I was recently watching a Rick Beato interview with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and Jeff Ament in which they were talking about the history of the band and some of their early songs. That made me curious to further research some of the details, and the end result of that are some finds that may be of interest to any Pearl Jam fan:
First, 12 songs, dubbed The Gossman Project are the demos that the initial Pearl Jam trio put together, in an attempt to find a drummer & singer for the new band. Five of these songs would ultimately make their way to Eddie Vedder – “Dollar Short” (Alive), “Agytian Crave” (Once), “Times of Trouble” (Footsteps), “Richard’s E” (Alone), and “E Ballad” (Black) – but there are other notables here too, including “The King” (Even Flow), “Doobie E” (Breath) and “Weird A” (Animal). As I understand it, The Gossman Project 05 track, “Untitled”, is the “Wreck” or “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” song referenced in the interview.
Eddie then added his vocals to “Alive”, “Once” & “Footsteps”, creating the Momma-Son tape and the band as we know it was born. While on his way to Seattle, he would write the lyrics to “Black” as well.
In the interview, the guys also mention a song that was initially known as “Brother” (not to be confused with another early but unreleased song of the same name). Today, we know that song as “Daughter”. It was first performed at the Bridge School Benefit concert on November 1, 1992, with different lyrics (the word brother can still be heard here) than the eventual album release in late 1993.
Normally, I try to link to official materials with this blog (to benefit the artist), but in this case there likely are none, so I appreciate those who have posted these for fans to discover & enjoy.
It’s also worth noting that there are other outtakes from that early period (songs that didn’t make the cut) associated with the recording of their debut album Ten, some of which were later officially released on Lost Dogs.