Intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge chorus solo, outro ... it was like the most perfectly structured song to me. Add to that passion and depth, and I was in awe.
I then fell in love with the album itself. From start to finish every song is a moment, every song has a personality, and a unique story. Not once have I ever skipped on a song when playing it.
When Stone and Jeff originally made their demo tape of a few songs and gave it to Jack Irons (then, of RHCP) to see if he wanted to be their drummer, he declined, but referring them to a long haired surfer from San Diego as a possible singer.
They sent the tape with three songs to Eddie, who listened to it on the beach, went for a surf, and then came back to dub vocals over the top. The result was full demos of Alive, Once and Footsteps.
Alive is the flagship song of the album, and probably the most widely known, just in front of Jeremy. But there are so many great songs I can't even rank them. "Garden" is well crafted. "Release" is full of pleading. "Porch" is in your face, as is "Deep". And my joint favourite song, "Black", has helped me through some tough times in the past.
Today I purchased "Ten - Deluxe Edition". Basically there are three discs, the first being the original album remastered. The second is Brendan O'Brien's Redux of the album, where he plays god to the original, bring it up to date as such, removing the dated reverb and adding a LOT of weight to the vocals and lead guitar. There are also some songs that were previously unreleased tacked onto the end, though I have already heard those previously. One is State of Love and Trust though, which is in my top 5 Pearl Jam songs ever (only released on the soundtrack to the movie "Singles")
The last disc is a DVD of their performance on MTV Unplugged (a GREAT series if you haven't seen any of them) which I can't wait to watch at home. My only copy is a dodgy VHS tape I recorded on RAGE when I was 15.
I have the Redux version on now, in my head phones whilst at work. It's pure heaven to me, the clarity and precision makes me shake and the sounds I hear now that I have never heard before are intoxicating.
I walked into the Muses in Rundle Mall at lunch time and picked this up, feeling like a kid again.
Yes, pure indulgent as far as posts go but I don't care. I guess this is my weblog at times
(..and no, I don't really want any "who?" replies, or anything like that. Let me have my fun)
