No Code - Part 4

This is the last one, I promise!

Hi Son,

This will be my last post on “No Code.” I realize this is starting to turn into “How I Met Your Mother,” but hopefully the finale to my series won’t suck like it did for that show (damnit that show had such promise). It’s been a tough last couple of weeks. Along with all of the bull shit going on in current events, your mom will have surgery next month. In some ways I am glad you are likely too young to realize what will be going on. Hopefully it goes well and we don’t have to go down this road again. Writing these letters to you help distract me from life. Especially when it’s a record that means more to me than any other. I’ve gone over the lead up to and recording of the album, the unique and incredible packaging within the CD and record releases and not only my favorite song on “No Code” but also my favorite song in the Pearl Jam catalog. Now I’m going to describe how the rest of the tracklisting has evolved since I first experienced it.

I’ve mentioned ad nauseam about how disjointed the arrangement and really the collection of the songs that are included on this record. The music grew on me over time, but really hit a crescendo in 2018. That year was the most tumultuous, mainly because of what your mother and grandmother went through. I was very lonely, because your mom was going through a very long recovery and I didn’t really have many around me that could understand what I was going through. I found a podcast that had started in the late summer of 2017, called “Single Podcast Theory.” It was two guys, ironically named Brad, who just started a podcast to talk about their favorite band, Pearl Jam. The name of the podcast was a spoof off of a DVD that the band released in 1998, around the same time as “Yield.” The documentary was called “Single Video Theory.” The content itself is not pertinent to “No Code” because it only covered the recording of “Yield.” It was still really cool, because the band had given a view of their recording process. I’ll likely go over it in more detail when I do write about “Yield.”

In one of the early episodes, the "Brads” went over their ranking of the albums in the band’s catalog. At this time “Gigaton” and “Dark Matter” were not out, so their lists only went up to “Lightning Bolt.” What was surprising to me, yet interesting is that they both ranked “No Code” as their #1. Both of them had prepared their lists independently, so neither knew until this time that both were of the same mind. It really had me thinking differently on how I listened to the album from that point forward. From the get-go I thought “Hail, Hail” was a real banger. It was in-line with the first three records and made me wanting more of that in “No Code.” However, the first track “Sometimes” had greatly changed in my perspective. Most of the first tracks on a Pearl Jam record are intense. I’m talking “Once”, “Go”, “Last Exit”, “Brain of J” (which is where I mostly derive my Substack handle from) and “Breakerfall.” This was such a departure from that tone setting opener. Listening to it now, I absolutely love “Sometimes.” The lyrics, as I could say for every song on this record, are sublime. What really makes this track special for me is how is pairs with “Hail, Hail” so well. There are a handful of other records that do something similar. The Who’s “Quadrophenia”, Foo Fighters “Colour and the Shape”, and the Stone Temple Pilots “Tiny Music” as examples. A quiet-sounding track followed by a song that just smacks from the first beat. “Hail, Hail” pops so much more intensely when you listen to it after “Sometimes.” It’s one of the best transitions from track-to-track I have ever heard.

I’ve enjoyed “Who You Are” more in my older age. However, the song that I absolutely love is the track after it “In My Tree.” Once again, lyrics are next level. I’m going to focus on this music. Jack Irons absolutely owns this song. I’ve never heard anything as cool on the drum kit than Jack’s rhythm. It is so incredibly technical and hard as hell to replicate. This can be exemplified by the fact that Matt Cameron never tried to replicate Jack’s drumming when the band was on tour and put “In My Tree” on their set list. And Matt is a really fucking good drummer! What also stands out is Jeff’s bass. He brings it the entire song. The opening of the song is Jack’s rhythm and his bass riff, which pair so perfectly. It really hits a high during the beginning of the second chorus, where Ed sings.

“I remember when, yeah
I swore I knew everything, oh yeah
Let's say knowledge is a tree, yeah
It's growing up just like me, yeah”

After each line, Jack and Jeff drive a drum/bass riff that is so perfect. This is what really changed my view on “In My Tree.” This song I now consider to be a top-ten song in the entire catalog for myself.

“Smile” is a really cool tune. What’s fun about it is that Stone and Jeff switch roles. The song has a very “Neil Young” feel to it, especially with the harmonica added to it. Then comes “Off He Goes.” Before I listened to “No Code” in its entirety, I had heard “Off He Goes” several times after downloading the mp3 to it. It’s a six-minute ballad that is really beautiful. Then comes “Habit.” Cue another smack in the face! The song comes in raucous. I once gave the comparison of listening to “Off He Goes” on a calm drive in the mountains and then when “Habit” comes on, a wild animal comes out of nowhere and jumps on the hood of your car. It’s really in your face until the bridge where you get almost quiet and then Ed says “speaking as a child of the 90s.” I love that bit so much. Then it’s right back to heavy and grungy. The only time you really can get the full effect of “Off He Goes” into “Habit” is with the CD version or streaming. The LP’s side one ends with “Off He Goes.” In all honesty, it’s kind of a perfect time to give the tracklist an intermission, but “Habit” does not pop the same way.

