My first time for Vitalogy stretches out over a fairly long period of time. it is the first new record I ever waited for when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had a favorite band (nirvana and metallica still competed with PJ when Vs came out) and it was the first time I ever got to hear songs before the record

So my first time with vitalogy really starts with the atlanta concert in 94. I was listening to (and taping) that show in my room--also the first time I ever heard a band live, and i was just absolutley blown away from top to bottom, especially with the new songs. I loved all of them the first time I heard them--even though I thought whipping was called "bear with me" and sonic reducer was a pearl jam song. I listened to those four songs constantly, and that live version of satan's bed pretty much became my favorite pearl jam song (beating out past favorites Even flow and State of Love and Trust).

I was not collecting boots at the time so I hadn't heard any of the other songs that made an early debut until the SNL performance when I heard Not For You, which I liked, but not s much as the atlanta songs. The performance was almost a little too ragged and intense for me

Then of course the STBC single came out. I liked both songs on it (STBC and Tremor Christ) but my favorites were still the 4 atlanta songs (I still had no idea that sonic reducer was a cover). But at this point I figured I knew half the record already and I was ridiculously excited.

At the time NYC had a number of great alternative rock stations (now it pretty much has none) and one of them played vitalogy a few weeks before it was released. A friend of mine taped it and copied the tape for me. He missed the begining so the tape started at the end of last exit (a few seconds into the solo before the 'Let my spirt pass' moment, and ended early (middle of immortality). I basically spent three weeks or so sitting in my brother's room (he had a genesis, I had a super nintendo) playing Soukeden after school and listening to that tape non stop. I loved every fucking thing about it. Corduroy quickly became tied with Satan's Bed for my favorite song (I prefered and still do the atlanta version to the one that made the record) but all of it, even bugs and aye davanita (a song I rarely listen to in its entirety) were amazing.

Finally the album came out, and I picked it up after school (I was driving at this point so I was able to run out and get it). it was the first time I ever found myself spending time looking at an album's artwork, and actually getting to hear the whole record from start to finish (all of last exit and all of immortaltiy) was just an amazing expereince. Until stupid mop, anyway

From the day I first got that tape I probably listened to Vitalogy at least once a day every day for 2 years

1. You Never Forget Your First Time: Ten
2. You Never Forget Your First Time: Vs.

I can't really post here until Yield.

However, when I started to really listen to Pearl Jam (1997), Vitalogy was one of my favorites. I liked the album concept, plus Tremor Christ and Immortality stood out as songs I clearly enjoyed.

This album helped me get through some tough times in high school. I remember hearing STBC for the first time and it just clicked with me.

Vitalogy is my #3 album of all-time.

I was so looking forward to this album.. I had heard most of the songs live already and couldn't wait to here the studio versions plus some I'd never heard. Unfortunately I had joined the army over the summer and was in basic training when it was released. In between basic training and AIT (job training) I picked up the cassette to listen to in my walkman at AIT. When I got to AIT the drill instructors took all of our walkmans away..so my new copy of Vitalogy was sitting in some asshole drill instructors office for two months collecting dust. I didn't get to fully enjoy the new album until february of 95. Loved it from begining to end..even the weird stuff . I about crapped one the first time I heard Nothingman. It was easily my favorite..at least for a while. Vitalogy was really when I started listening to a lot less of other artists. Great album...and a pain in the ass to eventually listen to. Also one of only two albums that I didn't pick up at the indie music shop with my buddy and drive around town listening to for the first time..no code being the other

every time you heard a record for the first time it was your first time. I don't think you needed to hear it when it first came out

I know, but the real "first time" was Yield b/c I was waiting for it to come out, I was reading reviews, and was officially a Pearl Jam fan then.

I listened to Vs. and Vitalogy the same afternoon. I enjoyed Vitalogy more.

i think it was the last record i bought that wasn't released yet. Riot Act was the first one i bought when it came out.

