Listen to Eddie Vedder’s isolated vocals on Pearl Jam song ‘Even Flow’
Aside from ‘Alive’, perhaps the most ubiquitous Pearl Jam song is ‘Even Flow’. Both tracks arrived on the classic rock homage outfit’s glorious 1992 debut album Ten, which is, without a doubt, the band’s best full-length studio effort – perhaps competing with their brilliant MTV Unplugged live session.
Before Eddie Vedder joined the group, the rest of the band already had the song down as an instrumental. An early demo was recorded in August 1990 featuring Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron, the latter of whom had already joined Soundgarden. Towards the end of year, Vedder joined the group and lent his wonderful (if sometimes mocked vocals) to the demo. He wrote the lyrics about a homeless person who is shunned, outcast and neglected by the rest of working society.
To reiterate the song’s message, at a Pearl Jam show in 1994 in Miami, Vedder introduced the song by telling the crowd: “I thought I’d throw in a bit of street education while you still have an open mind… Right across the street there’s a little homeless community that lives under the bridge. You should just know that those people ain’t all crazy and sometimes it’s not their fault. This song is called ‘Even Flow’.”
Matt Cameron later admitted that the track is utterly essential to any conception of Pearl Jam. He told The Line of Best Fit: “I distinctly remember hearing the chorus for ‘Even Flow’ and thinking that’s HUGE. So hooky, it’s got a really rad Zeppelin huge rock feel to it. Although we’ve played it a couple of thousand times since I’ve been in the group I think that’s the quintessential Pearl Jam song. Even though it gets played out, the nuts and bolts of that song are just amazing. Oceans is also a fantastic song. Super fun to play.”
‘Even Flow’ is not just a classic Pearl Jam song; it is one of the best rock tracks ever recorded, from the iconic Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute riff to the utterly pounding and relentless percussion to Vedder’s iconic vocals expressing the pain and frustration of America’s homeless communities. The song ought to be considered in the pantheon of rock’s all-time great singles, not just for its humanistic message but for its incredible display of musical talent and hard-hitting sound too.
Check out Eddie Vedder’s isolated vocals for ‘Even Flow’ below.
