Music Rewind welcomes Michael Boroski to discuss: Vs. by Pearl Jam.
A great conversation on how this album turned Michael into a lifelong Pearl Jam devotee and his entry in a welcoming community of fans & experiences that he still follows today.
Special thanks to Michael’s employer, Hickory Farms, who even sent the show an awesome gift box. Pick one up for a great gift this holiday season.
Album: Vs. Artist: Pear Jam Year: 1993
Transcript as follows:
Participant #1:
Hello and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums. I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode I will invite a guest to tell us about their favorite favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them. Joining me today is an old friend and hopefully another repeated guest on the show, Michael Barroski. Mike works in the financial industry up in Illinois and is an old friend for my high school days, a music fanatic who enjoys correcting people on their poor listening choices, and finally, a football legend at Hall High School. Welcome, Mike, and thank you for being on the show. Thanks, Steve, I really appreciate it. That's not an understatement. Football legend. Football legend. 25 years ago. It was a long time ago. Yeah. Well, Mike, let's jump right into this. What is your favorite album and how did you discover it? Steve I'm going to go with Pearl Jam Versus.
Participant #1:
I discovered it because it was actually the first Pearl Jam CD I ever bought. I never bought Ten. I was actually a big Nirvana guy and really bought that one along with 970,000 other people in the first week that it came out. And it was the number one fastest selling record of all time until Garthbrook's double live album five years later, broke it for the most album sold in one week. So I actually have the old school eco pack that came out that was on the first 100,000 of them sold and kind of started my obsession a little bit with Pearl Jam. Yes. You were known as the Pearl Jam guy in high school. You were real deep into them. He's wearing the shirt. The shirt is older than the album. I'm surprised you never owned Ten or didn't buy it off hand. That surprising me. Yeah, actually, my cousin Danny had the cassette and I remember saying, just recorded the three songs that are video. I like it, but it's not Never Mind. I'd rather listen to that. I think Never mind, because Never Mind blew my mind. It smells like Teen Spirit. Like, the first time I heard it, I was eleven years old and it was the first time that music was not my parents. Yeah, I mean, I used to deliver the Bureau County Republican paper, listen to Led Zeppelin, Ford, like nine years old, or the Beatles Let It Be or something. And then it was Alternative Nation at 11:00 at night. And my cousin and I were watching MTV and you heard that guitar riff and it was like, whoa, this is something for us. And yeah, like, Ten was cool. I thought, like, Alive and even Flow were great. And Jeremy, obviously the video was really iconic and everything, but Versus just was always the one to me all the way through, was just like my first record with Pearl Jam, I understood it. I was 13 instead of like 1011 years old. I know it's not a big difference, but when you're a kid, obviously, because we're the same age, but that's like the first time you're like, Oh, this is what music is, and this is like stuff I could really get behind. Completely different game changer to me. Yeah, I feel the same way about several albums in that time frame. It was a great time to be a young teenager, music wise, with all the different variations of that label alternative coming out. It was Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Sound Garden all just hit a gigantic stride there, right there at the beginning of the it was wonderful. It was I just looked at the best album chart. I don't know if you've ever seen that website where it charts all every year, every album. And I was surprised that the number one album of 1993 was Siamese Dream, which it's a great record, and they're from Chicago, which Billy Corgan is kind of hard to swallow sometimes. And then Pearl Jam Versus was like six. And I was like, Really? I was just surprised because it's based off of ratings and sound scans and all that stuff. Well, I think I can narrow down the difference. There is videos, right? You had the video for today and the video for Disarm that were all plawed over MTV, whereas I don't think Pro Jim had any actual videos for these singles. They released them through Billboard. But they did not actually have any MTV videos for these tracks. No, and they actually didn't have a video until 1998 do The Evolution, which is off their fifth record after Jeremy came out. So honestly, it's amazing that they sold that many records in a week. Oh, absolutely. There was no promotion for it. They had four singles that were released. And I was looking at my phone today and I do have all four singles from that record. Physically, I was going to bring them up to my apartment and have them all lined up along with the CD singles. Yes, I have the CD singles. And what's ridiculous about the CD singles from Versus is there's only one actual B side out of all four of them, and that's the song alone, which is, like, most Pearl Gym fans know that one. We had to chase that one down forever. But the rest of them are live versions of songs. And in fact, the Dissident single was the 1094 concert in Atlanta on April 3, right before Kirk Olbain