Garden

One of the unique aspects of “Garden,” the ninth track on Pearl Jam’s debut album *Ten*, is the way the band approaches it during their live performances. Unlike the studio version, which is 4:59 long, live performances often alter the guitar intro, offering a different experience from the recorded version. The song was a collaborative effort: Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics, while Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament composed the music.

The story of Pearl Jam and the creation of *Ten* dates back to 1990, following the breakup of Ament and Gossard’s previous band, Mother Love Bone. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard began rehearsing, and in the process, they recorded a five-song instrumental demo featuring Matt Cameron on drums. This demo found its way to drummer Dave Krusen and vocalist Eddie Vedder, who were invited to audition for the band in Seattle. Many of the songs that would make up *Ten*, released on August 27, 1991, through Epic Records, emerged from these instrumental improvisations or musical ideas from Mother Love Bone, to which Vedder added new melodies and lyrics. Although often associated with grunge, the album is distinguished by a notable influence of classic rock. The recording of “Garden” and the rest of the album featured Don Gilmore, Dave Hillis, and Adrian Moore as recording engineers, Tim Palmer on mixing, and was produced by Rick Parashar and Pearl Jam themselves.

Since its inception in Seattle in 1990, Pearl Jam—with its original lineup of Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Dave Krusen—has maintained a distinctive stance toward the music industry. The band has been known for its rejection of common industry practices, such as making promotional videos, and is famous for its boycott of Ticketmaster. This attitude earned them a description in Rolling Stone magazine in 2006, which stated that the band “spent most of the past decade destroying its own fame.” Throughout their career, Pearl Jam has sold millions of albums, including 30 million in the United States and approximately 60 million worldwide. In 1998, Matt Cameron, also a member of Soundgarden, joined the band as drummer, solidifying the current lineup.