"Dissident" | ||||||||||
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Single by Pearl Jam | ||||||||||
from the album Vs. | ||||||||||
B-side | "Release" (live) / "Rearviewmirror" (live) / "Even Flow" (live) / "Dissident" (live) / "Why Go" (live) / "Deep" (live) | |||||||||
Released | May 16, 1994 | |||||||||
Format | CD single, Cassette, vinyl | |||||||||
Recorded | March–May 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California | |||||||||
Length | 3:35 | |||||||||
Label | Epic | |||||||||
Writer(s) | Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready | |||||||||
Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | |||||||||
Pearl Jam singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Dissident" is a song by American rock band Pearl Jam, released in 1994 as the fourth single from the band's second studio album, Vs. (1993). The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
Eddie Vedder said about the song "Dissident":
"In "Dissident", I'm actually talking about a woman who takes in someone who's being sought after by the authorities for political reasons. He's on the run, and she offers him a refuge. But she just can't handle the responsibility. She turns him in, then she has to live with the guilt and the realization that she's betrayed the one thing that gave her life meaning. It made her life difficult. It made her life hell. But it gave her a reason to be. But she couldn't hold on. She folded. That's the tragedy of the song."
At Pearl Jam's March 17, 1994 concert in West Lafayette, Indiana at Purdue University's Elliot Hall, Vedder said that the "holy no" in the song refers to date rape, explaining that "a woman's word is sacred and the no means no and that's what a 'holy no' is."
While the "Dissident" single was released commercially to international markets in 1994, the commercial single was not released in the United States until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. "Dissident" peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Austria, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. "Dissident" reached the UK Top 20. "Dissident" peaked at number 97 in Germany, reached the top 30 in France, and was a top ten success in Ireland and Norway. It was a moderate top 20 success in the Netherlands.