| "Even Flow" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single byPearl Jam | ||||
| from the albumTen | ||||
| B-side | "Dirty Frank" / "Oceans" (remix) | |||
| Released | March 30, 1992[1] | |||
| Recorded |
| |||
| Studio | London Bridge (Seattle, Washington) (both versions) | |||
| Genre | Grunge[2] | |||
| Length | 4:54 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Composer(s) | Stone Gossard | |||
| Lyricist(s) | Eddie Vedder | |||
| Producer(s) |
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| Pearl Jam singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Even Flow" onYouTube | ||||
"Even Flow" is a song by the Americanrock bandPearl Jam. Featuringlyrics written by vocalistEddie Vedder and music written by guitaristStone Gossard, it was released in 1992 as the secondsingle from the band's debut album,Ten (1991). The song peaked at number three on theBillboardMainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was included in Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album,Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003). A remixed version of the song was included on the 2009Ten reissue.
"Even Flow" features lyrics written by vocalistEddie Vedder and music written by guitaristStone Gossard. BassistJeff Ament said, "I knew it was a great song all along, and I felt that it was the best song that we got the worst take of on the first record. There were a hundred takes on that song, and we just never nailed it."[3] DrummerDave Krusen said, "I was pretty green back then and 'Even Flow' suffered from too much fluctuation." He added that "it was really tough for me. I don't know why. Not sure why we didn't use that one from the demo as well, but I know it felt better."[4] GuitaristMike McCready stated, "We did 'Even Flow' about 50, 70 times. I swear to God it was a nightmare. We played that thing over and over until we hated each other. I still don't think Stone is satisfied with how it came out."[5]
An alternate version of the song was recorded with drummerDave Abbruzzese in 1992 while the band was recording songs for thesoundtrack for the1992 film,Singles.[6] This version was used for the music video,[7] and was used in single releases in the United Kingdom. This version is on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album,rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
"Even Flow" was written in the key ofD major,[8] with Gossard performing his parts inopen D tuning and McCready complementing it with a similar rhythm pattern in standard tuning.[9] The recorded version of the song actually sounds slightly sharper than D major, with everything tuned up—accidentally or otherwise—around one quarter of a step. The song features afunk guitar riff by Gossard.
McCready on the song:
That's me pretending to beStevie Ray Vaughan, and a feeble attempt at that. Stone (Gossard, Pearl Jam guitarist) wrote the riff and song; I think it's a D tuning. I just followed him in a regular pattern. I tried to steal everything I know from Stevie Ray Vaughan and put it into that song. A blatant rip-off. A tribute rip-off, if you will![10]
The vocal line that appears in the main verse begins with a very prominenttritone interval.
The stark lyrics by Vedder for "Even Flow" describe the experience of being ahomeless man.[11] The subject sleeps "on a pillow made of concrete" andpanhandles passersby for spare change. In addition to being illiterate, he may also be mentally ill, as he "looks insane" when he smiles and struggles to keep coherent thoughts ("Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies/Oh, he don't know, so he chases them away").
At Pearl Jam's March 28, 1994, concert at theBayfront Amphitheater inMiami, Vedder introduced the song by saying, "I thought I'd throw in a bit of street education while you still have an open mind. ... Right across the street there's a little homeless community that lives under the bridge. You should just know that those people ain't all crazy and sometimes it's not their fault. This song is called 'Even Flow'."[12]
At the May 12, 2008, show in Toronto, Vedder stated that the song was written under the Space Needle in Seattle. At a subsequent show in Seattle on August 8, 2018, Vedder revealed that the song was inspired by a homelessVietnam War veteran (also named Eddie) whom he befriended while working on the band's first album. Vedder wrote the song after learning that the man had died while the band was touring.[13]
The alternate studio recording of "Even Flow", which was recorded in 1992 with Abbruzzese, was released as aCD single and 12-inch whitevinyl in the United Kingdom. The original version was used in single releases in the United States. The song was released as a single in 1992 with a previously unreleasedfunk[14]B-side titled "Dirty Frank", which can also be found as an extra track on European releases ofTen and as an alternate version on the compilation album,Lost Dogs (2003).[15]
The song peaked at number three on theBillboardMainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 21 on theBillboardModern Rock Tracks chart. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Canada, the song reached the top 80 on the CanadianSingles Chart. "Even Flow" peaked at number 27 in the UK and number 22 on the Australian Singles Chart. It was a moderate top 20 success in New Zealand.
