There's a lot to talk about. So many bands are doing this wrong. Like 'the Who', they have released so many compilations that almost none are definitive. They still have a couple of b-sides that are not compiled on any disc. And they keep releasing deluxe editions, Townshend keeps finding gems in his extensive vaults. Soundgarden is a band who has done it really well with the release of the 'Echo of Miles' boxset. It just has everything and more! Kim Thayil was involved and he has the same kind of back catalogue OCD that I have.
In a music industry where physical sales are still going down each year it's re-releases and compilation that make most of the vinyl and CD sales. So there is still a market for releasing your back catalogue. However, Pearl Jam is not very good at this. Let's look at their handling of back catalogue. Basically everything that is not considered a normal studio album release can be considered a release from your back catalogue. Any compilation or live-album counts.
GOOD:
Lost Dogs: Sure it's not complete. That makes it less than 'Echo of Miles', but it still is satisfying. They could have included songs like Ángel, Sonic Reducer or Leatherman. But for some reason they choose not to. They could have used different mixes. And the re-recordings are unnecessary. It's really time for Lost Dogs 2!! Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits: It does not say 'best of', this greatest hits package does exactly what it is supposed to do. The remixes are nice and it has some non-album tracks. LO2L: PJ's first live album. A tracklist that gave a really good overview, each studio album had three tracks on it.
COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
Ten/VS/Vitalogy legacy remasters: Finally we have a release of 'Brother' and the live discs are amazing!. But most of these boxes are heavy on memorabilia but not so much on songmaterial. I don't really care about memorabilia. The remasters (or remix) are well done, but these releases could have been much much better. Just take a look at the deluxe editions of 'Nevermind' or 'In Utero'. That's how its done. PJ20 soundtrack Disc 1 is fine. It's just a soundtrack to the movie. Disc 2 is very very hit or miss. There are some interesting demo's but also unnecessary tracks. 'Chinese' was in the movie but not on this set. They should have released more unreleased stuff on disc 2. Every fan has plenty of bootlegs and could have made a more interesting disc.
TOTALLY UNNECESSARY
LO10L: An official follow-up to the 1998 LO2L release. The artwork is great, and there are some really cool cuts on this. But every track was already released on the live bootlegs series. This release was not anticipated (unlike Lost Dogs 2). What bothers me most is that it's really relying on hits or cuts from the TEN/VS/VITALOGY era. Whereas LO2L was so carefully constructed. They should have followed the same principle and put three tracks from every album since Yield. 15 tracks from Binaural, Riot Act, LD, S/T and BS. Oh..and 'off the earth' should have been on this. Lets play two soundtrack: The only reason this was released is because people don't buy DVD's anymore. Unlike in 2007 when Immagine in Cornice was released. Fine movie but did not needed a soundtrack.
PJ has yet to release an excellent release from their back catalogue. The Mother Love Bone boxset was excellent, so was the TOTD deluxe edition, the Mad Season deluxe edition or the upcoming Green River remaster. So the PJ organization knows how it should be done
joostone wrote:LO10L: An official follow-up to the 1998 LO2L release. The artwork is great, and there are some really cool cuts on this. But every track was already released on the live bootlegs series.
Yeah...but if I recall, some tracks are improvements because they were badly mixed on the bootlegs.
yeah, the unplugged was nice. But PJ20 showed that there is pro-shot footage from the Moore theatre 1990 show in the vaults......
Im bored and its raining so I made a TEN Super Deluxe edition (4CD) set. Imagine it was released like this (more similar to the Nevermind/In Utero editions)
Disc 1) TEN remaster (or remix) + B sides
Once Even Flow Alive Why Go Black Jeremy Oceans Porch Garden Deep Release I've got A Feeling (bonustrack) Wash (bonustrack) Footsteps (bonustrack) Dirty Frank (bonustrack) State of Love and Trust (bonustrack) Breath (bonustrack) Yellow Ledbetter (bonustrack)
Disc 2 - The Stone Gossard & MAMASAN demos
Dollar Short Richard’s ‘E’ Weird ‘A’ ‘E’ Ballad Doobie ‘E’ The King Folk ‘D’ Times Of Trouble Evil ‘E’ Agytian Crave 7Up Untitled Once (mamasan demo) Alive (mamasan demo) Footsteps (mamasan demo)
Alive Alone Black Breath Even Flow Girl Oceans Once Release Evil Little Goat Improv. (a.k.a. Yellow Ledbetter)
Disc 4 - London Bridge Studios (Rough mixes & outtakes)
Alone Black Breath Even Flow Garden Just A Girl Jeremy Oceans Once Porch Release Brother Why Go Yellow Ledbetter (a.k.a. Yellow Letter) Master / Slave 2000 Mile Blues Hold On Chinese
In general, the studio back catalog has been handled pretty poorly -- weird remixes, re-recordings, tracks scattered across otherwise superfluous releases, junky demos that don't illuminate the released versions in any meaningful way, and a handful of unique songs ("Angel," "Happy When I'm Crying," "Cold Confession") that still haven't received widespread release. Additionally, their mass-market live releases (with the exception of "Live on Two Legs") have been fairly weak distillations of what has been more or less a pretty sterling performing career, though I would submit that these releases feel random and slapdash precisely because they've released so many excellent shows in full, which makes consensus as to definitive performances, concerts, etc. near impossible, and therefore makes any curated selection feel incomplete and ill-considered (which they are in some cases; others, perhaps less so).
