Song of the Day: My Morning Jacket w/ Eddie Vedder, “A Quick One, While He’s Away”

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

Envy anyone who was in Torino, Italy the night of September 19, 2006. Given how thrilling today’s song is to watch, it must have been ten times more exciting live. On Pearl Jam’s Italian tour with My Morning Jacket, Eddie Vedder came out to close the opener’s set with a cover of the Who’s “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” It’s nine of the most hard-rocking minutes on the Internet.

In the Who’s early years, a song that reached the three-minute mark was damn near epic. So saying “A Quick One, While He’s Away” stands out compared the rest of those first songs is like saying Keith Moon was a pretty good drummer compared to Ringo Starr. “A Quick One” runs for over nine minutes. The second-longest song on the same album (“So Sad About Us”) wraps up around 3:04.

This epic seems custom-written for EdVed and the My Morning Jacket guys. They relish each section more than the last, pulling off multi-part harmonies and drum solos with equal ease. Jim James assumes John Entwhistle’s role of Ivor the Engine Driver and Vedder tackles the rest. The Pearl Jam singer also rocks two tambourines and quickly breaks them both with his hard hits. It’s a virtuoso performance by every person on stage and one of the most thrilling videos YouTube has to offer. Watch it below and download the MP3.

Pick up the full Immagine in Cornice DVD here.