committed suicide. So it was kind of like a holy grail to get that because back in the day, the kids listen. Now you can get anything you want, but to get like, bootlegs, you have to have somebody who knew someone in a college that could get you a bootleg and maybe it was recorded okay. And this was like you had to go chase down the other Dissident singles to put the album together. And I actually found the album on Amazon the other day. It was like $20. Bought it because this April 3 show is legendary because Kirkland Baine actually just got out of rehab and he was talking about it, and then obviously five days later, he killed himself. But the B sides weren't typical because Ten had one of the greatest B sides of all time, which was Yellow Ledbetter, and that was on Jeremy. Yelled, Better was never on an album. I thought it was on Vitality. I didn't know that. No, the B sides on there. It's one of the greatest cassette singles of all time. It's Jeremy is a single, and then it's Footsteps, which is a great acoustic song that was actually part of the original tape that the guys from Pearl Jam sent down to Eddie to sing on and then yell Lebatter, which, if you've ever seen Pearl Jam live, that's pretty much like the last song of the night. And everybody loses their mind when they hear it. Mike McCready Guitar Is Solo I did have the privilege to see them at the first bonnet row I went to Nice, and it was great. Yeah, Jack Johnson was on stage before them, and Eddie Vetter joined Jack Johnson at the end of his and then Jack Johnson actually joined Pro Jam for a few songs, and that's kind of what they do. I saw Malala Plaza in 2007 or nine, and I remember Ben Harper was the closing act on Friday night. I was like, I've seen Ben Harper open for him. And I've seen these guys. I've seen Ben Harper 100 times. Well, Eddie came out and sang with Ben Harper, and so I missed it. And then that year before, Kings of Leon used to open up for Pearl Jam, and the Saturday night show was Kings of Leon, and Eddie came out and sang with them. So they really kind of give back to the guys that have opened up for him and some of the band. I mean, the Kings of Leon now is like a couple of years later, they were the headliners at La Lapalusa and Bonaroo and all those places. And it's crazy to me that I tell my wife, she's like, Oh, you saw Kings William open up for somebody? I'm like, Yeah, that was Pearl Jam, man. Just a little quick thing. I've seen them 20 times. Wow. Yeah, I've seen them in England. I've seen them actually in Seattle. I've seen them in Philadelphia. Most of the times have been in the Midwest. But, yeah, I've actually seen them do the Ten record from start to finish in Philadelphia. I missed the one they actually played versus that same year from start to finish in Greenville, South Carolina. But I don't know how I've ever known to even go to Greenville, South Carolina to go see them play them. I was a casual Pro Jam fan. I like the hits that were just on the radio. I didn't own any Pearl Jam albums. I was more into the pumpkins and stayed in the classic rock range and then eventually the Foo Fighters, that sort of thing. But it wasn't until I was in the military that I sat and listened to more Pearl Jam, more Sound Garden, and more like Alison Chains, unfortunately, ten years later, but then discovered all that music. But one thing that was kind of neat that I discovered recently was that I didn't know that Temple the Dog came well before all those bands kind of really start hitting. I thought the Temple of the Dog was like a super group after they had their main hits. Oh, yeah. No, it's crazy because they brought Eddie up to record after the original lead thing. I guess I could go through a little bit. But Mother Lovebone was the original band that Stone and Jeff were in, the bass player and the guitar player. And unfortunately, Andrew died from a drug overdose right before their album came out. The lead singer, the band, Andrew Wood, was best friends with Chris Cornell. And so when he died, Chris and Matt Cameron, who is now actually imperialed him, but he was also in Soundgarden, the drummer, and then Stone and Jeff and Chris, we're going to make an album. And the only reason Eddie's even on there is they were doing Hunger Strike. And Eddie just walked up to the mic and started singing that part. And he was like, man, I really shouldn't do that. I apologize. And they're like, no, we actually need that. And to be fair, like, Chris Cornell has got one of the greatest voice rock voices of all time. The guy can hit any note that you could ever imagine. But Eddie's voice is just such a low baritone that it offsets Chris really well. And when I was a kid, I always thought the same thing, like, oh, this is great. Super group, blah, blah, blah. And I always loved Hunger Strike. That was the song. That was his song. But honestly, say hello to heaven. Especially now that since Chris has passed, man, that's a tearjerker, dude. Just how good he's like, because that's his best friend that died and he wrote this song for him. And he sings, like, every little bit of his emotion and his soul into that song. And that's why it's amazing. That whole record is actually really good. The whole thing is great. And then that's kind of how it got me. Like, honestly, it's almost like how I got into, like, Sound Garden, because Bad Motor Finger didn't come out until after that anyways. And that had Jesus Christ pose and outshined.
