Released: August 27, 1996

Songwriter: Eddie Vedder Jack Irons Stone Gossard

Producer: Pearl Jam Brendan O’Brien

[Verse 1]
Up here in my tree, yeah
Newspapers matter not to me, yeah
No, no more crowbars to my head, yeah
I'm trading stories with the leaves instead, yeah

I wave to all my friends, yeah
They don't seem to notice me, no
All their eyes trained on the street, yo, oh
Sidewalks cigarettes and seams, yeah, yeah

[Chorus]
Up here so high, I start to shake
Up here so high, the sky I scrape
I'm so high I hold just one breath deep within my chest
Just like innocence

[Bridge]
(Eddie's down in his home)
(Oh, the blue sky, it's his home)
(Eddie's blue sky home)
(Oh, the blue sky, it's his home)

[Verse 2]
I remember when, yeah
I swore I knew everything, oh yeah
They say knowledge is a tree, yeah
It's growing up just like me, yeah

[Chorus]
I'm so light, the wind he shakes
I'm so high, the sky I scrape
Yeah, I'm so high I hold just one breath to go back to my nest
To sleep with innocence

Up here so high the boughs they break
Up here so high the sky I scrape
And my eyes feel both wide open
And I got a glimpse of my inner sense
Got back my innocence
Still got it, still got it

Pearl Jam

Founded in 1990 in Seattle, Pearl Jam is one of the most successful bands out of the grunge movement, if not of the whole alternative rock scene from the early 90s. The group started with Stone Gossard (guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass), veterans of the proto-grunge scene, recording a demo along with local guitarist Mike McCready. Once the tape passed along, it attracted a San Diego-based singer, Eddie Vedder. Along with drummer Dave Krusen, they signed with Epic Records and released Ten in 1991, which by the following year was becoming one of the most successful debut albums ever.

Growing uncomfortable with success, the following albums went for a more anguished and experimental sound, and the band’s notorious activism had its most prominent case once they boycotted Ticketmaster, accusing them of price-gouging fans. In the meantime, various drummers passed through the band, with percussion only settling once Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron joined them in the tour for 1998’s Yield.

With 10 studio albums and various live recordings (including “Official Bootlegs” of basically every concert the band performed since 2000), Pearl Jam has sold nearly 32 million records in the U.S. and an estimated 60 million worldwide.