4.17 What is this I hear about hidden yield signs in the Yield booklet?
Many fans believe that each photograph in the Yield booklet contains a small hidden yield sign or something that looks like one. This has never been confirmed by the band, but it does seem that there are some "hidden" yield signs in the photos whether it is coincidence or not. It takes a little imagination to find them, but they are there. Since the fun is in finding them yourself we won't tell you where they are, but as an easy example we'll use the "push me, pull me" photo. Look towards the right hand side at the sign on the building, there is a little yield sign on there! The rest are not quite so easy, but many people insist that you can find one in every picture.

4.18 Where is the photo on the cover of Yield from?
It’s a highway in Montana. The photo is doctored to form a 360-degree panorama.

4.19 Are there any live Pearl Jam shows available commercially?
Live on Two Legs, released in 1998, was Pearl Jam's first official "live album." It is a single disc compilation taken from the 1998 North American tour. Beginning with the 2000 European Tour, Pearl Jam has begun releasing all of their concerts as official full length 2 CD bootlegs. The 2000 European tour was released in September of 2000 and the 2000 North American tour was released in early 2001. These bootlegs are available in most record stores, but apparently are produced on a somewhat limited scale, and it is not known if they will be pressed again in the future.

In addition to these live albums, you can find various live tracks as B-sides on some of the singles, and also the special release 3 part Dissident single. (see question 4.4)

Unofficially, there is tons of live and unreleased Pearl Jam available on both CD and on tape from very nice traders all around the world. Never, EVER pay for unofficial Pearl Jam. You will get ripped off, I promise. All you need to do is find a nice trader who will do a B&P (Blanks & Postage), and send them 2 blank CD-r's or two blank tapes and return postage. They will then send you back the show requested on the media provided. Easy, eh? For more info go to the Five Horizons Newbie Guide to Tape Trading. (http://www.fivehorizons.com/feature/trading.html)

4.20 What concerts are the songs on Live on Two Legs from?
That's a good question! The band didn't release a list with the album because they thought it would be fun for us to have to listen to bootleg tapes and figure it out ourselves. Well, so did we for a little bit, but it turned out to be kind of annoying and unsuccessful! We do know that all of the songs are from the '98 summer tour, none of them are from Dallas (per an interview), and we strongly suspect that at least one of the songs was actually spliced together from a couple of different performances. Talk about a wild goose chase! Well, here's a list that's about as accurate as we can get:

Corduroy Chicago, IL (6/29/98)
Given To Fly E. Lansing, MI (8/18/98)
Hail, Hail Sacramento, CA (7/16/98)
Daughter Washington D.C. (9/19/98)
Elderly Woman… W. Palm Beach, FL (9/23/98)
Untitled Columbia, MD (9/18/98)
MFC E. Troy, WI (6/27/98)
Go E. Rutherford, NJ (9/8/98)
Red Mosquito Camden, NJ (8/29/98)
Even Flow Pittsburgh (8/25/98)/Raleigh (8/31/98) splice
Off He Goes Los Angeles, CA (7/14/98)
Nothingman Kansas City, MO (7/03/98)
Do The Evolution Vancouver (7/19/98) or Detroit (8/23/98)
Better Man Rapid City, SD (6/24/98)
Black Viginia Beach, VA (9/7/98)
F*ckin' Up Boston, MA (9/15/98)

4.21 I have heard other names such as "Monkeywrench", "Checkpoint Charlie", "Self Pollution" etc. Are these albums? Where can I find them?
These are PJ sponsored radio broadcasts. Sometimes they get catchy names associated with them that would make them sound like albums. "Monkeywrench Radio" is kind of a general term Eddie has given to radio shows he DJ’s, and to the pirate-radio-station-in-a-van he used to own and use. The very first Pearl Jam radio broadcast was the show at the Fox Theater in Atlanta 4/3/94 which was carried via satellite to radio stations across the country. After the show Ed did a DJ session from the van in the parking lot. We later see that DJ alter-ego of Ed come out again in the "Self Pollution Radio" show broadcast from a house in Seattle 1/8/95 and again carried over satellite to all stations willing to play it. Here Eddie played DJ for a show that consisted of live performances from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, The Fastbacks, and Mudhoney, as well as Ed spinning tracks from a variety of records and speeches by himself and other distinguished guests. Then during the 1995 US tour they carted around the pirate-radio-station-in-a-van, called "Monkeywrench Radio," broadcasting all of the shows at a low frequency from the parking lot. A few of these broadcasts (most notably 7/11/95) were picked up by local radio stations who rebroadcast them to their listening area. Then we had the satellite broadcast of Pearl Jam’s show in Berlin Germany 11/3/96 which is commonly called "Checkpoint Charlie." After the show Ed again did a DJ show which was only carried in Germany. Then is what was another radio show called "Monkeywrench Radio" 1/31/98, which was basically the same format as Self Pollution Radio. And then finally on 3/5/98 the band’s show Melbourne Australia was broadcast on the radio across Australia on the JJJ station (and also on the internet).

