Vitalogy
Encyclopedia
Vitalogy is the third studio album
by the American alternative rock
band Pearl Jam
, released on November 22, 1994 through Epic Records
. Pearl Jam wrote and recorded Vitalogy while touring behind its previous album Vs. (1993). The music on the record was more diverse than previous releases, and consists of aggressive rock songs, ballads, and several experimental
tracks.
Vitalogy was packaged in a booklet that replicated material from a 1920s medical book of the same name. The album was first released on vinyl record
, followed by a release in other formats two weeks later on December 6, 1994. Upon its CD release, Vitalogy became the second-fastest-selling album in the band's history, behind only Vs. The album has been certified five times platinum
by the RIAA
in the United States.
. The band wrote many of the songs during soundchecks on its Vs. Tour
and the majority of the album's tracks were recorded during breaks on the tour. The first session took place late in 1993 in New Orleans, Louisiana
, where the band recorded "Tremor Christ" and "Nothingman". The rest of the material was written and recorded in 1994 in sessions in Seattle, Washington and Atlanta, Georgia
, with the band finishing the album at Bad Animals Studio
in Seattle after the tour's completion. "Immortality" was written in April 1994 when the band was on tour in Atlanta. Sources state that most of the album was completed by early 1994, but that either a forced delay by Epic, or the band's battle with ticket vendor Ticketmaster
, were to blame for the delay.
Tensions within the band had dramatically increased by this time. Producer Brendan O'Brien
said, "Vitalogy was a little strained. I'm being polite—there was some imploding going on." Bassist Jeff Ament
said that "communication was at an all-time low." Drummer Dave Abbruzzese
stated that the communication problems started once guitarist Stone Gossard
stopped acting as the band's mediator. According to Gossard, Vitalogy was the first album in which lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
made the final decisions. At the time, Gossard thought of quitting the band. Gossard said that the band was having trouble collaborating, so most of the songs were developed out of jam session
s. He added that "eighty percent of the songs were written 20 minutes before they were recorded." During the production of Vitalogy, lead guitarist Mike McCready
went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse.
Drums on "Satan's Bed" were performed by Abbruzzese's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf. On the day it was recorded, Abbruzzese was in the hospital having his tonsils removed. Vedder and Gossard asked for Shoaf's help to get a drum machine working, and after setting it up, the pair asked Shoaf to perform the same beat on the drums. He is credited on the lyric sheet as "Jimmy". Months after finishing the initial recording sessions for Vitalogy, Abbruzzese was fired in August 1994 due to personality conflicts with the band members. Gossard said, "It was the nature of how the politics worked in our band: It was up to me to say, 'Hey, we tried, it's not working; time to move on.' On a superficial level, it was a political struggle: For whatever reason his ability to communicate with Ed and Jeff was very stifled. I certainly don't think it was all Dave Abbruzzese's fault that it was stifled." Jack Irons
, the original drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Abbruzzese's successor, plays drums on "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me". Gossard said, "Jack entered the band right at the end of making Vitalogy. Jack's a breath of fresh air, a family man. Everybody had a strong sense of friendship with him immediately. He was just there to play drums and help out."
writer Jeff Gilbert described Vitalogy as "strange" and "very eclectic." McCready agreed, saying, "There is some weird stuff on there." McCready attributed the album's sound to the group recording it on tour. During this period Vedder began to contribute in a large capacity as a guitarist. Gossard said, "Vitalogy is the first one where Ed plays guitar and he wrote three to four songs. I remember thinking, 'This is so different. Is anyone going to like this?'...It had a more punk
feel to it. Simple songs recorded really quickly." The album has a notable lack of guitar solos compared with the band's first two albums. McCready said, "Vitalogy is not really a 'solo' album. I don't think the songs demanded solos; it was more of a rhythmic album."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of Allmusic said that "thanks to its stripped-down, lean production, Vitalogy stands as Pearl Jam's most original and uncompromising album." He added that "in between the straight rock numbers and the searching slow songs, Pearl Jam contribute their strangest music—the mantrafunk of 'Aye Davanita', the sub-Tom Waits accordion romp of 'Bugs', and the chilling sonic collage 'Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me'." "Bugs" features Vedder playing an accordion that he found at a thrift shop, while "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" was created using looped recordings of real patients from a psychiatric hospital
.
