#SLS — “Hard Sun,” by Indio and cover by Eddie Vedder

Jim Adams is the steadfast host of Song Lyric Sunday.  Jim says:
This week we have size prompts using the following words Big/Large/Little/Small/Tall/Tiny and hopefully this will fit everyone.

Here are the “rules”:
• Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it fits the theme or not. If it does not fit, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

 

My choice today is a song I thought Eddie Vedder wrote, but in my research I learned that it was written by a Canadian artist, Indio. To be fair, I’m including both versions.

Per wikipedia:
Indio is the stage name for Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Peterson who released one album, Big Harvest in 1989, which includes the top 10 hit “Hard Sun.” Gordon Peterson grew up in Dundas; a constituent community in the City of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada.

The name Indio came to him while recording the second half of the album Big Harvest in California with Larry Klein. One afternoon, Peterson drove down to Mexico and the last town before he crossed the California/Mexico border was named Indio. At that point, Peterson decided he didn’t want to use his own name on the album and decided to use Indio.

“Hard Sun” was released as the lead-off single from the album, with a stripped-down acoustic version of the song on the record’s B-side. “Hard Sun” was a top 10 hit in Canada, peaking at #10 in September, 1989 and the song reached the same position on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart that same month. Peterson, who was sensitive to industry demands, walked away from the business shortly after Indio’s release. He was conflicted by a love to create music and the expectations imposed upon him.

Eddie Vedder covered the single “Hard Sun” for the Sean Penn movie Into the Wild. Peterson re-emerged into the public when he filed a lawsuit in December 2009 against Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, alleging infringement resulting from usage and alteration of “Hard Sun” without Peterson’s permission, although Universal Music, Peterson’s former label, granted permission.

 

Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist, one of three guitarists, and the primary lyricist of the American rock band Pearl Jam.

In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild. Vedder contributed an album’s worth of songs to the soundtrack for the film, which was released on September 18, 2007 through J Records. It includes covers of the Indio song “Hard Sun” and the Jerry Hannan song “Society.” Vedder said that having to write songs based on a narrative “simplified things“. He said, “There were fewer choices. The story was there and the scenes were there.” Vedder’s songs written for the film feature a folk sound. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called the soundtrack a “collection of folksy, rootsy tunes where rock & roll makes fleeting appearances.”

 

 

When I walk beside her
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again

Once I built an ivory tower
So I could worship from above
And when I climbed down
To be set free, she took me in again

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back again

Once I sought an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her blues back again

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

When I go to cross that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her eyes

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun

So I tried to warn her
I’ll turn to see her weep
40 days and 40 nights
And it’s still coming down on me

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

There’s a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world

Songwriters: Gordon Peterson