Participant #1:
Yeah. And that all came out in 91, too, with Ten. That was a pretty good year for music, 91. Oh, definitely. It's not a 93 versus but whatever, I guess. So do you have specific tracks on this album? Or do you prefer just to go from front to back to me? And I'm sure you're the same way because we grew up in the same small town and obviously probably didn't have like the coolest sound systems or anything in our cars. I mean, I had a Ford Escort from 1989 with the tape deck that barely worked. But I always wanted, like, you wanted to play that CD front to back because especially the way it starts out is I don't know if as a movie guy that you are high fidelity. I always think when he talks about making that mix, is you start out really hot and then you turn it up another notch and then you cool it off in the third song. And honestly, Versus starts that way, it's go
Participant #1:
animal
Participant #1:
free and then Daughter and it slows everything down.
Participant #1:
To me, that's a great start and I love that. And then it gets into like a couple of their political songs. And that's the one thing a lot of people don't realize about Pearl Jam, is they are political band. This is the first time that I ever dove into the lyrics of this album, because I'll be honest, sometimes any better. I can't understand the lyrics unless I'm reading him. He's a mumbler. He is. He definitely is. But I was not really shocked, but just kind of eye open to how political this album really is. They cover everything from fame to pressure, child abuse, learning disabilities, racial inequality, gun control, political refugees, small town regret and others. Yeah. And it's crazy because it's not like it doesn't beat you over the head. Like raging as a machine does. Like, rage comes out and you're like, Hey, this is what we're going to say. Rain rages more damn the man, save the empire. We're coming at you. Right. Eddie and all the songs that he wrote have real life consequences and things that happen, like with Glorified. G, which is about gun control. That whole song started because the drummer bought a gun.
Participant #1:
And that's exactly how the conversation goes, is him and Jeff, I met the bass player, were like, he's okay. I bought a gun. And Jeff was like, Why? He goes, Oh, in fact, I bought two. And he goes, Weren't you worried about killing somebody? He goes, that's all right, man. I believe in God. And like, Eddie just sat there and listened to these guys have this conversation and he wrote the lyrics down. And it's funny because when I was a kid, I always thought it's a Glorified version of a pelican. I don't know why a pelican would there be a Glorified version of a pelican, but I didn't realize this honestly until I was in college, that it was pellet gun. And then with WMA, which is white men aggression, white male.
Participant #1:
He was actually out having a cigarette while he was recording the album. And there was a black homeless guy out there, and he was talking to him, and all of a sudden these policemen came up and we're harassing him. But Eddie was like, Hey, this guy's fine. Don't worry about it. And they were ignoring him. And so he just kind of wrote that because of that. Like, hey, I'm fine. I'm clean just because I'm a white guy. How does that work? And so those were two of the big political songs, and I guess, in a way, it shaped me politically unknowingly, the way I think about the world and see things. Because there are some people that go to Pearl Jam shows and they're there for the music. And Eddie does go on rants and everything about there's a BP plant in Indiana that would spill out into Lake Michigan. And there was a big thing with Lapalooza that he was saying, don't go to BP. Amico and all this, but they also have a pretty good charity called Vitality Foundation, where they support the environment, homelessness and native tribes. When I said before that I went to Seattle for the show, they were called the Home and Away shows, and the Home shows were to help the homelessness in Seattle, and they raised, like $12 million for the homeless in Seattle. So some people, they get annoyed by the political stuff, but there's some good stuff that they do. They give everything back to charity. So they did that actually during the shows in Wrigley, the Cubs care stuff. They actually match the Cub's care and donated towards Cubs care. But they stand with what they believe in. You got to give them that, if anything. Yeah. I'm not one of those guys that says I won't listen to a song because of a political message or whether you agree or disagree with the lyrics. If I went through my musical journey with that attitude, then half the 60s, there's so much good music, but half of it was political protest songs. And people making their political statements is part of the art. And as long as it's a good song. Right. If WMA didn't have starts out with those funky drums and there's all kinds of good music in there as well, if it wasn't a good song, then I probably would skip it. Yeah. As long as it's a good song. Yeah. And the Tabitha on that, the way he plays that, because Dave is obviously not the drummer anymore. He was the drummer for probably, like two, three albums. That was an interesting drum technique that they use. And I will say Right, left Wing, all that stuff. But those guys are like, I was actually at a concert in Chicago where they brought up I believe the guy was in he was in the army, and his girlfriend surprised them with tickets to the show. People write in to, like, Pearl Jam and they're like, we're going to bring him up on stage to hear his favorite song. And I was like in the fourth row and the guy gets on his knee and asks his girlfriend to marry him at the Pearl Jam show. Nice. During his favorite song. So that's the one thing. They might be a little left wing, but they support the guys in the armed services like 100% and not give them opportunities. But I mean, who else is getting the opportunity do that? It's your favorite song. And I'm sure that was their wedding song and everything, but there wasn't a dry eye in the house to watch this guy who was on leave ask his girlfriend to marry him in front of 50,000 people. I really feel like it's amazing, like the opportunities they give people and memories that they make. Even for me, I don't know who this guy is. It was on