I remember digging it, but being very weirded out about it as well. i instantly loved Nothingman, Tremor Christ and Stupid Mop. i sort of had a hard time getting into the other ones at first. I think i had 2 disadvantages when i got this record. Firstly i didn't know english all that well yet, so i didn't understand half of the lyrics and secondly i didn't know enough about Pearl Jam as a band and their evolution yet. I think if i had known and understood Pearl Jam as a band from 90-94 and everything that happened with them i would have had a different reaction to the record. I dunno.

right now i think it's my 2nd favorite after Binaural. i think it's the only record where none of the songs are really bad. The experimental songs fit in real well.

Stip, you kind of stole my thunder with that your mention of the album being played in its entirety two weeks before it came out. I remember that, for it was the first time I heard the album as well.

It was a Thursday night around 9 pm and I was listening to 103.9, which at that time was a network station called The Underground Network (UN for short). Not a very eventful night music wise - until the disc jockey said these words: "At 11 o'clock we're gonna play the new Pearl Jam record. The whole damn thing." I was beyond excited, as having heard Not For You on SNL and the other tracks from Atlanta. So at 10:45 I turned my lights out, put on the headphones and laid in my darkened room to listen to Vitalogy (they played it three tracks at a time). Holy motherfucker.

To say the album kicked my ass would be an understatement. After about the first minute of Last Exit, I knew I was in for something special. This was the first album, up until that point, that described how I felt as a person. The anger was so focused, and the songs so good, that I felt like it was written with me in mind (a silly teenage thing to think, but what can I say?). It instantly became my favorite album, and when I bought the physical copy on December 6, 1994, I pretty much devoured that album and its artwork for the next 4 months. Literally played it everyday, and at one point even had every page's content in the Vitalogy book memorized ( ). It was a real awakening for me musically and personally.

This album also got me through some tough teenage bullshit, and I'll always love it for that. This is the first Pearl Jam album to have held up over time, something the first two albums aren't even close to matching IMO. People say that the grunge era died that Friday in April 1994 when Kurt Cobain pulled the trigger, but it wasn't quite over yet. 8 months later Pearl Jam released the definitive album of that era, and I challenge anyone to claim otherwise.

This is a great album.

How was that run of Pry To, Corduroy, and Bugs (and then, presumably, a commercial)? That had to be a weird first-time-listening experience . . .

you know, I wonder if it was the same station--I live in central jersey so we get philly stations too.

And I agree with your last sentence. Vitalogy is the definitive album of that era, bar none (I'd also argue that it is the greatest album of all time, but that's a much tougher case to make)

you know, I wonder if it was the same station--I live in central jersey so we get philly stations too.

And I agree with your last sentence. Vitalogy is the definitive album of that era, bar none (I'd also argue that it is the greatest album of all time, but that's a much tougher case to make)

nice (double) post, stip

i think it's the first one i've seen on this new board, and i see quite a lot.

what stip and frank said except i dont recall the radio airing it...i was drinking a bit back then so who knows...when you guys wrote that it sounded vaguely familiar...stupid alcohol!
but atlanta was awesome except for my tape running out before it ended and i had no other tapes so i retaped it when they re-aired it (EDITED!!!! ) Cock....suckers!
that blew but the album (vinyl) coming out a week early was awesome!
my record player sucked so the quality did too and it didn't hit me as hard as the single or the cd version...and heyfoxymophandlemama thats me kinda struck a personal note with the seemingly young girl talking about being spanked to get closer to a person...disturbing to say the least.
pj was already my favorite band and this album just solidified that position...one thing that really sucked about them was their record company...i worked at a mom and pops music store and got promo material and cds for many bands but hardly anything at all for PJ! we were just too small to get all the cool stuff i guess...though i did get the vitalogy record shaped and the square vinyl cover shaped promo posters...i really hav to find those...after i moved out of my parents house im not sure where they ended up

The first PJ boot I had was called "Surfer Eddie's Sunshine State", and it was a recording from the New Orleans show, 11-17-93. I got that in March of 94. Tacked onto the end of the boot was Last Exit from the 11-16 show (titled "Three Days", as it was on many early boots), and that was my first exposure to the Vitalogy material.

