“But you know, it tickles you a little bit to think, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy,’” the guitarist continues. “This record, I remember like it was yesterday. Being in there and doing eight takes of ‘Even Flow’ and trying to get it right, and being stressed out about it, thinking it’s never gonna be good enough.”
Of course, it was “good enough.” Good enough to hold space in every CD wallet manufactured between 1991 and 1998 (ask your parents about Discmans, kids). Good enough to help a consortium of Seattle rock hellions, slinging disparate amalgamations of punk, metal and ‘70s rock, wage an accidental takeover of pop culture.
Whereas Soundgarden and Alice in Chains’ metallic roots showed more strongly and Nirvana wore their punk influences on their frayed T-shirt sleeves, on the grunge spectrum, Pearl Jam and “Ten” comparatively skewed more toward ‘70s rock’s anthemic qualities. The album, which Gossard feels is “truly driven” by the lyrics and vocals, represented the coming together of his existing musical partnership with bassist Jeff Ament, the scorching guitar work of Mike McCready and a San Diego surfer with a voice distinct and, eventually, ubiquitous enough to incur the honor of an “SNL” parody.
“That’s endlessly fascinating to me, how people work together and how … your artistic voice, how it blends with somebody else’s and what that vibration is like when they’re all together,” Gossard says. “Because it’s hard to hear it. And when you’re part of it, you can be kinda blind to it a little bit, or just listening to your own [parts] or being fixated on little details and not seeing the big picture.