the DVD. Let's play too. Even if you're not a pro Jam fan, even if you're not a Cubs fan or if you're one of the other, you got to watch it because they tie in the World Series run with Pearl Jam stuff. It's awesome. And now that it's five years away, I saw that I was going to say and now that it's five years ago, it won the World Series yesterday. It's as if it was yesterday. Yes, because it feels like it because I keep looking on Facebook and seeing all these memories of me posting about the games and stuff and I'm like, oh, what a great nerve wracking, but great run. But yeah, Steve, if you've never seen that, I suggest to see it. It's called Let's play Two. It's really cool because Eddie is like a huge Pearl Jam fan. He's from huge Cubs fan. He's from Evanston and he was at all the games. I'm sure people saw him all the time on TV. Yeah, he's on the stretch several times as well. I was actually there for game one or game three. The World Series. You suck, Steve. I finally paid that off, I think, like two years after the fact. And there are some people that might be listening to this. He knows how much it is, but it's definitely there's a comma and a two somewhere. It's kind of like plinko and you got to figure out where it's at. Well, I appreciate that you think people are listening to this. That's optimistic. Hey, I'm posting it to everybody. I've been telling everyone I'm going to be on a podcast. But yeah, I would say to me, I could give you songs that are skippable that I think people would skip. I know I like them. And to me the best song on the record is that it was never a single and it's one of the best songs they play live. Is Rearview Mirror,
Participant #1:
a great song. Anybody who has a car and wants a song to play while they're driving a car, that is probably one of the greatest songs that you could play while you're driving in a car. Yeah, I agree. Because it feels like forward motion. The way that song flows is just always moving forward. There's really no pause. It just keeps going forward. And it's got a great hook in the chorus. I'm surprised they didn't release that as a single. You know, I'm wondering if it was intentional, like they didn't want to do videos and all that. So same thing with Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town. Or is the one bootleg I have that says Eddie says now, the longest title in the Pearl Jam catalog, elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town. All these changes take place. I wish I'd seen the place, but no one's ever seen me. And the reason they named it that is because in the press, they were giving him a hard time that the first record only had one word song like Elise Jeremy Alive. So it was kind of like a smart ass thing. Here you go. Here's the longest title we could think of for a song. And it's not like they even say elderly woman, they say town. And then when you see them live, when they play that song, it's kind of cool. Especially when you're in Illinois. He'll go like, this is for people from Rockton or Rockford. Or he'll just start naming small towns in Illinois because Rockford is small. Dave, you're from Evanston. I guess rockford is small, I get. Yeah, that's what I always wondered. I was like 160,000 people. I'm like how small it is. Take a drive down to Lad. Yeah. How awesome would that be? This is for your Lad delzel Cherry. This is for that town way down there with the chicken. Yes. Oh, I was just there last Thursday. Or Friday. No, last Thursday. I haven't had Rips chicken in years, and I would like some. It was divine. I will say that to all my friends down here in the south, there is good fried chicken, but it is never as good as ripped chicken in Illinois. Sorry. Southerners. And you know what, Steve? I think it's because the way it's fried. Because you got to like beer battered. And that's what we grew up with, is beer battered fried chicken. And I love beer battered fried chicken over anything else. So give me that greasy piece of bread at the end. Forget about it. My father in law thinks I'm nuts. Every time I do that, he's like, what are you going to eat that for? I'm like, It's fantastic. What's wrong? I've met people nationwide in the army or whatever and other situations where they don't know the name of Lad. They just know of that town with the chicken place because they'll visit Chicago or the Quad Cities for whatever business trip, and they'll take a ride out there. Someone knows someone who's been there or whatever, and they go out to find it. It's almost right there. Yeah. I just got to keep creeping closer to the city with larger towns, and eventually it's recognizable. If somebody knows Star Rock, I always just go, all right, if you're at Star Rock and you go down there, I go, Exit 70, go north in this town called Lad. I go, there's a big chicken out in front. I go, they got great beer. They got, like 20 different things on draft. And I go, make sure you have cash, but the fried chicken will blow your brains out. It's amazing how good it is. And they're like, Oh, really? Do you think that's how it is? I'm like, I'm telling you, just if you like, beer battered and you like, grease and prepared to not ask for a fork and knife, but there's all good stuff. But yeah. Elderly woman behind the counter in a small town, it's a deep song that can definitely hit home to anyone that's from a small town, and you see people come and go and pass. Just recently, Mike and I met up at a high school reunion, and there were several times looking at people crossing through, like, who's that? Is? That maybe I don't know. And then you ask somebody that you do know. Is that who I think it is? Yeah, that's her. That's him. Yeah. I seem to recognize that face. And it's a great song because he writes it from the point of view of a woman who got stuck in the small town and wanted to get out. And it was, from what I've read, all the Pearl Jam stuff I've ever read, that it's like her lover or boyfriend from high school, and now he's back for something, and he doesn't recognize her, and she kind of recognizes them, but she doesn't want to say anything because she doesn't want him to know that she's still here, and she never got out, and she wanted to get out, and she always talked about getting out, because there are people like that in a small town who they always talk about leaving, and they never do.
