"Once I built an ivory tower/ so I could worship from above/ when I climbed down to be set free/ she took me in again" - Eddie Vedder, Hard Sun
I saw this album in HMV on Tuesday. At first, all I saw was original Eddie Vedder material. I wandered over, grabbed the CD. Then I saw 'soundtrack,' What the fuck? Why would Eddie Vedder do a sound track? It took a glance at the full title and then I shit my pants.
It's the soundtrack to Into the Wild, Sean Penn's adaption of Jon Krakauer's 1996 New York Time bestseller and my favorite book. Krakauer, an accomplished mountaineer and adventure, retraces the steps of Chris McCrandless. In 1992, McCrandless left a comfortable life the Souther United States to live in the Alaskan wilderness, trying to be a Henry David Thoreau.
Penn handpicked Vedder to write and perform the soundtrack. Unlike Bono, his urning, echoing voice isn't pretentious. It's a storyteller confident on his own, searching for peace with nature.
Hard Sun is the best track on the album, capturing the spirit of the novel. It's also pretty epic.
... no youtube video, get the book at the library, here's the album. Oh, you'll need to install FLAC.
edit: Canadian Gordon Peterson wrote Big Hard Sun, which Vedder covers (Hard Sun), back in '89 for his album Big Harvest. Here's the song via youtube with a fan-made video:
2 comments:
you should probably include the name gordon peterson somewhere in this post...
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