Set for release on Record Store Day (April 22nd ) is Pearl Jam‘s Give Way live collection. The set will be limited to 4,000 CD’s and 15,500 double-LP’s. The infamous live set was originally prepped for release back in 1998 as a promotional live disc featuring 17 tracks from Pearl Jam’s Melbourne Park concert in Melbourne, Australia on March 5th, 1998.
PearlJamOnline.it posted the backstory to the Give Way CD:
Give Way was intended to be given away for free the day of the release of (1998’s) Single Video Theory to the first customers purchasing 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.
Of the 50,000 CDs pressed, most copies were destroyed and it is rumored Best Buy was threatened with a $10,000 fine for each unreturned disc. Despite that, a number of copies surfaced over the years (impossible to exactly determine how much of them are survived, but a good guess would be at least 250/300).
This CD has been professionally mixed/mastered, and although it’s not the complete show the audio quality is far superior to any other source available including the pre-FM Sony promo. The title Give Way is a nod to the Australian counterpart to the Yield sign of the United States.
Over 30 years on, Pearl Jam remains one of the most consistent live acts around. Guitarist Mike McCready explained a while back why he thinks that is: [“The sure-fire thing is just a confidence in our band, and I know that we’ve done that before and we’ll do it again, because we are a really good, tight live band. And a lot of that is non-spoken because we’ve played together for so long. It’s an interesting thing. I don’t know if there’s a sure-fire way of doing it, but I think we hit it pretty well most times we do it.”] SOUNDCUE (:19 OC: . . . we do it)
Bassist Jeff Ament told us a while back that even with several decades under its belt, the band is still eager to explore new sounds: [“We wanted to be a band that could really dip our toes into a lot of different styles. And I think we’re there and we still know that there’s more that we could do. There’s still some areas that we can get into.”] SOUNDCUE (:10 OC: . . . could get into.)
The trackisting to Pearl Jam’s Give Way is:
“Release”
“Brain Of J.”
“Animal”
“Faithful”
“In My Tree”
“I Got Shit”
“Corduroy”
“Even Flow”
“Spin The Black Circle”
“Given To Fly”
“Hail, Hail”
“M.F.C.”
“State Of Love And Trust”
“Do The Evolution”
“Alive”
“Black”
“Immortality”