Participant #1:
And I know I'm not that super far away in Chicago, but if you ask my family and my wife's family, we're like on Neptune being up here, and it's only 2 hours away, so I can't imagine you being in Atlanta. It's got to be, like a different place. It's crazy to me that because they're stuck in their little rut and they won't go out to see anything. Yeah. For me, it is difficult at times, living 12 hours away, drive. You don't get to see family as much. However, I kind of cut that cord at 18. When I joined the Army, I was gone. Gone. So when the job opportunity opened up in Atlanta, it was a little easier for me to just pack up and go because I had only been home a yearish before I ended up in Iraq. Not enough to put down new roots. Right. And it's no disrespect, because my sister, my brother, my parents, Marissa's sister, her brothers, they all live there. I have great friends that still live there. It's just some people decide that they want to stay and some people want to go, but then some people get stuck. And that's kind of what the song is about, is they got stuck, and it's someone that wanted to get out. That's the difference. Yeah. Right. And that's hard. That's anywhere that doesn't matter if it's a small town or a big city or anything. There are people that are, hey, they're born and raised in New York City, and they just can't get out. They can't figure out a way or they don't have the honestly, the balls to just walk out and just walk out of it. And that's kind of like where Ruby Mirrors too. It's like that's kind of the song that says, I'm out. Yeah, I'm out. This is it. Whatever happened, that person is leaving it in the past, sees it in his rearview mirror. It's about leaving a bad situation, or not necessarily bad, just leaving something. Yeah. And some people were even talking about how Daughter ties to Rivermere, that the shades go down in Daughter, because that's about a learning disability. And back then, even in the early 90s, that people thought people learning disabilities were just bad kids. They didn't want to pay attention, and the shades go down. Who knows? Something sinister is happening after the fact. Like they're beating their kids or something like that. And then in Rearview mirror, finally the shades are raised. That's one of the lyrics of the song that, hey, that person finally got out of that situation, and they are putting everything behind them, so I can see how they tie together. Yeah, I never even thought about that. I kind of saw that today. I was, like, kind of surprised because I just love Ruby Mirror. Such a great song, but like, elderly woman, such a great song. Leash is actually I'll give a shout out to our classmate Kevin Wilson. That was his favorite song growing up. And so Leash was always the song that we wanted to see when we saw him in concert. And I think we might have saw it one time,
Participant #1:
but that's a great song. Indifference, which is the last song on the record, honestly. I don't know if there's a version out there, but there should be, but Ben Harper does a version of it consistently live. Eddie is a good singer, and I love Eddie veterans voice. And even though he spawned Nickelback and Creed, which there's nothing he can do about that, that's his voice. I would say that Eddie is a unique singer.
Participant #1:
Until I grow in you
Participant #1:
feel this indifference, though, man. Ben Harper's vocals on The Times, I've seen him sing that song because that guy got so much soul in his voice and just like, passion, it's almost like he wrote the song. Honestly, it's fantastic version. So if you could find that, I honestly well, check that out. Yeah, that's a great version of that song. And I will say I love Dissident. Dissident is a great song
Participant #1:
and Go is just such a kick out the motherfucking jams at the beginning and Animal, like, brings it around, because that was the original title of the record, was supposed to be five against one. It was supposed to be that, and then they scrapped it. So that's why, like, a lot of the CDs just said Pearl Jam and not Pearl Jam versus the CD I have because I bought it, like, the first week. Like, me and 900,000 other people that we're all friends now that bought that record. The first week, it just said Pearl Jam. And then after that, like, the first week or two, it said Pearl Jam versus on the spine, I have the big box set vinyl version of it with all the B sides and live records. But, I mean, honestly, and then we haven't even talked about Blood, which is kind of almost like the first kind of punk song, if you want to say it, because it's real.
