Was thinking the other day listening to lost dogs, that sometimes they really really nail it in the studio, be it atmosphere, production, performance, but sometimes just the combined overall. My favourites off the top of me head

Strangest Tribe..magic song..while id love to hear it live it would probably go the way of songs like Sleight of Hand, which when played live never really manages to get there because the mood of the recording is a lot of its magic. An eerie spooky cut and one of my favourites.

Hail Hail...if they could forever get whatever pedals and settings on their gear and at the desk and record all their thumpin rock numbers with this sound, id be happy. If theyve sounded better on a big number I cant think of it.

All night...whatever your feelings about the songs, there's some wonderful playful stuff goin on here in the playing, and the production.

Oceans..if I listen to Ten nowadays, I have my playlist set to play the original version of this one. Pearl jam at the their best. Finding their feet in that spacey atmospheric sound theyve become good at but rarely do.

Cant keep..one of the better sounding Pj records and it fits this odd little song perfectly.

Go&Animal..just a savage powerful big sound. Knocks the shit out of most of the harder numbers on Ten, such as Deep.

Indifference..speaks for itself. Youre right there in that dark room. It takes you there.

Given to fly...the best sounding track on Yield? It is for me.

Light years/of the girl/sleight of hand/soon forget...gonna get in trouble for this but each in their own way have very different qualities and for me, represent the best sounding takes from that record as well as coming out best from that recording method. Its arguable whether that technique suited them at all but these songs benefited I think.

Unthought known/force of nature/the end...my favourite sounding numbers songs from that record. The production just clicked on these ones for my ears.

No Code & Vitalogy...cant fault anything on them. One is warm inviting welcoming present and descriptive. You can see the room vibed out with candles n probably incense. Everyones a little stoned. With the other its just as easy to imagine your in the room but its a garage or stinky room and your a bit pissed listenin to them play.

Those are some of mine..what are yours:)

Its funny that this seems to be a hard question for me.

Lowlight, Wishlist, Brain of J (Given to Fly I think is extremly powerful live)

Force of nature, yeah. This is maybe the biggest popsong they ever released.

I just realized I list songs, that I think are better on their records than live. It is a bit different from your question, I guess thats ok.

Marker in the sand, Army Reserve,

Thumbing my way, All or none, Cant keep, I am Mine, Save you.

If anyone knows live versions that kill these studio versions, I would be very happy to learn about them!

well said. this track is mammoth and jack's hi-hat/snare sound great.

i would add presentense - sounds like a world of its own.

Hail Hail definitely

In My Tree, pretty much anything on No Code

RVM

Cant Keep

Sleight of Hand

I got shit...how could I forget? In a league of its own.

Pretty much anything from Yield.

Even as a more or less non-PJ fan anymore I can still say "Can't Keep" is fucking phenomenal, especially the studio version.

Yeah that's an amazing version.

Hard To Imagine from the AOL Sessions. Does that count as studio? Because that shit was great.

I pretty much agree with everything in this thread. With a few exceptions, I think most Pearl Jam songs are better in the studio than live. Live versions are great and different, but there aren't too many songs that I think are demonstrably worse in the studio than live.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on HTI from the AOL Sessions. You and I need a good agreement, spenno!

Corduroy, Sleight Of Hand, Parting Ways and Release are the ones that come to mind first.

Release?

To me, it is one of the best live songs ever. Especially as an opener... Seattle 2000... A song boldly played slower live than on the record, which is rare. Dont get me wrong, the studio version is awesome, but live it ...

I don't want to downplay how awesome Release is live, because it is, but the studio version captures the essence of that song perfectly.

Absolutely

without really thinking long and hard about different songs, the one that immediately comes to mind is Given to Fly... it is probably my favourite song of theirs, and as good as it is live, the studio version will never be topped

Release and Corduroy are two songs that while they are incredible live, the best version of the song the band has done was the studio version.

Faithfull, Lowlight & Help Help

Help, Help is a good one.

Also, I Got Shit.