È un titolo importante questo. Un titolo impegnativo, soprattutto per un gruppo come i Pearl Jam. Tuttavia, a distanza di anni, mi chiedo ancora cosa significhi questo titolo, e in che modo si connetta col contenuto dell'album.
Siamo nel 2002. Il mondo è ovviamente cambiato rispetto agli anni '90, anche dal punto di vista musicale. Il rock non riveste più quella funzione didascalica che aveva assunto negli anni passati, conseguenza della potenza dell'utile, ma anche del naturale invecchiamento del genere, giunto al suo massimo splendore un decennio prima ed ora condannato ad un inevitabile processo di decadenza. ‘Riot act' dei Pearl Jam esprime esattamente questa situazione di crisi musicale, cosmica e personale. Personale perché effettivamente, con le dovute cautele, i Pearl Jam non sono mai stati un gruppo con un carattere ben definito. Negli anni '90 e tuttora sono erroneamente definiti come gruppo grunge, considerati padri fondatori del genere dai Green River, e se l'identità è un prodotto sociale, essendo di Seattle si sentirono forse in dovere di aggiogarsi al carro di un genere inesistente, comprendente gruppi totalmente diversi tra loro, come Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, per citare i più citati. E certo sarebbe veramente bello illudersi che sia esistito un movimento detto grunge, mosso dagli stessi intenti, e immaginare Cobain e Staley che mangiano assieme e scrivono una canzone. Ma non era esattamente così, ed i Pearl Jam dimostrarono più volte carenza di personalità, brani privi di mordente, episodi imbarazzanti se non addirittura ridicoli, come in questo album.
L'inizio è già sconfortante: "Can't keep", una canzone senza capo né coda, che qualche grunger-snob potrebbe considerare una canzone d'autore, ma che rivela più che altro un'incapacità di impostare un discorso compatto, deciso. L'imbarazzo cresce con "Save you", dove fa pena Vedder che ripete ‘fuck you' o ‘fuck me', e mi annoia in "Love boat captain", dove mi cita i Beatles, come la Folliero. In "Bush leaguer" pare che se la prenda con Bush, ma non mi scalfisce. In verità salvo solo "I am mine", una sorta di riflessione sul rimanere se stessi nonostante l'insensatezza delle cose. E questo è molto difficile. Difficile come fare rock ‘n roll sulla soglia dei 40 anni, soprattutto se si è cresciuti male. Per il resto, se dovessi citare qualche influenza su questo album, mi viene in mente solo Bruce Springsteen, che almeno riempie gli stadi, e non di certo qualcosa riferibile a quella presunta tradizione musicale entro cui sono annoverati. Ma non è nemmeno questo il punto. Non è rilevante tanto il dimostrare la diversità, se non la completa estraneità dei Pearl Jam rispetto a certi ambienti, a certi canoni, quanto piuttosto rilevare il fallimento del rock ‘n roll come genere che si ponga una progettualità sociale e culturale, e non meramente musicale.
L'atto di rivolta annunciato nel titolo è totalmente disatteso e non perché ci si attendevano inni generazionali, ma proprio perché il disco stesso è simbolo dell'inconsistenza e della fragilità di quella pretesa rivoluzionaria intrinseca alla natura del rock ‘n roll, ed enfatizzata dagli inventori del termine ‘grunge'. Evidentemente, era una pretesa a breve scadenza, perché passati gli anni d'oro, la spinta d'opposizione appare piuttosto svilita. E mancando questa, viene a mancare la stessa possibilità ontologica del fare rock. Di conseguenza non ha senso, e soprattutto, non è necessario continuare a perpetuare un'immagine, chiaramente indotta, che non regge al passare del tempo. Citando Neil Young: "...è meglio bruciare che spegnersi lentamente".
