Episode 226: Murfreesboro, TN – 3/26/1994

We’re covering a Vs./Vitalogy era show this week from 1994 where both albums were nearly splitting play time live, but that’s not the story we’ll have for you here. Murfreesboro is legendary thanks to the appearance of one of the great song-writers of all-time, Steve Cropper. As part of the backing band, Booker T and The MGs, Cropper has played for a number of world renowned stars such as Otis Redding, John Lennon and even featured in the Blues Brothers band. After a 1993 tour where Pearl Jam opened for Neil Young with The MGs as his backing band, this led to an opportunity when they stopped by his home in Tennessee while touring. As a major surprise, he joined the band to perform Dock Of The Bay and Rockin’ In The Free World. The Dock Of The Bay performance became one of the most sought after covers of theirs, and was a track on the popular No Fucking Messiah bootleg. This song and Cropper are the central focus of the episode, and we’ll bring in Patrick and Brian from our sister podcast, Hallucinogenic Recipe, to discuss some of the history behind it.

Outside of the legendary moment, this was one of many scorcher shows in the 1994 tour year. With Dave A coming near the end of his run with the band, this is a hard hitting show that opened the gates for the band to get out of control on multiple occasions. You’ll hear mind blowing versions of Rearviewmirror, Go, Deep, Blood, Alive and Porch that we’ll discuss in full breakdown.

You answered the question of the week this week pertaining to the Dock Of The Bay appearance, which OTOTO type songs have been some of your favorites, and we’ll read the answers on the show. Also, Javier will join us for our Gear Guru segment this week where he’ll talk about Steve Cropper’s unique guitar and sound that he was using in this show.