Love Boat Captain
Encyclopedia
"Love Boat Captain" is a song by the American rock
band Pearl Jam
. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder
and music co-written by Vedder and keyboardist Boom Gaspar
, "Love Boat Captain" was released on February 18, 2003 as a single from the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act
(2002).
and music co-written by Vedder and keyboardist Boom Gaspar
. According to Gaspar, the song initially developed out of a jam session
he had with Vedder shortly after the two first met in Hawaii
. He added, "He had a guitar. I had a keyboard. It was a small set-up. And we wrote." When they were done, Vedder asked Gaspar if he was "ready to go to Seattle." Vedder on the song:
Bassist Jeff Ament
said, "The demo to that was called "Boom B3". We played a version of it, and then it got re-arranged." Drummer Matt Cameron
on the song:
matters. "Love Boat Captain" references the 2000 Roskilde
tragedy with the line "Lost 9 friends we'll never know... 2 years ago today." When "Love Boat Captain" is performed in concert, Vedder modifies the lyric to reflect the passage of time since the tragedy. There is also a reference to The Beatles
' song "All You Need Is Love
" from the 1967 album, Magical Mystery Tour, with the lyrics "I know it's already been sung,...can't be said enough/Love is all you need,..all you need is love,..."
When speaking about the song, Vedder stated:
When asked about the line, "The young can lose hope," Vedder said:
, Canada
, and Europe. While "Save You
" was released as the second single for North America, "Love Boat Captain" was the second single for international markets. In Canada, the song reached the top 20 on the Canadian Singles Chart
. "Love Boat Captain" reached the top 30 in Australia and Italy
.
Louis Pattison of NME
called the song "a gorgeous example of Pearl Jam's gnostic expansiveness done right" and stated that it "[ranks] with Pearl Jam's best." Kyle Reiter of Pitchfork Media
said, "The devastated lyrics of "Love Boat Captain"...are affecting, but the song itself is a standard rocker, which seems an odd choice to accompany Vedder's poetic remorse."
for "Love Boat Captain" was directed by James Frost. The video was filmed at Seattle, Washington's Chop Suey club in September 2002. The video consists of a filmed live performance of the band rather than a conceptual video. It was one of five videos shot at the club to promote Riot Act (including "I Am Mine
", "Save You
", "Thumbing My Way
", and "1/2 Full
"). Up to that point the band had not made any music videos since 1998's "Do the Evolution
". The video was released in late 2002.
, Illinois
at the House of Blues
. Live performances of "Love Boat Captain" can be found on the "Love Boat Captain" single, various official bootlegs
, and the Live at the Gorge 05/06
box set. Performances of the song are also included on the DVDs Live at the Showbox
and Live at the Garden
. The song is also featured during the closing credits of Immagine in Cornice
.
and Eddie Vedder
, except where noted:
CD (Australia and Canada)
CD (Europe)
CD (Enhanced) (Europe)
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
and music co-written by Vedder and keyboardist Boom Gaspar
Boom Gaspar
Kenneth E. Gaspar , more commonly known as Boom Gaspar, is an American musician who has performed with the American rock band Pearl Jam as a piano/keyboard/organ player since 2002.-Early life:...
, "Love Boat Captain" was released on February 18, 2003 as a single from the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act
Riot Act (album)
Riot Act is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released November 12, 2002 through Epic Records. Following a full-scale tour in support of its previous album, Binaural , Pearl Jam took a year-long break. The band then reconvened in the beginning of 2002 and...
(2002).
Origin and recording
"Love Boat Captain" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie VedderEddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
and music co-written by Vedder and keyboardist Boom Gaspar
Boom Gaspar
Kenneth E. Gaspar , more commonly known as Boom Gaspar, is an American musician who has performed with the American rock band Pearl Jam as a piano/keyboard/organ player since 2002.-Early life:...
. According to Gaspar, the song initially developed out of a jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
he had with Vedder shortly after the two first met in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. He added, "He had a guitar. I had a keyboard. It was a small set-up. And we wrote." When they were done, Vedder asked Gaspar if he was "ready to go to Seattle." Vedder on the song:
I had a little recording setup for when I wanted to get away and do some writing. He just showed up and we started playing. That night we wrote what turned into "Love Boat Captain". Within an hour, we had this thing we put on the stereo and played it loud. It was probably about an 11-minute version at that point.
Bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
said, "The demo to that was called "Boom B3". We played a version of it, and then it got re-arranged." Drummer Matt Cameron
Matt Cameron
Matthew David "Matt" Cameron is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the American rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...
on the song:
There weren't any lyrics when we tracked it, so we did what we thought would be a good, tight instrumental version that would later have vocals on it. When we tracked it, I was like, "Huh? What's this?" It made no sense to me. But then when the vocals were added, it made perfect sense and it elevated the entire piece.
Lyrics
The lyrics for "Love Boat Captain" tackle existentialExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
matters. "Love Boat Captain" references the 2000 Roskilde
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
tragedy with the line "Lost 9 friends we'll never know... 2 years ago today." When "Love Boat Captain" is performed in concert, Vedder modifies the lyric to reflect the passage of time since the tragedy. There is also a reference to The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' song "All You Need Is Love
All You Need Is Love
"All You Need Is Love" is a song written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link. Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the programme was broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967...