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Can't Keep (03:39)
I wanna shake
I wanna wind out
I wanna leave
This mind and shout
I've lived
All this life
Like an ocean
In disguise
I don't live for ever
You can't keep
Me here
I wanna race
With the sundown
I want a last breath
I don't let out
Forgive
Every being
The bad feelings
It's just me
I won't wait
For answers
You can't keep
Me here
I wanna rise
And say goodnight
I Wanna take
A look on the other side
I've lived
All this life
It's been wonder
Full at night
I will live for ever
You can't keep
Me here
02 Save You (03:50)
Gonna save you fucker, not gonna lose you
Feeling cocky and strong, can't let you go
Too important to me
Too important to us, we'd be lost without you
Baby, let yourself fall, I'm right below you now
And fuck me if I say something you don't wanna hear, fuck me
And fuck me if you only hear what you wanna hear
Fuck me if I care, but I'm not leaving here
You helped me when I was down, I'll help you when you're down
Why are you hitting yourself? C'mon, hit me instead
Let's pick up your will, its grown fat and lazy
I'm sympathetic as well, don't go on me now
And I'm not living this life without you, I'm selfish and clear ... clear
And you're not leaving here without me, I don't wanna be without
My best friend, wake up, to see you could have it all
Cause there is but you, and something within you
Its taken control, let's beat it, get up, let's go!
Oh you're in your own world, let's see the whole world
Let's pick up your soul
And fuck me if I say something you don't wanna hear, fuck me ... fuck me
And fuck me if you only hear the treble in your head
Please help me to help you help yourself
Help ... me help yourself
Please want me to, please let me to
Help ... you
04 Cropduster (03:51)
Light green to green, dark green, brown
Every life is falling down
Brown to black, it's coming back
Dies to be part of the ground
Seed to seedling, root to stem
Eyes, no eyes, there's no difference
Every life is looking in
Swallowing seeds on the deathbed
Dig a hole in the garden
Everyone is practicing
But this world's an accident
I was the fool because I thought
I thought the world
Turns out the world thought me
It's all the other way around
We're upside down
Dad, he's gone up in flames
But this ain't no movie
This ain't no book you can close
When the big lie hits your eye
Everyone is practicing
Our world's an accident
I was the fool because I thought
I thought the world
Turns out the world thought me
It's all the other way 'round
We're upside down
down down down
Let the fluency set it down
down down down
Let the fluency set it down
There's an upside of down
The moon is rolling 'round
the world
The moon is rolling 'round
the world
the world
our world
05 Ghost (03:15)
The mind is grey like the city
Packing in and overgrown
Love is deep, dig it out
Standing in a hole alone
Working for something one can never hold
A place in the clouds
Good place to hide, oh my oh
So I'm flying away, away
Driving away, away
Finding hope in ways I missed before ( I miss before)
The TV, she talks to me
Breaking news and building walls
Selling me what I don't need
I never knew soap made you taller
So I'm riding away, away
Hiding away, away
So much talk it makes no sense at all, my senses have gone
So I'm hiding away, away
Driving away, away
Passing new friends I won't know at all (won't know at all)
It doesn't hurt when I bleed
But my memories they eat me
I've seen it all before
Bring it on, cause I'm no victim
dying (away, away)
dying (away, away)
dying
dying...
06 I Am Mine (03:35)
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure, as each breath goes by
I only own my mind
The north is to south what the clock is to time
There's east and there's west and there's everywhere life
I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in-between is mine
I am mine
And the feeling, it gets left behind
All the innocence lost at one time
Significant between the lines
There's no need to hide
We're safe tonight
The ocean is full 'cause everyone's crying
The full moon is looking for friends at high ride
The sorrow grows bigger when the sorrow's denied
I only know my mind
I am mine
And the meaning, it gets left behind
All the innocents lost at one time
Significance behind the eyes
There's no need to hide
We're safe tonight
Whoa!
And the meanings that get left behind
All the innocents lost at one time
We're all different behind the eyes
We may need to hide...
And the meanings that get left behind
All the innocents lost at one time
We're all different behind the eyes
There's no need to hide
07 Thumbing My Way (04:10)
I have not been home
since you left long ago
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
Calm steps walking backwards on the road
I'm counting my way back to heaven
I can't be free with what's locked inside of me
If there was a key you took it in your hand
There's no wrong or right
but I'm sure there's good and bad
the questions linger overhead
No matter how cold the winter
There's a springtime ahead
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
I wish that I could hold you
I wish that I had
Thinking about heaven
I let go of the rope
Thinking that's what held me back
And in time I've realized
It's now wrapped around my neck
I can't see what's next
from this lonely overpass
Hang my head and count my steps
as another car goes past
All the rusted signs
we ignored throughout our lives
choosing the shiny ones instead
I turned my back
now there's no turning back
mmmmmmm
No matter how cold the winter
There's a springtime ahead
I smile, but who am I kidding?
