Notes: Most of /Vitalogy/ was written and recorded during the /Vs./ tour.
Sessions began in November 1993 and came to a close before May 15, 1994,
as Kelly Curtis stated in the /Los Angeles Times/ on that day the album
was going to be released "as quietly as possible." However, this quote
excluded 'Stupid Mop' as it was recorded at a different session after
Dave was fired from the band in August 1994. The rough mix of the album
contains an outtake, some guitar, bass, and drum lines that were later
removed from the final versions of the songs, and is missing some guitar
lines that were later added to the final versions of the songs. 'Better
Man,' 'Hard To Imagine,' 'Last Exit,' 'Nothingman,' 'Tremor Christ,' and
'Whipping' were written by the time of the November 1993 session, but
'Nothingman' and 'Tremor Christ' are the only songs confirmed to have
been recorded there. 'Corduroy,' 'Not For You,' 'Satan's Bed,' and
'Spin The Black Circle' were debuted live in March 1994, so it's likely
they were recorded during the January - February 1994 session, but no
information is known for sure. 'Better Man' was recorded twice during
the /Vitalogy/ sessions before Ed was comfortable with releasing it.
The version found on the album is the second take. 'Hard To Imagine'
was released on the /Chicago Cab Soundtrack/ in 1998. The song was
always shelved after being recorded because nobody in the band felt it
fit any album. There were some versions with different lyrics but they
were just different vocal takes over the same instrumental.
'Immortality' was written and presumably recorded in late March and / or
early April 1994, but it featured alternate lyrics when it was debuted
live on April 11, 1994, so it's likely Pearl Jam entered the studio
sometime later in April or May finish the album. This theory is backed
up in the April 1995 edition of /Guitar World/ where Mike stated,
"[/Vitalogy/] was mostly recorded while we were on tour. We did a
little bit at Bad Animals Studios in Seattle at the end of our /Vs./
tour." Stone stated in the May 1995 edition of /Musician/, "'Tremor
Christ' seemed to write itself. It was just a riff-and-a-half,
basically. On a muggy, beautiful New Orleans afternoon we came into a
very cool studio and it poured out. That and 'Nothingman,' which Jeff
wrote, were recorded a day apart," but according to the /Vitalogy/
linear notes, the lyrics for 'Nothingman' were written in February 1994,
so it's likely the instrumental was recorded in November 1993 and the
vocals were recorded in February 1994. An alternate recording of
'Yellow Ledbetter' exists that is different from the version recorded
during the /Ten/ sessions, so it may have been recorded, but no
information is known for sure.

sometimes you really really scare me.

Stip is gonna cum when he reads this.

That was a pain in the butt to read having to look back at the beginning of lines so often.

Yeah lots of trivia. The drums on Satan's Bed are apparently performed by a drum tech and not Dave.

Hey, I own Chicago Cab but I am too lazy to go find it to make a listening comparison - Does anybody know if the Hard To Imagine on Lost Dogs the same take used for Chicago Cab?

Yeah, I knew most of that.

I would have loved Hard to Imagine on No Code.

i remember an article stating the other version of yellow ledbetter (which was called in the interview "a cleaned up version") was supposed to be on either lost dogs or rearviewmirror. that obviously never happened, so the interview was probably with a 10C rep.

No. The Lost Dogs version is from the Vs. sessions. Chicago Cab version is from the Vitalogy sessions.

Thanks Isaac for more information on my favourite album ever.

this is all from that guy's PJ session guide. I know the site vanished a few years ago but I still have the link for it courtesy of the wayback machine.

much appreciated

Bah, humbug!

How could "Better Man" been written in November 1993? Wasn't it a Bad Radio song?

R.I.F. reading is fun.

I knew much of this, but it is always nice to have it in one place

didn't Ed say on numerous occasions he had written when he was 15 or so (Seattle II 2000)? so that would be somewhere in the late 70's early 80's.

Whipping was premiered in May 13, 1993; so it was rehearsed months before November 1993. Better Man was premiered in the same show, as Pearl Jam; it has to be rehearsed same time as Whipping, I think.

But almost everyone know that Better Man is an old gem of Ed:

1. Early 1988 Demo Tape
http://www.cathedralstone.net/Pages/PearlJam17.htm

2. Song meaning
http://www.cathedralstone.net/Pages/PearlJam18.htm


Seeya,
Rodolfo

ive never seen anyone post most in detail about pj's recording history than this dude