It’s February 1995 at Bad Animals studio in Seattle, and things are weird. Outside, the grunge explosion is starting to feel like a hangover. Inside, Neil Young is recording an album with Pearl Jam acting as his backing band. But there’s a problem. Eddie Vedder is barely there. He’s dealing with a terrifying stalker situation—the kind of real-world nightmare that makes being the biggest rock star on the planet feel like a prison.
When he does show up, he feels like an outsider at his own party. He watches Neil jam with his bandmates—Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, and Jack Irons—and he’s struck by this sudden, sharp burst of inspiration. He ducks into a side room, grabs a guitar, and writes a song that would eventually become a cornerstone of the Pearl Jam live experience.
Most people know it as Pearl Jam I Got Id, but if you’ve ever been to a show, you know that’s not what Eddie calls it. To the fans, and on every handwritten setlist since the mid-90s, it’s "I Got Shit."
The Neil Young Lesson: How a B+ Became a Classic
There’s a famous story Eddie tells on stage—specifically during a 1998 show at Constitution Hall—about how Neil Young gave him a songwriting lesson at "half-price." Essentially, Vedder was trying to soak up the legend’s raw, spontaneous energy. When he showed Neil the results of his efforts, the "Godfather of Grunge" supposedly gave him a B+.
Honestly, Neil might have been grading too hard.
The song was born from those Mirror Ball sessions, but it didn't actually make it onto Neil’s album. Because of messy legal red tape between Epic (Pearl Jam's label) and Reprise (Neil's label), the band couldn't even put their name on the Mirror Ball cover. To get Eddie’s new material out, they released a two-song companion EP called Merkin Ball.
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If you look at the credits for Pearl Jam I Got Id, the lineup is fascinating:
- Eddie Vedder: Vocals and guitar.
- Neil Young: Lead guitar (that searing, jagged solo is pure Neil).
- Jack Irons: Drums (bringing that heavy, tribal swing).
- Brendan O’Brien: Bass.
Wait, Brendan O’Brien? Yeah, the famous producer stepped in on bass for this track. Jeff Ament played on the B-side, "Long Road," but for "I Got Id," it was O’Brien holding down the low end. It’s one of the few "Pearl Jam" songs where more than half the band is missing, yet it feels more like Pearl Jam than almost anything else from that era.
The Heidi Theory: Is the Title a Secret Code?
For years, fans debated the "Id" in the title. Was it a Freudian reference to the primitive part of the psyche? Or was it just a polite way to say "I've got identification"?
The truth is much darker and a bit more personal.
In recent years, folks close to the band’s inner circle—including longtime engineer Brett Eliason—have let it slip that the title is a play on the name "Heidi." This was reportedly the name of the stalker who was making Eddie’s life a living hell at the time. By shortening "I Got Heidi" to "I Got Id," and then publicly calling it "I Got Shit," Vedder took a terrifying personal situation and buried it in a piece of heavy, cathartic art.
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You can hear that tension in the lyrics. When he sings about walking the line and being "pushed and pulled," he’s not just waxing poetic. He’s talking about the claustrophobia of fame and the literal fear of someone watching his house.
Why the Song Sounds Like "Cinnamon Girl"
If the main riff feels familiar, don't worry—you aren't crazy. Eddie has admitted that he basically re-wrote Neil Young’s "Cinnamon Girl" without realizing it.
He was so immersed in Neil’s world during those weeks that the "Drop D" tuning and the chugging rhythm just seeped into his subconscious. It’s a bit faster and more aggressive than Neil’s 1969 classic, but the DNA is identical. It’s a tribute that happened by accident.
Musically, the song is a masterclass in tension and release. It starts with that unstable, melancholy D-major-to-minor shift, creating a mood that feels like a gray Seattle morning. Then the chorus hits, and it’s this big, bittersweet explosion. It’s one of those rare tracks that feels "elemental," like it wasn't written so much as it was dug out of the ground.
The Legacy of Merkin Ball
While it was just a "single" or an "EP," Merkin Ball (and specifically "I Got Id") marked a turning point. It was the bridge between the raw, stadium-rock power of Vitalogy and the more experimental, atmospheric vibes of No Code.
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It proved that Pearl Jam didn't need the "grunge" formula to be heavy. They just needed a high-gain amp and some emotional honesty. Even today, thirty years later, when the band starts those first few bars of the riff, the crowd at a Pearl Jam show goes absolutely nuclear.
Facts You Might Have Missed:
- The Chart Success: Despite being a "throwaway" EP release, it hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. People were starving for new PJ material.
- The Live Evolution: Live versions are usually much faster than the studio recording. Mike McCready usually takes the Neil Young solo and turns it into a five-minute pyrotechnic display.
- The "Long Road" Connection: The B-side of this EP became arguably even more famous, used in the movie Dead Man Walking and performed during the 9/11 tribute America: A Tribute to Heroes.
How to Experience the Song Today
If you’re new to this track, don't just stick to the studio version on the rearviewmirror greatest hits album. To really get it, you need to hear the live versions from the 2000 or 2003 tours.
Your next steps for the full "I Got Id" experience:
- Listen to the Merkin Ball studio version and pay attention to Neil Young’s guitar in the right channel; his "Old Black" Les Paul has a tone you can't mistake.
- Compare it to "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young to see if you can spot the "songwriting lesson" Eddie was talking about.
- Find a bootleg from the 1995 "Voters for Choice" benefit to hear the song in its rawest, earliest form.
The song is a reminder that even when things are falling apart—stalkers, legal battles, internal band tension—you can still duck into a side room and come out with a B+ that lasts a lifetime.