The story behind Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter

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Pearl Jam released their landmark debut album Ten in late August of 1991. Coupled with groups like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains they ushered in the so called grunge era of the early 90’s. Ten would go on to be the biggest album of the band’s career and one of the most popular records of the decade selling over 12 million copies stateside. But one of the first song’s the band wrote for the album, a track called Yellowledbetter didn’t make the record and would instead be released as a b-side. Years later it became one of the band’s most popular songs. The reason it got popular, might surprise you. In today’s video,, let’s talk about the history of the song

The first thing that’s noticeable about the jimi hendrix and stevie ray vaughn influenced track are the lyrics. What are they many people ask? Well the first clue came from the Japanese 3” CD single for Daughter. The correct lyrics were supposedly printed in both english and japanese, but fans became suspicious when the lyrics didn’t seem correct.

Frontman Eddie Vedder gave an online chat to fans in 2000. He was asked about the story behind the song to which he responded Yellow Ledbetter,"was written right around the time of the Gulf War. That's about as far as I can get into it. It's an anti-patriotic song, actually." But fast forward to a vedder solo performance in 2008. During a Q&A session Vedder shined more light on the song revealing "Wait...you mean there's lyrics?" He would reveal the song was about a friend of his whose brother served in the first Gulf War. His brother died in the war and as a result he received a yellow letter informing him of the news. He didn’t need to open the letter, he knew what is was.The yellow letters are a normal part of contacting family about the death of loved one in the military.

Following the news Vedder and his friend then went for a walk to digest the news.. On this walk, the friend, whom Vedder described as "alternative looking", Eddie would be quoted AS SAYING So he tries to walk this off in this little suburban neighborhood. He’s walking it off and his mind is racing and he doesn’t know what to do. He feels like he can’t take a step without falling into some deep abyss. And so he’s walking and walking and he sees a couple on a porch with an American flag. And then he waves to them like ‘my brother,’ and the people look at him like ‘you fucking scumbag,’ like ‘who are you.’ They don’t know. They don’t know the inside. They’re just judging him by his cover. So that’s what the thought was.” That friend would be Tim ledbetter.

It was believed for quite sometime that the song was initially inspired a blues musician, 'Leadbelly' WHOSE LAST NAME IS Ledbetter... who was said to be a big influence on mike mcready. There was also another theory that 1) The name "Yellow Ledbetter" is from an old tongue twister in which you try to say "yellow better, red better" as fast as you can. Just a few times repeated, the words become jumbled and you get "yellow ledbetter." It was that that because the lyrics are indistinguishable just like the tongue twister.

As for why the song never made Ten, Eddie Vedder would explain to howard stern that he wanted the song on the record, but he didn’t finish the lyrics in time. The song is credited to Eddie, Mark McReady and Jeff Ament. The song was said to be inspired by jimi hendrix’s little wing and stevie ray vaughn AS MCREADY MENTIONS TO STERN HERE. Mcready would recall ABOUT THE SONG’S WRITING.

That was written around the time of the first record [Ten]. I think that was the second thing Ed and I wrote together. It came out of a jam in the studio and Ed didn't really have any lyrics. He came up with some ideas right there on the spot, and that's what we recorded. For some reason, it didn't make it on Ten. I was kind of bummed at the time. I really wanted it to be on our first record. But at the time, I was really young and just happy to be around this situation, so I did whatever.[5]