Participant #1:
It's another one that I have as funky. There's a lot of funk on this album. Yeah. And I think that's the thing about the drummer, Dave Abrisi, he doesn't get a lot of credit as much as he should because he was a drummer on Versus in Vitality and then part of No Code and then Jack Iron, because I don't know if a lot of people know this, that Pearl Jam was basically like Spinal Tap, where they have had multiple drummers. None of them have died on stage or anything like that, like in Spinal Tap. But Matt Cameron was their fourth or fifth drummer and he's been there the longest. And nobody in the world thinks that Matt Cameron is the drummer of Pearl Jam. He's a drummer of Soundgarden, but he's been the drummer for Pearl Jam since 2021 years and the band has been a band for 30 years. But, yeah, Blood is just like obviously this is a young Eddie veteran that's doing that with his vocals. There's no way that a 55 year old Eddie veterans like ripping those like he used to, where he has that long stretch of your blood. Yeah,
Participant #1:
I mean, just that the way he holds it looks like it hurts. And then I would be remiss not to talk about Rats, because that's always one that I'm sure everybody that listens to that record always skipped. It is a fantastic version, live
Participant #1:
to me, like Versus has always been. This is the only record that there's no fluff in it. Like, Ten is a great record, but it starts off with that beginning, which is called Master Enslave, like, the beginning. And you can actually play that record like Looping. And I never really cared for that. But this was the first one, actually, that was also produced by Brendan O'Brien, who produced, I think Pearl Jam's got like, what, eleven Records or something? Twelve Records. And I think you produced like, ten of them. This has been like their longtime producer. This is the first one they produced. There's been quotes from the band that was like, this is how we want to recorded the first record. Now I can't imagine because it sounds raw versus really raw. It's very open. The drumming is very animalistic and the guitars and Eddie's kind of howling pretty much through the whole record except for the ballads. He kind of calms down, but Go and Animal, Unleash and Blood, those are vocal cord. Shredders, man. I don't know how he does that. Obviously, I'm not a singer. I know all the words, as I always tell my wife, I know all the words and I'm cursed with the voice. I can't sing one of my favorite covers that they do, and I didn't even know that they did it until I saw him Live was a cover of The Hoos Rain Over Me. Oh, yeah. And he felt that. I mean, Roger Daltrey is hard to compete with as far as vocals there, but he does and it's an amazing cover when you listen to that one. They also cover which I don't know if they played that when you were there, but they cover Bob O'Reilly all the time. Honestly. No disrespect to The Who and it's my brother's favorite song and it's my brother's favorite band, but Pearl Jam Live, Bob O'Reilly. It's a better version than the record that The Who does. And the only reason is here's my argument, and I think it's you get some hate mail on me. Fantastic song, Roger. Dolce I know. And I love The Who, however, it's not synthesized like Bob O'Reilly is. Yeah, because that was Later Who when they got into the right. But that's all a guitar, though. Their live version of it for Pearl Jam is all guitar. So like Mike McCready or Stone Gossard is playing that synthesize part as a guitar. That's why I like it, because it's pure like rock. Which, don't get me wrong, I'm never going to disagree. I love Bob O'Reilly. It's a fantastic sound. But like, Eddie always covers The Who. I've seen him cover. He does a great cover of The Beatles. And you got to hide your love away I was just going to say hide your love away they actually did, now that I think about it. It's very reminiscent of Elderly Woman. Yeah, that's probably a deep influence there. And I got a feeling they do Masters of War, which is Bob Dylan song. They cover Neil Young songs, which is they do Rock in the Free World all the time as one of their closers. I think there's a version on YouTube of Pearl Jam with Neil Young doing cowgirl in the sand that's like 20 minutes long. Oh, yeah, because you got to have a 20 minutes long POW girl in the sand. But what's great is somebody said this to me once, that Eddie Veteran never wanted to be like, a rock star. He just wanted to be a classic rock star. That's why they had such hard troubles. Like the first couple of records is that it was too much. And now seeing them live, it's like going to see the Dead. It's like an experience where everybody talks about, oh, man, did you see these guys play this song and see this? So my wife and I were in England. She wasn't my wife. We just started dating. And we're probably dating like six or seven months. And I'm like, Hey, do you want to go to England? I have tickets to Pearl Jam. So we went, and Pearl Jam played the opening night. And there's something around Eddie's vocals, and I could tell that his vocals were shit. And I kept telling her, I'm like, I go, this doesn't sound right. She's like, no, this is her first Pearl Jam show, so she doesn't know. I think at the time it was like my 15th or 16th. So I'm like, Yeah, I know better. Sounds like. So the show is great. And I met up with some people that I met in Chicago. His name was Seth. He was from Egypt. He was from Cairo. And then this other guy, Matt, who was from England, and he looked like Gavin Rosedale from Bush, like Steve. And I'm joking, he was that good looking of a man, like Gwen Paltrow what's her name? Stefani. Gwen Stefani was going to jump out of, like, behind him. And so we met these guys in England, like at the show. And then the next night the show gets canceled because Eddie lost his voice. And we're sitting at these bars and we meet people from Tokyo and China and all over the world, and I'm talking to this girl from Tokyo and she's like, oh, have you ever been to a show in the United States? I'm like, Yeah, I live there, obviously. I've seen a couple of shows. And I'm like, how about you? And she's like, Yeah, I was at the Philadelphia Show in 2016, and I'm like, the one they played, Ten. And she's like, Yeah, I was there. The community is nuts because it is nuts. Yeah, you see these people at these shows and it's a community, and they are kind of like Grateful Dead, man, that's cool. I never thought I would be in a Grateful Dead community, but I guess my band has been around a long for 30 years, and not a lot of people can say that their favorite band since they were eleven is still a band that I can go see today. And now I have money to go see them. So I was supposed to go see them in Oakland last year, in St. Louis last year, in Nashville last year. Still got the tickets. I can't wait to see him. I'm excited the new record came out last year. It is a band that there's never a time that I've ever gone to a show and said, man, I wish they wouldn't have played that song. It's a band that's been with me my whole life. It's the band that was our wedding song. I always buy every newborn that I'm related to my brother's kids or my sister's kids, or Marissa's brothers and sisters and my cousin Danny. I buy them the Pearl Jam Alive, like onesie. I'm trying to brainwash them early. What was that T shirt you had in high school with like kickstand or something? I got it. I'll show you.
