It's only fitting that Pearl Jam should take a seat among rock's underclass. Like Gaye, they saw the mountaintop, tasted success at the highest altitude. Like the others, they feel most at home somewhere else. Yet Pearl Jam's ambitions never resembled those of the numerous indie bands they champion. They've always come on far heavier, like they were seeking Led Zeppelin territory. Sure, sure, everyone's remarked how "Given to Fly," Yield's first single, resembles Zep's "Going to California." But that obvious tip-off aside, look how they've tried to channel their public image. Like Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam wishes to work far enough away from the pack so they stand clear of being lumped in with their peers. In Pearl Jam's case, that includes an endless array of grunge and alternative groups clogging up modern rock radio. That their fans have been fickle and taken PJ's refusal to work conventionally as a reason to move on to user-friendly groups is merely a statement about the overreach of music marketing and the disenchantment of today's rock fan. I've always figured 50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong, but 50 million pretty much ensure that most of them don't know why they're clapping in the first place.
With Yield all the signs of rapprochement are there. The symbolism is unmissable, the lyrics an easy read. Guitarist Stone Gossard's "No Way" makes it plain: "Not trying to make a difference/Stop trying to make a difference." Ticketmaster? MTV? Oh well, whatever, nevermind. As the band stood alone in its opposition, what was the point anyway? Who wants to be the sacrificial lamb, especially if all you get is crucified for having ideals in the first place? The only fight they've continued is their campaign against the jewel box. In that regard, they've managed to make the most awkward contraptions that won't fit next to anything and fall apart after a few short weeks of opening and closing. To which I'd like to say, "Thanks a lot, guys!"
Funny then to remember that when they first burst on the scene, Kurt Cobain saw them as careerists looking to piggyback on Nirvana's success and to sell out punk's "pure" vibe for major-label superstardom. That the fellas in Pearl Jam looked like rock stars with all that pretty hair, and that they chased after rock's anthemic power when other grunge bands were copping out and staring at their shoes, apparently bothered Cobain. (What, may I ask, is wrong with wanting the music you love to be your life's work? Auto mechanics don't have this ontological struggle, do they?)
Anyhow, Pearl Jam cut their hair and Cobain made a few reconciliatory remarks, and before long Eddie Vedder and Co. were standing on the Saturday Night Live stage paying tribute to Cobain's ghost as they wove their way out of "Daughter" (off their second album Vs.) and into a few bars of Neil Young's "Hey, Hey, My, My." Earlier in the evening they had previewed "Not for You," a song from the then-unreleased Vitalogy; it was a tune that moved with the punk spark of Cobain's roots. It seemed unusual in a time when all bands behave as expected by playing their latest hit up front rather than tempting the audience with something out of their reach. For Pearl Jam, it was simply another case of them staying one step ahead, defying expectation and establishing their independence.
But on that night everything you could love about high seriousness played itself out in devastating detail. As lead survivor, Vedder has taken the mantle of that seriousness to near-parodic proportions. On Yield he is credited as Ed Vedder, leading one to wonder if Edward Vedder might be the next step (where to from there, bright boy)? In the role he was born to play, Vedder was a wounded comrade burying his past, working through empathy and pain to find something deeper than the spectacle that had attracted everyone in the first place.
Vedder's sobriety has also been the best element on each of Pearl Jam's albums. Curiously, the band has always lacked the basic rock function -- the ability to rock. The rhythm section has always sounded as if a big stick were firmly stuck up its butt, making them uptight, unable to loosen up and get funky, or at least to swing. And isn't it curious how every time they hire a new drummer you read how this time the chemistry is just right. It's like reading about a new Rolling Stones album: This one is the one that will bring them back to their old glory. Well, no matter; Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden, is in the chair at present. He's damn solid and a pleasure to watch, but he may never teach them to swing.
Instead, they've adopted a jackhammer rhythm that makes them sound like a lawnmower caught on a nasty patch of weeds. Vedder's wailing above this mess often comes across like a dog's bark; quick, punctual, and struggling against itself to be heard above the din.
Pearl Jam has succeeded most with their Bic-lighter standards, the songs that sound best when there's a cheap bottle of wine in your system. Think "Black," off their debut, Ten. Or "Indifference," from Vs. Or "Immortality," from Vitalogy -- all songs that demand that you sit in your room staring at candles, pondering the great depths of it all. Vedder will sing, "Cannot find the comfort in this world" or "I will hold the candle till it burns up my arm." Every sensible part of you wants to scream out, "Enjoy the millions, Ed. They're yours. Take a cruise. Get some Prozac." Another part of you gets tired and weak and thinks maybe he's on to something. It's the same goofy melodrama that made those old Doors albums such fun. Jim Morrison was never a poet, no matter what anyone says. But he was able to get weird and make stupid things seem significant. He risked making himself look like a fool so the rest of us could sit back and laugh. Vedder emulates ol' Jim. Again, it's that sacrificial lamb thing he just can't shake.
But PJ's bread and butter has always been their early hits: "Alive," "Even Flow," "Jeremy." These are the tunes that brought them their great fame and the tunes the band has been rebelling against ever since. They're what drove them to cut their hair, stop making videos, lay off touring, and concentrate on the insular detail of making records. Vedder may have Morrison's sense of martyrdom, but he refuses to take up Jimbo's sex-god status, though for a while he could've had it. Instead, he reacted against it.
Obstinancy may be the only option for a smart guy in a postmodern world where every action and reaction has been labeled and filed even before it occurs. At least PJ has never gotten cheap and taken the easy way out. No, Vedder vents his passions, but it's up to the band to pull him back. No Code was interesting that way. Like a textbook, the album attempted to educate the palette of anyone who dared enter its domain. The album may one day prove to be among the group's most satisfying, but initially it came off as dense and labored, words that also describe obvious masterworks such as the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street and Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, or cluttered failures like Van Dyke Parks's Song Cycle or nearly anything by Elvis Costello in the past ten years.
Yield, however, finds a stronger balance between their intellectual restraint and their primal urge to beat the audience's head in. It bursts out of the gate with "Brain of J," a song with a strong descending guitar riff and just enough menace to blow the cobwebs off the stuffy art-rock self-indulgence of, say, Radiohead, a band that is sharing PJ's sober mantle, but with far less panache. "Given to Fly" has a cinematic caress that scores a moody desert scene worthy of Paul Bowles's Tangiers reveries. "Wishlist" is just the sort of muted tone poem that has replaced the anthems of yore. It threatens to detonate but then backs away from the confrontation.
Maturity has taught Pearl Jam it's best to walk away from a fight. The song "MFC" is multitextural and effective with its swirl of guitar tones. But tracks like "Low Light" and "In Hiding" point out the journeyman rock these fellas could face if they don't get their shit together. Don't believe me? Keep in mind, Vedder's closest vocal antecedent is Iron Butterfly's Doug Ingle. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" might have been a landmark of something or other, and Owsley knows it sold a billion copies (all of which have become garage-sale staples, on eight-track no less!), but it didn't do much for the band's staying power. Vedder and Co. may be struggling with whether it's better to burn out or rust, but their greatest danger might be neither. They may end up forever running in place.
Pearl Jam and opening act Rancid perform Tuesday, September 22, and Wednesday, September 23, at Coral Sky Amphitheatre, 601 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach; 800-759-4624. The shows are sold out. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
