Eddie Vedder Covers "Sugar Mountain"

Eddie Vedder covers "Sugar Mountain" by Neil Young in Toronto August 21, 2009 on YouTube.

Apparently, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists were slated to open the show but Leo ended up stuck at the border, resulting in just The Pharmacists. So Eddie did a few songs before the show started. This was followed by TNATDD.

A heads up that this video is rather -- how shall we say -- shakey.

The lead singer of the opening act couldn't get across the border so Eddie did a few songs before the show started.


"The Needle and The Damage Done"

Thanks Roel!

From Tens all around for Pearl Jam - The Sault Star - Ontario, CA:

"And while neither has gone through Young's massive Archives Vol. 1 box set from start to finish, Gossard says he's still amazed by the man Vedder calls 'Uncle Neil.'

'I just saw the American Masters thing and it's so shockingly good,' he says.

'He's one of a kind. He's really challenged everybody in terms of what's possible and how to stick to your guns and be totally relevant still. He's a total dreamer. He's very attached with manifesting his imagination. It's crazy.'"

On the 8/24 PJ concert at the Chicago's United Center from Turn It Up - A guided tour through the worlds of pop, rock and rap | Chicago Tribune | Blog:

"“The lead singer was only three or four years older than me,” he said, and then delivered a haunting, finger-picked version of Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” in tribute to the late Michael Jackson."

From Pearl Jam pulls double duty in Toronto - The Globe and Mail:

"Singer Eddie Vedder casually walked on stage first with a smallish acoustic guitar, said “surprise, surprise,” spoke of his experience of once riding the Ferris wheel with iconic Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young at the nearby Canadian National Exhibition, and then gently strummed Young's Sugar Mountain , a song about carnival barkers, coloured balloons and leaving one's youth behind.

Saying he hoped he wouldn't misplay the next selection, Vedder then offered The Needle and the Damage Done , a sorrowful ode containing the line, “I sing the song because I love the man.” The impromptu performance came on a day in which Vedder had spoken to the Globe and Mail. Mostly he talked about Pearl Jam's forthcoming album Backspacer , but the subject of the mentoring Young was broached. “We learned a lot from Uncle Neil,” Vedder said. “Him adopting us as his nephews has taught [Pearl Jam] immeasurably, on numerous levels. Things about music and about humanity, either by watching him, or hearing what he comes up with, or by conversations we've had.”"

More on Pearl Jam and Neil Young.

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