Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
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| "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" | ||
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| Song by Pearl Jam | ||
| from the album Vs. | ||
| Released | October 19, 1993 | |
| Recorded | March - May 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California | |
| Genre | Grunge | |
| Length | 3:15 | |
| Label | Epic | |
| Writer(s) | Dave Abbruzzese, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder | |
| Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Vs. track listing | ||
| "Rats" (Track 9) |
"Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (Track 10) |
"Leash" (Track 11) |
"Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" is a song by Pearl Jam which appears on their 1993 album Vs. The length of the song's title was a reaction by the band to the fact that most of their songs featured one-word titles.[1] The song is often referred to simply as "Small Town" by the band and their fans. The song was not released as a single, however it still managed to reach #17 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and #21 on their Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and is still played on popular rock radio. The song was included on Pearl Jam's greatest hits album, Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003.
The song follows a very similar melody to that of "Release" in their previous album Ten. Though the two songs' tempos differ, the lyrics of one can actually be sung over top the other. Moreover, superimposing lyrics with respect to rhythm reveals that the two songs actually reach climax at the same point.
The lyric page for the song in the album's liner notes featured a picture of an "elderly woman," but at some point after the first pressings another picture was used in place of the original. Allegedly, the original woman never gave permission for her picture to be used, so Pearl Jam changed the picture to another woman. The difference is easy to spot, as "the new and improved woman behind the counter" is printed below the picture.
[edit] Lyrical meaning
Eddie Vedder about "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town":
It's kind of about a lady, and she's getting on in years, and she's stuck in this small town. Small towns fascinate me: You either struggle like hell to get out, to some people want to stay 'cause then they're the big fish in the small pond, and then others just kind of get stuck there. So here she is working in this little place, and then an old flame comes in, and he's probably driving a nice car and looking kind of sharp - not a fancy car, but he's moved on. And then she sees him, and at first she doesn't even remember who he is, and then she realizes who it is. She's just too embarrassed to say 'hello'.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Vedder, Eddie. "Rockline Interview". KISW-FM, Seattle, Washington. October 18, 1993.
- ^ Wall, Mick. Pearl Jam. Music Book Services Corporation, 1996. ISBN 1886894337.
[edit] External links
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