Fallen/Falling Down

Oh something to remember me by
Oh something to place in your hand
Oh something so you will feel all grown up when you call my name
Oh, i'm falling down, down...
I'm falling...
I don't know when i'll be up
Before your call, please remember
Frozen like stone, yeah
He'll be flesh and blood
I'll be gone
Oh just a memory passing like pages in a book
I'm falling down...
I'm falling...
I'm falling...
Don't know if i'll get up
You're a boy...
You're a boy...
You're a boy...
I know why you'll be...
Can't guess your side
Oh no, the cry of a newborn child
Can't feel the heat
Of something fresh coming
Can somebody hide me
I cannot apolo...
I cannot apolo...
I cannot apologize



(lyrics from theksyiscrape)
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There was a specific request for me to write up this song. thanks to Ike for bringing it to my attention. However, I know there are plenty of others who really love this song more than I do (I like it, but it's never been one I seek out), so by all means if that describes you please make this thread your own.

I am pretty sure I don't give Fallen enough credit, and this is my own fault. Pearl Jam has spoiled me. Between lost dogs and the offical boots my patience for murky audience recordings and incomplete songs has lost a step or two over the years--especially with slower, atmospheric pieces like this. It was far easier for me to fill in the blanks with the crapshoot rapture demo than it is here. But lets give it a go

Musically there is no way to argue that this is anything other than beautiful. It's sad and wistful but has a really compelling sense of movement to the music. It takes the listener for a ride, rather than forcing them to sit in one place and listen. It's like it takes your hand and guides you through a memory, rather than showing it to you. I like the build up to the end, with a nice cathartic solo that climaxes the song before bringing it back down for the gentle outro.

Eddie's vocals are quite touching here. I think he strains a little too much during the chorus, but that's a real nitpicky comment in an otherwise moving performance--quite delicate and moving. He sounds fragile, but the melody and the pace of the music ensures that it isn't overwrought. It's a very mature song in terms of the way he sings it, and he fortunately doesn't sell himself short in it, as he has had a tendency to do on the slower songs in many of the post vitalogy numbers.

Lyrically is where falling down loses me. It creates a wonderful, evocative mood but the lyrics make it very clear that the song is incomplete. What is written is pretty good--the first verse especially. The quiet pleading for rememberence is really touching, especially witht he delivery and in conjunction with the music. It seems to be a song about being forgotten, or being left behind--and not being able to stand alone. It seems to culminate in some kind of regression back to childhood--not literally, but in terms of the emotional uncertainty, the dependency, filtered through a fear (or the reality) of being abandonded. It's too bad we've never gotten to hear what they sounded like once they were finished. He's still working through the ideas in this one and so Fallen hints at greatness, but doesn't quite reach it.

But there seems to be a tape of it in the vault in the Lost Dogs booklet, so maybe someday we can revist this one and know for sure

3 stars from me.

also I think I did the mp3 code wrong for this song. The link is from the fallen entry on theskyiscrape.com How do I encode it properly?

http://theskyiscrape.com/website/audio/Fallen.mp3 is the correct link.

You instead used the page it's on, http://www.theskyiscrape.com/website/wi ... php/Fallen, in the brackets instead of the direct link to the mp3.

Here is the correct way:

thanks

You can now delete these posts and pretend it never happened if you'd like. Only I'll know the truth.

and drop my post count by 2? NEVER!

Did you use the widely circulated version in your mp3 (from teh complete show) or teh higher quality recording (without annoying talking people) that surfaced on that partial recording?

the later I think. I didn't notice people talking. I used whatever was on TSIS though.

I think this is the first time i've heard this in AGES. What sort of time frame is this from? The 95 red rocks show?

It's lovely...i went with 4 stars.

The song always had potential. I'm not sure it has lived up to it with the live version though. It would be great to hear a tight studio cut if they ever let it out of the vault. As it is now, it's middle of the road. A tight studio version would certainly rate above average.

It's clear that this song would be a classic if it had been recorded, smoothed out and polished. I first heard this song in 99-00 when Napster was huge and I was a Pearl Jam downloadaholic. This was one of those songs that really got me excited about all the things PJ could offer. It's a great great song.

I hate to drop stars because it was only played once (or whatever many times) and thus incomplete. All in all it's a song that I wish Pearl Jam would do more often. Light, feel-good strumming, impassioned vocals, and a build into a chorus that rocks. I prefer this style to the linear songs they do a lot (I love the Pumpkins for that).

Anyway, I've had this tune (albeit the crappy quality version) for eight years and I've maybed listened to it eight times. So it didn't stick. But It's great and I like to hear it, but as Stip said...i never reach for it.

3 stars

PS This was the first SOTM in which I couldn't name the song from the thread title.

Yes. 6-20-95.

This was the second PJ boot I ever downloaded back in 1998 or so when I started collecting shows on mp3. It's always been a top favorite, in no small part because of this song, and the mellow opening 25 minutes of the show. Honestly, when I've listened to this show in recent years, I usually don't even make it past the part where the harder electric set begins.

Hello Everyone!!
I believe this song became the song "Distress" off of the Rockfords album. We all know that
the Rockfords was Mike's side project and he did indeed write the music for the song.

there definitely are people talking on this one

I don't want to buy the Rockfords album...but i'm interested in hearing this. I checked youtube but couldn't find a version at all. Could anyone help me out?

Does anyone have an mp3 that I could download?

Wow, that's cool. I just listened the preview of "distress" on itunes and that is definitely Falling Down...very cool. Sounds like a groovy tune as well. I don't anything about the rockfords

I've always thought this song sounded a bit too 92-93 to be useful on any post-Vitalogy records.

it reminds me a bit of river of deciet

I've never heard this.