‘Man of the hour’ - Pearl Jam, 2003
There’s just something about Eddie Vedder’s voice that I absolutely love but then again anyone with a deep, gravelly voice I like, is that what’s called a Baritone voice? I’m thinking Mic Christopher, Tom Waits, Nick Cave here. As a kid I grew up in the whole grunge era listening to Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, The Screaming Trees and Nirvana. I also recall the amount of arguments/disputes I had between friends and foes about who was the best band, that was before I came to the conclusion that all music is good no matter what the opinion is. Nowadays if anyone asks me who my favourite band is I say Pearl Jam and people respond by saying ‘Ten’ is a good album at which point I say (to myself) ‘Fuck sake they do have more than one album’ but thats because personally I’m not a big fan of the first album and think the albums that came out since are better but that’s just me.
Todays song is not a product of any studio album by Pearl Jam but is song that is part of the soundtrack to the film Big Fish that was directed by Tim Burton. In fact Burton approached the band and asked them to contribute a song for the film. The band then went and watched a preview of the film, went home and within a few days had the song recorded. The film itself revolves around the intricate relationship between a father and son that we all have and really gets the emotions feuled up when you watch it. I think the song really captures the essence of what the film is about as can be seen from the following lyrics
‘Nature has its own religion, a gospel from the land
Father ruled by long division, young men they pretend
Old men comprehend.’
which to me basically means that you can’t put an old had on young shoulders so when kids disagree with parents, its the parents that are usually right and as you grow older you realise and appreciate that, even though you didn’t see it at the time. Also the film and song is also about the father’s time being nearly up in this world and that throughout his life, all he wanted to do was teach and love his son which he done in his own way but again the son wouldn’t have always seen it that way, but as the father is on his deathbed, the son thinks about their relationship more and realises that is what his father was trying to do. It’s a lesson all sons could learn from.
‘And the road The old man paved
The broken seems along the way
The rusted signs, left just for me
He was guiding me, love, his own way
Now the man of the hour is taking his final bow
As the curtain comes down
I feel that this is just goodbye for now’
For those who only know Pearl Jam’s earlier recordings, they would immediately recognise that the song, with a few exceptions (better man etc), is not of the usual Pearl Jam variety. Those that have listened to all their albums, and indeed even more so in their last two albums, would realise that the band have progressed big time since their first couple of albums and have grown into a really tight and gifted set of musicians. An extremely mellow song with no distortion, feedback or angry lyrics, this is a beautiful song and I hope this post encourages people to try and check out the bands more recent offerings if you only know of the band because the first few albums. You can check out the song here .
Last 5 posts by Des
- 'Fearless' - Pink Floyd, 1983 - December 30th, 2008
- 'Frankie Teardrop' - Suicide, 1977 - December 19th, 2008
- 'After Midnight' - J J Cale, 1971 - December 17th, 2008
- 'Acid Tongue'- Jenny Lewis, 2008 - December 12th, 2008
- 'Baltimore'- Randy Newman, 1977 - December 9th, 2008
