Aye Davanita
Why, you ask, did I choose “Aye Davanita” as the first track from Vitalogy to explore? Fair enough question, particularly because it’s commonly regarded that if that record was released without “Aye Davanita”, “Bugs”, “Pry, To”, and “Stupidmop”, it would likely stand as the most consistently great Pearl Jam album. Every one of the other ten tracks is a qualified classic. But I love the bizarre experiments, largely the work of Vedder, inserted throughout the raw, turbulent Vitalogy. Many fans skip tunes like “Aye Davanita” routinely, hate them, can’t understand them. I can’t claim to understand them either, as an act of deliberate career/artistic sabotage or anything else. But I do think the years have been kind to these oddities, which punctuated Pearl Jam’s record with moments of levity, dread, anxiety, and in the case of “Aye Davanita”, calm.
It’s also a much needed bridge between “Betterman” and “Immortality”. The latter is a profoundly dark riddle. And for all of the mother-son strife and bitterness built into “Betterman”, the music is at least heroic, if not buoyant. “Aye Davanita” is the palate cleanser between the two, wiping almost the entire record clean prior to “Immortality”, which is enough of a song to almost warrant an entire side unto itself. “Aye Davanita” achieves this by fading both in and out as if the listener is only witnessing one cycle of a much longer piece. It’s repetitive, nonsensical, vaguely Eastern, and full of all sorts of weird vocal (brrrrrd bop, brrrrrrl beep!) and instrumental sounds that reveal themselves after repeated listens. I’m willing to bet that out of the four strange tracks on Vitalogy, “Aye Davanita” gave record execs at Epic the most cause for concern–because it was the only one that suggested a viable direction Pearl Jam could continue to travel (and would to some extent on No Code). Used as intro music to Pearl Jam shows much the same way as “Master/Slave” and “The Color Red”, “Aye Davanita” is like funky wallpaper in the basement of the house of Pearl Jam.
I like this song. I have no idea why.
I don’t understand it myself, but I’m also fascinated by the “weird” tracks. I never skip them, except STUPID MOP. They help to make Vitalogy the wild and wonderful listen that it is. They also ease some of the tension, letting you know that the band maybe isn’t quite as seriously self-involved as most of the tracks would lead you to believe. Unlike probably virtually everyone else who bought Vitalogy, I’m so glad some record executive didn’t talk them into taking these out.
AYE DAVANITA is one I’ve put on just because I felt like listening to it. It would fit onto a Dead Can Dance CD.
‘Aye Davanita’, I like it. Best of the so-called “filler” tracks. ‘Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me’ is a close second. Both songs are still viable.
This tune sounds like it could of been penned by Jack Irons. The vocals are influenced by tribal music yet the drums are absent (except for a snare beat) which makes it unique considering a lot of tribal music is drum based.
(Susan, the Dead Can Dance is cool too.)
Just a filler…
Like so many others, back in the days when Vitalogy was in the highest rotation in my CD collection, I generally found myself skipping this song along with the other so-called fillers. Then one day about a year ago I woke up, as I do so often, with a song in my head, but unlike most times this happens it wasn’t a song that I had been recently obsessivly listening to, but instead out of nowhere it was Aye Davanita. Strange….since then I have been listening to it more frequently. I agree with Susan as well, aside from Stupid Mop, the rest of these shorter, baffling songs really do nicely decorate the landscape that is Vitalogy.
I almost wonder if this, Bugs, and Stupid Mop forced some people to not have as much patience with No Code. As if Pearl Jam had already burned them on the previous album with a couple of blank tracks, and then No Code was such a departure that those people sad enough is enough?
That said I don’t think I ever skip this one, putting it more squarely in the Master/Slave catagory than anything else. And as you said, a nice break before Immortality.
I like this theory, dracwn. I never fully understood why No Code got the reception that it did. I chalked most of it up to the odd single choices, but I think you’re on to something with Vitalogy starting to freak some people out.
[...] 5. Nothingman 6. Whipping 7. Pry, To 8. Corduroy 9. Bugs 10. Satan’s Bed 11. Better Man 12. Aye Davanita 13. Immortality 14. Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s [...]
hi…i’m ervin, i’m indonesian…can you describe to me about the meaning of aye davanita. in my opinion, it sounds seems inspired by Indian or middle east’s ethnic music.
vitalogy is a impressed album by pearl jam, we will go to the space or strange ocean when hear this album..
thanks, you can contact me at vinvulkumbang@yahoo.com
and, forgive me for my bad english…ha..ha..ha..