Leash (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Leash” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Pearl Jam | |||||
| Album | Vs. | ||||
| Released | October 19, 1993 | ||||
| Recorded | March 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California | ||||
| Genre | Grunge | ||||
| Length | 3:09 | ||||
| Label | Epic | ||||
| Writer | Dave Abbruzzese, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder | ||||
| Producer | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | ||||
| Vs. track listing | |||||
|
|||||
"Leash" is a song by Pearl Jam which appears on the band's 1993 album Vs. It is the eleventh track on the album.
Contents |
[edit] Origin and recording
Bassist Jeff Ament plays a twelve string bass on the track.[1] The song was premiered by the band in November 1991, almost two full years before the release of Vs. "Leash" was one of the songs the band produced during the first week of recording for Vs.[2] Frontman Eddie Vedder decided to keep his reference vocal take for the finished version.[3]
[edit] Lyrical meaning
"Leash" was written about the same girl that the song "Why Go" is about. In an inteview Eddie Vedder discussed the origin of the song:
She was stuck in a home because she was, like, caught smoking pot or something...This is what they do in Chicago, in the suburbs...If the kid has any resilience at all they'll go 'Fuck you, there's nothing wrong with me. My parents are fucking freaks. My mom's a fucking paranoid freak, she gets home from work and sits and watches TV, gets all this information 'bout teenagers from Hard Copy and then takes it out on me. I'm a pretty good fucking kid.' This girl Heather was in for two years, two fucking years, and she's one of the smartest kids I knew. Now, Heather finally gets out, but her mom's still doing the same fucking thing, threatening her with putting her back in the hospital. I mean, this girl was 15, 16 years old, she couldn't be on the phone after 8:00 at night. She couldn't go out, she couldn't spend the night at anyone's house, she couldn't do anything. It was after talking to her again one day that I wrote the song in the car. "Drop the leash" you know? "Get out of my fucking face".[4]
Before a performance of the song at Pearl Jam's June 18, 1992 show in Zürich, Switzerland, Vedder stated, "We have a prize winner, ladies and gentleman...our governments, our parents, our teachers, our friends. They all put leashes on us. Drop the leash, drop the leash. Get out of my fucking face."[5]
[edit] Live performances
The song was premiered live at the band's November 9, 1991 concert in Washington, D.C.[6] After the band's March 14, 1995 show in Canberra, Australia, the song was not performed live for a period of eleven years. "Leash" finally made a return appearance at the band's May 25, 2006 show in Boston, Massachusetts.[6] A live performance of "Leash" can be found on the Live at the Gorge 05/06 box set.
[edit] References
- ^ "Jeff Ament's Gear". Sonymusic.com.
- ^ Crowe, Cameron. "Five Against the World". Rolling Stone. October 28, 1993.
- ^ Coryat, Karl. "Godfather of the "G" Word". Bass Player Magazine. April 1994.
- ^ Jones, Allan. Pearl Jam - The Illustrated Story, A Melody Maker Book. Hal Leonard Corp, 1995. ISBN 0793540356
- ^ Vedder, Eddie. "Echo of June 18, 1992, Zurich, Switzerland". sonymusic.com.
- ^ a b "Pearl Jam Songs: "Leash"". pearljam.com.
[edit] External links
 |
This 1990s rock song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