I'm just walking the mile
every once in a while get a ride
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
I'm thumbing my way back to heaven
10 Green Disease (02:41)
G-R-E-E-D (x3)
It's a disease, and they're all green
It emanates from their being
A satiation with occupation
And like weeds with big leaves
Stealing light from what's beneath
Where they have more
Still they take more
I know, then I don't
There's a stowaway with my throat
It's deceiving
I don't believe him
We can scream out our doors
Behind the wall a fat man snores
In his dreams he's
Choking tea leaves
Well I guess
There's nothing wrong with what you say
But don't sell me
"There can't be better ways"
Tell the captain
"The boat's not safe,
And we're drowning"
Turns out
He's the one making waves
I said
There's nothing wrong with what you say
Believe me
Just asking you to sway
No white
Or black
Just grey
Can you feel this
World with your heart and not your brain ... brain?
G-R-E-E-D (x2)
11 Help Help (03:35)
Tell me what I wanna hear
This shit's too good to be true
My dear
Tell me lies
Tell me lies, tell me
Tell me lies, tell me
Help me
Storybook keeps from hurting me
You see
Shell of the man from the sea
Tell me lies
Tell me lies, tell me
Tell me lies, tell me
Tell me why
Tell me why, tell me
Tell me why, tell me
Tell me lies
Help me
Reservoir
Of hate and fear
Invisible
In repair
A hundred thieves
Cast a spell
This is hell
Help me
The man they call my enemy, I've seen his eyes
He looks just like me, a mirror
The more you read, we've been deceived
Everyday it becomes clearer
Clearer
Not my enemy, no, not my enemy
Don't speak for me, no, not my enemy.
12 Bu$hleaguer (03:57)
How does he do it? How do they do it? Uncanny and immutable
This is such a happening tailpipe of a party
Like sugar, the guests are so refined
A confidence man, but why so beleaguered?
He's not a leader, he's a Texas leaguer
Swinging for the fence, got lucky with a strike
Drilling for fear makes the job simple
Born on third, thinks he got a triple
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way
I remember when you sang
That song about today
Now it's tomorrow and
Everything has changed
A think tank of aloof multiplication
A nicotine wish and a columbus decanter
Retrenchment and hoggishness
The aristocrat choir sings
"What's the ruckus?"
The haves have not a clue
The immenseness of suffering
And the odd negotiation, a rarity
With onion-skin plausibility of life
And a keyboard reaffirmation
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way
I remember when you sang
That song about today
Now it's tomorrow and
Everything has changed.
13 1/2 Full (04:10)
Climbing on a mountain
Floating out on the sea
Far from lights of a city
The elements, they speak to me
Whispering that life
Existed long before greed
Balancing the world
On its knee
Don't see some men as 1/2 empty
See them 1/2 full of shit
Thinking that we're all but slaves
There ain't gonna be
No middle anymore
It's been said before
The haves be having more
Yet still bored
Won't someone save?
Won't someone save...
The world?
15 All or None (04:37)
It's a hopeless situation
And I'm starting to believe
That this hopeless situation
Is what I'm trying to achieve
But I try
To run on
Towards
All or none...all or none
Here's the selfless confession
Leading me back to war
Can we help that our destinations
Are the ones we've been before?
I still try
To run on
But it's
All or none...all or none
To myself I surrender
To the one I'll never please
But I still try to run on
I still try to run on
But it's
All or none...all or none.
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Rivo
"Complessivamente però il disco piace ma non esalta, incuriosisce ma non rapisce."
"A suo tempo per togliere 'Versus' dal lettore CD c'è voluto il cacciavite; questa volta basterà premere 'eject'."
Di Greg*89*
La rabbia giovanile non ha cambiato nulla, i problemi sono sempre gli stessi in tempi sempre più grigi.
I Pearl Jam sono e dimostrano di rimanere qualcosa in cui credere, di differente, abili artigiani nel raccontare tutto ciò che non si può misurare con il denaro.
