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Do the Evolution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Do the Evolution" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Song by Pearl Jam | ||
| from the album Yield | ||
| Released | February 3, 1998 | |
| Recorded | August - September 1997 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 3:54 | |
| Label | Epic | |
| Writer(s) | Stone Gossard, Eddie Vedder | |
| Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Yield track listing | ||
| "Pilate" (Track 6) |
"Do the Evolution" (Track 7) |
"●" (Track 8) |
"Do the Evolution" is a song by Pearl Jam, from the album Yield. In 1999 the song was nominated the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance and its music video was nominated the Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.
Besides the album Yield, the song also appears on the live album Live on Two Legs, and on Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003. The song appears again on the live Pearl Jam DVD, Touring Band 2000. Eddie Vedder adds the lyrics "free the West Memphis Three!" to the song. The actual video clip for the song is also on this DVD, as one of the Special Features.
Contents |
Like all of Yield, "Do the Evolution" was heavily influenced by the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The lyrics paint a dire and pessimistic view of humanity as a thoughtlessly selfish and violent species, so enamored of its own achievements that it is blinded to its faults. It also shows how history repeats itself. "The Evolution" is not a dance but rather a concept--a satrical take on the historical aspect of humanity. When speaking about the song, Eddie Vedder stated, "That song is all about someone who's drunk with technology, who thinks they're the controlling living being on this planet. It's another one I'm not singing as myself."[1]
The animated music video for the song was directed by Kevin Altieri, known for his direction on Batman: The Animated Series, and Todd McFarlane, better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn and Korn's "Freak on a Leash" video. The video was produced by Joe Pearson, the president of Epoch Ink animation, and Terry Fitzgerald at TME. It was written and developed by Joe Pearson and Kevin Altieri with input from Todd McFarlane and Eddie Vedder.
The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens. The video evolves into depicting human beings in violent, historically inspired scenes such as a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades, a ritual dance by America's KKK, a rally by Nazi troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a Swastika), carnage upon a World War I-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman), the apparent rape of a young woman, and the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Other pet issues such as whaling, vivisection, pollution, genetic modification and (implicitly) the Internet are included. The video concludes in what seem to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing of a city by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves a city in ruins.
The video appears to pin a lot of the blame for humankind's brutality on leaders; with various scenes depicting a cardinal or priest, an American President, and possibly a Soviet leader with what appears to be a missile and red flag in the background. Everything portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. For example, when Eddie Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash", a scene is shown where business men are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
From start to finish, total production time on the video was just 16 weeks. The animation preproduction—direction, script, storyboard, design, color key, and timing—was produced by Epoch Ink Animation at their studio in Santa Monica, California. A team of top designers and storyboard artists was quickly assembled from the studio talent pool. Kevin Altieri, Brad Coombs, Jim Mitchell, Young Yoon Gi, Kalvin Lee and Joe Pearson storyboarded and designed all the characters and backgrounds. Tina Oliva and Lisa Pearson designed the character color and accomplished colorist Zhao Ping did the key background paintings. Under Kevin and Joe’s supervision the Epoch team boarded and designed the short in less than 6 weeks.
Once McFarlane, Vedder, and Sony gave their final approvals, the short was timed by Graham Morris and taken to Korea by Kevin and Joe for animation at Sun Min Image Pictures and Jireh Animation. Over a four week period, a team of more than one hundred artists worked around the clock in Seoul to deliver the finished animation. Once the final animation was back in L.A., Kevin, Todd, and Eddie edited the final cut at postproduction facility—Vittello Productions. The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV's 120 Minutes.
The video was the band's first since the final video for Ten, "Jeremy" and the last before "I Am Mine" in 2002.
- ^ Moon, Tom. "Calling Off the Crusades". The Philadelphia Inquirer. February 8, 1998.