A song to make your neck bristle and your fists bunch, it announced Pearl Jam as a band to treasure, right out of the blocks.Written by a teenaged Eddie Vedder sitting alone in his San Diego bedroom, “Better Man” is almost a perfect encapsulation of the struggles that Pearl Jam were having with themselves over their stardom. Then a key turns in the ignition and Ten’s whip-crack opening salvo leaves the blocks, Vedder in character as a vengeful maniac with pedal to the floor and “sixteen-gauge buried under my clothes”. Onceĭuring the false start of the Master/Slave instrumental – which burbles away pointlessly for the opening forty seconds of Ten – it was only natural to start fishing for your receipt. It’s a bit of an odd one, Black, alternating between rock’s most jaunty verse and most gut-wrenching chorus, but when Vedder delivers the devastating pay-off – “ I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky, but why can’t it be mine?” – you’ll feel a cold shiver of recognition. “We thought it was important to pick the weirder moments,” noted Ament, “because we wanted to be able to explore those areas further down the line.”Įpic apparently badgered the band to release Black as the fourth single from Ten, but the lineup dug in their heels, helping the song to its enduring fan-favourite status. Still, for me, Oceans is a work of strange, glowering beauty, and gave Ten’s first indication that Pearl Jam could shift gears. Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament: my life in 10 albumsĪ musicologist might argue there isn’t much meat on this two-minute vignette (even Gossard admits “it’s just two fingers that come on and off to create the whole thing”).Metallica: every song on the Black Album ranked from worst to best.Vedder’s spitting-mad vocal was sparked by a news story about a teenager sectioned for minor drugs offences, but it’s Jeff Ament who deserves the backslaps, for both writing and driving the song on twelve-string bass.

Sandwiched between big-hitters Alive and Black, Why Go was kinda overlooked at the time, and that’s probably why its furiosity still sounds so fresh.

Best songs by pearl jam