Man...can anybody explain Eddie's voice and how it's changed over time?

Honestly I can imagine he would get worse over time, but then I started hearing 2006 shows on Pearl Jam Radio. Oh my God. I honestly think that this is the best I have ever heard Eddie Vedder sound ever. It helps that s/t is my third favorite album after Ten and Vs. and I love World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Come Back, and the other tracks they play on it. So most of these setlists I really like, especially because the Backspacer songs weren't out yet. But wow. I don't know WHAT It is and was wondering if somebody could tell me. Every time I've heard a show from 2006 Eddie has been hitting these high notes and his voice absolutely soars. There was one show from Hawaii I heard where he was just absolutely KILLING it. I mean he sounded as good or better than he ever has on any album. Usually the 90's shows, I guess because he was wilder then it's sort of scratchy and weird, but then the 2000's he started to just sing, and in 2006 I can't believe how much he wow's me. He actually has given me chills on these shows on songs like Given to Fly, Elderly Woman, Better Man, and Yellow Ledbetter. I mean his voice is PHENOMENAL.

Was there something going on there that made him better than any other year? Was he taking vocal lessons or something? Is that generally considered his best year live vocally? I'm just curious.

Anyways this made me excited because I was like Alright great, you know..they started in the 90's here's 2006 like seven years ago only...like 15 years after they started.... and he's still better than he ever was.

Then I heard a few 2012 concerts.

WTF HAPPENED?! He sounds absolutely terrible now...huh?! Like REALLY bad. He does this thing now where instead of sliding his voice up he breaks it in two. So for example "todaaaaay" in Jeremy becomes "todaaaa...haaaaay" he does this ALL the time now. He never used to do it before. In 2006 he was sliding his voice all over the place and it sounded amazing - he would slide up to these high notes and I'd be blown away. Now this sliding thing he does every song. Now he also just sounds like he has no voice, and can't sing any of the notes. He can't reach any of the high notes that he used to, his voice has gotten much more gravelly again, and I heard a performance of "Go" that was literally embarrassing. I also heard a performance of "Black" where his "doo's" at the end were terribly out of pitch and horrible and then he tried to continue to do the "doo's" after the song ended, and the sounds that came out of his mouth were making me cringe.

So my questions are basically...what are your opinions on the 2006 performances and the 2012 performances?

And then my question is...why in the world is 2006 so friggin good better than any other year including him in his prime, and also why is 2012 so horrible? Does he just have NO voice anymore? I mean my god, I can see your voice going over time but to have it happen so suddenly? I'm just blown away how he could improve so much and then suddenly drop off to nothing. I even heard some 2010 stuff and he sounded fine. I'm about to see them live for the first time if I can get tickets and it'd suck if I finally see them right when Eddie loses the ability to sing.

(I will say this though. Matt Cameron is an amazing talent. He is always spot-on and I've never heard him make a mistake)

Aging. Smoking. Drinking. Fixin'.

Tried to find an example and didn't find a good one but even with this one I just wanna know what's up.

2006 Elderly Woman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V20C2e4SFgM

God....his voice is as beautiful here as it ever was. Awesome performance

2013 Elderly Woman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pWd1SXVSho

Now I just want to comment. This is the first song of the show, so his vocals aren't shot yet (the 2006 version was almost at the end of the first set). But like..is it me or has he lost all the power? His voice doesn't soar on the high notes anymore. I'm talking "Not my former" and "Never dreamed you'd return" and "Here I am". Those notes he was giving me chills in 2006. . Also I hate the slower tempo personally

getting old sucks.

I'm really curious to see how he pulls off Mind Your Manners in concert.

Me too...he has become a more hit or miss kinda singer, more like Cornell in the mid 90s.
He sounded incredible in 2005/2006, shit in 2008, great in 2009, hit or miss in 2010....

I do like his vocals in 2011 and some of the shows from 2012...as for this year, both of the show i saw were pretty good with Ed doing his work just great.

Matt makes plenty of mistakes. You'd be surprised.

Eddie certainly did not sound great in 2009.

He sounded infinitely better on his solo tours. Of course that's a vastly different context.

Agreed. Really took me by surprise. But like you said, completely unfair to compare the two

They rehearsed so much for the 2006 tour. I wonder if Ed was doing vocal work practice that helped him because he sounded great on the entirety of that very looooooong tour.

Thank you. 2006, especially 3rd leg USA to the end, sounded phenomenal vocally...better than anything since Euro 2k. I have not listened to the whole tour, but I have yet to find a show that was a dog vocally. His vocals are mostly great earlier but the shows have various other problems (e.g. Grand Rapids).

2005 started off kind of rough (Gorge is pretty meh IMO, for instance) but the later Canada and SA shows are fantastic.

Ed sounded great in 2003, until he got sick (Fargo - Chicago), and sputtered through the end (Detroit, DC, Philly, Hershey bad; the rest good).

Prior to that, Ed would always sound better at the beginning of any leg than at the end, though almost the entire USA 2k tour is solid from front to back.

2007 was a diminished version of 2006, and 2008 was even worse. 2009 sounded completely different, and 2010 was a diminished version of that. 2011 saw more change, with poor showings vocally until Toronto, and he's been mostly solid since then.

I thought Ed sounded great in Hershey. In fact, the whole band was pretty smokin' despite being very tired.

I agree, I've always really liked the Hershey show. Holmdel too. I agree about Detroit and DC, though, which is a shame because the setlists were great.

I dunno I heard one today. 4/3/13 just this year.

When he did Black...

he wasn't even horrible vocally. His voice just isn't what it was. It just doesn't do anything for me anymore. When he hit that ending on Black I used to get chills. When he did it there...even though it was on pitch it just...it did nothing for me. It sounded shaky and it didn't have that "soaring" quality and echo to his voice that he used to have up until like...I dunno...2011.

I'm surprised on one's arguing your point about 2006, just because I thought that around here people tended to think his vocal peak was either 94 or 98. I probably would say he was best in 98, I do think some power is lost by 2006, but love the boots of that tour overall and think he was still phenomenal then. I think everyone agrees there's a drop off in 2008.

Some are saying he sounded better in these two recent shows than he has in years. I definitely would say he sounded better in London than he did in 2008, 2009, most of 2010 and 2012.

The reason? Aren't there threads of like 80 pages about this? Got to be a combination of age, smoking (both total and heavier periods at certain times), and degree of self-care. He mentions being sick an awful lot. If he's taking better care now, amen to that.

^As for 94 at least, while he sounded great on the albums, the live versions I've heard he's always growling and being so wild that he never just sings the song. I mean that's cool if you're at the concert but I really like how in 2006 he just sang his heart out.

Let's hope he'll quit the smoking and heavy drinking. It's definitely done more damage than aging. His voice cracks a lot more now.

Was watching some 06 videos and clicked an 07 one and boom, forget 2012, it was already different in 07. There's all the extra 'h' noises and vocal breaks and what have you. That looks pretty far into the set but still.