Next is “Red Mosquito.” The song is this bluesy sounding, free-styling song where Mike is constantly playing around Ed’s vocals. It’s almost like Mike’s guitar feels like a mosquito is buzzing around you when you listen to it. The meaning of the song isn’t so much about an actual mosquito. If you remember from my first note on “No Code,” I talked about a show in San Francisco that Ed had to miss most of, because he was hospitalized. The rest of the story is that he had really bad food poisoning. Ed wrote the song on the day he experienced issues from the poisoning, saying he was “in the midst of a really, really bad day.” The mosquito came from the fact that Ed was “trapped” in his hotel room before going to the hospital “with an insect.”

Then comes “Lukin.” If there is a song that exemplifies the band at this time of their career, it’s “Lukin.” One of the big developments of chaos surrounding 1995 was a stalker that Ed at. This person was so obsessed that she crashed her car into Ed’s house! To hide out from his stalker, and any other crazed fans, he crashed at a friend of his named Matt Lukin. The song is only a little over a minute long and it is just Ed shouting into the mic at a frantic pace. It’s actually fun to see live as the band finds most of their set lists including it. More often than not, Ed will change some of the lyrics that he shouts into the crowd. “Present Tense” follows “Lukin,” which I will not cover given I did so extensively already. The song after, is “Mankind.” This song is not sung by Ed, it’s lead vocals are by Stone. There is a love/hate relationship with “Mankind.” Some listeners are bothered by the fact that it’s Stone singing. They also find the lyrics to be nonsensical.

“Playing with my magazine
Using up my Listerine
Like Ovaltine
And you'll be
Dipping in your battleship
For the latest tip
For the latest dream”

There are others who love the song and have found meaning in the lyrics. The refrain has the line “what’s got the whole world faking?” If you focus on that alone, I believe the rest of the words fall into place. I enjoy the song. It’s a fun rocker and it helps add to the uniqueness and mystique of “No Code.”

Now we come up to the penultimate track, “I’m Open.” I’ll be honest, for the longest time this was an easy skip. The track is spoken word by Ed with mainly a piano in the background played by Brenden O’Brien (producer). It’s actually a really serene track. If you allow yourself, you do find depth in it. Then we come to the closer “Around The Bend.” The story of this song is that it was written as a lullaby that Jack could sing to his son. It is very much a calming song that sounds exactly what it was written to be. I considered singing this song to you myself, however Ed would kind of ruin that for me after hearing a monologue he did during a 2014 show in Moline, IL. The 2014 show in Moline is actually very iconic. Not only does the band play “Around the Bend,” but they actually play the entire record from start-to-finish. After finishing the last song Eddie goes on to somewhat joking say that it “can be viewed as a lullaby or, a song from the perspective of a serial killer thinking of it’s prey.” That would be from the lines below. Given my weird sense of humor and train of thought, I’m not sure I could sing this to you.

“You're an angel when you sleep
How I want your soul to keep
On and on around the bend”

So there we have it! I’ve pretty much said all I can say about “No Code.” It’s still fascinates me that many long-time fans of the band adore the record. Especially given that it was the release to “weed out” the fans, who really weren’t devoted to the band. I wonder if this record sits so closely with Ten Clubbers because of the significance, but more importantly there really wasn’t a track off of the record that was truly a mainstream giant. The band would go on for a couple of decades longer releasing singles that would catch on. This collection of songs is really a list of deep cuts. Most diehards of any band will hang on the deep cuts. Real fans don’t just cling to the radio hits. The 13-track compilation of misfits, may clash with one another. However, I think they are the best collection of tracks on any of their records outside of Yield. This record is a roller coaster. A true symbol of someone who goes through the highs and lows of depression. When I really put my mind to “No Code” I may have been the most depressed I have ever been. Your mom was in a year-long recovery from a stroke. Your grandmother had been diagnosed with a type of cancer she did not stand much of a chance against. This is why “No Code” is coveted by me. The packaging was phenomenal, yes. “Present Tense” ended up being one of my favorite songs ever. However, it took a part of my life where I was at my lowest and it helped bring me out of it. That is why I have dedicated so much content to “No Code.” I hope someday you feel the same connection to music as I have here.

Love,

Dad