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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:15 am 
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DEEP makes me wonder what kind of a suburb Eddie Vedder grew up in.

I agree with your thoughts on the placement. It's taking us to a place that it seemed we had risen above. And the third verse is chilling. The imagery is astonishing, a "christmas clean love."

In the end, I wonder whether it wouldn't have been better to leave DEEP off of Ten.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:33 pm 
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Release

The fact that Release is the only song on Ten to not have the lyrics included in the booklet is significant. It is the most directly personal song on the record, the only one not mediated through a character, or even any kind of narrative. Instead it conveys a sense of intimacy not bound by any particular time, place of events. The whole record up to this point has been a back and forth mix of betrayal and violence against the self and attempts to rise above it. The stories are exhausting and Release is an exhausted song, a final weary plea that conveys not only the need for release, but the determination to hold on until it finally comes—the song climaxing with that final act of strength and gently fading out and back into the murk of master/slave, staring the whole process over again. Ten never offers the way out—only the faith that it exists and that one day the closed loop will open.

Like Garden the music has a meditative feel to it—a hypnotic guitar melody accented by the swirling soundscapes and anchored by Eddie’s voice, striking that incredible balance between deep richness and the vulnerability of a higher register. This is probably Eddie’s best vocal performance, the subtle accents on the important lines: the slight quavers at just the right movement, knowing exactly how far down in his register to drop and when to bring it back up, and especially the way he sings the chorus and the redemptive, cleansing notes he holds after it

Release is best listened to at night, when you have quiet and stillness—it is easiest to search for something missing when there are no external distractions. And Eddie is clearly searching: for peace, for love, for meaning. He is tired of a world that seems unable to soften its violence and isolation with understanding, trust, and intimacy, but he does not know what he can do about it. And he is asking for help. Release is a prayer—calling out in the silent dark for deliverance. But he isn’t calling out to a God. Instead he looks to the father he never knew—to the person who should have taught him how to make sense of the world, he should have offered him guidance and prepared him for what was to come. He isn’t looking to God, as God must shoulder some responsibility for the mess we’ve made of things. His unknown father’s love is unconditional, its promise never tainted by reality. He is the purest form of hope and deliverance Eddie can call out to. Whatever is best in Eddie he feels he owes to him (or to the promise his father embodies).

And the song culminates with his powerful, weary, desperate, defiant, hopeful plea to his father (or whatever we wish to substitute) for rescue. He refuses to surrender. He will hold the pain the world inflicts on him, he’ll deal with the isolation waiting for his answer, and finally (and this is the most difficult step), he’ll make himself vulnerable---he’ll allow himself to continue to trust and to love again, and to keep doing so no matter how often he is hurt and violated—as long as it takes until he finds his release. It is a simple chorus (release me) but it says so much, and encapsulates the hope and need that runs through the entire record. No matter how violent and hard the world becomes, no matter how alone we may find ourselves, we cannot surrender. We have to hold on to the possibility of a deeper love that will eventually come and release us from our bondage.



Thanks for reading!

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:54 pm 
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For anyone who made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading, and let me also give a general thanks for the comments throughout :) This was more difficult to write than the one i did for S/T, since there wasn't really a narrative arc to this album in quite the same way there is for S/T. Many of these songs (especially in the second half of the album) were variations on themes that had already been expressed, and so hopefully this wasn't too repetitive.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:13 pm 
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I can't believe how completely you expressed my own feelings about RELEASE. For personal reasons, this song is incredibly important to me, one that expresses something that I have been trying to say for a good part of my life. It is because of this song that I will always love Pearl Jam.

This is another example of why I love Eddie Vedder's lyrics so much. Nothing is ever resolved, the moment of questioning and crisis is fully realized without a final resolution in sight. In the end we are not "released," but the possibility always remains on the horizon. And that is the way Ten ends.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:35 pm 
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stip, that was a tour-de-force. I could never have appreciated Ten the way that I do without your tour.

