Given to Fly

Today's a good day for me. I pre-ordered Pearl Jam's new CD through the fan club. Since it won't arrive for another day or so (they won't ship until the day it's released), they allow you to download the entire CD. And there are no restrictions to the music files. So I can burn the files to a disc and take it with me to work.

The files were ready to be downloaded at 12:01am EST, so as soon as I got home from practice I started the process. The site was REALLY slow (I guess everyone had the same idea as me). So far I've only listened to two songs. I'm so sleepy, I've decided to wait to listen to it completely until tomorrow.

I had lunch with Jeffy today. We went to Pei Wei. It was good. I had the spicy chicken that was supposed to be their version of General Cho (or Tso or Chu). It was underwhelming. I did like the spring rolls though.

I'm excited because tomorrow I'm bowling with my new bowling ball. At the end of last season's league the guys pitched in and gave me a gift certificate to a local bowling shop. So last Friday Paul and I headed over there to get my ball and have it drilled. The guy who helped me is super smart in the bowling world and kind of reminds me of Gary Sinise. He's a cool cat.

I'm going at 9pm--it's only a buck a game. I'll be teaching myself how to bowl with a curve. My scores are going to be really low.

So today is Tunesday! That means CD #3 on my "Most Memorable CDs" list. In honor of Pearl Jam's new CD release, I'll write about Yield.

It's a special record for me for two reasons. One, it's the record that got me to fall in love with Pearl Jam again. I LOVED Ten and Vs. Then Vitalogy came along and I was kind of put off by their whole "we don't want fans" approach. Then they released No Code which I didn't like at all.
But as soon as I heard the first single to Yield (Given to Fly) I had to get the record. The record is like listening to someone take a spiritual journey. Most of the record is mid to slow tempo songs. And it's all about relationships, spirituality and finding oneself. It really spoke to me in 1998 and it still does. It's still my favorite Pearl Jam record.

I could write volumes on each song. I think the writing is really clever. For example, in the song Faithfull, Vedder adds the second "l" to the word--so it implies he's full of faith. But is he full of faith in a higher being? Or is he singing to his girlfriend/wife to be full of faith because he has plenty of it for their relationship?

The song Wishlist is just a series of wishes. My favorite line is, "I wish I was the verb to trust and never let you down."

There are some soaring melodies on the record and a few hard rockers. It's just a masterpiece of a record.

I took a "Which Pearl Jam record are you?" quiz and it turned out to be Yield! The result stated this:
You are YIELD. You have infinite potential, whether it's realized or not. You are a quite shy person, but are able to do what it takes to get ahead. You are the little engine that could.

If you want to take it, click here.

HAPPY TUNESDAY MOTHERFUCKERS!

This was the first single released for Yield. It's such a great song and it really comes alive when they play it live. It could be interpreted that Vedder is writing about Jesus Christ. Or he could be writing about himself. That's the fun of Pearl Jam's music. They won't talk about it because they want everyone to have their own interpretations. Listen to it and come up with your own interpretation.

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