Animal (Pearl Jam song)
| "Animal" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Pearl Jam | ||||||||||
| from the album Vs. | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Animal" (live) / "Jeremy" (live) | |||||||||
| Released | April 4, 1994 | |||||||||
| Format | CD single, Cassette | |||||||||
| Recorded | March–May 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California | |||||||||
| Genre | Grunge | |||||||||
| Length | 2:49 | |||||||||
| Label | Epic | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | |||||||||
| Pearl Jam singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Animal" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released in 1994 as the third single from the band's second studio album, Vs. (1993). Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist Stone Gossard. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
"Animal" originated as an instrumental demo called "Weird A" that was written by guitarist Stone Gossard in 1990. Guitarist Mike McCready said about the song:
"I like the lead on that. George Webb, a guy who takes care of all our guitars and amps, was sitting there and I told him I'd do a solo for him. It ended up being the one we used on the record. I did it on a Gibson 335, too. That's a fun song to play."
The actual meaning for "Animal" has usually been confused by fans with some thinking it's about the band's hatred towards the media and others thinking it's about gang rape. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1993, vocalist Eddie Vedder stated:
"I don't wanna talk about [who the anger is directed at]. It's not so much personal, it's just, some person at the record company said the other day that they wanted the vocals turned up. He wanted people to understand exactly what I was singing. So I told him what it was about and he said, 'You're right. Let's leave the vocals as they are. Maybe we don't really want people to understand it.' "
Originally, Vs. was titled Five Against One, which was taken from the lyric "One, two, three, four, five against one..." from "Animal". Concerning the original album title, Gossard said:
"For me, that title represented a lot of struggles that you go through trying to make a record...Your own independence—your own soul—versus everybody else's. In this band, and I think in rock in general the art of compromise is almost as important as the art of individual expression. You might have five great artists in the band, but if they can't compromise and work together, you don't have a great band. It might mean something completely different to Eddie. But when I heard that lyric, it made a lot of sense to me."
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