That said, I enjoy listening to Ten, but I don't think that it is one of their great albums. I'm bogged down by the production. I also feel that musically it is too one-dimensional. I'm not going to deny the greatness of ALIVE and EVEN FLOW, but too many other songs are based on undistinguished riffs (DEEP, GARDEN). Great songs like BLACK and RELEASE are better in their more modern incarnations. The playing is subtler all the way round.

This album is absolutely dominated by Eddie's voice. In some ways that is a good thing. He carries tracks to greatness that would have fallen flat in the hands of others (JEREMY), but he is so bombastic at times that it is un-nerving. He oversings some of the lesser songs (ONCE, DEEP). This is the Vedder voice that so many imitators have plagued us with.

Still, this album is a landmark. Maybe because it is newer to me than the other albums of its era, I feel that it has aged much better than some of the other defining albums of the "grunge era." However, I find Vs. to be a more interesting album as a collection of songs even though it does not seem to have a unifying theme. I also don't feel that Ten is on the same plane as an album like Vitalogy. I guess that Frank will be telling us about No Code very soon.

Thank-you so much for all of the effort that you put into this. I loved reading every word.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:21 pm 
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I love this song. I always found it an odd choice as a concert opener. I know it sets a musical vibe for the night but not really an emotional vibe. I always thought this would have been a great main set closing song. But then again Pearl Jam definitely follows their own drummer when creating set lists and aren't afraid to throw in a song or two that seems to derail the flow they have going.

This song is in my select few to play at my funeral.
Led Zeppelin - In The Light
SRV - Little Wing
Pearl Jam - Release
Rod Stewart w/Jeff Beck- People Get Ready
Queen - Spread Your Wings


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:20 pm 
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Stip - to follow up on what's just been said, and what's been said throughout this thread actually - thanks for your efforts in this thread. It's been utterly compelling...i'm a sucker for indepth analysis, and your posts are wonderfully thought out and expressed to such a standard that it becomes easy to see things from angles i'd completely missed the first time round. If your goal on some level was to heighten people's appreciation of this album, you certainly succeeded with me.
So, thanks a lot for that. :)

SLH, that was a great post, i really agree with all of your points. The only thing i can really add to what you were saying about Ed being in control throughout the most part of this album, is the way in which Eddie can express such a strong emotion through the most simplest forms. For instance, the outro to Black...Eddie's growls and screams during the fading outro are some of the most rawest vocals i've ever heard. And then looking into what are probably the album's most powerful choruses - Alive and Release. Here Eddie uses 2 or 3 words to put across a message or emotion that some singers spend 30 years trying to say. That is talent in it's purest form. Also with regards to Alive and Release, it would be so easy to layer up the vocals to make the song fuller, and most bands would probably consider this in the studio - yet Eddie just belts it out on one track, and makes it sound finished, and somehow more powerful.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:10 am 
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When i first listened to this album the most prevalent theme in my life, unfortunately, had to do with rape and incest (of the one girl i have ever loved)...therefore I related to every song with that in mind which colored my interpretations a bit...that third vignette in Deep went right over my head until you pointed it out Stip as did allot of Ed's words back in the day especially since you could hardly make out what he was saying...so the words that resonated were the easy to understand ones like I'm still alive...Release me...and most of Jeremy (being about abuse in general and what it can do to someones psyche) Every word and every sound out of Ed's mouth was cathartic and an emotional coping mechanism for me...that album got me through one of the most difficult times in my life...all i wanted to do was help this girl and all she wanted to do was push me away and love me and push me away and love me and...etc etc etc...At 16 years old no matter how much research i did...no matter how much I loved her and wanted to "make everything alright" there was no way i was going to be able to do that unless she let me...she didn't...I remember listening in my bedroom in the dark, my parents across the hall without a clue as to what I was going through and hearing Release in the stillness of the night/early morning and just weeping hoping for someone or something to release her/me from this horrible mess (i would have done anything for her but had know idea how to release her from this pain) then the footsteps in the hall it was you it was you...to me it was the sound of her fathers coming to rape her in the middle of the night...just let me continue to blame you was a powerful line that i hoped would ring true for her someday...that it was and always will be his fault and his crime and not hers in any way...