" from the 1967 album, Magical Mystery Tour, with the lyrics "I know it's already been sung,...can't be said enough/Love is all you need,..all you need is love,..."
When speaking about the song, Vedder stated:
It feels a little strange talking about love that openly, but if you can't do it now, when can you do it? Love is one resource that the corporations aren't going to be able to monopolize. Which means there's hope for us human beings yet.
When asked about the line, "The young can lose hope," Vedder said:
I was happy to get that line because I'm talking about people much older than us, people who are 70 or 80 and they've got attitudes that don't have the deep peaks and valleys as someone who in adolescence who is faced with some things and they go, "Fuck this, this sucks, how can we have any hope?"
These are people who been through the invention of the horseless carriage to the car to the TV set and are dealing with internet. How do they view it? It's almost with disdain. This is the wisdom they can't give away, that is what I'm talking about and that youth doesn't have that time line beneath them. So they just see something in front of them and think there's no hope, no getting over it, what's the point and so on. They are also bombarded with information more than ever these days, and negativity and cynicism and I can understand why they would feel that way. But they don't have to. There really are positive actions that can be taken.
Release and reception
The commercially released single for "Love Boat Captain" was exclusive to AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and Europe. While "Save You
Save You
"Save You" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 11, 2003 as the second single from the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist...
" was released as the second single for North America, "Love Boat Captain" was the second single for international markets. In Canada, the song reached the top 20 on the Canadian Singles Chart
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....
. "Love Boat Captain" reached the top 30 in Australia and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Louis Pattison of NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
called the song "a gorgeous example of Pearl Jam's gnostic expansiveness done right" and stated that it "[ranks] with Pearl Jam's best." Kyle Reiter of Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
said, "The devastated lyrics of "Love Boat Captain"...are affecting, but the song itself is a standard rocker, which seems an odd choice to accompany Vedder's poetic remorse."
Music video
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Love Boat Captain" was directed by James Frost. The video was filmed at Seattle, Washington's Chop Suey club in September 2002. The video consists of a filmed live performance of the band rather than a conceptual video. It was one of five videos shot at the club to promote Riot Act (including "I Am Mine
I Am Mine
"I Am Mine" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "I Am Mine" was released on October 8, 2002 as the first single from the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act . The song peaked at number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart...
", "Save You
Save You
"Save You" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 11, 2003 as the second single from the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist...
", "Thumbing My Way
Thumbing My Way
"Thumbing My Way" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Thumbing My Way" is the seventh track on the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act .-Origin and recording:...
", and "1/2 Full
1/2 Full
"½ Full" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by bassist Jeff Ament, "½ Full" is the thirteenth track on the band's seventh studio album, Riot Act .-Origin and recording:...
"). Up to that point the band had not made any music videos since 1998's "Do the Evolution
Do the Evolution
"Do the Evolution" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Do the Evolution" is the seventh track on the band's fifth studio album, Yield . Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the...
". The video was released in late 2002.
Live performances
"Love Boat Captain" was first performed live at the band's September 23, 2002 concert in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
at the House of Blues
House of Blues
House of Blues is a chain of 13 live music concert halls and restaurants in major markets throughout the United States. House of Blues first location was in Cambridge's Harvard Square. It was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, star of The Blues Brothers...
. Live performances of "Love Boat Captain" can be found on the "Love Boat Captain" single, various official bootlegs
Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs
The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...
, and the Live at the Gorge 05/06
Live at the Gorge 05/06
Live at the Gorge 05/06 is a seven-disc live box set by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on June 26, 2007 through Rhino/WEA. The box set documents the band's 2005 and 2006 shows at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington....
box set. Performances of the song are also included on the DVDs Live at the Showbox
Live at the Showbox
Live at the Showbox is the third DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, the first of a complete show. It was released on May 7, 2003.-Overview:...
and Live at the Garden
Live at the Garden
Live at the Garden is the fourth DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, recorded on July 8, 2003 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was released on November 11, 2003.-Overview:...
. The song is also featured during the closing credits of Immagine in Cornice
Immagine in Cornice
Immagine in Cornice, Italian for "picture in a frame," is a live concert film documenting the 2006 five-concert tour of Italy by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. It was released on September 25, 2007.-Overview:...
.
Track listing
All songs written by Boom GasparBoom Gaspar
Kenneth E. Gaspar , more commonly known as Boom Gaspar, is an American musician who has performed with the American rock band Pearl Jam as a piano/keyboard/organ player since 2002.-Early life:...
and Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
, except where noted:
CD (Australia and Canada)
- "Love Boat Captain" – 4:36
- "Love Boat Captain" (live) – 4:50
- Recorded live on December 6, 2002 at The Showbox in Seattle, Washington.
- "Other Side" (Jeff AmentJeff AmentJeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
) – 4:03
CD (Europe)
- "Love Boat Captain" – 4:36
- "Other Side" (Ament) – 4:03
CD (Enhanced) (Europe)
- "Love Boat Captain" – 4:36
- "Love Boat Captain" (live) – 4:50
- Recorded live on December 6, 2002 at The Showbox in Seattle, Washington.
- "Other Side" (Ament) – 4:03
- "Love Boat Captain" (video) – 4:43
- Filmed live at the Chop Suey club in Seattle, Washington.
Chart positions
| Chart (2003) | Position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
16 |
| Italian Singles Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
23 |
| Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
29 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
110 |