Eddie Vedder names the “most emotional” Pearl Jam song
Every great grunge song was usually born from intense emotion. Even though it might not have been easy to decipher just what the hell Kurt Cobain was singing about in a song like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, you knew that it was important because of how he was delivering the lyrics. While Pearl Jam may have been in tune with their emotions when putting together their first handful of albums, Eddie Vedder was going to be put through the wringer once he became the biggest rockstar in the world.
Before Vedder had even joined the band, he already thought he was out of touch with his bandmates. Coming from San Diego, Vedder had been the outsider in Seattle, arriving after Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament had to dissolve their original band, Mother Love Bone, after the death of Andy Wood.
Once they heard Vedder’s trademark growl, though, he knew they had found someone with a much different timbre than they were used to. Pioneering the distinctive yarl that would define grunge rock, Vedder would channel his innermost feelings when putting together Ten, telling stories about his personal life and reporting on turmoil on the news like ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Black’.
As the band slowly grew a large fanbase, Vedder started to feel out of touch with his fame. Since everyone had wanted the band to release a sequel to Ten, Vedder wasn’t ready to become an artist who pandered to his fans, getting even angrier on the album Vs. When the rest of the music world sent songs like ‘Daughter’ to the top of the charts, Vedder knew that he needed to change the course of his career on the next album.
On first listen, Vitalogy is one of the most eclectic Pearl Jam albums, informed by Vedder’s need to shake off the shackles of his celebrity. Even though there are amazing tracks spread throughout the record, many of the interlude songs were the most questionable songs of the band’s career.
While Vedder may have stood up for the Tom Waits-esque jaunt ‘Bugs’, ‘Stupid Mop’ was the sharpest left turn the band could have mustered. Created in the vein of The Beatles’ ‘Revolution 9’, most of the track is a sound collage originating from Vedder taping the sounds of a TV program documenting mental patients.
Despite being one of the most off-the-wall genre switch-ups in recent memory, Vedder would stand by the recording, saying, “I had taped something off the TV when I was maybe 17 or something, and I think it was people who had mental problems who were being let out of the hospitals early…it was still very intriguing the way their mind worked and what they would say and we experimented and tried to incorporate it into what to date is our most emotional and moving song”.
While the song may have been a turn-off for many passive Pearl Jam fans, this was a statement of intent on Vedder’s part. Pearl Jam was not the mainstream band that most people thought they were, and if fans couldn’t appreciate their need to experiment, Vedder didn’t want them around anyway.
