Test your knowledge of Pearl Jam's biggest hits, deep cuts and iconic moments.
The 'Ten' singles announce themselves before a word lands, from the coiled riff of 'Alive' to the restless push of 'Even Flow'. When the lyrics blur, the guitar is what gives a Pearl Jam song away.
A few details separate the real fans from the radio crowd: a B-side nobody can transcribe that became a staple, a video award that made the band walk away from videos, and an album named after a basketball number.
The catalog runs from the radio-ready 'Ten' singles to songs you can only place by ear. Start with 'Alive' and 'Black'; from there, the mumble and the deep cuts decide the rest.
The 1991 debut 'Ten' is where casual fans score. 'Alive', 'Even Flow', 'Jeremy' and 'Black' have been on rock radio for decades, and their guitar figures are instantly familiar even with Eddie Vedder's words half-buried. These are the openers of most Pearl Jam rounds, and the easiest points to bank.
Here is where a Pearl Jam quiz gets sly. 'Yellow Ledbetter' has lyrics no two fans transcribe the same way, and plenty of tracks tuck the hook under Vedder's baritone. You cannot sing along to find the title, so you have to know the riff and the vocal tone instead. That is the real test.
Past the singles, the separators are album tracks and B-sides: the wistful 'Nothingman', the drive of 'Corduroy', the ache of 'Rearviewmirror' and the slow build of 'Immortality'. Many never had a video or a single push, so placing them from a short clip is what pushes a good score toward a great one.
The curveballs sit at the edges. Pearl Jam's highest-charting US single was 'Last Kiss', a cover of a 1960s ballad, and the band has released hundreds of official live bootlegs where familiar songs stretch, slow down or shift key. A thorough quiz reaches for the cover and the live takes that trip up studio-only listeners.
The 'Ten' singles are easy, since their guitar figures are unmistakable. It gets harder once the lyrics blur, because 'Yellow Ledbetter' and other deep cuts give you almost no words to sing along with.
Start with 'Alive', 'Even Flow', 'Jeremy', 'Black' and 'Better Man'. The deeper rounds pull from 'Yellow Ledbetter', 'Corduroy' and 'Rearviewmirror'.
Eddie Vedder's baritone buries the words, and the band made few videos after 'Jeremy', so you often have to recognize a song from Mike McCready's guitar rather than the lyrics.
Eddie Vedder sings, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready play guitar, and Jeff Ament plays bass. Gossard and Ament had been in Mother Love Bone before the band formed in Seattle in 1990; Matt Cameron has drummed since 1998.
Yes. It plays in your browser with no signup and no Spotify account, so you can start a round whenever you like. You can also guess the song with friends in a multiplayer music quiz.
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