10 Greatest Vocal Performances In Rock Music History

Almost half of the Pearl Jam's songbook came from a place of great angst in the early days. While it may have set the world on fire in its time, listening to an album like Ten is not for the faint of heart, with Eddie Vedder bringing up fairly morbid subjects like child suicide on Jeremy or parental abuse on Why Go, all while coating each line in his rich baritone. Those songs all seemed like reporting though, and Black is the one time on the record where you can actually hear his heart come through his throat.

Originally a part of the Stone Gossard demo that he was using to find singers for his new band, the haunting melody behind the track drove something out of Vedder, writing a song about a recent breakup that he had and the fallout of losing one of the most important people in your life. This song doesn't seem angry though, with Vedder just sounding more and more depressed as the track plays on until one of the final lyrics, where he hopes that someday his lover has a beautiful life even if it's without him.

The power of the song almost was too much for Eddie to bear, not wanting to put it out as a single and getting uncomfortable when fans started singing it back to him during concerts. This might be the closest thing to an emo song to come out of the grunge movement, but there's no real anger or rage here. This is once the smoke has all cleared, and all you're left with is just emotional scarring.