Comments on: Corduroy

By: oleyever

oleyever — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:59:47 +0000

my wife is wearing a corduroy jacket today…i asked her where she got it…she said it was her sisters. what if eddie had written a song about flannel instead? it’s fun to imagine. this riff is the only thing i ever learned to play on guitar. i don’t think we’ve heard the “defining” Pearl Jam song, yet..thankfully, i don’t think there’ll be one…but Corduroy captures so much of what it’s all about…and really does stand as a peak along the Pearl Jam trail…a place from which you can look back and forward…up and down. all around. even into eddie’s mouth.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:54:29 +0000

C13, what ideas do you have for formatting? I would love for you to look at the Touring Band instrumentals. After that, is there some way to collaboratively look at some of the solo stuff? I was thinking more in terms of Bayleaf and Into the Wild. Brad and Three Fish may be too much of a tangent. Do you want to look at covers? Most of those are only available in live versions. We could also offer reminiscences about our favorite live shows or our favorite bootlegs. That might be interesting. Also, some of the songs have evolved over time as played live. It might be interesting to look at that evolution. There was also talk of revisiting certain songs and discussing them in more detail musically. I think that PORCH was mentioned. I enjoy thinking about the music and figuring out why I like or don’t like certain songs. And the ensuing discussions are always very interesting.

Basically, I’m up for whatever anyone else has might have in mind. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m not ready for it all to end. What do you already have in mind?

By: NoCoder

NoCoder — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:58:01 +0000

Oh boy. You pretty nailed this one, C-13. I don’t want to rehash too much.

But as far as I’m concerned, all that is wonderful and perfect and pure in rock ‘n roll eminates from the bridge of “Corduroy.” And I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean this song’s bridge is, to my ears, the defining moment in Pearl Jam’s catalogue. Everything they recorded before this seems to have built up to it. And everything after has always been, even if only fractionally, just slightly less perfect. It is my favorite part of any PJ song. Period.

This is not just “an Ed song” but, as C-13 alluded to in the original post, perhaps “THE Ed song.” There is a distinct feeling that even when performed for 30,000 screaming fans who sing every last word, this song still belongs to its author. And maybe that’s why it’s played at every show…

By: corduroy13

corduroy13 — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:53:54 +0000

Thank you Susan. If you’d like to take up an aspect of continuing this blog (live shows? bootlegs? something else) once I’m finished here, let me know. The same goes for everyone. I’d like to come up with some standard formatting stuff, but then just play editor if people have ideas for how More Than Ten could continue.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:48:11 +0000

C13, have I thanked you enough for putting together this blog? I was thinking just a couple of days ago that you still hadn’t done CORDUROY, and that when you did it would mean that we were very near the end. I need to thank you for allowing me and others to relive some very precious experiences. RVM will probably always be may favorite PJ song because it changed the way that I listen to music forever, but CORDUROY is the greatest song on one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. This album made me realize that I would follow this band in whatever musical path it chose, for better or for worse. Recently, more and more of my listening is taken up with other music, to the point that C13 has given me a reason to listen to Pearl Jam when I otherwise wouldn’t, but I feel sometimes that I know the songs so well that I don’t need to listen to them all the time, and that they remain very close to me despite that.

The fact of the matter is that no one sounds like Pearl Jam. Although many have tried, and now their musical influence is starting to be heard in good younger bands, but it’s really with Vitalogy and, in particular, CORDUROY, that it’s clear that there is a brilliant musical vision guiding this music. This is a song that exists brilliantly on two levels. The lyrical statement. But also a unique musical statement. And in all the years since then, from Vitalogy to GUARANTEED, there has never been a point at which I’ve felt they’ve become complacent and stopped growing. Even when what they produced was not overwhelming as a whole, there have always been great moments. And they’ve never failed to suprise me. Hearing GRIEVANCE for the first time after the mellowness of Yield was one of those moments. I’ve always found it strange that creativity in the rock world is often defined as the incorporation of strange electronic effects into music that is not necessarily structurally interesting at all. Pearl Jam, mostly using it’s very standard complement of instruments has evolved very far beyond the classic rock band of Ten while still being able to evoke their version of that sound.

C13, thank-you again for all of the time that you have put into this. I’ve enjoyed it so much. And I’ve enjoyed the discussions that have followed your initial comments.