Many of the songs on the album seem to be based on the pressures of fame and dealing with the resulting loss of privacy. These include "Not for You", "Pry, To", "Corduroy
", "Bugs", "Satan's Bed", and "Immortality
". Vedder said, "I'm just totally vulnerable. I'm way too fucking soft for this whole business, this whole trip. I don't have any shell. There's a contradiction there, because that's probably why I can write songs that mean something to someone and express some of these things that other people can't necessarily express." The lyrics of "Not for You" express anger at the bureaucracy of the music industry and "how youth is being sold and exploited," while Vedder said "Corduroy" is about "one person's relationship with a million people." In "Pry, To" the phrase "P-r-i-v-a-c-y is priceless to me" is repeated. Many think that the lyrics of "Immortality" may be about Nirvana
frontman Kurt Cobain
's suicide, although Vedder has denied this, suggesting instead that it's about "the pressures on someone who is on a parallel train." The lyrics that appeared in the first live version of "Immortality" were altered before the song was released as part of the album. Vedder said regarding "Nothingman
" that "if you love someone and they love you, don't fuck up...'cause you are left with less than nothing." "Better Man
" is a song about an abusive relationship. Vedder wrote "Better Man" when he was in high school and performed it with his previous band, Bad Radio
. Considered a "blatantly great pop song" by producer Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam was reluctant to record it and had initially rejected it from Vs. due to its accessibility.
album chart. The album sold 35,000 copies in its first week of release. It was the first vinyl album to appear on the chart due to vinyl sales since the proliferation of compact discs. When Vitalogy was released on CD and cassette on December 6, 1994, it reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album sold more than 877,000 copies in its first week of release on CD and became the second-fastest-selling CD in history, behind only the band's previous release Vs. Vitalogy has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA
, and, as of March 2007, has sold 4.7 million copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
.
Rolling Stone
staff writer Al Weisel
gave Vitalogy four out of five stars, describing the album as "a wildly uneven and difficult record, sometimes maddening, sometimes ridiculous, often powerful." While Weisel praised several songs as "[matching] the soaring anthems of Ten
," he criticized some of the more experimental
songs as "throwaways and strange experiments that don't always work." Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
praised the album's diversity compared to the band's previous records. He commented that the band incorporated "fast but brutal punk, fuzz-toned psychedelia
and judicious folk-rock
, all of it sounding more spontaneous than before." Pareles felt that the band continued to be "unremittingly glum", and described the majority of the songs as "tortured first-person proclamations." Pareles concluded, "Vedder sounds more alone than ever." Time reviewer Christopher John Farley
singled out "Bugs" as one of the album's "share of stinkers." Farley added, "But that's one admirably experimental failure on a largely successful album." Despite writing negatively of the album's "shapeless high-energy riff-rockers", Newsday
staff writer Ira Robbins lauded Vitalogys sound and called it a "compelling triumph of surface over substance". In a mixed review of the album, Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post
perceived a lack of subject matter and lyrical substance as Vitalogys weakness.
Q
magazine gave the album four out of five stars, stating "It speaks volumes for Pearl Jam's continuing creative acumen that they can respond so confidently to a new punk scene that has sprung up." Robert Christgau
of The Village Voice
gave the album an A- rating, writing that "Three or four of these songs are faster and riffier than anything else in P. Jam's book, token experiments like "Bugs" are genuinely weird, and in an era of compulsory irony [Vedder's] sincerity is something like a relief—a Kurtlike relief at that." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a B+. He said, "Vitalogy marks the first time it's possible to respect the band's music as much as its stance." He added that "despite its musical advances, Vitalogy leaves an odd, unsettling aftertaste. You walk away from it energized, but wondering what price Eddie Vedder, and Pearl Jam, will ultimately pay for it."> Chicago Sun-Times
writer Jim DeRogatis
gave it three out of four stars and commended Pearl Jam for their earnest songwriting. However, DeRogatis also wrote that the album "leaves you wishing that they'd just lighten up". USA Today
s Edna Gundersen
gave Vitalogy three and a half out of four stars and stated that it "delivers the band's most compelling, inventive and confident music to date", while calling it "the rebel yell of a band that is maturing without mellowing". Los Angeles Times
critic Robert Hilburn
gave Vitalogy four out of four stars and viewed its music as an improvement over Pearl Jam's previous work, writing "This isn't just the best Pearl Jam album but a better album than the band once even seemed capable of making". Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
gave the album four and a half out of five stars, saying, "Pearl Jam are at their best when they're fighting, whether it's Ticketmaster, fame, or their own personal demons." According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
(2004), "By Vitalogy PJ hit their apex … the band's creative zenith, finding them doing a Led Zeppelin III
on acoustic tracks like 'Corduroy' and turning in a Tom Waits
-like weird attack on 'Bugs'".
