The band had the music for this song before Eddie Vedder joined. The first instrumental demo was recorded in August 1990 with Michael McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron (Cameron was with Soundgarden at the time, but agreed to play on this demo). Vedder joined the band in October and wrote the lyrics about a homeless person who is neglected by society. "Even Flow" was one of 10 songs they recorded the first week he flew in to Seattle to record with his new band.
An alternate version was released as a UK single and is different than the album version. Eddie Vedder yells "Ha!" to start the song, and at the end, says, "I died, I died and you just stood there. I died and you watched me. I died and you walked by and said, 'No, I'm dead.'" This version is often the one played by US radio stations. It was also the one used for the video.
Pearl Jam used to be known as Mookie Blaylock, named after a very good, but not-so-famous basketball player. Blaylock was a star at the University of Oklahoma and in his second season with the New Jersey Nets when the band used his name after coming across his trading card. They named this album Ten because that was his number. Blaylock played 13 seasons in the NBA, making the All-Star team in 1994 and the All-Defensive team twice.
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