"I Got Id" | ||||
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Song by Pearl Jam featuring Neil Young from the album Merkin Ball (EP) | ||||
Released | December 5, 1995 | |||
Recorded | February 7–10, 1995 at Bad Animals Studio, Seattle, Washington | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, grunge | |||
Length | 4:53 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Writer(s) | Eddie Vedder | |||
Producer(s) | Brett Eliason | |||
Merkin Ball (EP) track listing | ||||
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"I Got Id", alternative title "Merkinball", is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam featuring Neil Young. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "I Got Id" appears as the A-side to the 1995 Merkin Ball EP. The song reached number two on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, number three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
The song's name is "I Got Id" (as in the Freudian concept of id) and not "I Got ID" (as in a form of identification), a frequent mistake in labeling the album's songs. "I Got Id" is also known as "I Got Shit" by the band and its fans, due to the actual lyrics of the song, "I got memories, I got shit..." It is rumored that when Vedder proposed the idea of a single to Epic, the label made him change the title of the song.
"I Got Id" was written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. The song was recorded during the sessions for the Neil Young/Pearl Jam collaboration Mirror Ball. Only two members of Pearl Jam appear on the track, Vedder and drummer Jack Irons. Neil Young plays lead guitar on the track and Mirror Ball producer Brendan O'Brien plays bass.
Upon introducing the song at Pearl Jam's September 19, 1998 concert in Washington, D.C. at Constitution Hall, Vedder stated that "[Neil Young] gave me a song writing lesson at a half-price rate; this is what I came up with...on my final, he gave me a B+ I think." At Pearl Jam's May 10, 2006 concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Air Canada Centre, Vedder revealed that the song's chorus melody was inspired by the verse melody in Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" from the 1969 album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.