sorry for getting off topic and I could go on another hundred pages or so relating PJ's music and lyrics to all of the painful events in my life and subsequent triumphs (so to speak) over them but I won't...
And just for the record please don't think that in any way shape or form I think I had it very difficult at all...she was the one who went through the trauma I just happened to be there when she started to remember it and fought my hardest to make sense of it and have some sort of understanding of it which now in my older and wiser age I realize there is no sense to it really and you'll just drive yourself nuts trying to make any out of it...what is is and what was was and now you're left having to figure out what to do with it...

i feel a little lighter now thanks :)
Peace...

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 2:53 am 
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noaheb wrote:
When i first listened to this album the most prevalent theme in my life, unfortunately, had to do with rape and incest (of the one girl i have ever loved)...therefore I related to every song with that in mind which colored my interpretations a bit...that third vignette in Deep went right over my head until you pointed it out Stip as did allot of Ed's words back in the day especially since you could hardly make out what he was saying...so the words that resonated were the easy to understand ones like I'm still alive...Release me...and most of Jeremy (being about abuse in general and what it can do to someones psyche) Every word and every sound out of Ed's mouth was cathartic and an emotional coping mechanism for me...that album got me through one of the most difficult times in my life...all i wanted to do was help this girl and all she wanted to do was push me away and love me and push me away and love me and...etc etc etc...At 16 years old no matter how much research i did...no matter how much I loved her and wanted to "make everything alright" there was no way i was going to be able to do that unless she let me...she didn't...I remember listening in my bedroom in the dark, my parents across the hall without a clue as to what I was going through and hearing Release in the stillness of the night/early morning and just weeping hoping for someone or something to release her/me from this horrible mess (i would have done anything for her but had know idea how to release her from this pain) then the footsteps in the hall it was you it was you...to me it was the sound of her fathers coming to rape her in the middle of the night...just let me continue to blame you was a powerful line that i hoped would ring true for her someday...that it was and always will be his fault and his crime and not hers in any way...

sorry for getting off topic and I could go on another hundred pages or so relating PJ's music and lyrics to all of the painful events in my life and subsequent triumphs (so to speak) over them but I won't...
And just for the record please don't think that in any way shape or form I think I had it very difficult at all...she was the one who went through the trauma I just happened to be there when she started to remember it and fought my hardest to make sense of it and have some sort of understanding of it which now in my older and wiser age I realize there is no sense to it really and you'll just drive yourself nuts trying to make any out of it...what is is and what was was and now you're left having to figure out what to do with it...

i feel a little lighter now thanks :)
Peace...



If this is too personal please don't answer it but did your friend ever really listen to Alive? If so, did the song speak to her?

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:18 am 
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Well Stip, I've been reading along since the beginning and I'll join in on the board fellatio and say this was outstanding. Despite it being for Ten, I enjoyed it more than the S/T one because I know the songs a lot better than I knew the S/T songs when you did that one. Good stuff.

As for the No Code thread, I'm gonna save that for another week. I still want to listen to Ten again for the first time in years and respond in this thread, and there are probably others who still want to chime in as well. I know you've told me that they can run concurrently, but the truth is I just want a little more time, professor.

Maybe on Sunday I'll post my updated Ten review. It's been so long that it'll almost be like hearing it again for the first time, or at least kind of.

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:26 am 
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after what i just posted i dont think its too personal but thanks for asking :)
i know daughter and betterman did (parents divorced) but when ten came out we had already broken up a hundred times and were just quasi-friends at the time and if any of that album meant anything to her i dont really know but im pretty sure it did...how could it not? maybe one day i'll get the chance to ask her who knows?
its just such a damn shame when young beautiful smart and more importantly GOOD people get such an f'd up view of themselves from this sexual/physical/verbal abuse...its sad but its reality :(
took me forever to get over her too...even 8 years later when my mom died she and i saw each other and even tho she was married at the time we had/have such a deep connection its unreal...freaked me (and her too) out when the feelings crawled out of the hole we had them in and she once again pushed me away but not before i got her to start writing again and getting some closure to a fair amount of questions i had for her...but being married and realizing you're still in love w/ someone else...not so good...
here i go again sorry :)

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:17 pm 
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:worthy: very nicely done Stip

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dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
Well Stip, I've been reading along since the beginning and I'll join in on the board fellatio and say this was outstanding. Despite it being for Ten, I enjoyed it more than the S/T one because I know the songs a lot better than I knew the S/T songs when you did that one. Good stuff.