Finally, some stations such as WBCN 104.1 in Boston pressed CD's of the shows to give away as promo items. This is where those pet names sometimes come from. The only one that ever was released commercially by the band was the "Live in Atlanta" collection that is actually 3 CD singles that make up one collection. This version of the Atlanta show is missing a few songs though (Better Man, Sonic Reducer, Whipping, Satan's Bed). Also there was almost a release from the 3/5/98 show "Give Way," see question 4.22 for details.

4.22 What is "Give Way"?
Give Way was a promotional CD created for the release of Single Video Theory. It contained 70 minutes of the 3/5/98 show in soundboard quality and was to be given away for free to the first customers buying the video from Best Buy stores. The day before the release, the CD’s were recalled and destroyed by Sony. Supposedly this promotion was not properly cleared with the label and/or the band. Best Buy had run a full page add about the release in it’s Sunday circular and when fans lined up at the doors to get their free CD, Best Buy was forced to give away any CD of your choice for free with purchase of SVT. Of the 50,000 CD’s pressed, only 2 or 3 have ever surfaced. The rest were destroyed and it is rumored Best Buy was threatened with a $10,000 fine for each unreturned disc.

4.23 What's up with "Last Kiss"? Where'd it come from? What records is it on?
Last Kiss is a cover of a song originally recorded by J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers in 1964. Eddie told the story of how he came upon it during the 5/7/98 ARO.space show. The story goes that Eddie found an old record of the song at the Fremont Antique Mall in Seattle shortly before the show, stayed up all night listening to it, and got the rest of the band to try it out. It was then played various times throughout the ’98 summer tour and eventually recorded at a soundcheck and released on the 1998 Fan Club single. By the spring of 1999 a few large radio stations managed to get copies of it and started to play it on the air. Radio audiences fell in love with it and it quickly became the #1 requested song in many places. More radio stations followed up on the interest and soon many stations from coast to coast were playing it in heavy rotation. The song was a phenomenal success and was shooting up the charts on radio points alone… at the time the single was not available in stores at all, so the fact that it was on the charts was pretty amazing. As the public raved over the song, the demand for a single that they could buy was very high and the band decided to allow a release, as long as all profits would be donated to benefit refugees of the Kosovo War. After the release of the single, "Last Kiss" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart making it the "most popular" Pearl Jam song ever (The purpose of the Hot 100 chart is to determine the 100 "most popular" songs in America for the given week). It was later released as part of the "No Boundaries" compilation, which also benefited Kosovar refugees. The "No Boundaries" CD is the only release of "Last Kiss" that can still be found in stores.

4.24 What the heck is that thing on the cover of Binaural?
It's an actual photograph of the Hourglass planetary nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs on the inside of the cover and on the outside of the lyrics booklet are also nebula photos. You can find out some more information about those photos on the last page of the lyrics book.

4.25 What does "Binaural" mean?
According to webster's dictionary:
Of or pertaining to, or used by, both ears.

But in this case it actually refers to binaural recording, a process which was used in recording this album.

4.26 OK, so what is binaural recording, and where can I learn more?
Well, here's how Ed puts it in layman's terms:

From CNN World Beat interview
It was a type of recording of not just the instruments, but the air around the instruments," Vedder said. "You really feel the space of the room. That's something that you miss from modern recordings."

For a more technical description, check out Five Horizon's "A Beginner's Guide to Binaural Recording" (http://www.fivehorizons.com/feature/binaural.html)

4.27 Which songs are recorded binaurally?
We don't know for sure, but it sounds like every song has at least some part recorded binaurally. The way you can tell a binaural recording is that it will have kind of an ambient echoing quality and it sounds as if you are standing in the same room. Keep in mind that only certain parts might be recorded binaurally in a song, for instance only the drums.

4.28 How do you pronounce "Binaural"?
SOUND IT OUT!

Just kidding, there are several official pronunciations, but this seems to be the most common:
Bi (rhymes with "try") + Noral (rhymes with "coral")
put them together?
Bi + Noral
BiNoral
Binoral
Binaural

See, you can do it! We knew you could.

