“Give Way,” the rare, unauthorized promotional Pearl Jam live album is getting an official release on CD and vinyl for Record Store Day 2023.
Originally intended for release in 1998, the album includes 17-tracks from the band’s March 5, 1998 concert at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The record was meant to be a promotional giveaway item for the first 50,000 fans who purchased Pearl Jam’s “Single Video Theory” film at Best Buy in 1998. The electronics chain promoted the giveaway in newspapers across the country but had to rescind the offer because Pearl Jam’s management and its record label did not authorize the release of the live album.
Instead of receiving a free promotional Pearl Jam CD, fans who purchased “Single Video Theory” received any CD valued at $14.99 or less for free. According to Rolling Stone, Best Buy lost $500,000 on attempting to give away the unauthorized release and all 50,000 copies of the album were returned to Sony to be destroyed and only a handful of copies were kept and have remained out of circulation.
The complete concert, which was part of the band’s tour behind “Yield,” featured a 25-song setlist and was broadcast on the radio by Triple J Radio. Various bootleg recordings of the show have been circulating in fan circles for decades and the original CD fetches hundreds of dollars. Pearl Jam now famously releases official bootleg recordings of all of its concerts. Best Buy’s “Give Way” debacle happened before the band began offering those releases.
The band also captured performances from its 1998 “Yield” tour for its “Live On Two Legs” live album. According to the band’s official biography Pearl Jam Twenty, that record only includes live performances with drummer Matt Cameron behind the kit. Former Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons recorded “Yield” with the band in the studio and left the group after its Australian tour which is when Cameron joined. “Give Way,” which is a nod to what yield signs are called in Australia, is one of the few official live Pearl Jam releases that features Irons on drums.
“Give Way” is both a celebration of the 25th anniversary of “Yield” and an official Record Store Day release. Other things Pearl Jam has done this year to mark the anniversary include offering commemorative merchandise, promoting “Yield” era performances and videos on its social media channels and including memories of “Yield” from fans in its monthly Ten Club newsletter.
“Give Way” isn’t the only Pearl Jam related release for this year’s Record Store Day. The self-titled debut album from Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready’s short-lived side project The Rockfords will be released on vinyl by Real Gone Music.
Record Store Day is April 22, 2023.
“Give Way” tracklist:
Release
Brain Of J.
Animal
Faithfull
In My Tree
I Got ID
Corduroy
Even Flow
Spin The Black Circle
Given To Fly
Hail, Hail
MFC
State Of Love And Trust
Do The Evolution
Alive
Black
Immortality