Three singles were released from Vitalogy. The lead single "Spin the Black Circle
" (backed with B-side
"Tremor Christ
", also from the album), was the band's first to enter the Billboard Hot 100
, reaching number 18. At the 1996 Grammy Awards
, "Spin the Black Circle" won the band its first Grammy Award
, receiving the award for Best Hard Rock Performance
. Neither of the album's other commercially released singles, "Not for You" and "Immortality
", charted on the Hot 100, but both placed on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. Album tracks "Better Man
" and "Corduroy
" also charted. "Better Man" was the most successful song from Vitalogy on the rock charts, spending a total of eight weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock charts and reaching number two on the Modern Rock charts. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, Vitalogy received nominations for Album of the Year
and Best Rock Album
. In 2003, the album was ranked number 492 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
.
In 2011, Pearl Jam released a remastered Vitalogy, along with Vs., in three formats: an Expanded Version, a three-CD Deluxe Edition and a Limited Edition Collector's Boxed Set. The Expanded Version will feature three bonus tracks: the previously unreleased guitar/organ-only mix of "Better Man
"; a previously unreleased alternate take of "Corduroy
" from the Vitalogy session (recorded by Brendan O'Brien); and a previously unreleased demo version of "Nothingman
", taken from the original DAT (recorded at John and Stu's in Seattle on October 14, 1993, featuring Richard Stuverud
on drums). The three-CD Deluxe Edition will feature both the Legacy Versions of Vitalogy and Vs. with their bonus tracks and a copy of Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
The original title for the album was Life. The first single, "Spin the Black Circle", was released before the album was released, and on the back of the single it states "From the Epic album Life." The album title Vitalogy comes from the early 20th Century medical book on which the cover art and liner notes
are based. Vitalogy literally means "the study of life."
Vedder found the medical book at a garage sale. Ament stated, "Ed brought in that book, and we said man that would make a great album cover." He explained that from Vs. onwards the band tried to take different approaches to packaging its records. Ament said, "We tried really hard, to make it like a book, kind of tipped it so it opened horizontally, which pissed off record stores: they had to put it in sideways." The packaging cost an extra 50 cents per copy. Problems arose when the band discovered that later versions of the book were still under copyright. The band had to confer with their lawyers in order to work out a final version utilizing the material they wanted to include with the album.
The booklet contains outdated discussions of health and well-being. Other notes in the booklet, dealing with life and death reflections, seem to be more personal, like a message typed on one of the last pages, supposedly referring to the loss of a loved one ("I waited all day. you waited all day.. but you left before sunset...and I just wanted to tell you the moment was beautiful. Just wanted to dance to bad music...drive bad cars...watch bad TV...should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me."). The booklet also displays some poems or original sayings not belonging to the songs' lyrics, but to be interpreted as a commentary to the songs and, again, as a reflection on how life should or shouldn't be lived. An example is the poem typed on the "Aye Davanita" page. The song's subtitle is "The song without words", as it is an instrumental track. But the page displays a sort of poem about the wasted life of a young girl. Another episode of "intruder words" is on the "Not for You" lyrics page. After the second refrain, instead of the actual lyrics, the typed words give a hint about the Sisyphus
myth ("Yeah, you call me Sisyphus love. Yeah, I move the rock. I just don't want to talk about moving the rock. Anything that distracts me from moving the rock"). The lyrics to "Whipping" are written on a copy of a petition to Bill Clinton
against "pro-life" killings of abortion
doctors. An X-ray of Vedder's teeth was pictured instead of lyrics on the page for "Corduroy".
, Oceania
, and the United States
in 1995. The band was joined by new drummer Jack Irons
. The short tour of the United States focused on the Midwest
and the West Coast
. The band continued its boycott against Ticketmaster
during its tour of the United States, refusing to play in Ticketmaster's venue areas, but was surprised that virtually no other bands joined it in refusing to play at Ticketmaster venues. The band chose to use alternate ticketing companies for the shows.
