This version is a little fast, but this is absolutely one of my favourite songs of all time. What Howard Stern references, an astounding fact, is that this song was written during the recording of Ten - but not included on the original record. Subsequently though, the band would play this song in concert and that's how it gained its following, through infamy - this amazing song that no one had heard, except if you'd been to a PJ show.
At some point, Yellow Ledbetter made it onto live records, bootlegs and then Pearl Jam official releases (and remember when they recorded every single live show to circumvent the bootleggers, not to cut them off from making money off the band, or not 100% the reason, but to release their own music on their own terms with a professional mix). My first recorded version was on a live album issued in, I don't even know, 1993? 1994? 1992? I don't know that it had a title but I do have the cd somewhere, I should dig it out. But I don't think I got a studio version until maybe when I joined the horrendous, hellacious Spotify? I don't even know. But I lived with live versions for so long, so that's how I know this song.
Anyway, a truly great song with a great story. And damned if this doesn't bring a tear to my eye pretty much every single time I hear it. Because also, this is the epitome of Eddie Vedder singing a whole bunch of intelligible words but with so much emotion, you can't help but feel what he's feeling. Absolute love.
