“I didn’t want to leave”: The concert Eddie Vedder called the greatest in the world
For any music fan, a song is usually about much more than a catchy tune. Whereas most people just think of it as the tunes that they listen to on their way to work or play in the background of a party, there’s something about a good song that makes the listener feel like the artist is speaking to them directly whenever they press play on streaming or put the needle on the vinyl. Eddie Vedder was no stranger to adopting that role in Pearl Jam, but one of his most cherished possessions came from hearing Bruce Springsteen play live.
When Springsteen first got started, though, rock and roll was already going through a state of change. The Led Zeppelins of the world were now the biggest names in music, and despite Springsteen having some of the strongest songwriting in American history, he was used to just relying on his Dylan inspiration to get him in people’s good graces on his first few releases.
It’s no good trying to just ride Dylan’s coattails, though (just ask Barry McGuire). Springsteen needed a broader identity, and once he stepped out of the shadows on Born to Run, he truly became ‘The Boss’ that people know and love today.
He still had the same songs about rough-and-tumble kids coming from the wrong side of the tracks, but it finally had the punch that all good rock and roll is built on. Even if no one could relate to the story of ‘Thunder Road’ or the title track, hearing him pushing and pulling the E Street Band with every word is like watching a movie in your mind, even believing that people like Wendy are real people that want to escape their nowhere towns and find something better.
While all those characters were works of fiction, Vedder knew that lifestyle like the back of his hand. He had often felt lost when trying to find out his place in life, and suddenly he heard someone who may have been equally lost but was determined to carve out their own path and somehow find their home out there on the open highway.
By the time Vedder managed to see them in action, he was blown away by what he heard telling Rolling Stone, “My uncle took me: Springsteen at the Auditorium Theatre [in Chicago] in the last row. It was a vinyl seat with hay coming out of it. I thought it was the greatest thing of my life. It was a really long show, but I didn’t want to leave. When all the lights came up, some people were still there. I sat there for a half-hour waiting [afterwards].”
Despite Vedder being transformed that night, Springsteen may have indirectly predicted the angsty sound that the Pearl Jam frontman would create one album later. Darkness on the Edge of Town was still a fine record, but you could hear him slowly growing disillusioned with fame and increasingly frustrated about his place in the world on tracks like ‘Badlands’.
Even though Springsteen was heading for a rough patch, Vedder saw the blueprint for where he wanted to go with Pearl Jam, whether that meant writing more personal lyrics or adopting ‘The Boss’s mentality of playing marathon shows for hours on end. Because rock and roll meant more to both Vedder and Springsteen than just a few good tunes. If you believed hard enough, this music was enough to restore someone’s faith in a higher power.
