42:33
Yeah. But I think later he said that
42:35
that was made-up. Somebody else has said that they
42:39
like the way that Neil Young, again going back to the
42:41
reference, had jammed and so it would jam.
42:47
So yeah. No.
42:49
I don't necessarily know who to believe on how they got to Pearl
42:52
Jam, but I do remember what you're talking about.
42:54
Where? Yeah, so.
42:55
Better they had never announced it and they just do it in an
42:58
interview. Specifically only Eddie Vedder.
43:01
He's kind of didn't. That's kind of my, I just kind
43:06
of love how Eddie Vedder really like kind of upholds the grunge
43:12
persona. I mean, Kurt Cobain did too, but
43:16
Eddie Vedder just being like very awkward in the way he
43:19
carries himself and everything. Very awkward person.
43:23
Half the times in interviews, when someone asked him a
43:25
question, he would be like, I don't want to talk about that.
43:28
And then they just wouldn't talk about that.
43:30
And it's like, all right, He just kind of told people random
43:34
stuff like the grandma story, like, oh, yeah, my grandma's a
43:37
Native American. Her name's Pearl.
43:39
Like just. And he did that a lot.
43:43
He did that a lot. There's been a lot of stories
43:45
that he like is like, Oh, no, that's not true.
43:48
But in the podcast that I listened to where Neil Young was
43:52
mentioned, he was also mentioned because he has a, a song that a
43:56
lot of people thought was written to Kurt Cobain.
43:58
And that was like his most popular interview question that
44:01
year. And he was like, no, I'm not
44:03
going to talk about that. Why would I?
44:04
I'm not going to talk about mourning a friend.
44:07
Like it was very like he would get like very shut it down very
44:14
quickly anytime it was being like romanticized or anything
44:19
like that, which is very funny cuz Cobain, that was why Cobain
44:24
said he didn't like them was because they were very
44:26
commercialized. And but he, he said that about
44:32
Pearl Jam, not Eddie Vedder. He respected it.
44:34
It was a whole thing. But still, I think he just
44:37
upholds what he sings more than some other grunge people I've
44:42
seen or heard. Unfortunately, there's not that
44:45
many left. This is true.
44:48
Sad but true. So, songs of the week, Riley,
44:54
what have you listened to this week besides 10?
44:58
So I always look at my earbuds. It's an app that you can connect
45:04
your Spotify to you. Not sponsored but I like looking
45:09
at it to see which tracks I have played.
45:11
But it's OK if you want to sponsor.
45:14
I like looking at it to. See.
45:16
Which songs I have played the most of?
45:20
And so my most common song that's not one that we've
45:26
listened to because of the albums, was too drunk to drive
45:34
by Hey Nothing. I saw Hey Nothing in concert.
45:39
They're incredible. I met them, they signed a hat of
45:43
mine. They're very cool and very kind.
45:47
They complimented my outfit and I was way too nervous to say
45:50
anything because I think they're cool people because I like their
45:54
music and they're also like literally my age.
45:56
So that was also a little bit weird.
45:58
But it is just a very fun, upbeat, poppy song that has a
46:06
nice sword them to it. It's just fun to sing.
46:10
I don't know. Yeah, it's it was fun to sing on
46:13
the drive back to Knoxville from Being Home.
46:18
And yeah, I've listened to it a few times and enjoying it.
46:25
Awesome. So mine is actually from 10, but
46:31
not really so it's from their MTV Unplugged.
46:36
And the only thing I think maybe that I like better than Black
46:44
from 10 is maybe Black from MTV Unplugged and really a lot of
46:52
their live albums. He does this, but there's and
46:57
there's two reasons. First, in the second verse, he
47:01
takes the vocals higher, which adds to the intensity really of
47:06
of the loss that he's talking about in in the lyrics.
47:10
And then toward the end, in the infamous Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo
47:15
doos, he inserts the we belong together ad Lib that has really
47:23
personified this song in many of those in many of their live
47:29
renditions and versions. But again, to hear him singing
47:34
that and, and, and go listen to this version from MTV Unplugged
47:43
and you're just here to just magnifies and intensifies the
47:46
loss that you can already feel coming through his vocals and
47:50
the lyrics, you know, and, and so MTV Unplugged again, just to
47:59
talk about that one again, I think was Rolling Stone did a,
48:05
another reader poll where they said, what are your top 15 MTV
48:09
Unplugged shows? It #1 without a doubt, I don't
48:14
think it was ever in a doubt, was Nirvana.
48:18
That's that's the most. Iconic The Pearl, the Pearl Jam
48:22
show is number 2 #2 so that's just shows you how good it
48:29
actually is. And so, you know, go, if you
48:33
like black, go listen to that one and you know, drop a comment
48:39
somewhere which one you like better.
48:41
Speaking of comments, you can leave them at Barber Cuts pod at
48:48
Instagram X or Facebook. Also drop comments in Spotify.
48:55
And that then leads us to our next album.
49:01
Yes, so our next album we're back on track with using our
49:07
little poster that we'll explain at some point and we are going
49:12
to listen to original pirate material by the streets.
49:19
Awesome album name, might I add. Original pirate material.
49:27
Yes. I like it.
49:30
So far, we'll see how much we really like it next week.
49:36
I this is a new one for me so I am excited.
49:40
Yeah, it'll be a new one for me too.
49:43
So all right, so again, go listen to original pirate
49:50
material by the streets, and of course, listen to 10 a couple
49:54
more times as well. It's not going to hurt you.
49:56
And so, until next time, I'm Todd.
50:00
And I'm Riley, and this has been an episode of Barber Cuts.