With many artists, I think these kinds of projects tend to be assembled on a case-by-case basis (oftentimes by different groups of individuals) based on what for better or for worse feels right at the time, with the long-term composition of the catalog being a tertiary concern at best -- which is disappointing, but not surprising. In the end there's still more officially-sanctioned quality Pearl Jam music than any sane person would want to hear in a lifetime; the 6-7 pieces of retail market detritus seem pretty insignificant by comparison.
E.H. Ruddock wrote:I just want Ed's techno album released
The one he made while tripping on ecstasy? Probably just a few songs. He did not like how it turned out according to an interview where he was discussing drugs, but he enjoyed the trip. In Hiding is Ed's shroom song right?
joostone wrote:yeah, the unplugged was nice. But PJ20 showed that there is pro-shot footage from the Moore theatre 1990 show in the vaults......
Im bored and its raining so I made a TEN Super Deluxe edition (4CD) set. Imagine it was released like this (more similar to the Nevermind/In Utero editions)
Disc 1) TEN remaster (or remix) + B sides
Once Even Flow Alive Why Go Black Jeremy Oceans Porch Garden Deep Release I've got A Feeling (bonustrack) Wash (bonustrack) Footsteps (bonustrack) Dirty Frank (bonustrack) State of Love and Trust (bonustrack) Breath (bonustrack) Yellow Ledbetter (bonustrack)
Disc 2 - The Stone Gossard & MAMASAN demos
Dollar Short Richard’s ‘E’ Weird ‘A’ ‘E’ Ballad Doobie ‘E’ The King Folk ‘D’ Times Of Trouble Evil ‘E’ Agytian Crave 7Up Untitled Once (mamasan demo) Alive (mamasan demo) Footsteps (mamasan demo)
Alive Alone Black Breath Even Flow Girl Oceans Once Release Evil Little Goat Improv. (a.k.a. Yellow Ledbetter)
Disc 4 - London Bridge Studios (Rough mixes & outtakes)
Alone Black Breath Even Flow Garden Just A Girl Jeremy Oceans Once Porch Release Brother Why Go Yellow Ledbetter (a.k.a. Yellow Letter) Master / Slave 2000 Mile Blues Hold On Chinese
Maybe they're waiting for the 50th anniversary release........ can't give up all your income streams too soon.
PJ has yet to release an excellent release from their back catalogue. The Mother Love Bone boxset was excellent, so was the TOTD deluxe edition, the Mad Season deluxe edition or the upcoming Green River remaster. So the PJ organization knows how it should be done
I'd say the problem is 15% them being a working band and trying to hold unreleased stuff for future ideas, and 85% Eddie being a douche about his image as an artist.
I also think I liked the boxes more than you did. I enjoy going through the crap in those while listening to the album. Of course, Vs./Vitalogy was on sale for a long time and marked down several times, so I may be in the minority.
I would have bought the box that joostone created, but I would have listened to those mixes and demos one time then put the box on a nice spot on my shelf.
Actually, that's how I treat Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, so ... maybe I'm not a Pearl Jam fan.
Not at all, I think collecting objects that you never use just because they have the name "Pearl Jam" on them and then proceeding to display them all on a shelf is a pretty astute description of what Pearl Jam fandom looks like in 2019.
I love the box sets. Yeah they could have more stuff , a dvd maybe...and the cassette is a cool item I never listened to, but I like them enough. I do want another lost dogs.
Kevin Davis wrote:In general, the studio back catalog has been handled pretty poorly -- weird remixes, re-recordings, tracks scattered across otherwise superfluous releases, junky demos that don't illuminate the released versions in any meaningful way, and a handful of unique songs ("Angel," "Happy When I'm Crying," "Cold Confession") that still haven't received widespread release. Additionally, their mass-market live releases (with the exception of "Live on Two Legs") have been fairly weak distillations of what has been more or less a pretty sterling performing career, though I would submit that these releases feel random and slapdash precisely because they've released so many excellent shows in full, which makes consensus as to definitive performances, concerts, etc. near impossible, and therefore makes any curated selection feel incomplete and ill-considered (which they are in some cases; others, perhaps less so).
With many artists, I think these kinds of projects tend to be assembled on a case-by-case basis (oftentimes by different groups of individuals) based on what for better or for worse feels right at the time, with the long-term composition of the catalog being a tertiary concern at best -- which is disappointing, but not surprising. In the end there's still more officially-sanctioned quality Pearl Jam music than any sane person would want to hear in a lifetime; the 6-7 pieces of retail market detritus seem pretty insignificant by comparison.
Absolutely! However, all of which will be forgotten with Lost Dogs 2
BTW. Is so weird that some early instrumentals like 'Folk D' and 'Untitled' on the Gossard tapes totally went unused. They just had too many great songs. This is the same band who released 'Can't deny me' a year ago....
It’s sort of like how the Titanic had a sister ship of roughly equal size and quality, which suffered a mutiny, served in World War 1, was painted to camouflage, rescued sailers, collided with another ship, and just in general had a richer story to tell. But the Titanic was an international moment and a loss and a shock all at once, so its memory gets preserved and recanted over and over again while the Olympic is basically forgotten.
All of Pearl Jam’s other efforts are the Olympic to Ten’s Titanic, and always shall be. The treatment those moments continues on every single level to reflect that status.