“Her love was but a haunting, she left but never went away…” – Eddie Vedder, “Long Way”

I have a vague memory of the first time I saw Eddie Vedder. I think – and I could be wrong, I often am – it was his cameo in the Temple of the Dog video for (and song actually) “Hunger Strike.” In the video, he was lurking in the tall, weedy overgrowth at the edge of a beach like some menacing highway bandit. As I recall as he sang his parts, he seemed slightly unhinged, like he was tearing the words out of his soul. Other than that I only saw grainy, concert footage with him swinging around the lighting rigs, up above the stage, like an unhinged grunge Tarzan. I was dating a woman at the time who turned me onto Pearl Jam’s seminal first LP, Ten, something which I’m sure I never appropriately thanked her for. Between those two LPs, Temple of the Dog and Ten, I knew I’d forever be on this guy’s bandwagon. I don’t think I’d ever seen a man with the intensity of his vocal delivery. My “fandom” was only solidified when I saw Pearl Jam live at Red Rocks outside of Denver on the Vitalogy tour in 1995.

Pearl Jam may have had its commercial ups and downs but I stuck with those guys through it all. I was there for Binaural and Riot Act – the Riot Act tour was the only time I’ve seen Pearl Jam with the Rock Chick, still incendiary despite the downpour – and those two albums were probably their commercial nadir. I think everything they’ve done since 2006’s self-titled LP has been exceptional rock n roll. And, while I was slow to warm to Gigaton that LP grows in my estimation with every repeated spin. The thing about Pearl Jam is even on their darkest, least commercially oriented records there was always those one or two tracks that are transcendent for me in the way their early LPs were for all of us. Typically that’s a result of either Eddie Vedder’s songwriting or his singing. He may be one of the last of the great front men…

While many of his peers struck out to go solo, Vedder never seemed to want to make a big splash on his own. Most of the solo tracks of Vedder’s that I had in my collection were songs from either soundtracks or tribute albums. He did “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” on that I Am Sam Beatles-centric soundtrack. I seem to remember he rocked out on a solo performance of “I Believe In Miracles” on a Ramones’ tribute LP. In 2007 Vedder did the entire soundtrack for the film Into the Wild and at the time it was considered his solo “debut” album. The Rock Chick gave me that record as a surprise gift that year. Vedder said he modeled Into The Wild after Pete Townshend’s early solo recordings, Who Came Next. I really liked the song “Hard Sun.” After that Vedder released an LP that may have been strange to some – Ukulele Songs – that I actually enjoyed. It was what a solo record used to mean in the way back machine – something idiosyncratic and completely different from your day job.

As far as I knew, sitting here today Vedder had no plans for anything major on the solo front. He’s released some tracks, including a great cover of Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up,” that he recorded at his home studio in Hawaii during Corona. Vedder lives in Hawaii with his former model wife and family where he records what he wants when he wants and then every half a decade or so goes on a boys-weekend excursion with his pals in Pearl Jam. Can we all just admit right now that Eddie Vedder “won” grunge. Anyway, this Wednesday, Vedder released a surprise, new single “Long Way” with an announcement that his next solo record Earthling will be coming out at some undetermined point in the future.

New Eddie Vedder, sign me up, yes please. I was intrigued and immediately sought the song out. “Long Way” and the rest of this impending solo album were produced by Andrew Watt… who I may have to start referring to as Uber-producer since he blew me away producing last year’s Ozzy Osbourne record, Ordinary Man. “Long Way” features not only Watt on guitar/keyboards but Josh Klinghoffer formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on guitar and Chad Smith currently still in the Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums. I hope that wasn’t awkward. Watt called in Chad Smith to play drums on that Ozzy LP I mentioned before, they seem to be pals. Also on the track on the Hammond B-3 is Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers and I don’t know if it’s his presence here but a lot of people are describing this track as sounding like Wildflowers-era Petty.

To describe this song as sounding like a Wildflowers excerpt is not an exaggeration. I hear it most in the chorus which sounds almost slightly auto-tuned, which would stun me if it is. It begins all acoustic strumming with easy but insistent drums. It chugs along… like someone on the freeway. Actually Vedder sings the chorus, “She took the long way, on the freeway” and perhaps that intonation of “free,” in long, drawn out notes is what conjures the Petty vibe. The song has a great two-part guitar solo in the middle. The song is so evocative of driving down the highway, headed toward something or as was usually my case in the old days, away from something. The lyrics are all about a failed relationship that leaves the protagonist haunted. How familiar is this lyric: “He’d taken more than his share, trying hard not to awaken the voice of regret in his ear.” Yeah, been there… “wishing the past would disappear.” Vedder’s voice is in one of those transcendent places I spoke about earlier in the post. This is a beautiful, haunting, midtempo track that really sticks with me.

Everyone should check this track out, if only to hear Vedder sing in such a committed way. This is a beautiful song. I don’t know what this portends for Earthling, his new album but it’s a great start. This is one of those great, musical surprises I was hoping that 2021 would bring. I knew musicians were squirreled way in their studios making splendid noise. Enjoy this one folks!

Cheers!