even under the best of times boots have NEVER come close to capturing his voice. It just fills a room and envelopes you in a way that really can't be reproduced

People also seem to act like there's something Eddie did wrong over the years, that if he'd just done things differently he'd still be singing like he was 12 years ago or whenever. He's been singing for 2-3 hours a night, many many times every single year, and it's not like he's singing stuff that isn't challenging and straining on his voice. It'd be weird if his voice hadn't lost some of its' power.

Ed has gone through a couple of "transitional phases" where his voice has mostly not sounded good, but has emerged on the other end singing well, but different.

Post-Aussie '95 until Yield is one such era. There's a few good shows (mostly in USA '96), but for the most part his voice sounds like total ass. Soldier Field is a great example and it only went downhill from there for the rest of '95. There was actually a small transition in mid- to late-'92 as well, but this was less important and noticeable.

'07 - '08 is another such time. For a lot of people, the '06 tour doesn't really float their boat, but for what Ed was capable of at the time he was rocking it every night; slightly different from '00 and '03 but consistently good. '09 on he sounds totally different but it's still great. I mean he doesn't sound like Unplugged, Atlanta '94, Randall Island 2, Give Way, Detroit 2k, Champaign '03, or SF3 '06 (to name a few); but shows like Auckland, Christchurch, and Cleveland '10 are still great in their own way.

Yeah, the lack of low end in the recent boots really doesn't do Ed's voice any favors.

Isn't the lesson here that Ed needs a long time to really warm his voice up? All the shows we're talking about where he sounds terrible have come during short tours after long layoffs.

this is fucking cool, especially if you read the info box while listening.

1. 0:00 - Strong G2 from "Longs Nights".
2. 0:05 - Few G2s from "Just Breathe".
3. 0:11 - Great G2s from "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town".
4. 0:27 - Short G2 from "Love Boat Captain".
5. 0:32 - Good G2s from "Speed of Sound".
6. 0:43 - Lots of really strong F♯2s and one brief F2 from "Bu$hleaguer".
7. 0:56 - "Man of the Hour" with short E2.
8. 1:01 - Good E2 from "All Those Yesterdays".
9. 1:08 - Strong E2s from "Broken Heart".
10. 1:19 - Spoken passage from "I'm Open", Vedder bottoms around E♭2.
11. 1:51 - Weird low passages from "Dirty Drank" with lows bottoming around D2.
12. 2:27 - Somewhat quiet D2 from "Dead Man Walking".
13. 2:34 - Quick D2 from "Crazy Mary".
14. 2:39 - Low speaking from "Black, Red, Yellow" bottoming around C♯2.
15. 2:53 - Quick C♯2 from the ending of "All Night".
16. 2:57 - Really deep C♯2 from "Breakerfall".
17. 3:03 - Solid C2s from the backing vocals of "Arc", fantastic singing.
18. 3:28 - Solid C2 and whispered non-modal A1 from "I'm Still Here", Vedder has some really low speaking parts in this track.
19. 3:33 - Quick full B1 from "Dream a Little Dream", this track features some really good lower singing!
20. 3:40 - Another quick B1 and one fry A1 from "Dream a Little Dream".
21. 3:54 - Fry F♯1 from "I'm Still Here", this is the lowest note Vedder has showcased.
22. 4:00 - Vedder gliding up to quick A4 while sustaining the fantastic note for long time, the song is "Arc".
23. 4:21 - Quick but good A4 from "Yellow Ledbetter".
24. 4:31 - Fantastic A4s from "In Hiding".
25. 4:51 - Really good clean A4s from "Present Tense".
26. 5:15 - Gruff but emotional A4s from the live performance of "Black".
27. 5:36 - Intense A4s from "Jeremy".
28. 6:11 - Lots of great B♭4s from "Habit".
29. 6:32 - Powerful B♭4s from "Wash".
30. 6:53 - Fantastic B♭4s from the live version of "Arc".
31. 7:26 - Really powerful B♭4s from "Blood".
32. 7:48 - Amazing B4s from "Breakerfall".
33. 8:03 - Another fantastic B4, this time from "Brother".
33. 8:11 - Two powerful high Cs (C5s) and one non-modal E5 from the cover of The Beatles' "I've Got a Feeling".
34. 8:33 - Another sustained C5, this time from "I've Got a Feeling (Rough Mix)".
35. 8:41 - One C5 and few C♯5s from "Rival".
36. 8:56 - Powerful C♯5 and D5 from "Do the Evolution".
37. 9:09 - Full D5 layered in the vocal tracks of "Deep" (the other note glides up to non-modal G5).
38. 9:18 - Surprisingly clean D5 from "Dissident", impressive.
39. 9:25 - Vedder almost always skips the D5 from "Dissident" while singing live: in this live performance from '03, he manages to hit it properly!
40. 9:34 - Gritty but really powerful D5s from the tribute cover of "Love Reign O'er Me" originally by The Who.
41. 10:01 - Slide up to E♭5 (and brief E5) from "I've Got a Feeling".
42. 10:09 - Slide up to Vedder's highest full voice note, E5, from "I've Got a Feeling (Rough Mix)".
43. 10:19 - Great falsetto notes topping at F5, the song is called "The Wolf".
44. 10:43 - Howled falsetto G♯5 from the intro of "Do the Evolution".
45. 10:52 - Vedder's highest note ever, falsetto G♯6, from the cover of "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" made famous by Gladys Knight & The Pips.

My personal highlight of ed's singing career is definitely Arc, both on record and especially in his solo live shows. Nothing hits harder.

Offhand, does anyone know what that 2003 version of "Dissident" is?

One of those voices isn't Vedder.

2:39. Well caught.

Very cool listen. The man can surely wail.

Dennis Rodman?

That's the one.

I'm curious about this as well.

I was curious about that too, but I don't think it is 2003.