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)
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