Codes and Lyrics

“Yellow Ledbetter” was released in 1992 by the band Pearl Jam as a b-side to their hit single “Jeremy”. The song was originally an outtake for the album “Ten”, but made its way on the radio anyway. The song was written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready.

The lyrics of “Yellow Ledbetter” are left open to interpretation. Many fans dismiss the lyrics completely, saying the Eddie Vedder’s voice is meant to be an instrument itself and the words that he’s saying don’t mean anything concrete. This seems to make sense, as the song itself is written entirely in sentence fragments, as if Vedder simply made up words off the top of his head without considering the meaning, instead just saying what goes through his head.

It is also suggested that “Yellow Ledbetter” is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, as Mike McCready’s interpretation of “Little Wing”.

It can be imagined the Vedder, Ament, and McCready simply sat down to play a little one day, and as McCready draws out some interpretation of “Little Wing”, Vedder just sings along with whatever comes off the top of his head. Regardless, the series of sentence fragments created a great, timeless song.