Does Ed write the entire song and tell the other guys how to play it? Or does he write the part he plays on guitar and gets credit for the whole song, with the other guys filling in their parts? I know he plays guitar, bass and drums. So does he work the songs out himself and just let the other guys play on it??

Also, I think he should play all the instruments on a song by himself again, like he did on 'Hide your love away'....

Uh, why?

But I wouldn't think Ed would strictly dictate to the other guys exactly what they should play (Dictator Ed!), but I'm sure he offers an opinion on what the other guys are playing.

From what I understand, anyone who writes a song comes into the sessions with the song and then the band works together to figure out its final arrangement. I seriously doubt Ed tells Jeff exactly what notes to play or Matt how he should approach a song's tempo, but knowing him he probably does offer suggestions. How well they are recieved, only the other band members know for sure.

And why in the world would you want to take the other four members out of the band so Ed can play all parts himself? That's extremely silly. And YGTHYLA is a much more simple arrangement than most Pearl Jam songs, which is probably the only reason he cut the entire track himself (in one afternoon - from the I Am Sam special features on the DVD).

I see. I just thought maybe there were times Ed knows exactly how he wants it to sound. I didn't mean to suggest he went in there and told people what to do and how to do it. Like you said, offer suggestions....

And I just think it would be interesting if he played all the instruments on a song himself again. He could have easily played all the instruments on 'drifting'. He already played guitar and harmonica. Plus he provided his own backup vocals. I just think it's a cool idea. It doesn't have to be on a Pearl Jam album, but maybe a side project.

But, why does Ed get credit for writing the music to a song, if the other guys contribute? Is he writing all the music to the entire song? How does that work?

If I make a huge, delicious banana split and you place the cherry on top, you're not getting credit for my fucking Banana split.

Hahaha. This is actually a pretty good metaphor, though. When the music is credited to Ed, that means he came up with the chord progression/melody, hence why he gets exclusive music writing credit. I fathom that the earlier PJ songs that are credited to the whole band were songs created in the studio setting by all five members, with no one getting any individual credit because the writing process was too collaborative.

except Porch

Yeah, and Ed doesn't always play guitar on that one. For the longest time I never even knew he wrote the music...

writing and arranging a song are two distinct activities. in the band i'm in, if someone else makes a suggestion for a different riff somewhere on a song and that it changes its structure and/or main melodic line, the contributor will be credited but i couldn't credit the drummer for coming up with a drum beat to one of my tunes, unless it's something that changes the face of a song à la In My Tree.
they probably kept equal band credits up to Vitalogy because they were five against one then, splitting the cash in five but i wouldn't be surprised that the main songwriters in the band began to feel that it wasn't fair or something...

In one of those 2 shitty biographies written about Pearl Jam (forget which one), I recall that at some point during their heyday, the band stopped splitting everything 20 percent per member. Ed would get 36 percent, and everyone else got 16. Given the source material I'm quoting from, Lord only knows if that's true or not, but that's the only time I've ever read anything about how the band splits up their profits.

That was from 5 Against 1.

REM has always shared writing credits equally on each song, which I think is really cool (although I'd still like to see who the primary writer was for the music on each song)

You're getting into the murky world of music publishing. Most musicians and bands aren't entirely sure how it works. It's mainly to do with the publishing houses (ASCAP in the US, IMRO in Ireland, etc) and the lawyers, of course.

9 times out of 10, however, the lyrics make up 50% of the copyright royalty. Mechanical royalties, publishing for 'selling' a song etc are different again.

Does anyone around here know why rock songs don't give those who develop the vocal melodies a music-writing credit while pop songs in general do?

do you have an example of this? i honestly never heard of it because usually, in a rock song or otherwise, the main melody should be part of the songwriting so i don't know why the person who writes or develops it wouldn't be credited.

Ten, for example. Eddie wrote all of the the vocal melodies, but gets no music writing credit. He still does this. My understanding is that this is common practice among hard rock bands.

On the other hand, for Avril Lavigne's first two albums, she got music writing credits for only partially writing vocal melodies. My understanding is that this is also common practice for pop artists.

How do you assign credit in your band?

Eddie got sole credit for Porch. Words and music....

I like reading who wrote the music, because it gives a clue as to where the song came from within the band, and i really like that.

The best example i can think of for crediting can be seen on SVT for In Hiding. Stone wrote that riff, as seen on his microcassette thing, then Ed put the words over. Hence Music Gossard, Words Vedder. of course the band has a huge part to do with it, ie arranging, guitar tone, dynamics etc. and that is when a song becomes a band's song, not just an individuals. It excites me when i hear that crappy recording of Stone's riff bloom into the wonderful In Hiding.
I can say from experience in my band, that when a song is written, the original person gets the name of it e.g. "Evvo's song" or whatever, but at that stage when i bring the riff/lyrics, it is just my song. it takes the other 3 guys to take my riff and make it a band song. That's my two cents on the matter. That said, I'm not in pearl jam

i looked up Ten's songwriting credits and they're quite fucked up if you take for granted that the first name listed is the lyricist and the second is the songwriter:
Black (Vedder/Gossard)
Jeremy (Ament/Vedder)
maybe they came to an agreement on the percentages over the songs and thus, decided that Vedder had a fair share only with his lyricist credit. it doesn't matter much imo since most of the people will assume that the first name to appear on the credits made the lion's share of the songwriting, which would be the logical way to interpret it.
for the Avril Lavigne case, first, i'm disappointed because i thought she, at least, co-wrote her songs, second, if she only partially wrote her vocal melodies, well, it sucks because again, most people will read her name in the credits and think that she's a songwriter. it may only be something she wanted to have in her contract to have more credibility, i dunno, but if her songwriting involvment is that minimal she must have a very tiny percentage of royalties. to sum it up, i'd call "business bullshit" on this one, the opposite of fairness (as in the REM situation, even if it's still no the actual reality).
in the band i'm in, i write most of the tunes before i go in the rehearsal room with the two other guys, so basically, the words and music are mine but since i'm open to the other's ideas, if someone comes up with a cool riff or a reinterpretation of the actual song that would be more fitting than my first idea, i'll give them a share of the songwriting royalties and they'll be credited in the liner notes, same with someone comin up with a better stretch of lyrics. if the definitive version of the song isn't far from the original idea, they won't be credited but i'll still list them as arrangers when i'll declare my song to the SOCAN (Canada's ASCAP) and then they'll receive royalties from time to time.