Eddie Vedder pay tribute to Daniel Johnston with cowl of “Strolling the Cow”: Watch

Eddie Vedder coated the Daniel Johnston track “Strolling the Cow” throughout his solo headlining efficiency at Ohana Music Competition on Saturday night time. The three-day music competition is co-organized by Vedder, and routinely contains a particular set from the Pearl Jam frontman.

“Strolling the Cow”, off the 1983 album Hello, How Are You, is one among Johnston’s hottest songs. It additionally occurs to be a favourite of Vedder’s, as he incessantly performs it at solo reveals. Actually, his love for the observe goes again a number of many years; Pearl Jam first coated the track in 1994 at a profit present. Final night time’s cowl felt totally different, although, because it was the primary time Vedder performed it since Johnston’s passing earlier this month.

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Throughout his set, Vedder performed quite a few stripped-down Pearl Jam songs and coated tracks by The Beatles, Tom Petty, Neil Younger, George Harrison, and Glen Hansard, however his Johnston cowl stole the highlight. Armed with an electrical guitar, he performed “Strolling the Cow” solemnly, at one level getting audibly emotional. Earlier than launching into it, Vedder gave some context about why he loves the track a lot, together with a vivid reminiscence with Chris Cornell.

“There was a man, an important, nice songwriter, who we misplaced lower than a month in the past,” he stated. “I do know Glen Hansard and everybody from Kurt Cobain to Lana Del Rey, an infinite record of musicians, who had been impressed by this man. He lived in Austin, Texas as a child and began making tapes. Then he put them in a retailer and made copies of the tapes and the tapes bought round to musicians. Earlier than you knew it, everyone was speaking and sharing the genius of this younger man. That was fairly some time in the past, I believe within the mid- to late-80s. He made music till he just lately handed. He had a difficult time, however out of that difficult time got here a few of the most poignant songs and susceptible coronary heart that I’ve ever heard.”

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“I keep in mind Chris Cornell and I listening to him,” he continued. “We had been sitting on this little room in my home the place there’s a hearth and a small sofa — it’s not even a sofa, it’s like half a sofa. I didn’t need to say love seat as a result of it would sound somewhat bizarre. However we listened for 2 hours straight and that was 4 hours and that was six hours. We had been laughing and crying after which smiling so laborious that tears had been squeezed out of our eyes. We checked out each other, and I’ll always remember, we stated, ‘He’s higher than each of us.’ His title was Daniel Johnston.” Watch the entire thing go down under.

This 12 months’s Ohana has been eventful up to now. Vedder joined The Strokes onstage throughout their set to cowl Pearl Jam’s “Laborious to Think about” in addition to The Strokes’ unique “Juicebox”. Between that shock look and his tender Johnston cowl final night time, it’s a very good time to be a Pearl Jam fan on the music competition.