Gonna See My Friend

Album: Backspacer (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, this high-energy rocker is the opening track from Pearl Jam's ninth studio album, Backspacer. It had been 18 years since Pearl Jam released their stunning debut, Ten, but they were still going strong - the album debuted at #1 in America. The band was able to adapt and prosper far better than any of the others from the Seattle grunge scene.
  • In an interview with Canadian radio station The Edge, Vedder called this a "drug song," but elaborated that it's about going to see a friend to stay off drugs.
  • Brad Wheeler of the Toronto Globe and Mail spoke to Eddie Vedder about this track. The Pearl Jam frontman recalled: "All I remember is writing it in a little room on a small table with a little 4-track tape machine. I got it sounding loud real quick, without disturbing the neighbors. I work using headphones a lot. I'm not going to have any hearing left. We all make sacrifices at our jobs, and my hearing is obviously going to be the first thing to go."

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