Eddie Vedder became one of the most iconic voices to emerge from Seattle’s grunge scene in the 1990s. And like other rock stars of the time, Vedder appeared deeply uncomfortable with his sudden fame. You get the sense that he had enough instinct to understand how fleeting “grunge” was going to be.
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His heroes were Neil Young, The Who’s Pete Townshend, and Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, and Vedder’s songwriting always held to a longer view than his fellow Gen X doom-and-gloomers. For Pearl Jam, Vedder’s lyrics offered vivid portraits like “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” as well as confessional anthems: “Alive” and “Black”. They aged well because they were immediately classic.
“Future Days” follows this tradition with one of Pearl Jam’s most heartbreaking ballads. It finds Vedder confronting mortality. But the song’s success from its inclusion in a video game franchise has also given his band something closer to immortality.
About “Future Days”
Eddie Vedder was inspired to write “Future Days” following the accidental drowning of his friend Dennis Flemion from The Frogs. It’s an ode to the loved ones Vedder has lost, and the opening line describes how we lose a piece of ourselves when a friend, family member, or partner passes away.
If I ever were to lose you
I’d surely lose myself
Everything I have found, dear
I’ve not found by myself.
The track closes Pearl Jam’s 2013 album Lightning Bolt, and though Vedder has a long history of emotional vocal performances, “Future Days” remains one of his most earnest.
In the following verse, Eddie Vedder mentions “crooked hearts.” According to Jimmy Flemion, Dennis’s brother and co-founder of The Frogs, Dennis once drew three crooked hearts in a notebook belonging to Vedder. It happened backstage following a Pearl Jam show in 1995.
Back when I was feeling broken
I focused on a prayer
You came deep as any ocean
Did something out there hear?
All the complexities and games
No one wins, but somehow, they’re still played
All the missing crooked hearts
They may die, but in us they live on.
‘The Last Of Us’
“Future Days” is closely connected to the HBO television series, The Last Of Us, which is based on the popular video game franchise.
It plays an important role in the video game, specifically between the characters Joel and Ellie. In the game, The Last Of Us II, Joel performs “Future Days” for Ellie. For the HBO series, Craig Mazin, the show’s co-creator, named the first episode of Season 2 after Pearl Jam’s song, and the band just released a four-song collection of tracks featured in the series, including a live version of “Future Days”.
To prove how far the song has reached, Eddie Vedder performed “Future Days” during the Game Awards 2020 to acknowledge its prominence in The Last Of Us II. For all the criticisms of how streaming and new technology have harmed songwriters, it’s notable how a video game has given new life to an old rock band.
What better tune to illustrate this than “Future Days”?
Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
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