Songfacts®:

• There's a touch of nihilism in this song, as Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder asks over and over in the chorus, "How much difference does it make?"
  
  The song may ultimately be more hopeful, though, as the verses are filled with lines about taking a lickin' but keep on tickin':
  
  I'll keep takin' punches, until their will grows tired
  Oh I will stare the sun down, until my eyes go blind
  
  Vedder hasn't divulged his intentions.
• In a Songfacts interview with PJ bass player Jeff Ament, he talked about how this song came together. "We were hanging out with a bunch of acoustic instruments somewhere and I started playing what is the bassline in that song," he said. "I remember Ed said, 'I'll sing over that kind of s--t all day.'
  
  I got home that night and I made sure I remembered how to play it, and I recorded it. The next time when we went into the studio to record, I started playing that bit and he immediately started singing over it, and Stone [Gossard] came up with that beautiful guitar melody. That song came together really, really quickly."
• This is the last song on Pearl Jam's second album, Vs. After recording their debut album, Ten, on the cheap in Seattle, they leveled up to a fancy studio in California with a big-name producer, Brendan O'Brien (Black Crowes, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Vedder felt like a fish out of water and took to sleeping in his truck. The lyrics he delivered were nuanced and often pretty dark. "Indifference" stands out because his words are framed by very languid track. Unlike, say, "Daughter," there's no chance of it pumping up the crowd and becoming an anthem.
• Ben Harper often covers this song in concert. He played it with Pearl Jam both nights of Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit in 2001. "That song, I feel like it's a part of me," Harper said in Pearl Jam's Twenty compilation. "I feel it deeply, and I mean it more every time I sing it."