Yellow Ledbetter with Lyrics - Pearl Jam
Video Statistics and Information
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Channel: ineedausernameplz
Views: 22,249,575
Rating: 4.7883949 out of 5
Keywords: pearl, jam, yellowledbetter, yellow, ledbetter, pearljam, rearviewmirror, rear, view, mirror, lyrics, with, withlyrics, ineedausernameplz
Id: VhJ65v_C-eI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 5min 4sec (304 seconds)
Published: Thu Jul 02 2009
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This is an anti-war song. A lot of what he said at the beginning of the song is indeed gibberish and meant to be inaudible. Though, some of the lyrics are still wrong as they're shown here. For instance, he says "I don't know whether it was a box or a bag." In this line he is referring to his friend who is coming back from fighting in a war and he's not sure if he's coming home in a box or a bag.
The other line, "Yeah we see them out on the porch but they don't wave." was inspired by a time when he was walking down the road and saw a family standing on their porch with the american flag blowing above their door. He stopped to wave and the family grabbed their kids and went inside. He was saddened that, here stands a family in America, with their flag waving proudly, and yet the animosity and distance between other Americans is very predominant. Despite the war effort, we're still not as unified as you would wish.
I reccommend listening to THIS VERSION. It is live and he changes/adjusts some of the lyrics to help get the point across. Also, it is much more audible and clear! I love this song. I love his voice. I love this band!
Edit* Again, just based off the live video (and some of these lyrics are changed so it may not be perfect), it sounds like the opening line is "Unsealed, on a wasted letter said, 'I don't want to ever feel this way again.' My thoughts are it is from his friend in the war. (Or, maybe he's the one who doesn't want to "feel this way again" and the letter is indeed the yellow letter from the military?)
Some of the lyrics that do end up changing, for instance, is seen at about the 2:20 mark where he says, "I'd like to see him, I'd like to wish this war away, but I wake up every morning, turn on the news, and there it is again." Kinda interesting.. And after that he even says, "And you know, my brother is coming home in a box or a bag!"
TLDR: This is an anti-war song. His live version (referenced a couple paragraphs above) adjusts lyrics and makes this all the more-apparent. The intro lyrics are intentionally ambiguous and the "guess" as to what he is saying in the lyrics from this posted video are pretty inaccurate. I'd recommend giving the live one a listen to get a better idea of what he is actually saying.
McCready is amazing on this song. Actually the whole damn band is. These guys still make great music today. They're incredible musicians.
potato wave
I'm going to see Pearl Jam this Thursday! I hope they are good live.
Alternative? Man, I don't know. This is Pearl Jam. Fuckin rock n roll son.
This song came out before the advent of all the internet lyric sites. I spent hours listening to that song, writing down the lyrics phonetically. I still don't know what it is about.
Damn I almost forgot how good this song really is
Hearing this song at the end of 50/50 was too perfect, gave me chills.
This song is amazing given how much emotion it conveys through lyrics that are incomprehensible. I enjoy that. It's like Pearl Jam was a forerunner to Sigur Ros with this song.