Saturday, August 4, 2012

New Old Songs

It is great discovering new music from an artist that you have never experienced.  Each artist brings a new twist into their genre of music so in a way it is like experiencing that music style for the first time because you have never heard it with that artist's interpretation.

I hope this blog can help facilitate that experience for everyone.

However, there is something great about stumbling onto an incredible song from a band that you already know.  It is almost like hearing a family member or old friend take a stance on an issue or dive into a deep discussion that you never knew they would be interested in.  It is really exciting because you never knew you could go there with them while also a bit shocking because you wonder how you missed this part of them for so long.

My recent experience was with our old friend Pearl Jam.  Last September I was lucky enough to see them in concert (mostly thanks to good friends and a very supportive wife) at their 20th anniversary two day festival in Wisconsin.  Since then I have be absorbing every bit of live Pearl Jam that I can get my hands on.

While listening through 'Live at the Gorge' (album cover below - I highly recommend) I came across 'Footsteps'.  Despite this being a b-side song it was on their Lost Dogs album.

(Source)

Maybe it is a song that everyone is familiar with but I was not.  Needless to say it has been playing over and over again through my iphone and in my head (along with the Baroness singles listed in the last posting which makes for a weird combination). 



Sometimes discovering one or two new songs from an artist you already love is just as exciting as finding something new.  Enjoy some 'Footsteps' and let us know what other songs by an artist you love caught you off guard because you never knew they were there.

4 comments:

  1. Alive, Once and Footsteps are a trilogy about Eddie's father situation, sometimes they'll play them all in order during the first encore of a show. Do they do that on the Gorge record?

    I'll make some additions to this list, I've definitely had the same thing happen, particularly after a show.

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  2. I think the parallel between hearing a newish song from an artist you love and having a groundbreaking conversation with an old friend is spot on. I completely agree.

    Two examples immediately came to mind for me:
    1. when Kanye came on the scene I liked him casually, for his hits, and that's it. Then a friend put "school spirit" on a mix for me and I was blown away. I went to go buy whatever new album he must have dropped, only to find it was already in my itunes. Then I began working my way through all of his stuff.

    2. when my friends danced to "Each Coming NIght" by Iron & Wine for their wedding. I knew the song but only in passing through the record ("our endless numbered days"), I never spent time with it and really never considered it something to make such a big part of such a big day. So I went home and re-listened and re-listened and re-listened.

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  3. I should have thought of this immediately--the clearest example of this for me is Black Country Woman from Side 2 of Physical Graffiti. I think Side 1 just dominates so much that Side 2 gets lost outside of In the Light and Down by the Seaside, but Black Country Woman is now one of my favorite Zep songs period. Trying to think of how I stumbled onto it; I think I passed out on a plane with Physical Graffiti playing on my IPOD and just woke up to it, and was like, "holy shit."

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  4. Wow, that is a good call. That song is never brought up when people talk about Zeppelin but it will kick your ass.

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