"World Wide Suicide" | ||||
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Single by Pearl Jam | ||||
from the album Pearl Jam | ||||
B-side | "Unemployable" | |||
Released | March 14, 2006 | |||
Format | Digital download | |||
Recorded | November 2004 – February 2006 at Studio X, Seattle, Washington | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 3:29 | |||
Label | J | |||
Songwriter(s) | Eddie Vedder | |||
Producer(s) | Adam Kasper, Pearl Jam | |||
Pearl Jam singles chronology | ||||
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Pearl Jam track listing | ||||
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Audio sample | ||||
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"World Wide Suicide" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "World Wide Suicide" was released through digital music stores on March 14, 2006 as the first single from the band's eighth studio album, Pearl Jam (2006). The song topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it spent a total of three weeks at number one.
"World Wide Suicide" was written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. The song features a raw sound closer to the band's earlier material. On the song's intensity, Vedder said, "The times...the times kind of demand a little bit of intensity."
The lyrics for "World Wide Suicide" depict anger against the war in Iraq, and criticize the US government in a subtle manner. Vedder has said that "World Wide Suicide" was written largely about Pat Tillman.
Vedder on the song:
It's about him and a bunch of the guys who didn't get as much coverage—the guys who barely got a paragraph instead of ten pages...The thing about Tillman was, he got ten pages but they were all lies. His family is being blocked by our government from finding out what happened...Where are the leaders that are going to represent a galvanized view on what to do next?...Democracy might have a chance at working if people educate themselves on these issues and make their opinions known.
In late February 2006, the band made a 15-second clip of "World Wide Suicide" available on the Internet, which was then played on numerous North American radio stations. The snippet revealed a hard-rocking sound with a noted return to the dominant vocal styles of Vedder's earlier work. It was first played on US radio on March 3, 2006 on KNDD (Seattle). On March 6, 2006, "World Wide Suicide" was made available via the band's official website to download for free. It was released to radio airplay on March 7, 2006. Between then and March 12, 2006, it was played over 1900 times on modern rock stations in the United States, meaning that it was one of the fastest-growing alternative rock songs of 2006 in the US. The single was made available commercially to digital music stores on March 14, 2006 accompanied by the B-side "Unemployable", also from the new album.