Any rock fan knows “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam inside and out. It’s delightfully intricate, a nutty blend of rhythms contrasted with a Herculean vocal take from Eddie Vedder. The scale is grand and titanic, the perfect song for a jolt of energy like Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” For the band, it was just as tricky and intense to make as it sounds. Apparently, they went over the record 100 times to get it where they wanted it to be.
In April 2024, Pearl Jam spoke with Howard Stern to promote their 12th album, Dark Matter. There, the radio host asks for some behind-the-scenes lore about some of their classic material. For “Even Flow” specifically, the group maniacally went over the record 100 times. Stone Gossard, the composer behind the iconic record, names himself as the chief reason it took forever to put together. “I’ll take the blame for this one,” Gossard explains. “I think the main problem is that I wrote a song that the two parts kind of want to run at different tempos, so the chorus is one tempo, and the verse is another.”
Why Pearl Jam Took Forever to Get ‘Even Flow’ Just Right
Ultimately, Eddie Vedder shrugged the whole affair off as another case of perfectionism. In the heat of the moment, they were transfixed on getting it right. However, in hindsight, he argues that they probably nailed it early on if they trusted their instincts. “It was overthinking,” Eddie Vedder says. “You’re working on something that you’re in love with, and then you think, ‘Well, it’s not quite there yet,’ and then you look back on it and go, ‘Any one of those first five takes would have been fine.’”
Meanwhile, Dave Krusen, the drummer for Pearl Jam at the time, had his girlfriend in labor during their recording session. However, the band insisted he stick the session out. “We’re giving birth now to our first record,” Vedder jokes.
As they got older, they learned a valuable lesson from these times– don’t overthink it so much. You don’t have to nail it first try, but you also don’t have to meticulously record 100 times, like they did for “Even Flow” either. “I was just giving it everything I had every take,” the Pearl Jam vocalist recalls. “No one told me, ‘You know, you can hold back a little bit … you’ll end up singing this again.’”
“We’ve learned our lesson,” Gossard says finally. “I don’t think we’ve played anything more than three takes on the new record — you get older and wiser.”
The post ‘We’re Giving Birth Now’: Pearl Jam Recalls Recording ‘Even Flow’ 100 Times (And the Take They Thought Was Best) appeared first on VICE.
