Master/Slave

Album: Ten (1991)
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Songfacts®:

  • This Blues jam features as a hidden track at the end of Ten. The album also opens with a brief interlude of the track before "Once" kicks in.
  • Pear Jam bassist and co-founder Jeff Ament told Billboard about this song and why rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard doesn't appear on this track: "I think there were a couple of days where Stone was either sick or at the dentist. We had a couple of days in the studio, and on one day we did 'Master/Slave' which is the beginning and end of the record. The other day, we just jammed on some things. This was one of the things we pulled up and we were like, 'Wow. This isn't terrible!' It shows you, even at that time, what Ed could ad-lib. Nothing got changed. That's just us hacking away at 12-bar blues and Ed (Vedder, vocals and guitar) going off and Mike (McReady, guitar) going off, basically. I think that was the sort of thing we wanted to grow into as a band. We wanted to be able to play like that; take 12-bar blues and move it somewhere exciting."

Comments: 2

  • Melissa from UsaNo, no, no...this lyric is Release. Master/Slave has a very slim lyric, just an adlib by Ed.
  • Mike from Melbourne, AustraliaI think that You are mistaking this song with '2,000 Mile Blues'. The description You provided was under '2,000' song in Ten re-edition booklet.
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