Once

"Eleven," the first song on Pearl Jam's debut album, *Ten*, is much more than just a powerful opener; it is the central chapter of a "mini-opera" that lead singer Eddie Vedder called *Mamasan*. This trilogy, which begins with “Alive” and concludes with “Footsteps,” chronicles a man’s descent into madness as he ultimately becomes a serial killer. The intensity of the narrative is heightened by a particular detail in the song’s bridge, where Vedder can be heard murmuring: “You think I got my eyes closed/But I’m lookin’ at you the whole fuckin’ time...”. This track, described as one of the band’s heaviest, was even ranked by Classic Rock in 2018 as the best song on *Ten*.

The origins of “Once” date back to 1990, when guitarist Stone Gossard created an instrumental demo titled “Agyptian Crave.” This recording was one of five songs compiled on a tape known as “Stone Gossard Demos ’91,” which was circulated with the intention of finding a singer and a drummer for the band. The tape found its way to Eddie Vedder, who was working at a gas station in San Diego, California, at the time. While listening to the demo, the lyrics for “Once” came to him spontaneously, inspired during a surfing session. Vedder recorded the vocals for three of the songs on that tape, including “Once,” and sent it back to Seattle. Upon hearing it, the band invited Vedder to Seattle and asked him to join the group. The song was recorded in 1991 at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, Washington; it is 3:51 long and was produced by Rick Parashar and Pearl Jam. Its first live performance took place on October 22, 1990, at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle, Washington, even before the album’s release. Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media highlighted in *Once* a “hardscrabble” dynamic and “insistent breakdowns” that the band would fail to capture on subsequent releases. In addition to its appearance on *Ten*, the song was also included as the B-side of the “Alive” single, and remixed versions were released on the greatest-hits album *Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003)* in 2004 and on the 2009 reissue of *Ten*.