Listened to a wonderful version tonight from Illinois 2003 and it dawned on me, I never understood if Victoria Williams wrote the song for PJ or they wrote it with her. Anyone know the story on this?

I believe she wrote it all by herself... and originally performed it... could be wrong though but i think Sweet Relief was a fundraiser for her?

anyone know for sure?

I don't know, i think she just wrote it, and PJ covered it, and now it's their song, kinda.
Wasn't there a version somewhere with Lou Reed, or was it just some dude's fantasy ? Can't remember.

Ed and VW sang on the studio version for Sweat Relief. So maybe she wrote it, but they all performed it?

Unfortunately i've never owned the album, so i can't say for sure who performed on it. There's a lot of info on http://www.allmusic.com - that's where i read that she wrote it.

You are correct Sweet Relief was a benefit for her. I think that she had cancer, but I'm not positive about that.

multiple sclerosis.

Victoria has MS and with musicians not having health insurance, a number of artists banded together to record this album to help her out. She wrote it, it was on one of her early CDs - Loose - a pretty good CD I might add. Does anyone know if she is still married to Mark Olson of the Jayhawks?

She did write it. Just not for PJ. Its first release was the Sweet Relief album. She released it on her own cd following the release of Sweet Relief. PJ recorded the song when they recorded Vs and she dubbed her little background things after that. So, while she was, indeed, on the original release of the song, PJ was the original artist to release the song. So, no cover. Just because it was written by someone else doesn't mean it's a cover.

Well, I disagree with the last sentence, but it's just symantics. If Bob Dylan wrote a song, and never recorded it, but someone else, a friend of Bob's, heard him play it and recorded it himself, it would still be a Bob Dylan cover.

it's a cover

How about we call it an original cover?

I think it depends on whether or not she wrote the song with intentions of someone else to perform it. In the pop and country worlds, the songwriters typically don't perform the songs, but the songs aren't considered covers.

in the country world, country music is considered good.

I suppose that's not really fair--some country music is quite good.

Is "Crazy" by Patsy Cline a cover?
Is "Manic Monday" by the Bangles a cover?

i think so

Then you must consider most every Motown song a cover. As almost none of those song/ hits were written by the artists that recorded them.

How can a song that has never been released a cover? According to the American Heritage dictionary, a cover song is "a recording of a song that was previously recorded or made popular by another." You can't include songs that haven't been released yet as cover songs. Look at "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. Written by Neil Diamond at a time when he hadn't had anything released yet. How can this be a cover song?

There is a difference between songwriter and recording artist.

Like I said, arguing symantics, but I'd say that Victoria Williams is a recording artist as well as a songwriter.

The question really seems to hinge on whether she recorded or performed the song previous to Pearl Jam. I think it's pretty clear that she didn't release a recording until after. I have no idea whether she recorded or publicly performed the song prior to Pearl Jam.

Here's an interesting example. Neil Young wrote a song called "See The Sky About To Rain". He first performed it in concert in late 1970. In 1973, The Byrds recorded and released the song on an album. In 1974, Neil released a recording on his album On The Beach.

How would you categorize that one? Did Neil cover himself?

I think whoever wrote the song can claim ownership. It's neil's song. I just threw this term out there a few posts back without really thinking about it but I think there needs to be some kind of designation for the neil young song you mentioned or crazy mary. If you didn't write the song it isn't an original but if it was written for you it's not quite a cover either