World Wide Suicide is a song by Pearl Jam. It was released through digital music stores on March 14, 2006 as the first single from the band’s eighth studio album, Pearl Jam (2006). The song topped the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, where it spent a total of three weeks at number one. World Wide Suicide was written by vocalist Eddie Vedder. The song features a raw sound closer to the band’s earlier material. On the song’s intensity, Vedder said:
“The times…the times kind of demand a little bit of intensity.”
The lyrics for World Wide Suicide depict anger against the war in Iraq, and criticize the US government in a subtle manner. Vedder has said that World Wide Suicide was written largely about Pat Tillman.
Vedder on the song:
It’s about him and a bunch of the guys who didn’t get as much coverage, the guys who barely got a paragraph instead of ten pages…The thing about Tillman was, he got ten pages but they were all lies. His family is being blocked by our government from finding out what happened…Where are the leaders that are going to represent a galvanized view on what to do next?…Democracy might have a chance at working if people educate themselves on these issues and make their opinions known.
Tracklist:
- World Wide Suicide (Eddie Vedder)
- Unemployable (Matt Cameron, Mike McCready, Vedder)
The music video for World Wide Suicide was directed by Danny Clinch. The video features footage filmed in 2005 of a (24 year old) Chilean street performer named Sebastián González contact juggling. The band met González while touring South America. The street performer portions of the video were filmed in November 2005 in the dresser rooms of the band’s Chile concert location San Carlos de Apoquindo Stadium. It also features scenes filmed in 2006 of the band performing the song in its studio in Seattle, Washington. The video was released in April 2006.
Pearl Jam
Jeff Ament: bass guitar
Matt Cameron: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Stone Gossard: guitar
Mike McCready: guitar
Eddie Vedder: lead vocals, guitar, layout and design; credited as “Jerome Turner” for album concept