The tour of the United States faced various troubles. Ament said that the band and its crew had to "[build] shows from the ground up, a venue everywhere we went." In June 1995, the band was scheduled to play at San Francisco, California
's Golden Gate Park
in front of 50,000 people. Before the concert Vedder was forced to stay at a hospital after suffering from the effects of food poisoning
. Vedder left the hospital to play the show, however he was not able to finish and ended up performing just seven out of twenty-one songs with the band. Neil Young
filled in for Vedder for the rest of the show that day. Vedder said, "That whole [Golden Gate Park] thing was a blur based on some bad food. It was really, really bad. Looking back at it, it doesn't seem as intense as it was, but it was horrible. I just felt not human and looking back I should have got through that show somehow, and I think the fact that Neil [Young] was there made me feel like I could get off the hook in some way and I did go out for a few songs." Because of Vedder's health the band was forced to cancel the remaining dates of its tour of the United States. Some dates were reinstated while the rest were rescheduled for the fall. About canceling the dates, Vedder said, "I think we all agreed that it had gotten insane, that it was no longer about the music." Ament later said, "We were so hardheaded about the 1995 tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career."
, however this version is the one from the Vs. sessions. According to Gossard, "Hard to Imagine" was cut from Vitalogy because it didn't fit with the other songs the band was writing at the time. "Out of My Mind", which is featured as a B-side on the "Not for You" single, was premiered on the band's 1994 spring tour of the United States and was played twice. According to Vedder, the song was just a live improv
.
Additional musicians and production
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, released on November 22, 1994 through Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
. Pearl Jam wrote and recorded Vitalogy while touring behind its previous album Vs. (1993). The music on the record was more diverse than previous releases, and consists of aggressive rock songs, ballads, and several experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
tracks.
Vitalogy was packaged in a booklet that replicated material from a 1920s medical book of the same name. The album was first released on vinyl record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, followed by a release in other formats two weeks later on December 6, 1994. Upon its CD release, Vitalogy became the second-fastest-selling album in the band's history, behind only Vs. The album has been certified five times platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in the United States.
Recording
For its third album, Pearl Jam again worked with producer Brendan O'BrienBrendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
. The band wrote many of the songs during soundchecks on its Vs. Tour
Vs. Tour
The Vs. Tour was a concert tour by the American rock band Pearl Jam to support its second album, Vs.-History:Pearl Jam promoted Vs. with tours in the United States in the fall of 1993 and the spring of 1994. The fall 1993 tour focused on the Western United States, while the spring 1994 tour focused...
and the majority of the album's tracks were recorded during breaks on the tour. The first session took place late in 1993 in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, where the band recorded "Tremor Christ" and "Nothingman". The rest of the material was written and recorded in 1994 in sessions in Seattle, Washington and Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, with the band finishing the album at Bad Animals Studio
Bad Animals Studio
Bad Animals Studio is a music and media recording studio on 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle. It was originally founded as Steve Lawson Productions by founders Steve and Debbie Lawson in 1979. In 1991, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson joined forces with Lawson to create Studio X. In 1992, the studio...
in Seattle after the tour's completion. "Immortality" was written in April 1994 when the band was on tour in Atlanta. Sources state that most of the album was completed by early 1994, but that either a forced delay by Epic, or the band's battle with ticket vendor Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
, were to blame for the delay.
Tensions within the band had dramatically increased by this time. Producer Brendan O'Brien
Brendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
said, "Vitalogy was a little strained. I'm being polite—there was some imploding going on." Bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
said that "communication was at an all-time low." Drummer Dave Abbruzzese
Dave Abbruzzese
David James Abbruzzese is an American musician who was the drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam from 1991 to 1994. He replaced drummer Matt Chamberlain in 1991, shortly before the release of the band's debut album, Ten...
stated that the communication problems started once guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
stopped acting as the band's mediator. According to Gossard, Vitalogy was the first album in which lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
made the final decisions. At the time, Gossard thought of quitting the band. Gossard said that the band was having trouble collaborating, so most of the songs were developed out of jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s. He added that "eighty percent of the songs were written 20 minutes before they were recorded." During the production of Vitalogy, lead guitarist Mike McCready
Mike McCready
Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse.
Drums on "Satan's Bed" were performed by Abbruzzese's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf. On the day it was recorded, Abbruzzese was in the hospital having his tonsils removed. Vedder and Gossard asked for Shoaf's help to get a drum machine working, and after setting it up, the pair asked Shoaf to perform the same beat on the drums. He is credited on the lyric sheet as "Jimmy". Months after finishing the initial recording sessions for Vitalogy, Abbruzzese was fired in August 1994 due to personality conflicts with the band members. Gossard said, "It was the nature of how the politics worked in our band: It was up to me to say, 'Hey, we tried, it's not working; time to move on.' On a superficial level, it was a political struggle: For whatever reason his ability to communicate with Ed and Jeff was very stifled. I certainly don't think it was all Dave Abbruzzese's fault that it was stifled." Jack Irons
Jack Irons
Jack Steven Irons is an American musician who is best known as the original drummer of the American rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as the former drummer for Eleven and Pearl Jam. He has also worked with Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Spinnerette...
