I'd put it in my Top 20 and one of my favorite melodies in the catalog.
I like the idea of a designated closer, even though the past few years it's not the almost automatic last song like it was there for a good while. Mike's little bit at the end, with an extended outro mixed in with a few chords from another song, is my favorite way to end a show. I always want to get that when I know it's my last time seeing them play for a while.

At the last four shows I've been to this has only been the closer once.

same. I'll probably skip it on a boot, but I want to hear it live.

i cant really pick a favorite pearl jam song, so i always say this by default. i listen to their live stuff way more, but im not sure anything gets better than the studio version of yellow ledbetter. whats eddie vedder singing? whos gives a shit, his voice is so moving he doesnt even need to sing actual words. and i know its inspired/stolen from hendrix, but they are 2 completely different songs. the solo is just as moving as the vocals, one of my favorite solos ever. i pretty much love the shit out of this song. just incredible.

I recently was showing this song to my girlfriend who didn't know it and we were trying to guess the lyrics for fun.

I can't believe Eddie starts the song with "Un-a-seal-ehd" (Unsealed) instead of "On the ceiling". That was...quite a pronunciation

But my main main takeaway....that blew my MIND reading the lyrics

was that he doesn't say anything about "The box or the bag"....

He says "I don't know whether Im the BOXER or the BAG" !

Im also fairly certain that for decades Eddie didn't know this either. I think the Stern performance this week is the first time Ive EVER heard him say this.

I like to believe he never knew the lyrics to this song either and he also like me had his mind blown reading Genius's interpretation, and realizing what he actually meant to say. Like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry can't decipher a scribbled note he made in his sleep of something he thought was funny.

The actual lyric makes so much more sense!

I don't know if you know this or not Mikejasond but there are no "actual lyrics" to this song. Even the studio version is largely gibberish. The lyrics you find online are just approximations by fans.

Yes, but that's a lyric that as soon as you hear it you realize it's correct.

Like, "The box or the bag" always sounded really random and strange. "Don't know whether I'm the boxer or the bag" is a good line that makes too much sense to not be the real line.

But I legitimtely don't think Eddie knew what this line was either until recently lol

Boom was there

I don't think I've ever heard the boxer or the bag enunciated until this performance. It's a much better lyric than box

Right?? I don't think Ive ever heard him actually say that before lol. I really think he probably just looked up the lyrics on genius too, was mind-blown like I was, and realized some fans had deciphered whatever the heck he tried to say on the album and suddenly remembered what he wrote.

beautiful performance for song i really really love.

Thinking back on those amazing times I happened to catch this “rarity” on the radio … that was fun and exciting. I’m glad it wasn’t on Ten.

Someone - a famous entertainment personality - Bill Simmons? Bill Maher? Maybe it was even Howard Stern?

Didn’t someone come out with this “Boxer” thing and explain that it makes much more sense?