The Best Pearl Jam Song That Never Made an Album

PJ
Photo credit Samir Hussein/Stringer

I was late to the PJ game. I was, of course, aware of one of the biggest bands of the '90s growing up but only faintly. It was around 2013 when I caught their PJ20 documentary on a cable channel late at night. From there I devoured Ten, then Vs., then Vitalogy then etc., etc. With the news of their grand return today, I thought I’d share my favorite Pearl Jam song of all time.

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"Daughter"? Great, but no. "Better Man"? Awesome sing-a-long but negative. My favorite song from Eddie and Co. actually doesn’t appear on any of their studio albums or live recordings, but a film soundtrack.

I’ve always felt you can tell when the artist has seen and furthermore absorbed a film before penning a soundtrack offering. Take "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls for example.

That song perfectly captures the essence of City of Angels, almost better than the movie does. A similar compliment could be paid to "Man of the Hour" - the song Pearl Jam put together for 2003’s Big Fish. There’s a bunch of takeaways from this song if you let it sink in. My particular favorite? The notion to enjoy collisions in life, while others may run away. Enjoy below & let me know what you think on social: @KevanKenney.