The mysterious Pearl Jam song hidden from their fans
Pearl Jam is a band that gives everything to its fans. They have followers worldwide who are connected by the music because they know that every song the band makes, and every gig they play is packed with passion, time, and energy. Because of the band’s notorious commitment to the music, it comes as a surprise that one of their most personal songs was hidden from their local following.
It didn’t matter how long a song took the band or how frustrated they got with it; if they knew it would eventually come out right and the fans would like it, they persisted until it was finished. For instance, when writing their hit song ‘Even Flow’, they were locked in the studio doing over 100 takes until they got it right.
“The chorus is one tempo, and the verse is another, and never the twain shall meet…” the band commented, “It was overthinking, you know, when you’re working on something that you’re in love with, and you’re thinking, well, it’s not quite there yet. Then you look back on it and it’s like, any one of those first five takes will have been fine.”
On April 5th, 2002, the lead singer of Alice in Chains, Layne Staley, passed away. His body wasn’t discovered until April 20th, so Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam wasn’t notified of his death until the 20th. It shocked the musical world, which had grown to adore Alice in Chains, particularly Eddie Vedder.
Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam both emerged from the Seattle music scene of the ‘90s and operated within the same circles. Additionally, Layne Staley was closely connected to Pearl Jam, having played alongside guitarist Mike McCready in the side project Mad Season. As a result, news of Staley’s death hit Pearl Jam hard, and Vedder felt compelled to honour his memory through song.
The band were in the process of recording their Riot Act album when Vedder wrote the stripped-back number ‘4/20/02’. The song is incredibly isolated, containing just Vedder singing with his guitar tuned to ukelele tuning. It’s a sweet, moving number that pays homage to Staley’s memory and was clearly emotional to record. It’s something that fans would certainly have liked to hear; however, Pearl Jam opted to leave it out of the record.
Instead, when they released the Lost Dogs compilation album in 2003, they included the track as a hidden song that played six minutes after ‘Bee Girl’. It was confusing to many people why Pearl Jam went so out of their way to hide a track that so many would have liked to hear, but Mike McCready weighed in on the subject.
“I think the reason it’s hidden is because he [Vedder] wouldn’t want it to be exploitative,” he said, “I think he wants it to be hidden so you have to find it and think about it.”