4.29 What is on the cover of the Nothing as it Seems single?
This is a photograph taken from inside of the clock tower at the courthouse in Missoula, Montana. (Jeff's hometown)

4.30 Who is p.t. where it says "thanks p.t." on the Soon Forget lyrics page?
Pete Townshend(see question 6.7) presumably because this song seems to be derived from The Who song "Blue, Red and Grey" which Townshend wrote.

4.31 What's the deal with the official bootlegs?
Basically, Pearl Jam decided that they didn't want their fans paying huge amounts of money for poor quality recordings. They decided to do a little experiment and release soundboard copies of every show on their 2000 European tour. Originally the bootlegs were only going to be sold online through the 10 club, but to appease the record company and retailers they released them to record stores as well. Pearl Jam then went on to release both legs of the U.S. tour too.

4.32 What is the little monkey/man symbol in the corner of a few of the bootlegs?
On the back of several of the boots there is a small Monkey/Man symbol in the lower left-hand corner. These marked boots are ones that Sony recommended to get if you couldn't decide. The recommendation was intended for smaller record store who did not want to carry all 25 Euro boots. The recommendations are not necessarily made directly by the band.

4.33 Are they releasing boots for all future shows?
Pearl Jam does indeed have plans to release bootlegs for the upcoming 2003 tour. There is no information yet about whether this will include the Australian and Japan tour.

4.34 What is Riot Act named after?
There has been no official word about the origins of the album name. Two commonly held beliefs about the name are:

1. 1715 Riot Act - The 1715 Riot Act was an attempt to strengthen the power of the civil authorities when threatened with riotous behaviour. The act made it a serious crime for members of a crowd of twelve or more people to refuse to disperse within an hour of being ordered to do so by a magistrate.

2. 2001 US PatRIOT Act - To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.

Top

SECTION 5 - SONG INFO

5.1 Does Pearl Jam play [insert song] live?
Pearl Jam has played almost every song they have released live at one time or another. There are a few exceptions though. As far as we know, they have never played Gremmie Out of Control, Bugs, Pry To, Master/Slave, Hummus, Aye Davanita, Happy When I'm Crying, Olympic Platinum, or Strangest Tribe, and maybe a few others live.

5.2 What is [songs] about and what's the inspiration?
The only people who can answer that are the members of Pearl Jam and they insist that interpretations of songs are totally up to the listener, as such they seldom discuss the meaning behind songs.

5.3 Yeah, yeah.. but, what does Yellow Ledbetter REALLY mean? Also, where can I find this recording?
Yellow Ledbetter, that now famous B-side, is written by Mike (can you hear the Jimi Hendrix tribute?), Jeff, and Eddie. It can be found on the JEREMY maxi-single and a live version can be found on the DAUGHTER single as well as another version on the Tibetan Freedom Concert compilation. This is another song that people ask what its meaning is and what the heck the lyrics are. NO ONE but the band really knows what the meaning of this song is or what the title refers to. Heck, we don't even know what Eddie is mumbling on it! Like a lot of Pearl Jam songs, it's open to your own interpretation. The songbook has what we think is a good guess to the lyrics but again who knows?

The Japanese cd single with YL also has some lyrics on it but they don't seem to jibe with what he's saying. All we know is there's a porch where people don't wave, someone doesn't want to stay and there's a box or a bag somewhere... Eddie also tends to improvise this song's lyrics when Pearl Jam plays it live. So again, the best thing to do is sit back, absorb and enjoy the beautiful, haunting music...Don't drive yourself crazy by analyzing it for its true meaning.

5.4 Why does Footsteps sound almost exactly like Temple of the Dog's Times of Trouble?
Footsteps was written by Vedder as part 3 of the Mini-Opera at the same time that Chris Cornell was putting his Times of Trouble lyrics to the same Stone Gossard riff. So both songs eventually emerged. Technically speaking, Vedder's came first. As he says, "Chris has his version and I have mine..."

5.5 What does Eddie whisper in the beginning of Release?
Well, put your headphones on, and turn up the volume WAY UP and you can hear Eddie whisper "Oh father" before he starts moaning and the song starts. Some people also claim that they hear Eddie mistakenly begin to sing the first line from the song Oceans, but I myself have never been able to hear that.

5.6 What does Eddie mumble in the song Once (almost near the end)?
"You think I've got my eyes closed, but I'm looking at you the whole fucking time."

