Aye Davanita



Aye Davanita is a nice, interesting little musical number--there's a looseness to it, a playfulness, that had never really appeared in any of their music before. Even Dirty Frank has an edge to it--as if a bunch of serious people were determined to have fun, damn it! There's a good groove to the song, an improvised quality that is especially striking on an album as deliberate as vitalogy, and a relaxed quality that is equally striking on an album as sharp and intense as vitalogy.

The song seems to float in space, starting with and ending with a fade out--you get the sense that Vitalogy is intruding on some other space with this song, that the jam had started long before we showed up and that it would continue long after. The lack of words mean you don't have to process anything. It's a pleasant little breather sandwhiched between two emotionally intense songs, and not much more.

And that's my issue with it. Vitalogy is such a powerful experience I'm not sure why the band felt it necessary to stick a diversion into the middle of its climax. The listener does not need a breather after Betterman. This isn't a tool record full of nine minute songs. It's like they had a little jam they liked and wanted to include it but didn't know what to do with it, but that's what hidden tracks are for.


I'd give Aye Davanita two stars. It'd be a three star track on its own, but its presence on vitalogy bothers me a little bit, and drops the song down.

3 stars, i love it for what it is. sometimes i think they could have added more structure to it, but then it would kinda lose that "looseness" i love about it.

also, as far as album placement, wasnt vitalogy supposed to be a concept album? or are we not allowed to talk about that?

I gave it 5 stars for originality.

why couldn't we talk about that? I am not sure PJ ever sat down to write a concept album (and vitalogy was largely written on the road I believe) but it is the closest thing PJ has to one.

A charming, solid song that adds a breath of fresh air to a dark, moody and otherwise relentless album. Vitalogy needs this little ditty. It sets up the powerhouse that is Immortality so, so well. However, the song does feel a bit incomplete, like an improv or a work in prorgess.

3 stars (leaning heavily toward 4.)

how does it set up immortality?

what i mean is a concept album that tells a specific story beginning to end. the rumor im talking about was that vitalogy was gonna tell the story of a musician who had a sudden rise to rock stardom, couldnt handle the spot light and eventually killed himself. then kurt cobain killed himself and they scrapped the idea, but kept most of the songs. i assume they changed the track list and whatnot, so aye davanita probably served a different purpose on the original idea than it did on the final version.

love love love aye davanita. i hope someday we might get a longer take. i give it 5 stars (though i'd admit it probably doesn't deserve it), i love it that much. i feel the groove is a precursor to of the girl, which is my favorite pearl jam song. if i'm ever in the mood for immortality, i *have* to listen to aye davanita before it.

I just mean in terms of sonic flow. Better Man into Immortality is fairly odd, even jarring. At least, to my ears. Having Aye Davanita serve as a pseudo intro to Immortality as well as a break or buffer is a wonderful move. I think without it, you would feel something missing there.

Also, I think if you just listen to Aye Davantia all the way through as it fades, the only thing you want to hear after it is Immortality. There's a cohessive resonance between Aye Davantia and Immortality.

Aye Davanita is almost like a dance, a wonderful dinner party between old friends before the bad news of Immortality breaks across the tv the following morning.

I've never heard that before? Is that true? Is there a direction one could point me in where I might read more about this?

This is exactly what I'm talking about, stip.

no idea. i dont even remember where i heard it at this point. i assume it was here.

3 stars....love it for what it is.

This is the first I've ever heard of this rumor, and it really doesn't make nearly as much sense as the less conspiratorial "Ed was a musician who had a sudden rise to stardom, had a hard time dealing with it, and so wrote a lot of songs dealing with those issues."

This idea smacks of the same kind of thought process of those who think Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" must be based on an actual incident of him observing a crime.

As for this song, I'm right with Stip on his feelings about the ditty itself and couldn't disagree more about it's place on the album. It's perfect. I just cannot see Better Man leading straight into Immortality--it doesn't work thematically and it doesn't work musically.

Someone else said it before, but Aye Davanita is the deep breath you take when it starts to seem like everything might work out OK, before the darkness sets in again with Immortality. You're not surprised to turn back to darkness, but the diversion is pleasant and necessary.

It's about as close to a 5-star exercise as any non-lyrical Pearl Jam track could be, for me.

I rarely listen to aye davanita so I'll try comparing betterman -> immortality and betterman ->aye davanita -> immortality later

yeah i hear ya, but the concept album idea might explain where songs like this one, pry, to and bugs came from.

there is a thematic consistency and conceptual arc to vitalogy even without a formal narrative attached to it, and those songs fit in there.

im not disagreeing w/ you, but pearl jam never really had these sort of short, interlude-type songs before vitalogy (well, i guess you can say master/slave). if they were actually gonna do a concept album w/ a narrative, they would be great interludes that, like you said, fit the narrative.

or it could have been ed's attempt to shoten the fan base, and when it didnt work we got no code.

they would make sense on a narrative driven album for sure. My point is just that it isn't necessary to have an actual story for them to fit