Packaging
The original title for the album was Life. The first single, "Spin the Black Circle", was released before the album was released, and on the back of the single it states "From the Epic album Life." The album title Vitalogy comes from the early 20th Century medical book on which the cover art and liner notes are based. Vitalogy literally means "the study of life."
Vedder found the medical book at a garage sale. Ament stated, "Ed brought in that book, and we said man that would make a great album cover." He explained that from Vs. onwards the band tried to take different approaches to packaging its records. Ament said, "We tried really hard, to make it like a book, kind of tipped it so it opened horizontally, which pissed off record stores: they had to put it in sideways." The packaging cost an extra 50 cents per copy. Problems arose when the band discovered that later versions of the book were still under copyright. The band had to confer with their lawyers in order to work out a final version utilizing the material they wanted to include with the album.
The booklet contains outdated discussions of health and well-being. Other notes in the booklet, dealing with life and death reflections, seem to be more personal, like a message typed on one of the last pages, supposedly referring to the loss of a loved one ("I waited all day. you waited all day.. but you left before sunset...and I just wanted to tell you the moment was beautiful. Just wanted to dance to bad music...drive bad cars...watch bad TV...should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me."). The booklet also displays some poems or original sayings not belonging to the songs' lyrics, but to be interpreted as a commentary to the songs and, again, as a reflection on how life should or shouldn't be lived. An example is the poem typed on the "Aye Davanita" page. The song's subtitle is "The song without words", as it is an instrumental track. But the page displays a sort of poem about the wasted life of a young girl. Another episode of "intruder words" is on the "Not for You" lyrics page. After the second refrain, instead of the actual lyrics, the typed words give a hint about the Sisyphus myth ("Yeah, you call me Sisyphus love. Yeah, I move the rock. I just don't want to talk about moving the rock. Anything that distracts me from moving the rock"). The lyrics to "Whipping" are written on a copy of a petition to Bill Clinton against "pro-life" killings of abortion doctors. An X-ray of Vedder's teeth was pictured instead of lyrics on the page for "Corduroy".
Read more about this topic: Vitalogy