Save It For Later

Asking for a friend

I’m old enough to remember a time when the internet was viewed as a vehicle for good. A place where humans could share information. Where questions could be asked and answered, without judgement.  For the greater good of us all.

Okay, yes, these days, to some extent, the internet has evolved into a cesspool of hatred, where trolls run free and bot creatures try to warp our minds to their insidious leanings.

But I want to move past this.  Back to the days when it was okay to ask a simple question and not be shot down for it.

Which is what I’m doing now.

Asking, I hope, a simple question.  In search of an answer.

Season 3 of The Bear recently fell into our laps.  Whether or not it was a good season, or a placeholder season is contentious.  Just like Season 2 getting 23 Emmy nominations as a comedy when you’re not actually a comedy but more a drama with comedy moments, just like life, is also rather contentious.

But that is a whole other argument.  For a whole other time.

Because here and now I want to ask a question about one very specific moment in one episode of The Bear Season 3.

After the world’s boldest recap episode, Episode 2 of Season 3 (“Next”) features an homage to Chicago and to working people and restaurant people, to the tune of “Save It for Later” as performed by Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam fame.

“Save It for Later” is a song originally performed by The Beat.  It is a song I love dearly, so I was thrilled to hear it pop up in a TV series I love, performed by the lead singer of a band I also love.

But the thing is, as I listened to Eddie’s 2024 version, I have this huge feeling that I was in the room the very first time he performed “Save It for Later”, back in April 2001.

April 2001. Neil Finn stages a bunch of concerts at the now tragically abandoned potential-building-site-in-limbo formerly known as the St. James Theatre, on Queen Street, Auckland.  He invites a bunch of his flash music mates to come play with him.  The key players in my story here are Eddie Vedder and, apparently as the story unfolds, Phil Selway, the drummer from Radiohead.

7 Worlds Collide was/is one of the best concerts I have ever attended.  As a show, in a venue that size, the love and the energy in that room was right up there with seeing Prince at the Aotea Centre. It was an event and being there felt, every second, like I was at An Event.

When Eddie and Tim Finn sang my sneaky all-time favourite Split Enz song, “Stuff and Nonsense”, together, I was sent to my very happy place.

Then, at some stage in the cavalcade of genius that was that night, Eddie came back, to sing “Better Man”, with the whole band. 

“Better Man” was and still is my favourite Pearl Jam song.  Even today, listening to it as I type these words, I still love it deeply. It is a great, great pop song. And I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

So in April 2001, at the St. James, that night, I am in heaven, listening to Eddie sing “Better Man”.

But then “Better Man” segues, effortlessly, into “Save It for Later”.

Suddenly Eddie is belting out another song I love deeply.

Tears.

Yes, I cry easily when emotionally aroused, but this was next level.  Two of my all-time favourite songs, mashed up, before my very ears.

The question I have now is….

I heard, later, somewhere, that when they were rehearsing “Better Man”, that Phil Selway got this nagging feeling that “Better Man” reminded him of something else and that eventually he realised it was “Save It for Later” and that is how it ended up being the medley of my dreams.

So is there anyone out there in internet world who can confirm/deny this?

Just asking.

And, also, seeking reassurance that the internet can be used for good – and not just disinformation.