, the original drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
and Abbruzzese's successor, plays drums on "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me". Gossard said, "Jack entered the band right at the end of making Vitalogy. Jack's a breath of fresh air, a family man. Everybody had a strong sense of friendship with him immediately. He was just there to play drums and help out."
Music and lyrics
In a 1995 interview, Guitar WorldGuitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
writer Jeff Gilbert described Vitalogy as "strange" and "very eclectic." McCready agreed, saying, "There is some weird stuff on there." McCready attributed the album's sound to the group recording it on tour. During this period Vedder began to contribute in a large capacity as a guitarist. Gossard said, "Vitalogy is the first one where Ed plays guitar and he wrote three to four songs. I remember thinking, 'This is so different. Is anyone going to like this?'...It had a more punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
feel to it. Simple songs recorded really quickly." The album has a notable lack of guitar solos compared with the band's first two albums. McCready said, "Vitalogy is not really a 'solo' album. I don't think the songs demanded solos; it was more of a rhythmic album."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of Allmusic said that "thanks to its stripped-down, lean production, Vitalogy stands as Pearl Jam's most original and uncompromising album." He added that "in between the straight rock numbers and the searching slow songs, Pearl Jam contribute their strangest music—the mantrafunk of 'Aye Davanita', the sub-Tom Waits accordion romp of 'Bugs', and the chilling sonic collage 'Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me'." "Bugs" features Vedder playing an accordion that he found at a thrift shop, while "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" was created using looped recordings of real patients from a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
.
Many of the songs on the album seem to be based on the pressures of fame and dealing with the resulting loss of privacy. These include "Not for You", "Pry, To", "Corduroy
Corduroy (song)
"Corduroy" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the eighth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it was primarily written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the song...
", "Bugs", "Satan's Bed", and "Immortality
Immortality (Pearl Jam song)
"Immortality" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on June 6, 1995 as the third single from the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it was primarily written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard...
". Vedder said, "I'm just totally vulnerable. I'm way too fucking soft for this whole business, this whole trip. I don't have any shell. There's a contradiction there, because that's probably why I can write songs that mean something to someone and express some of these things that other people can't necessarily express." The lyrics of "Not for You" express anger at the bureaucracy of the music industry and "how youth is being sold and exploited," while Vedder said "Corduroy" is about "one person's relationship with a million people." In "Pry, To" the phrase "P-r-i-v-a-c-y is priceless to me" is repeated. Many think that the lyrics of "Immortality" may be about Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
frontman Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
's suicide, although Vedder has denied this, suggesting instead that it's about "the pressures on someone who is on a parallel train." The lyrics that appeared in the first live version of "Immortality" were altered before the song was released as part of the album. Vedder said regarding "Nothingman
Nothingman
"Nothingman" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music by bassist Jeff Ament, "Nothingman" is the fifth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy...
" that "if you love someone and they love you, don't fuck up...'cause you are left with less than nothing." "Better Man
Better Man
"Better Man" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Better Man" is the eleventh track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy...
" is a song about an abusive relationship. Vedder wrote "Better Man" when he was in high school and performed it with his previous band, Bad Radio
Bad Radio
Bad Radio was a four piece, American progressive funk rock band that formed in San Diego, California in 1986. The band is most notable for having featured future Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder as its lead singer from 1988–1990...
. Considered a "blatantly great pop song" by producer Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam was reluctant to record it and had initially rejected it from Vs. due to its accessibility.
Release and reception
Vitalogy was released first on vinyl on November 22, 1994, two weeks before the CD release. It debuted at number 55 on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart. The album sold 35,000
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, and, as of March 2007, has sold 4.7 million
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
staff writer Al Weisel
Al Weisel
Al Weisel was a freelance writer who lived in New York City.Weisel wrote for various publications such as Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, New York Newsday, and Us magazine. He also wrote for Premiere, Spin, Tracks, George, Travel & Leisure, Out, Time Out New York, and the Bulletin...
gave Vitalogy four out of five stars, describing the album as "a wildly uneven and difficult record, sometimes maddening, sometimes ridiculous, often powerful." While Weisel praised several songs as "[matching] the soaring anthems of Ten
Ten (Pearl Jam album)
Ten is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and...
