I was going to ask the question "do you think the band will ever tune down to try and make it easier for Ed to belt the tunes out?" and it seems they are already doing it at least on a few songs. Is this true? Are they doing it just for a few songs? For all of them?

i didn't know they'd done it on any songs.

Eddie really hasn't lost his range. He doesn't have the strongest voice anymore from the cigarettes, drinking, and age, but its not enough to make them tune down. Most Pearl Jam songs are in D anyways. I don't think its much of an issue.

as far as i can hear the tunes are like the original recordings..

W.M.A has been changed from A(m)-C-G to F(m)-A-E, but this key change really suits the reworking.

I'm not aware of any other songs that have been tuned down or transposed.

I think Crazy Mary was tuned 2 steps down.
It doesn't really matter from the vocal point of view as he tends to extend the range on many songs compared to the studio versions. Crazy Mary is one, Long Road I've seen has the same treatment too.

Also "strongest" is a relative term. From what I've heard from his performances he never was as powerful and clear. The stylistic/technical change was so huge from the early days that is hard to tell how much damage his voice has, from the early days singing mostly i think. That was a bigger stress on the voice than smoking is.

I'm pretty sure Life Wasted has been tuned down.

Yeah, that's the one along with WMA that was fueling my question. Although I didn't realize WMA was a key change like Crazy Mary is.

WMA, Life Wasted, and Evacuation are the three songs i know of that have been tuned down. They've been playing crazy mary starting with Am just like the previous tours.

Have they ever played CM in Bm like they recorded it?

happens to just about every band. i haven't noticed the dropping down as much as ive noticed more effects on the vocals since the riot act tour. first time i noticed the effects really was det 2, 2003

ah, i heard evacuation and life wasted on youtube and they definitely are tuned down.

i don't have a problem with this. trent reznor did the same thing when he started playing "last" and "we're in this together" live. if eddie/trent/anyone can't hit the notes, keeping them in the same key and attempting to hit them will do more harm than just dropping the tuning.

if my option was between not hearing certain songs (in original tuning), or hearing some songs in a dropped tuning, i'd rather hear them in dropped tuning than not at all. and if it let's eddie take it easy on his vocal chords, all the better.

with that said, if there was ever a soundgarden reunion, i think they would have to be dropped tuned to a note so low it'd be beyond recognition to the human ear in order for cornell to "hit the notes".

I don't like the "tuned-down" version of Life Wasted.

The first time they played life wasted different was at lollapalooza, I'm used to it now. The only problem with playing songs a half step or a few steps down is that it makes the song sound slow like you're playing a record at the wrong speed.

Life Wasted 1/2 step down:



Sounds better than the previous live versions, Ed is much more comfortable.

wow that's a big diff on LW

Yeah big difference. you can hear Ed doesn't have to strain as much too

This doesn't bother me at all, I'd so much rather hear them tune the songs down a tad than hear Ed strain and crack his voice and be fucked for the rest of the show.

His voice is changing as he gets older, glad to see they're working with it so the songs sound their best.

Same song, slightly lower key - meh, no biggie.

By the way, the band sound SHIT HOT.

I can't wait to get my hands on the boots even more after that clip.

let's be honest here, what really sucks is that the song doesn't fade out live