Hear Eddie Vedder’s powerful isolated vocal for Pearl Jam song ‘Even Flow’
To this day, ‘Even Flow’ remains one of Pearl Jam’s most beloved tracks. Released as a single in 1992, the track starkly contrasts the gritty textures of Nirvana and Sonic Youth. In fact, it’s unashamedly anthemic, not to mention highly polished. Take Eddie Vedder’s rich and harmonically dense vocals, for example. Here, we’ve bought you an isolated recording of that vocal track to give you an insight into how they were put together.
Though it features one of Eddie Vedder’s best vocal performances, ‘Even Flow’ was written before the singer joined Pearl Jam. The original demo was recorded in 1990 by core members Michael McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament; Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron also offered up his services.
One of the first things Eddie did when he joined the band in October 1990 was to write lyrics for ‘Even Flow’, choosing to focus on the life of a homeless person ignored by society. “Freezin’ / Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete again,” he sings in the opening verse. “Oh, feelin’ / Maybe he’ll see a little betters, any days”.
With the track complete, Pearl Jam began recording their debut album, Ten. Though it was their first studio effort, Pearl Jam worked quickly and efficiently, polishing off most tracks in just a few takes. ‘Even Flow’ was different, and it took at least 50 takes to get right and required a hefty amount of editing.
An alternate take, included on the UK single, features Vedder yelling “Ha!” at the top of the track. It also sees the singer conclude the song on a more maudlin note: “I died, I died and you just stood there. I died and you watched me. I died and you walked by and said, ‘No, I’m dead'”.
Drummer Matt Cameron would later name ‘Even Flow’ his favourite song from Ten. Speaking to Line of Best Fit, he said: “When I was in Soundgarden and we were making Badmotorfinger, Eddie brought up the mixes to Ten and 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”.