," he criticized some of the more experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
songs as "throwaways and strange experiments that don't always work." Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praised the album's diversity compared to the band's previous records. He commented that the band incorporated "fast but brutal punk, fuzz-toned psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and judicious folk-rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
, all of it sounding more spontaneous than before." Pareles felt that the band continued to be "unremittingly glum", and described the majority of the songs as "tortured first-person proclamations." Pareles concluded, "Vedder sounds more alone than ever." Time reviewer Christopher John Farley
Christopher John Farley
For the late comedian and SNL actor, see Chris Farley.Christopher John Farley is a Jamaican-born American journalist, columnist, and author.-Early life and education:...
singled out "Bugs" as one of the album's "share of stinkers." Farley added, "But that's one admirably experimental failure on a largely successful album." Despite writing negatively of the album's "shapeless high-energy riff-rockers", Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
staff writer Ira Robbins lauded Vitalogys sound and called it a "compelling triumph of surface over substance". In a mixed review of the album, Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
perceived a lack of subject matter and lyrical substance as Vitalogys weakness.
Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine gave the album four out of five stars, stating "It speaks volumes for Pearl Jam's continuing creative acumen that they can respond so confidently to a new punk scene that has sprung up." Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
gave the album an A- rating, writing that "Three or four of these songs are faster and riffier than anything else in P. Jam's book, token experiments like "Bugs" are genuinely weird, and in an era of compulsory irony [Vedder's] sincerity is something like a relief—a Kurtlike relief at that." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a B+. He said, "Vitalogy marks the first time it's possible to respect the band's music as much as its stance." He added that "despite its musical advances, Vitalogy leaves an odd, unsettling aftertaste. You walk away from it energized, but wondering what price Eddie Vedder, and Pearl Jam, will ultimately pay for it."> Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
writer Jim DeRogatis
Jim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...
gave it three out of four stars and commended Pearl Jam for their earnest songwriting. However, DeRogatis also wrote that the album "leaves you wishing that they'd just lighten up". USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
s Edna Gundersen
Edna Gundersen
Edna Gundersen is an American journalist who is a longtime music writer and critic for USA Today.Gundersen grew up in El Paso, Texas. She attained a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and then wrote features and entertainment news for the El Paso Times from 1977 to 1987...
gave Vitalogy three and a half out of four stars and stated that it "delivers the band's most compelling, inventive and confident music to date", while calling it "the rebel yell of a band that is maturing without mellowing". Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
critic Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world...
gave Vitalogy four out of four stars and viewed its music as an improvement over Pearl Jam's previous work, writing "This isn't just the best Pearl Jam album but a better album than the band once even seemed capable of making". Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
gave the album four and a half out of five stars, saying, "Pearl Jam are at their best when they're fighting, whether it's Ticketmaster, fame, or their own personal demons." According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that, along with its sister publication Rolling Stone magazine, contains professional reviews of popular music...
(2004), "By Vitalogy PJ hit their apex … the band's creative zenith, finding them doing a Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin III is the third studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded between January and July 1970 and released on 5 October 1970 by Atlantic Records. Composed largely at a remote cottage in Wales known as Bron-Yr-Aur, this work represented a maturing of the band's...
on acoustic tracks like 'Corduroy' and turning in a Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
-like weird attack on 'Bugs'".
Three singles were released from Vitalogy. The lead single "Spin the Black Circle
Spin the Black Circle
"Spin the Black Circle" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 8, 1994 as the first single from the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by...
" (backed with B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
"Tremor Christ
Tremor Christ
"Tremor Christ" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the fourth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist Mike McCready and bass...
", also from the album), was the band's first to enter the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, reaching number 18. At the 1996 Grammy Awards
Grammy Awards of 1996
The 38th Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the night's big winner, scoring four trophies, including Album of the Year.-Award winners:...
, "Spin the Black Circle" won the band its first Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, receiving the award for Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...
. Neither of the album's other commercially released singles, "Not for You" and "Immortality
Immortality (Pearl Jam song)
"Immortality" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on June 6, 1995 as the third single from the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it was primarily written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard...
", charted on the Hot 100, but both placed on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. Album tracks "Better Man
Better Man
"Better Man" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Better Man" is the eleventh track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy...
" and "Corduroy
Corduroy (song)
"Corduroy" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the eighth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it was primarily written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the song...
