Once by Pearl Jam

A key song in Pearl Jam’s history, “Once” was part of the demo cassette that Eddie Vedder received from an as-yet unnamed band while he was working at a gas station. At that point it was an instrumental written by guitarist Stone Gossard.

Vedder went surfing one morning, turned some ideas around in his head, then raced back to his girlfriend’s apartment and wrote three songs’ worth of lyrics on yellow Post-Its. Those three songs—“Alive,” “Once” and “Footsteps”—were conceived as a mini-opera; in “Once” the character feels his sanity slipping away. Vedder’s first line, “I admit it”—where the singer confesses before letting you know what he’s confessing—was a suitably intense match for the band’s churning riffage.

Using the soon-discarded name Mookie Blaylock, Pearl Jam played its first show at Seattle’s Off Ramp Café on October 22, 1990. They did seven songs and an encore; “Once” was the middle song in the main set.

The main guitar riff involves some tricky finger tapping. However it’s all a steady rhythm; so get the rhythm down first and then concentrate on your fingering.

On drums be ready to stay flexible, as the part calls for equal use of all four pads.

Still one of America's most important bands.

“Once”
Performed by Pearl Jam
Courtesy of Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Written by Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard
Published by Innocent Bystander, Write Treatage Music and Universal - PolyGram Int. Publ., Inc. on behalf of PolyGram Int. Publ., Inc. (ASCAP)