“These pop songs almost feel like tabloid journalism, in a way. It's c**p that people seem to like. And I don't know if it has meaning. I don't know if one of the pop songs of the summer has any fibre in it. People are consuming it, and is it healthy?... Maybe there's some healthy property or some restorative property that I'm not receiving. It seems like it has a really high fructose content.” PeopleIfsKnowsWayFeelsSeemsSongHealthySummerPropertyPopsJournalismReceivingConsumingTabloidsPop Song Author:Eddie Vedder
“I don't work so hard at trying to get every song to be three-dimensional and mean so much. I just want to breathe, right now, with the music.” WantTryingMeanHardSongThreeRight NowBreathe Author:Eddie Vedder
“Singing someone else's songs is like keeping your clothes on.” SongClothesSinging Author:Eddie Vedder
“I've been writing and collecting songs on the ukulele for at least 10 years, so it was time to clear them out of the apartment building and make room for some new occupants.I need to make room for the bassoon record.” NeedsWritingYearsSongRoomsClearRecordsBuildingApartmentCollectingUkuleleBassoon Author:Eddie Vedder
“I was starting to play the ukulele at the same time I was having all these conversations with [the late Ramones guitarist] Johnny Ramone, these intense tutorials staying up late and listening to the music he grew up on, and picking up what's a great song and what makes a great song. He was all about lists and dissecting songs, like what's a better song by Cheap Trick: "No Surrender" or "Dream Police"? Sometimes you'd be surprised by the answer. It was an interesting dichotomy between hanging out with the godfather of punk rock and starting to play the ukulele. They came together.” SometimesPlayDreamTogetherSongAnswersInterestingRocksListeningGrewConversationLateGrew UpPoliceStartingListsSurrenderTricksIntenseStayingHanging OutPunkGuitaristPunk RockDichotomyUkuleleRamonesDissectingTutorial Author:Eddie Vedder
“I can still write blues songs because I remember everything.” WritingStillsI CanRememberSongRemembers Everything Author:Eddie Vedder
“I think music is the greatest art form that exists, and I think people listen to music for different reasons, and it serves different purposes. Some of it is background music, and some of it is things that might affect a person's day, if not their life, or change an attitude. The best songs are the ones that make you feel something.” PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsPersonsArtDifferentReasonMightFormPurposeSongAttitudeMusic IsMusicalBackgroundsListening To MusicBackground Music Author:Eddie Vedder
“I am not a good enough writer to have an agenda or come up with a message and try to put it into a song. It's more like you write what comes to you... You try to reflect the mood of the songs.” WritingTryingEnoughSongLike YouMessagesCome UpMoodAgendasGood Enough Author:Eddie Vedder
“If at noon you sit down and there's just silence or blank tape, in an hour if you have a song, that didn't exist an hour ago. Now it exists and it might exist for a long time. There's something empowering about that.” IfsLongMightSongHoursSilenceLong TimeDown AndEmpoweringTapeBlankNoon Author:Eddie Vedder
“Pretty much at all times music motivates me. How can I say this without sounding in any way proud of myself? Obviously I've always written songs that are critical of our government, and talk about our times. Hopefully you attempt to be timeless while doing it.” WayGovernmentSongWrittenProudCriticalAll TimeHopefullyOur TimeTimelessProud Of Myself Author:Eddie Vedder
“When I was 13, I got my first guitar, and I could sort of play Ted Nugent songs, but I couldn't play the solos. But I could play along with entire Ramones songs.” FirstsPlaySongGuitarSoloRamones Author:Eddie Vedder
“It’s a song about first relationships and letting go. It’s very rare for a relationship to withstand the Earth’s gravitational pull and where it’s going to take people and how they’re going to grow. I’ve heard it said that you can’t really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It’s a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can’t have forever.” PeopleFirstsSaidEarthSongGrowsForeverHeardLetting GoUnrequited LoveHarshTruestUnrequited Author:Eddie Vedder
“This little four-string songwriting tool started changing the way I brought songs to the group.” WayLittlesSongFourGroupsToolsStringsSongwriting Author:Eddie Vedder
“It's more like you write what comes to you... You try to reflect the mood of the songs. Take 'Rearviewmirror', we start off with the music and it kinds of propels the lyrics. It made me feel like I was in a car, leaving something, a bad situation. There's an emotion there. I remembered all the times I wanted to leave.” FeelsWritingTryingKindMadeWantedSongEmotionSituationCarLike YouLeavingMoodRememberedBad Situations Author:Eddie Vedder
“That's part of the curse: If you're gonna play the song, you better play it. I've tried to phone in 'Jeremy' a few times, and it's tough. It doesn't work.” IfsPlaySongToughPhonesCurse Author:Eddie Vedder
“Before music videos first came out, you’d listen to a song with headphones on, sitting in a beanbag chair with your eyes closed, and you’d come up with your own visions, these things that came from within. Then all of a sudden, sometimes even the very first time you heard a song, it was with these visual images attached, and it robbed you of any form of self-expression.” FirstsSelfSometimesEyeFormSongVisionHeardExpressionSittingFirst TimeCome UpVideoVisualsChairsSelf ExpressionHeadphonesVisual Images Author:Eddie Vedder
