Be warned. In the true spirit of Into the Wild I’m going off the grid for this review. Going philosophical. Going free-wheeling. Maybe even going (a little bit) crazy.
I love Eddie Vedder’s voice. If I were putting together a dream band, I’d be hard pressed not to have Vedder involved. Bono can be the frontman, the entertainer, the big giant head – but we’ll let Eddie do the singing. He has one of those voices I like to hear stretched over songs. His own songs, cover songs – it doesn’t really matter.
When I first heard that Sean Penn was doing the film version of Jon Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild, I was immediately curious. Sean Penn is one of my favorite directors, and while I hadn’t read the book about Christopher McCandless wandering death in Alaska– it sounded epic. When Eddie Vedder signed on to do the soundtrack as a solo artist it was almost too good to be true.
The Into The Wild soundtrack contains eleven tracks, but seven clock in at less than three minutes – a handful closer to one minute in duration. Hell, maybe Vedder is redirecting his energy away from Ticketmaster and towards the new music goliath, Apple’s iTunes. Must be hard for them to sell a $0.99 download when you can nearly hear the entire track in the :30 preview. At least they didn’t shorten to :15 previews or something although they did split up the last track “Guaranteed” to be sold as both the singing version and the humming version, nice. The casual music or even Pearl Jam fan won’t find much here. But Into the Wild is a welcome pleasure for the few of us who believe music should tell a story, make us think, affect the decisions we make in our lives, and change the world.
Sure there are some songs like “Rise” where Vedder makes the journey of Into the Wild a breezy one. You can find yourself barefoot on the dashboard riding the wave (where it takes me!) with outstretched hand out the window on a song like “Rise.” There’s something very campfire in Vedder’s voice. It’s got that REI, frontier range. His voice wouldn’t sound small in big places. That’s why he’s perfect for the Into the Wild soundtrack. But the real magic doesn’t come from passively listening to this disc, it comes from opening your mind to the debate and the magnetic pull of the Into the Wild story – here told in its music form.
While doing the business travel thing early this week I found myself sitting in a lot of airport lines. I would listen to the flight attendants as they announced, “At this time our Sky Team Elite members and people seated in Exit rows may begin boarding.”
After you notice that everyone on the plane is apparently a member of the Sky Team, you can watch the herd move towards the gate agents like cattle. Sure some of the travelers have a little more fashion, downtown glasses, more interesting luggage to carry. But it’s really a sea of slightly overweight corporate men shuffling their way around the country. As I sat there in line holding my Into the Wild soundtrack, it seemed appropriate to ask, and to what end? What are we all really doing anyway? If at the end of the day it’s about being good to your wife, your kids, there’s probably a simpler way to do this. And best I can tell we certainly spend most of our time chasing other things.
I remember a few years back Kare 11 news here in the Twin Cities did an investigative report on the nightly news where they had discovered that some of the guys who work the assembly line had been smoking pot on their lunch break at the Ford Ranger plant in Saint Paul. The news crew hid and filmed these big burly, Deadwood style men sitting at picnic tables smoking a joint on their lunch break. The men they showed were real men. Men who own a thermos, men working a job that means they’re probably missing a finger or two. Men who sneak a puff just to make the grind of the day go by faster.
At the end of the report the investigative TV news crew got right in the faces of some of the guys as they were leaving their shift and busted them on film for smoking pot on their lunch. I’ll never forget the footage of this one guy yelling back at the news crew. He just kept saying, “Yeah, I make stuff. It’s what I do. I make trucks. That’s what I do. What do you do? What do you make?”
I was always haunted by that. I thought he brought up a wonderful point. What in the world is a news report like that doing for the world? What are they making? What is their product, their craft, their trade? Makes me wonder if people who do something, the people with a tangible craft aren’t happier in life.
This life riddle has been on my mind for a long time. It’s the reason I fell in love with the parable of The Angler and the Executive when a buddy emailed it to me years ago:
THE ANGLER AND THE EXECUTIVE - Working for a Living
An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while, senor."
The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, but a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to middlemen you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
It seems better to be the Angler. And to focus on what matters (clue: it’s not stuff). As I started listening to Into the Wild I asked myself what do I make? What lifestyle would make me happiest and most fulfilled?
I think Eddie Vedder gets this riddle in spades. You can see it in the way he’s managed or maybe mismanaged Pearl Jam’s career to expertly balance fame and authenticity. As Bono put it “every mission bites the nails of success.” Think about it, Pearl Jam didn’t make videos for their songs, took on Ticketmaster, and released a CD of every live show they did one year (the labels love that!).
While studying abroad I went to see Pearl Jam live in Australia on St. Patrick’s Day once. I only remember a few of their songs before I woke up in my dorm room with a torn t-shirt next to my bed. But the one thing I do remember is how they opened their set playing the five minute epic “Release” completely in the dark. There’s something in that simplicity that shows power in the underdone.
Vedder’s solo stuff on Into the Wild addresses the little debate I know many of us have in our minds: Is it better to . . . 1) bust our ass to get the addition on the house, the right cars, the right life 2) live above the game (or below) and just focus on what matters or find a career that’s a bigger contribution to society or 3) do we try to get filthy rich before we’re 40 so we can “afford to” become the high school teacher the kids always ask to speak at graduation –perhaps the best of both worlds. I don’t know the answer. I just know the Into the Wild soundtrack makes me think it’s very important to figure that out and to set a course even if that course is a very bohemian and shaggy choice number 4) to begin life where the road ends like McCandless did.