" also charted. "Better Man" was the most successful song from Vitalogy on the rock charts, spending a total of eight weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock charts and reaching number two on the Modern Rock charts. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, Vitalogy received nominations for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
and Best Rock Album
Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre...
. In 2003, the album was ranked number 492 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
.
In 2011, Pearl Jam released a remastered Vitalogy, along with Vs., in three formats: an Expanded Version, a three-CD Deluxe Edition and a Limited Edition Collector's Boxed Set. The Expanded Version will feature three bonus tracks: the previously unreleased guitar/organ-only mix of "Better Man
Better Man
"Better Man" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Better Man" is the eleventh track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy...
"; a previously unreleased alternate take of "Corduroy
Corduroy (song)
"Corduroy" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the eighth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it was primarily written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the song...
" from the Vitalogy session (recorded by Brendan O'Brien); and a previously unreleased demo version of "Nothingman
Nothingman
"Nothingman" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music by bassist Jeff Ament, "Nothingman" is the fifth track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy...
", taken from the original DAT (recorded at John and Stu's in Seattle on October 14, 1993, featuring Richard Stuverud
Richard Stuverud
Richard Stuverudis an American drummer known for playing in several bands in Seattle scene. His first band was the punk rock band The Fastbacks , returning in 1987 in the side project of the vocalist Brad Sinsel , called "Suicide Squad".Soon, he joined the War Babies band in 1988, together with...
on drums). The three-CD Deluxe Edition will feature both the Legacy Versions of Vitalogy and Vs. with their bonus tracks and a copy of Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, April 12, 1994.
Packaging
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
are based. Vitalogy literally means "the study of life."
Vedder found the medical book at a garage sale. Ament stated, "Ed brought in that book, and we said man that would make a great album cover." He explained that from Vs. onwards the band tried to take different approaches to packaging its records. Ament said, "We tried really hard, to make it like a book, kind of tipped it so it opened horizontally, which pissed off record stores: they had to put it in sideways." The packaging cost an extra 50 cents per copy. Problems arose when the band discovered that later versions of the book were still under copyright. The band had to confer with their lawyers in order to work out a final version utilizing the material they wanted to include with the album.
The booklet contains outdated discussions of health and well-being. Other notes in the booklet, dealing with life and death reflections, seem to be more personal, like a message typed on one of the last pages, supposedly referring to the loss of a loved one ("I waited all day. you waited all day.. but you left before sunset...and I just wanted to tell you the moment was beautiful. Just wanted to dance to bad music...drive bad cars...watch bad TV...should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me."). The booklet also displays some poems or original sayings not belonging to the songs' lyrics, but to be interpreted as a commentary to the songs and, again, as a reflection on how life should or shouldn't be lived. An example is the poem typed on the "Aye Davanita" page. The song's subtitle is "The song without words", as it is an instrumental track. But the page displays a sort of poem about the wasted life of a young girl. Another episode of "intruder words" is on the "Not for You" lyrics page. After the second refrain, instead of the actual lyrics, the typed words give a hint about the Sisyphus
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...
myth ("Yeah, you call me Sisyphus love. Yeah, I move the rock. I just don't want to talk about moving the rock. Anything that distracts me from moving the rock"). The lyrics to "Whipping" are written on a copy of a petition to Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
against "pro-life" killings of abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
doctors. An X-ray of Vedder's teeth was pictured instead of lyrics on the page for "Corduroy".
Tour
Pearl Jam promoted the album with tours in AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1995. The band was joined by new drummer Jack Irons
Jack Irons
Jack Steven Irons is an American musician who is best known as the original drummer of the American rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as the former drummer for Eleven and Pearl Jam. He has also worked with Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Spinnerette...
. The short tour of the United States focused on the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
and the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
. The band continued its boycott against Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
during its tour of the United States, refusing to play in Ticketmaster's venue areas, but was surprised that virtually no other bands joined it in refusing to play at Ticketmaster venues. The band chose to use alternate ticketing companies for the shows.
The tour of the United States faced various troubles. Ament said that the band and its crew had to "[build] shows from the ground up, a venue everywhere we went." In June 1995, the band was scheduled to play at San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
's Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
in front of 50,000 people. Before the concert Vedder was forced to stay at a hospital after suffering from the effects of food poisoning
Foodborne illness
Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as chemical or natural toxins such as poisonous mushrooms.-Causes:Foodborne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or...
