Pearl Jam released “Animal” as the third single from their second album
Vs.
The album was almost called
Five Against One,
a lyric from the song “Animal.” Guitarist Stone Gossard said of the original title, “For me, that title represented a lot of struggles that you go through trying to make a record…Your own independence—your own soul—versus everybody else's. In this band, and I think in rock in general the art of compromise is almost as important as the art of individual expression. You might have five great artists in the band, but if they can't compromise and work together, you don't have a great band. It might mean something completely different to Eddie. But when I heard that lyric, it made a lot of sense to me.”
Vs.
The album was almost called
Five Against One,
a lyric from the song “Animal.” Guitarist Stone Gossard said of the original title, “For me, that title represented a lot of struggles that you go through trying to make a record…Your own independence—your own soul—versus everybody else's. In this band, and I think in rock in general the art of compromise is almost as important as the art of individual expression. You might have five great artists in the band, but if they can't compromise and work together, you don't have a great band. It might mean something completely different to Eddie. But when I heard that lyric, it made a lot of sense to me.”
The song ended up peaking at #21 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was described in
Rolling Stone
's review of
Vs.
as “a kind of ritual passion, tapping into something truly wild.”
Rolling Stone
's review of
Vs.
as “a kind of ritual passion, tapping into something truly wild.”
The meaning of the song has been confused by fans with some thinking it's about anger towards the media and others thinking it's about gang rape. In an interview with
Melody Maker
in 1993 Eddie Vedder said, “I don't wanna talk about [who the anger is directed at]. It's not so much personal, it's just, some person at the record company said the other day that they wanted the vocals turned up. He wanted people to understand exactly what I was singing. So I told him what it was about and he said, 'You're right. Let's leave the vocals as they are. Maybe we don't really want people to understand it.'” So you will have to decide for yourself what it's about.
Melody Maker
in 1993 Eddie Vedder said, “I don't wanna talk about [who the anger is directed at]. It's not so much personal, it's just, some person at the record company said the other day that they wanted the vocals turned up. He wanted people to understand exactly what I was singing. So I told him what it was about and he said, 'You're right. Let's leave the vocals as they are. Maybe we don't really want people to understand it.'” So you will have to decide for yourself what it's about.
Pearl Jam “Animal” 1994
