Given to Fly
| "Given to Fly" | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Pearl Jam | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Yield | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Pilate" / "Leatherman" | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | December 22, 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD single, Cassette, vinyl | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | February–September 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:01 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Epic | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pearl Jam singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Given to Fly" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Mike McCready, "Given to Fly" was released in December 1997 as the first single from the band's fifth studio album, Yield (1998). "Given to Fly" proved to be the album's most popular single. The song topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and eventually peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song spent a total of six weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock chart. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
"Given to Fly" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Mike McCready, although loosely based on Led Zeppelin's "Going to California". McCready said he came up with the guitar riff after being stuck in his condo on a snowy day in Seattle. McCready on the song:
It was snowing here in Seattle, which it rarely does, and so they kind of shut down all the streets and I couldn't get my car out of the driveway. And I have a Volvo and you'd think those would be able to drive in the snow, but no, it wasn't going anywhere, so I was kind of stuck in my condo. And I wrote that riff [for "Given to Fly"] and the "Faithfull" riff that day.
In many ways, "Given to Fly" is one of the group's most significant singles—both its classic-rock composition and its warm, crisp sound recall Ten, which suggests that Pearl Jam were at least somewhat shaken by its fanbase's cool reception to the artsy, frayed No Code. The main riff is written in the DADGAD alternate tuning. Regarding the song, McCready said, "I just kind of imagined ["Given to Fly"] as sort of a wave in an ocean: It starts out slow and then it gets a little larger and a little larger and then it breaks and then it comes down again. And that's metaphorically how I think of that song." Drummer Jack Irons stated that "on "Given to Fly", I play a beat that's based around the toms, but it's pretty soft. I'm not sure I would have been comfortable playing that way a few years ago."
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