. Vedder left the hospital to play the show, however he was not able to finish and ended up performing just seven out of twenty-one songs with the band. Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
filled in for Vedder for the rest of the show that day. Vedder said, "That whole [Golden Gate Park] thing was a blur based on some bad food. It was really, really bad. Looking back at it, it doesn't seem as intense as it was, but it was horrible. I just felt not human and looking back I should have got through that show somehow, and I think the fact that Neil [Young] was there made me feel like I could get off the hook in some way and I did go out for a few songs." Because of Vedder's health the band was forced to cancel the remaining dates of its tour of the United States. Some dates were reinstated while the rest were rescheduled for the fall. About canceling the dates, Vedder said, "I think we all agreed that it had gotten insane, that it was no longer about the music." Ament later said, "We were so hardheaded about the 1995 tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career."
Track listing
Reissue bonus tracksOuttakes
"Hard to Imagine", a song previously rejected from Vs., was also recorded during the Vitalogy sessions. This version found its way on to the soundtrack for the 1998 film, Chicago Cab. "Hard to Imagine" is also included on the 2003 rarities compilation, Lost DogsLost Dogs (album)
Lost Dogs is a two-disc compilation album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 11, 2003 through Epic Records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA in the United States.-Overview:...
, however this version is the one from the Vs. sessions. According to Gossard, "Hard to Imagine" was cut from Vitalogy because it didn't fit with the other songs the band was writing at the time. "Out of My Mind", which is featured as a B-side on the "Not for You" single, was premiered on the band's 1994 spring tour of the United States and was played twice. According to Vedder, the song was just a live improv
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
.
Album
| Chart (1994) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
4 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 7 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
7 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
7 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
8 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
17 |
| Chart (1995) | Position |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
2 |
End of decade charts
| Chart (1990–1999) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 76 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Main |
US Mod |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
CAN Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
GER Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
IRE Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
NLD MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
NOR VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
SWE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | "Spin the Black Circle" | 18 | 16 | 11 | 3 | — | 92 | 6 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||
| "Tremor Christ" | — | 16 | 16 | — | 67 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1995 | "Better Man" | — | 1 | 2 | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| "Corduroy" | — | 22 | 13 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| "Not for You" | — | 12 | 38 | 29 | — | — | 26 | — | — | 10 | — | 34 | |||||||||||||||||
| "Immortality" | — | 10 | 31 | — | 62 | — | — | — | — | 29 | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personnel
Pearl Jam- Dave AbbruzzeseDave AbbruzzeseDavid James Abbruzzese is an American musician who was the drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam from 1991 to 1994. He replaced drummer Matt Chamberlain in 1991, shortly before the release of the band's debut album, Ten...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Jeff AmentJeff AmentJeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, standupDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, black and white photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film... - Stone GossardStone GossardStone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocals, mellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music... - Jack IronsJack IronsJack Steven Irons is an American musician who is best known as the original drummer of the American rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as the former drummer for Eleven and Pearl Jam. He has also worked with Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Spinnerette...
– drums on "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" - Mike McCreadyMike McCreadyMichael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitar, vocals, slide guitarSlide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles... - Eddie VedderEddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
– vocals, guitar, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
; credited as "e.v." for book concept, theory of Vitalogy, typistTypingTyping is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard. It can be distinguished from other means of input, such as the use of pointing devices like the computer mouse, and text input via speech...
Additional musicians and production
- Barry Ament – layoutPage layoutPage layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :...
- John Burton, Caram Costanzo, Adam KasperAdam KasperAdam Kasper is a Seattle area record producer and engineer, working with such bands as Cat Power, Pond, Seaweed, The Tragically Hip, Truly, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, R.E.M., Soundgarden and Pearl Jam...
, Kevin Scott, Trina ShoemakerTrina ShoemakerTrina Shoemaker is a mixer, record producer and sound engineer responsible for producing/engineering and/or mixing records for popular bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Something for Kate, Nanci Griffith and many more....
– assistance - Nick DiDiaNick DiDiaNick DiDia is an American record producer mostly known for his work with Australian rock group Powderfinger and American pop-rock group Nine Days...
– engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including... - Brett Eliason – recording/mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
on "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" - Lance Mercer – 8-Baby photo
- Brendan O'BrienBrendan O'Brien (music producer)Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
– productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, pipe organPipe organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
, Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, recording - Pearl Jam – production
- Jimmy Shoaf – drums on "Satan's Bed"
- Joel Zimmerman – art directionArt directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
External links
- Vitalogy at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Vitalogy information and lyrics at pearljam.com