Oceans (Pearl Jam song)
Encyclopedia
"Oceans" is a song by the American rock
band Pearl Jam
. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder
and music co-written by Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard
, and bassist Jeff Ament
, "Oceans" was released in 1992 as the fourth single from the band's debut album, Ten
(1991). Remixed versions of the song can be found on the "Even Flow
" single and the 2009 Ten reissue.
and music co-written by Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard
, and bassist Jeff Ament
. Vedder on the song:
Gossard on the song:
Drummer Dave Krusen
on the song:
When the band joined the album's mixer, Tim Palmer
, in June 1991 in Dorking
, England
for mixing
, Palmer overdubbed a pepper shaker and a fire extinguisher
as percussion on the track. Palmer said, "The reason I used those items was purely because we were so far from a music rental shop and necessity became the mother of invention."
. The song is musically and texturally different from the rest of the album. Ament said, "When we were picking songs for Ten we thought it was important to pick the weirder moments, like "Oceans", because we wanted to be able to explore those areas down the line."
Gossard on the song:
. Following Pearl Jam's performance of the song at the band's 1992 MTV Unplugged
performance, Vedder stated, "[that was] a little love song I wrote about my surfboard...no actually it's to somebody named Beth
who hopefully I'll see tomorrow."
until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. Outside the United States, the single for "Oceans" was released commercially in Australia
, Austria
, and the United Kingdom
. "Oceans" reached the top 30 in the Netherlands
and was a moderate top 20 success in New Zealand
.
In March 2009, "Oceans" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
series as a master track as part of the album Ten. The drum kit which was originally tracked by Dave Krusen was included on this release, unlike the remixed Ten which it was released to support.
for "Oceans" was directed by Josh Taft
, who had previously directed the "Alive" and "Even Flow
" music videos for the band. The video was filmed in Hawaii
in September 1992. The black-and-white
video features scenes of the band members and other people in Hawaii, including Vedder surfing, Gossard driving, people swimming and running, and small planes flying. It also features performance footage of the band filmed in Maui
, Hawaii
at War Memorial Gymnasium. The video was only released to areas outside of the United States
in late 1992. The video was not released in the United States as the band felt Ten was already too big. The video clip for "Oceans" can be found on the Touring Band 2000
DVD as one of the Special Features.
in 1992, however this performance of the song was not aired when the show was broadcast on MTV
. Live performances of "Oceans" can be found on various official bootlegs
and the live album Live in NYC 12/31/92
. A performance of the song is also included on the MTV Unplugged DVD included in the Ten reissue.
, Stone Gossard
, and Jeff Ament
, except where noted:
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
and music co-written by Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, and bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, "Oceans" was released in 1992 as the fourth single from the band's debut album, Ten
Ten (Pearl Jam album)
Ten is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and...
(1991). Remixed versions of the song can be found on the "Even Flow
Even Flow
"Even Flow" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Even Flow" was released in 1992 as the second single from the band's debut album, Ten . The song peaked at number three on the Billboard...
" single and the 2009 Ten reissue.
Origin and recording
"Oceans" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie VedderEddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
and music co-written by Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, and bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
. Vedder on the song:
I remember for "Oceans", someone asked me to put change in the parking meter for them. I went and did that and then I came back and was locked out. It was drizzling and I wasn't dressed for an outing in the rain. I had a scrap of paper and a pen in my pocket, and they were playing this song [inside]. All I could hear was the bass coming through the wall, this window that was boarded up. So I wrote the song to the bass. I wasn't even listening to hear the song at first. When I heard a break, I'd start pounding on the door...trying to get out of the rain. So as I was doing that, I thought, fuck it, I might as well write something.
Gossard on the song:
We wrote it, we played it and Ed sang it, which is another thing that he does. I'd never seen anyone engage with song writing the same way. Here's the song, let me play it for you. It goes like this. OK theres a change here, let's do it and he would sing it. I'd hear the melodies and I'd think OK hes gonna write words or whatever and then I realized later that he actually had written the words right there. I couldn't understand how somebody could do that. Since then I've met a lot of people that can do it so it was an eye opener but he does it better than anyone I've ever seen do it.
Drummer Dave Krusen
Dave Krusen
Dave Krusen is an American musician who is best known for being the original drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam and for his work on the band's debut album, Ten...
on the song:
We originally tracked drum kit on that song. Then I added three tympani parts. I remember we were all in the control room listening to the tympani part with the drums muted. Someone commented how cool it sounded like that, so we kept it that way. I'm glad we did.
When the band joined the album's mixer, Tim Palmer
Tim Palmer
Tim Palmer is a British music producer, audio engineer and songwriter of rock and alternative music.-1980-1990:Palmer worked as an assistant engineer at Utopia Studios in London, England in the early 1980s...