5.7 Who is Dirty Frank?
The inspiration for Dirty Frank was Pearl Jam's tour bus driver in the early days. In an early interview, members of PJ described him as being just a bit odd. They would be driving all night to some gig and would find several empty cans of beer under the driver seat. The band members had an inside joke that he was probably some serial killer and psycho that ate people.. and thus the song Dirty Frank was born. This written around the same time they were on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, hence the funky feel to the song as a sort of tribute to them..(This was explained during an interview with Guitar Player Mag in 1992).

**sidenote**One of the lines in Dirty Frank, "Dirty Frank was a bad mutha..shut
yer mouth..etc.." was "copied" from the "Theme from Shaft", a song from another
70's movie called "Shaft", about a detective named John Shaft.

5.8 In the song Rats, who the heck is Ben?
This is a popular question that tends to resurface a lot, so here's what seems to be the story. Ben is in reference to the Michael Jackson song "Ben". "Ben" was a song from the 70's movie also named "Ben" which was a sequel to the movie "Willard". Willard was a movie about a young loner who befriends a rat named Ben. Ben turns into a killer rat that leads other rats into harming others, etc. The killer rat returns in the sequel called "Ben". Eddie Vedder has always said that he was a big Motown fan and a big Jackson 5 fan when he was a young boy. He has said that one of the first records he ever listened to was "ABC" by the Jackson 5 and he gets "chills" when he sees the Motown logo. And yes, in the Atlanta 4/3/94 show, when Eddie says "Michael Jackson is innocent", it IS in reference to Michael Jackson and the molestation charges against him at the time.

5.9 What the heck is a "Daughter tag"
A tag is a snippet of a song that the band adds (or "tags") to the beginning, end, or middle of another song. For instance the band often "tags" the song "Save it for Later" onto the end of "Betterman". Almost every time Pearl Jam plays "Daughter" they put one or more "tags" onto the end. They have done many many many different songs as "Daughter tags" and it is always interesting to find out what the "Daughter tags" are at any concert.

5.10 What is the stuff at the end of Daughter on Live on Two Legs? Is that a "Daughter tag"?
Yes! This is a "Daughter tag" (see question above). In this case the songs being tagged are a part of "Rockin in The Free World" by Neil Young, "WMA", and some noises that sound like "Whale Song."

5.11 What is he mumbling at the end of Corduroy?
"It's your move now...I thought you were a friend, but I guess I, I guess I hate you..."

5.12 Is Immortality about Kurt Cobain?
In an interview with the LA times in Nov. 1994, Eddie has said that Immortality was not about Kurt Cobain. The song did have different lyrics when PJ started playing it during the spring 94 tour than the final version on Vitalogy. And yes during the Atlanta 4/3/94 show (the live broadcast one) Eddie did mention that he hoped Kurt was ok. (This was the period after KC's overdose in Rome and when he was missing) Sadly enough, Kurt Cobain died a few days after this broadcast.

5.13 Who is that playing the harmonica on Smile and Driftin?
That's Eddie!

5.14 I like the song "Mankind" but Eddie sounds weird on it, why?
Mainly because it's not Eddie that sings lead on this song! Eddie does do some backing vocals but Stone Gossard does the lead vocals on this song.

5.15 ok, ok, so Stone sings "Mankind" but what does "Bacchanal" mean in the lyrics for this song?
The dictionary lists this word as referring to a drunken celebration initially in the honor of Bacchus or a person that goes to such an event, a reveler. In addition, in a recent article it was written that "Bacchanal" is the name of a club in San Diego that Eddie frequently played in with his former band, Bad Radio.

5.16 What the hell is a Lukin?
This refers to Matt Lukin, a former band member of the band Mudhoney and good friend of Ed’s.

5.17 What is the low voice saying during the chorus of "Pilate"?
"Obeys, listens, kisses, loves"

5.18 Did I hear PJ cover "This Boy"? Isn’t that making fun of Ed? What’s the deal?
The song This Boy is not an improv but a song written in 1994 about Eddie Vedder by the recently disbanded L.A. group, That Dog. Two of the women in the band perform on the Mike Watt album, Ballhog or Tugboat and apparently they met Ed, and were terribly embarrassed as the song ridicules him ("How could they make such a fuss over this boy?"). He asked for a copy of the record when he met them!! This Boy was first performed by PJ as a Daughter tag at the 6/20/95 Red Rocks show and was covered at a few other 95 shows. [Thanks so much to Jean Bruns for this great info!]

5.19 I've heard this song "Open Road", was it ever released? What's its deal?
Open Road is the name given to an improv/jam that PJ did at Phoenix, AZ 09/13/95. It sounds like a full song and the rumor pit confirmed it to be a PJ song, not a cover or anything. It's never been commercially released.