Chris True ofAllMusic called "Even Flow" "the somewhat less ballady more swaggering follow up to the breakout single 'Alive'." True said that the song "doesn’t even really have an intro—it just starts and keeps going—and the band seems more in the groove than on the overly earnest 'Alive'." True said that the song "confirmed that Pearl Jam were more than just one hitgrunge rock wonders."[16] The song was placed at number 77 on a list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" byRolling Stone.[17] It was also included onVH1's countdown of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" at number 30.[18] According toNielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Even Flow" was the fifth most-played song of the decade spanning the years 2010 to 2019 on mainstream rock radio with 132,000 spins. All of the songs in the top 10 were from the 1990s.[19] In 2021,American Songwriter ranked the song number three on their list of the 10 greatest Pearl Jam songs,[20] andKerrang ranked the song number eight on their list of the 20 greatest Pearl Jam songs.[21]
Pearl Jam originally hired directorRocky Schenck to film amusic video for "Even Flow". On January 31, 1992, on their way to England to begin a European tour, the band members came to Los Angeles to film the video. The concept for the video was based on an idea by Gossard.[22] Schenck filmed Pearl Jam in azoo setting. He had arranged a nighttime shoot at an old, closed facility, brought in differentwildlife, and set up his lights among the cages and in the trees. Along with the animal footage, the members of Pearl Jam were filmed individually and as a band, standing on the side of a cliff and air jamming. The shoot took hours, and the band was not pleased with the end result. Schenck's shoot was considered a waste of time and money by the band; it also damaged Abbruzzese's wrists significantly. After shooting had finished, he was taken to the emergency room where he was advised not to put strain on his wrists. Abbruzzese would drum on the band's European tour with a splint attached to his hands.
The original music video for "Even Flow" was ultimately replaced by a performance clip directed byJosh Taft, who had previously directed the "Alive" music video for the band, and who later directed the music video for "Oceans".[23] The video consists of performance footage of the band filmed during a January 17, 1992, show at theMoore Theatre inSeattle.[23] The video shows Vedder climbing the theatre, then jumping down between fans at the concert, and ending with McCready throwing his guitar towards the camera. Taft was filming that night not with his occupation as a director, but as a friend of Gossard's. At one point during the show, Vedder shouted indignantly: "This is not a TV studio, Josh! Turn those lights out, it's a fucking rock concert!". Taft left this incident in his final cut, butMTV clipped it out when it aired the video.
The footage used in the video is actually spliced from different songs: for instance Gossard and McCready each play two different guitars, Vedder wears a hat at some point and the theatre climb actually occurred during "Porch".[24] Taft's presence at the Moore Theatre show, and the fact that he had filmed sufficient footage to compile into a music video, proved to be a break for the band. Otherwise, with Epic ready to provide MTV with an "Even Flow" video and Schenck's version already completed, Pearl Jam would have had little choice but to go with it, and the band members unanimously despised Schenck's version when they saw the final edit. The alternate studio recording of "Even Flow", which was recorded in 1992 with Abbruzzese, was used for the video as the band felt it synched up well with the live footage.[6] The video was released in April 1992.[25] The full January 17, 1992, show was released in 2013 as an audio download,Seattle, WA 17-January-1992.[26]
"Even Flow" was first performed live at the band's October 22, 1990, concert inSeattle at the Off Ramp Café. Pearl Jam performed the song for its appearance onMTV Unplugged in 1992. "Even Flow" has gone on to become the band's most performed live song, having been played more than 800 times (the next most played song, "Alive", is at more than 730 performances).[27] Over the years, the tempo of the song has become slightly faster in live performances. Live performances of "Even Flow" can be found on the "Dissident" single, the live albumLive on Two Legs, the compilation albumWild and Wooly: The Northwest Rock Collection, variousofficial bootlegs, the live albumLive in NYC 12/31/92,[28] theLive at the Gorge 05/06 box set, the live albumLive at Lollapalooza 2007,[27] and theDrop in the Park LP included in the Super Deluxe edition of theTen reissue. Performances of the song are also included on the DVDsTouring Band 2000,[29]Live at the Garden,[30]Immagine in Cornice,[31] and theMTV Unplugged DVD included in theTen reissue. OnLive at the Garden, McCready performs an improv within "Even Flow" that goes on for nearly five minutes.[30]
CD (US, Australia, Austria, Brazil, and Germany) and Cassette (Australia)
CD (UK) and 12" Vinyl (UK)
7" Vinyl (UK) and Cassette (UK)
7" Vinyl (The Netherlands) and Cassette (New Zealand)
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
Decade-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[42] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[43] | Gold | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[44] | 2× Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[45] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[46] | Gold | 400,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolling Stone | United States | "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time"[17] | 2008 | 77 |
| VH1 | United States | "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs"[18] | 2008 | 30 |
