That being said, this clip reminded me that, although I never was too crazy about Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder has one seriously great rock voice. He nails this one and it is not an easy song to cover for a singer. I just wish Pearl Jam weren't so crushingly earnest so I could listen to it more.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Nostalgia Gone Wild
Tonight is the VH1 Honors broadcast of the recent Who tribute show in LA. I don't have cable, so I will miss it, but I'm not that bothered. Most of the covers are so straight up and so reverential that they are kind of pointless. The Who sound is so singular that it's kind of silly to try to ape it straight in a cover. I'd rather see the bands play around with the songs in their own style.
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Don't have cable?! You don't know what you're missing. You'd be calling them right now if knew you could watch Joe Satriani guitar lessons on Comcast on demand.
I saw in the listing, but it didn't mention Pearl Jam. After seeing that clip I'm going to have to go watch it on demand to see if they nail Love Reign On Me as well as they did The Real Me.
That was pretty awesome...
The whole show is up at VH1 now. Great stuff. I agree with the 'crushingly earnest' comment.
I put up the Jack and Kyle clip today - fun stuff.
Happily without cable in Phoenix, since March '08,
I just watched this special. Eddie's rendition of Love: Reign over me, is indeed impressive, although I've never really got into Pearl Jam.
With the exception of Tenacious D's cover of Squeeze Box, though, I thought all the performances were impressive, and didn't attempt to ape the originals - and how could they really? While Townshend's style has been copied, Entwistle and Moon are pretty much uncopyable.
No one lived up to the Foo Fighters, though, including Roger & Pete. They tore through Young Man Blues and Bargain with so much ferocity and happiness. You could tell Dave Grohl was having the time of his life.
I haven't seen it yet, been up state hating hippies (see blog), but I've been keen to check it out, and being that VH1 re-broadcasts that shit ad nauseum, I'm not worried. I'm more interested in the covers. I heard a bit of 'Love Reign Over Me' on the radio and I was impressed.
To clarify, when I said the covers were so straight up and reverential, I was referring to the clips I had seen of The Flaming Lips practicing Sparks and The Foo Fighters version of Bargain, which I thought was dull. I was really hoping that the Lips would bring something new to their covers, but what I heard in the rehearsal clip was totally straightforward. That's a shame because I think they could have done something with it. And as much as I like the Pearl Jam cover of "The Real Me," it's pretty much note for note what's on the record. The bassist is playing Entiwistle's part faithfully.
I'll check out the show and see if any of the bands did manage to play with the material. That being said, the clips I saw of The Who themselves were pretty weak as Roger seemed to be having a lot of trouble. We all know Pete's been mailing it in since 1975.
I think Jackson and I share the same feeling about Pearl Jam (what the hell happened after that first record?), but I have to say I watched the show this weekend and PJ rocked it pretty hard during their set. I was completely disappointed by the Flaming Lips.
I love the Pete/Roger acoustic tune that closed the show. It was some ballad in open E tuning that I'd never heard, but I thought it was sincere. If one of you The Who nuts can fill me in so I can go get a copy I'd be much obliged.
I assume it's Tea & Theatre from Endless Wire. That's the way they've been ending their shows ever since the record came out.
That 's it! I thought it was fantastic. It was one number that I thought Roger didn't seem to struggle with at all.
Off to Amazon...
Despite the fact that they cannot get along now, Pete does feel a lot of gratitude towards Roger because of the way he stood up for him during the kerfuffle over downloading child porn. There's a song called 'You Stand By Me" on Endless Wire that Pete wrote as a thank you to Roger.
Endless Wire is on it's way to the Alva mailbox...
In the VH1 hype promo documentary on the show Pete and Roger display a camraderie that seems genuine, professing enduring love and friendship, and owning up to 'petty differences'. Basically they couldn't be more different personalities, and are often at odds with eachother, but, as you say, they are the first to defend eachother, and are bound by ties that run deeper than blood.
Kinda like Keith and Mick, but not as cool or talented....
"....oh no he didn't...."
Of course you realize this means war!
DAMN! A stinging blow to the solarplexes by the undersized yet sharp Jackson! LOL...
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