The big impact for me though, as I'm sure it was for a great many people, was seeing "Not For You" on Saturday Night Live in mid April. It had been a week since Kurt had been found, and PJ's performance that night is IMO one of the seminal TV performances of all time by any musicians. Simple song, but very strong an powerful. I still think Not For You is PJ's most "anthemic" song.

A friend came back from summer break with "No Fuckin' Messiah", so that was new exposure to many PJ songs I'd never heard before including I've Got A Feeling, Angel, Satan's Bed and Betterman. Betterman especially impressed me, and I still prefer the way the guitars come in on the first chorus of the song (rather than the second chorus) on that version from Atlanta 94. I also bought the STBC single when that came out.

So by the time the album was released, I had heard six of the songs. I can remember that the record was on sale two weeks before the CD, but since I was at college and didn't have a record player, I waited until the CD was released to buy it. For some reason I couldn't go to midnight madness, probably because of finals or something, but I went out and bought the album on release day and brought it home to hear for the first time through. I think I listened to it by myself, which is kind of weird since I was living in the fraternity house, and it was rare that I was ever alone in my room. But it was a Tuesday afternoon, so I smoked up and let it spin.

It was good, better than most everything I was hearing those days, but I can remember instantly not liking it as much the prior albums. The first new song for me was Nothingman, and well, you all know how I feel about that song. But my dislike of that song has grown since I've known all of you, so at that time it just felt like a schlocky throwaway. I loved Whipping, and I really dug most of the "filler" tracks (because I was doing lots of drugs at the time, and it was obvious that Ed was doing a lot of the same drugs). I recognized that this album was an experiment, and usually it is the album that follows the experiment that either makes or breaks a band.

There are two truly great songs on this album, however, and they were both new to me. Corduroy and Immortality. Well, Betterman is a great song too, but it was an old song, not just to me, but to Ed, and I didn't really like the arrangement on the album. I still think that Immortality might be the band's best song ever. It's teh album closer as far as I'm concerned. Stupid Mop, is, well, a trip.

As a whole, I'm not crazy about the album. I'd say that I like it better than Binaural and Riot Act, but that's about it. I'm not crazy about the studio versions of most of the songs compared to their live recordings, the album is uneven in the extreme and difficult to listen to as a "piece", and it was a bit of a disappointment to me with how much I had loved the fist two albums and how much I had anticipated this album's release. It still got a ton of play around my place for the rest of teh school year though.

Vitalogy was the album that cemented Pearl Jam as my favourite band. Like Frank I was 16 when it came out and it felt like the album had been written to sum up everything that I was feeling about the world. Seemingly I wasn't the only person feeling this way because Vitalogy rapidly became the unofficial album of my final year in high school. I can't remember going to a single party without someone putting on Vitalogy and it being played from beginning to end. At our after graduation party held in a field with a giant bonfire, a shed and a jukebox Corduroy was played over and over again as was Not For You, Whipping, Satan's Bed... well, pretty much the whole thing. Vitalogy not only summed up where I had been but also pointed to where I was going.

Even now cueing Vitalogy up and putting on a pair of headphones takes me to a place that no other album can take me...

i got it for christmas... i think each of my brothers got a copy for christmas. i remember listening and reading the liner notes which really captured my imagination. it really built a world around the whole album. and i have to say immortality is my fav of all time songs. also "i shit i stink, i'm real join the club" i think is one of the most bad ass lines ever

Got it at the exact same time of Vs. back in early 2005 or so. I love it, but my first time isn't notable at all

Vitalogy was the second PJ album I bought. I had heard Corduroy and Betterman on a boot and loved them. The album took me awhile to get used to, but there was instant love for the previously mentioned tracks + Satan's Bed and Immortality. The first time I listened to that album was one of two times that I ever listened to Stupid Mop. The other time was against my will. Other than Stupid Mop, Pry To, Aye Davanita and Spin the Black Circle, I grew to love everything very quickly. I even love Bugs. Infact, I like Bugs better than Not For You. I like this album better than Ten, though I didn't at the time. It has a couple problems, but what PJ release doesn't?