Truth be told the music on Into The Wild is nowhere near as compelling as the lyrics. And Vedder’s lyrics are masterful in their simplicity. This is the sort of stuff a college English class could dedicated a full week to on the syllabus.
Here is a song by song breakdown of the musical companion piece Vedder has created to McCandless’ famous journey:
“Setting Forth” is the untethered tale of letting go as well as the beginning of a journey moving “forward in reverse.” Maybe the thing that feels most real today is the pain of your knuckles scraping on the ground again. Maybe it feels better to get all Siddhartha and just look around and listen. To paint the face, play the bongos naked, and just smell the air, man.
“No Ceiling” shows that true wisdom comes from “believing more than I had.” Vedder seems to say it’s not the stuff you accumulate that matters it’s the experiences. When you’re in love with the intangibles, “this love has got no ceiling.” A statement flying in the face of the corporate ladder for certain.
“Far Behind” is where the protagonist goes further than I’m comfortable. We still see the central tension of the rat race with lyrics like “empty pockets will allow a greater sense of wealth” and “why contain yourself like any other book on the shelf.” A human truth especially today when you think of all the people that collect music and DVDs and books for their homes. Time spent accumulating stuff for their walls. I’ve always found it better to just pass a book on to someone else. Feel like stuff should go through you not be buried with you. That’s where the energy really is passing on the juice like that.
But on “Far Behind” we also hear a story of a person ready to leave all companionship and spend the rest of his life one with only nature and maybe his shadow. Not speaking directly to me anymore, but I’m sure it makes for a hell of a book/movie.
“Rise” is one of the fuller songs on the record with that familiar Pearl Jam sound (two minutes of it anyway). Lyrically exploring similar what does it all add up to themes clearly warn us that if you’re not careful the race against time can quickly turn into a life spent “turning mistakes into gold” and “burning black holes in memories.” As a dad and a husband all this makes me want to call a family meeting and ask what it’s all about. What’s our family plan? Mission? What are we here to do? What do we make? I used to think that sounded scary sort of pyramid scheme-ish, like I was “living the principle” or something. But now I’m not so sure that the alternative of not having a plan isn’t more frightening.
I suspect the Into the Wild soundtrack follows a similar story arch to the movie, and on track five “Long Nights” the lights continue to go out with our narrator slowly fading into the wilderness. The music has turned to night, but when Vedder sings “I am Falling” and his downy voice actually goes up in pitch, somehow we actually believe it will all be OK.
Instrumental “Tuolumne” provides the Ms. Pacman “They Meet” intermission we somehow need. It’s a little one-minute strum reminiscent of “Dust in the Wind.”
After intermission is where the snippets turn into songs on Into the Wild. The story has changed, something has happened, he’s strong again – or at peace anyway. “Hard Sun” must be the song when the credits role. We go from poetry to music here. Vedder cheats a bit using a mother earth metaphor to have nature become a female companion probably so he can get a song on the record that has a shot for radio play. “In the big hard world” even sounds like a march, makes me wonder if it’s cattle. Or people in line to board the airplane. Interesting to note while “Hard Sun” is called out on the album sticker on the cover, it’s one of only two songs on the album that Vedder did not write himself.
Vedder didn’t write “Society” either, but it’s a lyrical masterpiece of the riddle of life. It’s a last call song, a checking out song as our protagonist . . .Hell, lets call him our hero at this point says “I think I need to find a bigger place.” He asks Society to please not think less of him it’s just that the math simply didn’t work out. Irish folkie Jerry Hannan wrote “Society” and also provides background vocal and guitar here.
“The Wolf” is another spirit horse style instrumental transition taking us to chapter three where we finish with a bit of filler in “End of the Road” which is a better headline (“For me it begins at the end of the road”) than it is a song. “End of the Road” is one of the only spots where Vedder seems a bit fatigued, but perhaps this song is used as more of an instrumental score in the film –I’ve yet to see it.
“Guaranteed” is a bad ass finish with Vedder adding a little strut and certainty to his message. With lyrics like these:
“half their lives they’ll say goodnight to wives they’ll never know”
“everyone I come across in cages that they bought”
“I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me”
“Guaranteed” is the punctuation point as if to say I told you so, and the finish to an album that’s a wonderful series of little points that all adds up to one big story.
Into the Wild is a tough disc to recommend. It’s not something you’ll want in your car everyday. Vedder fans will like tracks like “Society,” a great modern American folk song. They’ll also like songs like “Hard Sun” and “Guaranteed.” But the real magic is in the writing. I’ll need to read Krakauer’s book to confirm how much are Eddie’s words here vs. his. But if half of the prose belongs to Vedder he’s done an amazing job here of being true to the story that I know of it while adding a new dimension through the music. Not to mention he made me think. So for the few of us that like to sit with the liner notes and dissect music –you will love Into the Wild, but this record won’t appeal to the Pearl Jam Ten masses.
I’ll post the full “Society” lyrics later in the week for those of you still curious after 2,700 words.
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