Origin and Recording
"Breath" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard. The song originated as an instrumental demo called "Doobie E" that was written by Gossard in 1990. "Breath" became a Ten outtake. The version of "Breath" recorded during the Ten sessions, entitled "Breath and a Scream", appears on the 2009 Ten reissue.
A re-recorded version of "Breath" later appeared on the soundtrack to the 1992 film, Singles. This version of the song was recorded in 1992 and was one of the first songs to be recorded with drummer Dave Abbruzzese. The same sessions also produced "State of Love and Trust", "Dirty Frank", and the re-recorded version of "Even Flow".
Guitarist Stone Gossard on the song:
"Breath" is on the first demo we did as a band. I used a Les Paul and Marshall on that track. We didn't really have time to mess around and bring in my Vox AC30 and my Steinberger! We had a day-and-a-half to do it, so I just played through my normal set up.
Guitarist Mike McCready on the song:
That was a really old song of Stone's from his days in Mother Love Bone. It was just another chance for me to do a lot of leads. The song was kind of cool at the time because it reminded me of performing. For me, it was about playing live.
Read more about this topic: Breath (Pearl Jam Song)
Famous quotes containing the words origin and, origin and/or recording:
“We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and authority. But the divine right of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards ... “a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.””
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The origin of storms is not in clouds,
our lightning strikes when the earth rises,
spillways free authentic power:
dead John Brown’s body walking from a tunnel
to break the armored and concluded mind.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)