, in June 1991 in Dorking
Dorking
Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
for mixing
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
, Palmer overdubbed a pepper shaker and a fire extinguisher
Fire extinguisher
A fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...
as percussion on the track. Palmer said, "The reason I used those items was purely because we were so far from a music rental shop and necessity became the mother of invention."
Composition
"Oceans" was performed in open D tuningOpen D tuning
Open D tuning is an open tuning for the acoustic or electric guitar. The open string notes in this tuning are: D A D F♯ A D. It uses the three notes that form the triad of a D major chord: D, the root note; A, the perfect fifth; and F♯, the major third...
. The song is musically and texturally different from the rest of the album. Ament said, "When we were picking songs for Ten we thought it was important to pick the weirder moments, like "Oceans", because we wanted to be able to explore those areas down the line."
Gossard on the song:
I love "Oceans". That probably sums up why I get excited about song writing. It's like open D tuning where the first chord's just straight across and it's just two fingers that come on and off to create the whole thing and then it moves down one position and it moves back up. It has a tiny little change in it but it's also got three big movements. What I love about music is aesthetic chords; the simpler the better and then another set that does something to those original chords. It's a really simple arrangement.
Lyrics
"Oceans" was inspired by Vedder's affinity for surfingSurfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
. Following Pearl Jam's performance of the song at the band's 1992 MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged is a TV series showcasing many popular musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show has received the George Foster Peabody Award and 3 Primetime Emmy nominations among many accolades.-Unplugged:...
performance, Vedder stated, "[that was] a little love song I wrote about my surfboard...no actually it's to somebody named Beth
Beth Liebling
Beth Liebling is the co-founder of Seattle-based experimental instrumental group Hovercraft with guitarist/keyboardist/samplist Ryan Campbell...
who hopefully I'll see tomorrow."
Release and reception
While the "Oceans" single was released commercially to international markets in 1992, the commercial single was not released in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. Outside the United States, the single for "Oceans" was released commercially in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. "Oceans" reached the top 30 in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and was a moderate top 20 success in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
In March 2009, "Oceans" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
series as a master track as part of the album Ten. The drum kit which was originally tracked by Dave Krusen was included on this release, unlike the remixed Ten which it was released to support.
Music video
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Oceans" was directed by Josh Taft
Josh Taft
Josh Taft is an American music video director. He has directed music videos for Stone Temple Pilots , Nas , A Tribe Called Quest , Cypress Hill , Mother Love Bone , and Pearl Jam ,...
, who had previously directed the "Alive" and "Even Flow
Even Flow
"Even Flow" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Even Flow" was released in 1992 as the second single from the band's debut album, Ten . The song peaked at number three on the Billboard...
" music videos for the band. The video was filmed in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in September 1992. The black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
video features scenes of the band members and other people in Hawaii, including Vedder surfing, Gossard driving, people swimming and running, and small planes flying. It also features performance footage of the band filmed in Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
at War Memorial Gymnasium. The video was only released to areas outside of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in late 1992. The video was not released in the United States as the band felt Ten was already too big. The video clip for "Oceans" can be found on the Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...
DVD as one of the Special Features.
Live performances
"Oceans" was first performed live at the band's May 17, 1991 concert in Seattle, Washington at the Off Ramp Café. Pearl Jam performed the song for its appearance on MTV UnpluggedMTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged is a TV series showcasing many popular musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show has received the George Foster Peabody Award and 3 Primetime Emmy nominations among many accolades.-Unplugged:...
in 1992, however this performance of the song was not aired when the show was broadcast on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. Live performances of "Oceans" can be found on various official bootlegs
Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs
The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...
and the live album Live in NYC 12/31/92
Live in NYC 12/31/92
Live in NYC 12/31/92 is a limited edition live album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, sent out to those who pre-ordered the 2006 album Pearl Jam before a certain date through the band's official website.-Overview:...
. A performance of the song is also included on the MTV Unplugged DVD included in the Ten reissue.
Track listing
All songs written by Eddie VedderEddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
, Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, and Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, except where noted:
- "Oceans" – 2:44
- "Why Go" (live) (Vedder, Ament) – 3:30
- "Deep" (live) – 4:24
- "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 5:46
- Live tracks recorded by VARAVARA (broadcaster)The Omroepvereniging VARA is a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system, founded in 1925 as the Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs...
Radio on June 8, 1992 at Pinkpop Festival in the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
- Live tracks recorded by VARA
Chart positions
| Chart (1993) | Position |
|---|---|
| New Zealand Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
16 |
| Dutch Singles Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
30 |