During sessions for their debut album Ten, bassist Jeff Ament, guitarist Mike McCready, and vocalist Eddie Vedder improvised a song in the studio. McCready’s opening guitar licks are inspired by Jimi Hendrix, while Vedder made up lyrics on the spot with an anti-war message, informed by the events then unfolding during the Gulf War.
‘Yellow Ledbetter’ didn’t make the final record, possibly because it’s too close in feel to Hendrix’s iconic ‘Little Wing’, and was instead issued as the b-side to ‘Jeremy’. While the reverb-heavy production of Ten is often to its detriment, it sounds fine in this spacious, relaxed song.
But despite its status as a b-side, ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ taken on a life of its own – it was used in the final episode of Friends, it was included as the closing track of the band’s 2004 compilation Rearviewmirror, and McCready’s solo made #95 in Guitar World’s 2007 list of greatest guitar solos.
Many Pearl Jam fans think they peaked with Ten and 1993’s Vs., and then got too weird on Vitalogy, but I’ve always preferred their more expansive work in the later 1990s. But along with ‘Black’ from Ten, ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ is one of my favourite Pearl Jam songs from their early period.
Yellow Ledbetter Lyrics
Unsealed, on a porch a letter sat
Then you said, “I wanna leave it again”
Once I saw her on a beach of weathered sand
And on the sand I wanna leave her again
On a weekend I wanna wish it all away, yeah
And they called and I said that I’ll go
And I said that I’ll call out again
And the reason I ought ta leave her calm, I know
I said, “I don’t know whether I’m the boxer or the bag”
Oh yeah, can you see them, out on the porch?
Yeah, but they don’t wave
I see them ’round the front way, yeah
And I know, and I know I don’t wanna stay
Make me cry
I see oh, I don’t know why there’s something else
I want to, wanna drum it all away
I said, “I don’t, I don’t know whether I was the boxer or the bag”
Oh yeah, can you see them, out the on porch?
Yeah, but they don’t wave
I see them ’round the front way
And I know, and I know I don’t want to stay at all
I don’t want to stay
I don’t want to stay
I don’t want to stay
I don’t, I don’t want to stay
That “Make Me Cry” before the solo… Amazing
I read that because the lyrics were basically improvised in the first place, Eddie Vedder does them differently every time.
I agree it doesn’t fit on Ten, but definitely one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs.
I’m not a huge fan of Ten – it has those four great singles and ‘Release Me’, but the production isn’t very fitting. Would have been a much better album with a better production job (I haven’t heard the redone version) and Yellow Ledbetter in the track listing.
Never heard this cut. It’s good. Same sessions as Ten? Same Band just not the big sound. We differ on the album. I really like it. I like the stripped down sound on this cut.
I liked them when they sounded a bit dirtier. It came through on the tail of Nevermind, but the production sounds like Nevermind never happened.
I don’t listen to Ten that much at all these days – a few choice cuts, but I very much prefer Pearl Jam when they got more adventurous. However, some of those early b-sides and outtakes are great. I haven’t really listened to Yellow Ledbetter an awfy lot over that last 10 years or so, either… a great tune, but I think I listened to it too much. Way too much. I just haven’t felt that inclined to listen to the studio version… some of the live versions are great, though.
Do you have much live stuff? I have a couple of the official bootlegs from the first wave but none since.
I have a couple, yeah. Some of the 2003 and 2006 dates are especially great.
I had a few things to say about this track and the beauty of a good B-Side when I wrote about Yellow Ledbetter
https://steveforthedeaf.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/yellow-ledbetter-pearl-jam/
Looks like I already read and liked it back when you posted it!
I know man, but I still can’t believe it’s a B-Side!
Love this tune. I was stoked when they played it at the show we saw (1998). Thanks for posting the lyrics. I prefer to just yell gibberish in time with Eddie’s vocals. 😉
According to setlist.fm, it’s their 16th most played song, which is pretty good going for a b-side – although also helps that it’s from their first album, of course.
Some of the stuff that didn’t make Ten is a) great and b) even better as it didn’t suffer from the mix that killed so many killer tunes on that disc. Yellow Ledbetter is the cream of the crop but that also includes State of Love and Trust, Breath, Footsteps and Brother….
I haven’t heard Lost Dogs for years, so I don’t remember most of those so well. Ten did enough to launch them, but it could have been so much better.