This is a classic old bit from college, although at the time there were far fewer Pearl Jam songs to select from than there are today. Back then, we had only two albums from which to cull the Pearl Jam Song of the Day - Ten and Vs. Of the band's eight studio albums, these are two of the best, but many of their finest songs appear on other albums. Of my favorite Pearl Jam songs (yes, I have a top ten), only three appear on these two albums - although two others were recorded early in the band's life and probably could have been included on Ten. One, "Yellow Ledbetter," was recorded during the Ten sessions. The other "State Of Love And Trust," was included on the soundtrack of the movie Singles, but I don't know with absolute certainty that it was recorded during the Ten sessions (though I think it was). Another is a Bob Dylan cover that they played during a benefit concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Of the other four, two are from Vitalogy, and one each are from No Code and Riot Act.
The Pearl Jam Song of the Day for today came up as a surprise on a Pearl Jam mix CD I had burned for playing in my car. While going to get coffee tonight, I caught the tail end of "Ledbetter" on X103 and ached that I had missed it, since it fit my mood at the moment. I threw in the Pearl Jam mix CD and dialed up "Ledbetter" (as a rule, all Pearl Jam mix CDs should end with "Ledbetter"), then started from the beginning to see if today's song was on the CD. I wasn't sure I had even put it on the CD, but just as I got near the end, there it was - the version from the Benaroya Hall CD.
Today's Pearl Jam Song of the Day is "Off He Goes," from No Code, which is easily their most underrated album. It's a nice little tune - one that would be fun to play if I were good enough at playing guitar to run the mildly complex chord progressions they use here. Seems like everything Pearl Jam plays has complex chord progressions, but that's probably only because I'm not very good on the guitar.
Ah, well. Who is John Galt?
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