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May 20, 2019: Vitalogy (Read on SPT Episode 96)

Hi Brad and Brad,

After listening to The Porch Podcast's episode on "Not For You," featuring the one and only Brad Lyons, I found myself getting back into Vitalogy.  This has been a go-to for me, when I feel like things are starting to slip from my control and I need something more aggressive to vent my frustration.  I feel like I can relate to the message of the record, in terms of the feeling of not wanting to change who you are at your core, just because you've achieved some kind of status or role in life.  When I first got the CD, I would pretty much anticipate getting through every track ahead of "Betterman" skipping a few on the way.  It was one of my favorite songs when I first got into the band.  Now several years later, when I listen to the record from front-to-back, I forget that "Betterman" is even on the track list.  It doesn't hit me until halfway through "Satan's Bed" that "Betterman" is still to come. 

When I first got into Vitalogy, I enjoyed the first three tracks, especially "Not For You" and would then kind of gloss through until I got to "Corduroy." It wasn't that I didn't like the songs in between "Not For You" and "Corduroy," I just didn't really give them much of a chance at the outset for some reason.  Maybe at that point in my life, other than "Nothingman," most of the tracks on Vitalogy were too weird for me.  I've come to appreciate "Tremor Christ," "Pry, To," "Bugs," "Satan's Bed" and "Aye Davanita." I think back on how much of a travesty it was that I would skip "Satan's Bed" almost every time I heard the whip crack, just so I could get to "Betterman!" (Just as a quick sidebar, do you sometimes wonder why they didn't use the whip at the beginning of "Whipping" instead of "Satan's Bed?")  i don't feel this is as pronounced as the beginning of No Code ("Sometimes" into "Hail, Hail"), but I get some of the same effect when I listen to "Pry, To" going into "Corduroy." The end of "Pry, To" when Eddie starts to shout "P-R-I-V-A-C-Y" and then it fades out, gets quiet, and slowly ramps up into "Corduroy."

The last thing I'll say about Vitalogy is my analogy for "Stupid Mop." I love the Beatles and enjoy "Revolution No. 9." Everytime i hear "Stupid Mop" I think of "Revolution No. 9" and think what if there was the same controversy if you played "Stupid Mop" backwards and there was some mixed message like "Stone is Dead." Then in fact, we've been enjoying a Stone Gossard doppelganger for the last 25 years!  Usually I'll stop listening to the album at "Immortality" but there are some rare instances where I will go into "Stupid Mop."

Something coincidental on this topic.  I was in a record store on Saturday and happened to stumble upon an original, 1994 LP of Vitalogy.  It was too good to pass up, so I bought it.  I guess this means I need to get a record player!







Forced to endure, what I could not forgive,

Chris

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