Epic 66900
Producers: Brendan O’Brien and Pearl Jam
Track listing: Last Exit / Spin the Black Circle / Not for You / Tremor Christ / Nothingman / Whipping / Pry, to / Corduroy / Bugs / Satan’s Bed / Better Man / Aye Davanita / Immortality / Hey Foxymophandlemoma, That’s Me
December 24, 1994
1 week
“Spin the Black Circle,” Pearl Jam’s punk rock-style ode to vinyl records, took on new meaning on December 10, 1994, when Vitalogy, the album featuring the track, entered The Billboard 200 at number 55 based on sales of the vinyl LP alone. It was the first time an album available only on vinyl had charted since LPs began disappearing from record store shelves in the late ’80s. The band chose to release its third album on vinyl two weeks before the CD and cassette version as a tribute to the LP and as a treat for its hardcore fans. The following week, the vinyl version of Vitalogy dropped to number 173, allowing the band to make history a second time a week later, when the cassette and CD were released and Vitalogy rocketed up 172 places to Number One, marking the biggest jump in the history of the album chart.
The impressive sales of the vinyl version of Vitology represented a victory of sorts for the band. Says bassist Jeff Ament, “[Pearl Jam vocalist] Eddie [Vedder] wrote ‘Spin the Black Circle’ because he loves vinyl. He loves the way it looks, sounds, and feels.” The vinyl version of Vitalogy has the look rock album and feel of a ’70s rock album. The cover of the gatefold sleeve looks like an old photo album. One sleeve of the two-pocket jacket houses an eight-page booklet filled with photos, handwritten and typed lyrics, and passages and graphics culled from the 1927 book by Dr. E.H. Ruddick after which the album is named.
“Besides the sound quality and the warmth it presents, a lot of it has to do with the package,” says Ament. “A jewel box, and even worse a cassette case, seems really cold and impersonal, and it’s really bad to put a piece of art on.
“It was fun putting the package together,” he adds. “There’s lots of little surprises. There was something cool about buying a favorite band’s record when you were a kid. It was fun to see what was inside.”
The CD version is also housed in a special package containing no plastic. The booklet, reduced to CD size, is 36 pages, and the disc is stored in a black sleeve, reminiscent of an old 78 jacket. “Essentially what we tried to do with the CD package is make it more like an album package. it feels really organic,” Ament says.
Vedder found the book Vitalogy in a thrift store, Ament says. “He had it in the studio about six or seven months ago, and we thought it would be great for the album. The word itself, ‘vitalogy,’ is really amazing. It really brings to mind what music means to us — this science of being vital.”
After the pressure-cooker making of Vs., Pearl Jam opted to take a different approach, although on cuts such as “Not for You” Vedder sounds just as angry and disillusioned as he had on the hardest Vs. tracks. “We’d get together and record a song here and there and tried to take the whole scheduling thing out of it,” says Ament. “There was no pressure. We just got together and jammed and three or four songs would come out of it.”
Vitalogy was recorded at dates in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Seattle. “Last Exit,” “Tremor Christ,” and “Nothingman” were recorded in New Orleans, while Atlanta sessions generated “Immortality,” “Not for You,” and “Corduroy.”
Says Ament, “We just make music that is important to us and feels good to us. If people like it, it’s a bonus.” With Vitalogy, Pearl Jam once again got their bonus.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 24, 1994
1. Vitalogy, Pearl Jam
2. Miracles: The Holiday Album, Kenny G
3. Live at the BBC, The Beatles
4. Merry Christmas, Mariah Carey
5. II, Boyz II Men