Participant #1:
Hold on.
Participant #1:
I'm going to bring it up just for you, steve, I got to find something. This is the pause point of the shovel. There it is. Oh, it's a soundgarden shirt. Come stand me up. That's it. You would get pissed when people would ask, what does it mean? So this shirt is the Pearl Jam black shirt. As you can see, it's a little worn. I got this at the Peru Man Alive in 1992. I begged my mom for it and I have had this shirt. And next year the shirt will be 30 years old. So I wear this to every Pro Jam concert I go to. Nice. So Pro Jam versus made your top spot. What was on your short list? Oh, man. Yeah, I know. When you asked me that, I was like, oh, I have 1000 records I could talk about. My top five favorite records of all time, to quote Rob Gordon, is Pro Jam versus Radiohead. Okay. Computer david Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spider from Mars. Nice. Led Zeppelin Three. Excellent. Lvolver and the Beatles, Revolver. Now, one of the reasons I kind of went with Versus is okay, computer is one of the critics darling of all time. Okay, computer. And so is Revolver. And Ziggy Stardust is like, I could have talked about Bowie, but I don't know enough about Bowie. But Led Zeppelin three, honestly, that's one I could probably do a whole show about just from the influences from my parents. The one artist I'm going to give a shout out to, honestly, is Jason Isbol. I don't know if you know who he is. He is from Alabama. He's from kind of like the mushroom shoals area. He is country or he was in the drive by truckers, which is okay. Yeah, he was on three of their records. He left, had a solo career, and his solo stuff is amazing. Zach Brown actually covered one of his songs, Dress Blues, which is a big, very sad military song. He also wrote the song Maybe It's Time from the movie Star is Born that Bradley Cooper okay. Sang at that time. So, yeah, check him out. Honestly, if anything, all those other four records or records that people know. But Jason is bolt is one of the greatest songwriters that's come out and he's our age. One of the greatest songwriters have come out in the last 20 years. Easily got stuff on there that will make you cry. And Steve, do you have a daughter? Yeah. There's a song on his new record. It's all about his daughter growing up and stuff like that. And I don't have a daughter and I cried and I played it to all my friends who have daughters. They are not happy with me when they got done hearing that song. So, Jason, his belt is yeah. It's the first concert I saw since The Lockdown. He was fantastic live. But I will say the last concert I saw before the Lockdown was too at the United Center. Everyone should do it because the light show alone is worth it for two. Great band. Right before the Lockdown happened, my dad and brothers all came down and we got to see the Eagles nice. Which I've seen several times. They're one of my favorite bands. But we got to see him perform Hotel California in its entirety. Really? That's awesome. Downtown Atlanta. It was fantastic. It really was. And then I think they maybe did one more show before they had to cancel the rest of the tour and they're just now kicking it back, going but that was great. That was actually my wife and I first concert. We went together. I bought that for her for Christmas and we went in January, February, and I bought the whole experience at United Center where you could drink before and have food and everything. She's like 27 and she's standing up and singing in wooing, like, Woo, you guys, this is the best song. And it's like an Eagles concert with people like our parents age are like, just shut down. We just want to see her. She's dancing and just the only person in the place. My parallel to that is when I was dating my wife. I took her to Roger Waters in downtown Atlanta and he did The Wall in its entirety. And she got to see me in my super Pink Floyd mode, just knowing every word and trying to explain what's going on on stage. And she got really into it. She loved it. And she's still here, so she hasn't ran away after that. But
Participant #1:
I went all out with floor seats and it's like you could always touch the pig. That was great. Building the Wall huge. It was fantastic. That is honestly, I feel like I want to sit and have a conversation with you just about Floyd. I don't know, this is all off the subject and everything, but my favorite is Wish You Were Here because I love the Shine On suites, both of them. That's my jam. I really like the Big Long and I love animals, too. Animals is my top Floyd album. Okay. A lot of people skip it. Overall, I love Dark Side, I love Wish You Were Here, I love The Wall. Those are great. But if I'm going to just pull two albums that I want to hear and I want to listen to, it's going to be Animals and metal. Yeah, metal, especially with Echoes. Echoes. If you really want to jam out for 20 minutes, david Gilmore had a live