As for the No Code thread, I'm gonna save that for another week. I still want to listen to Ten again for the first time in years and respond in this thread, and there are probably others who still want to chime in as well. I know you've told me that they can run concurrently, but the truth is I just want a little more time, professor.

Maybe on Sunday I'll post my updated Ten review. It's been so long that it'll almost be like hearing it again for the first time, or at least kind of.


Do you think that you will post a review of Ten? I think that people would be very interested in reading it if you are still interested in doing it.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:25 am 
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SLH916 wrote:
dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
Well Stip, I've been reading along since the beginning and I'll join in on the board fellatio and say this was outstanding. Despite it being for Ten, I enjoyed it more than the S/T one because I know the songs a lot better than I knew the S/T songs when you did that one. Good stuff.

As for the No Code thread, I'm gonna save that for another week. I still want to listen to Ten again for the first time in years and respond in this thread, and there are probably others who still want to chime in as well. I know you've told me that they can run concurrently, but the truth is I just want a little more time, professor.

Maybe on Sunday I'll post my updated Ten review. It's been so long that it'll almost be like hearing it again for the first time, or at least kind of.


Do you think that you will post a review of Ten? I think that people would be very interested in reading it if you are still interested in doing it.


I will. I've been procrastinating with it, but it's coming. I'm just hesitant to listen to the album in full again. :oops:

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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:05 am 
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The intensity of the Vitalogy debate is interesting. The entire Guided Tour of Ten thread was only 9 pages long.


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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:50 pm 
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SLH916 wrote:
The intensity of the Vitalogy debate is interesting. The entire Guided Tour of Ten thread was only 9 pages long.


Ike wasn't around for this one, I guess. :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
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dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
SLH916 wrote:
The intensity of the Vitalogy debate is interesting. The entire Guided Tour of Ten thread was only 9 pages long.


Ike wasn't around for this one, I guess. :wink:



well I don't think I use the word concept album in here, so he might not have gotten quite as freaked out

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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:05 pm 
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stip wrote:
dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
SLH916 wrote:
The intensity of the Vitalogy debate is interesting. The entire Guided Tour of Ten thread was only 9 pages long.


Ike wasn't around for this one, I guess. :wink:



well I don't think I use the word concept album in here, so he might not have gotten quite as freaked out


do you think Ten works ?

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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:11 pm 
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BadMusic wrote:
stip wrote:
dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
SLH916 wrote:
The intensity of the Vitalogy debate is interesting. The entire Guided Tour of Ten thread was only 9 pages long.


Ike wasn't around for this one, I guess. :wink:



well I don't think I use the word concept album in here, so he might not have gotten quite as freaked out


do you think Ten works ?


I suppose that depends how you mean it. I think it is an amazing collection of songs, and I think there are certain themes running through pretty much the whole record that gives it a kind of cohension and unity. I think it is more a product of head space and less deliberate than Vitalogy in that regard, but pearl jam has never written a conventional, start to finish, 'concept' album, which is fine with me. They tend to be a little too gimmicky for my tastes. It's more a question of whether or not Eddie is grappling with a particular set of issues throughout the record, which I think is the case most explicitly on Vitalogy, but also the case on S/T, Ten, and after reading Frank's thread I'd include No Code there as well. In no case is every song a perfect fit (even in a case where i think it is intentional, like Vitalogy, it is never totalizing), although they are almost always colored by the same headspace

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 Post subject: Re: A guided tour through Ten: Release
PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:13 pm 
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that should do the job

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