album recently, live at Gnass Iceland Place, but also live in Pompeii. Two live albums, but both of them have, like, a 23 live version of Echoes. And it's fantastic. Richard Wright was still alive and he was joining them on tour. So you had two Floyd members on there, and there's so much added to that live version because I think the disk track is 16 minutes. So this is 23 minutes. And they just add so much. They jam. It's really a good version. See, now I feel like I'm going to start a podcast and it's going to be like, let's talk about your favorite band and then just let's go. I know that you and I have talked about the Floyd numerous occasions. Yeah, I enjoyed that stuff without even drinking. How could you like Pig Floyd? Pig Floyd was huge in Hank's garage. I mean, we dove into their entire catalog all the way back to Piper at the Gates of dawn. And that's underrated, like, Piper, the pop songs on Pipers. That's good. Psychedelic pipe pop right there. Well, Pink Floyd is a good example of a band that went through many transitions and had some horrible albums. Umaguma, umaguma, is that one song in there? Several species of small furry animals scurrying in a cave grooving to a pic where Roger Waters is doing, like, Scottish accents and stuff like, what is going on here? They were as experimental and crazy in those middle years as you can get when Sidbarrett was gone. And they were trying to find their footing as a band. And that's where metal came in. And metal is not a perfect album. They've got a song on there called Seamus that it's, literally. Dog. Yeah. David Gilmore's dog is howling for half the song. It's terrible, but it's one of the reasons I started this, so that I don't necessarily have to narrow it down to my number one. I mean, I've got so many different options in my own head. It might be Floyd, it might be the Eagles. It might be Jackson Brown. It might be the Blues Brothers soundtrack. It might be Smashing Pumpkins. I mean, I've got all right, Smashing Pumpkins number one. What is it? As far as if it was this podcast and it was a Smashy Pumpkins album, it would be melancholy for me. I love Siamese Dream. Siamese Dream is great, but Melancholy was the one that I kind of discovered first, and I went backwards to Siamese Dream. But Melancholy was my inn and it was just that double album. And then the box set after, say I mentioned the Hanks Garage again. We dove into every single one of those boxes.
Participant #1:
I got one. It's at my parents house, but it's not with me because I don't have a house. Yeah, they've got this great 25 minutes song called Pistachio Medley on it where it's just a mishmash of like, all of their outfits. I remember that. And it rocks. You've got covers of My Blue Heaven on there. And then you've got a song called Tribute to Johnny where it's just thrashing guitar for three minutes. It goes everywhere. He's a guitar player. I just wish he wouldn't decide that he wanted a band because he's not a band guy. He says he is, but the guy's not a band because he played all the instruments on Siamese Dream. That's all him. What the hell do you have everybody else there for? It's not like James I is a bad guitar player. He was on a perfect circle. Like, the guy can play guitar and Jimmy Chamberlain is a hell of a drummer. Maybe the RC is not the greatest bass player, but like, dude, my cousin the one that did Band on the Run. He wants me to kind of finish season one with me in the hot seat and I don't know if I'm going to or not. It all depends because I don't want to narrow it down to one
Participant #1:
maybe. I mean, I'm real big into classic rock. I'm real big into modern rock up until about 20 00 20 01. Then it's kind of blah to me. But then I also am a huge fan of New Orleans jazz. I mean, that's where I got married and I was listening to jazz up until I turned on Pearl Jam today. Well, Mike, I'd like to thank you for your time today. It was definitely a pleasure to send talk with you about Pearl Jams versus and many other things and we will have you back on you can talk on three next time. I'm all for that. Please tell our listeners anything you want to pitch or mention for them to go seek and find out. Thanks, Steve. I really appreciate this, man. It was fun yapping about music and everything else. You don't have to find me anywhere. I don't have anything to promote, but I work for Hickoryfarms.com, so I would be remiss if you don't go to Hickoryfarms.com for all of your gifting needs this holiday season. And also shout out to Beguile Brewing Company for helping me with their ghost man on third pipes for this little packet. Sounds good? Sounds good.
Participant #1:
Awesome. Thanks, man. It was awesome. Thank you for listening to Music rewind a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. And as I always say, listen to the full album. Until next time,
Participant #1:
a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. Backstage anchors.
