While working on the Temple of the Dog project, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament
recorded a set of instrumental demos in August 1990 (known as the "Gossman Project"). Soundgarden's Matt
Cameron contributed drums to ten of the tracks, and Shadow's Chris Friel contributed to two:
"Times of Trouble" and "Black". Stone and Jeff shopped the tape around to various
connections. This complete tape circulated with the working titles only. The complete
track listing is matched up with the finished title listing below. One source they gave
the complete tape to was the Wilder Brothers in Los Angeles. Also, they gave part of the
recording (known as the "Stone Gossard Demo
'91") to former Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Jack Irons. This tape consisted of the
following songs: "Alive", "Once", "Footsteps", "Black", and "Alone". Irons gave this tape to
his basketball buddy Eddie Vedder in late September. While surfing, Ed came up with the
lyrics to the song "Dollar Short", which he later renamed "Alive." He recorded vocals over
two more of the songs, "Once" and "Footsteps", packaged them as the "Mamasan"
tape, and sent them back up to Seattle. Mike, Stone, and Jeff loved Vedder instantly and
enlisted him in the band, Mookie Blaylock (named after a Mookie basketball card in the
package). Later, they got Dave Krusen, who drummed on Ten and a few early shows...
The "Gossman Project" tape contains instrumental versions of:
NOTE: The Gossman tape was distributed as one complete recording. This does not imply, however, that all twelve songs were recorded in one sitting.
Pearl Jam were constantly in the studio before the recording of Ten. Multiple pre-Ten tapes exist but are not circulating at all. Moreover most of the Ten sessions tapes (demos) more than likely originated on DAT but were dubbed onto old R&B tapes. Some of the tapes might have
non-PJ songs. That said...
Mookie Blaylock demo tape on October 13, 1990 only six days after becoming a band!
The recording date of the "Mookie Blaylock demos" (those which surfaced on multiple bootleg cd's) is probably around October or November 1990. This tape consists of the following:
NOTE: "Hold Your Head Up" and "Mystery" are tacked on to the end of this tape. "Hold Your Head Up" is an Argent song covered by Mother Love Bone. "Mystery" is a Blind Horse demo. Blind Horse was a short-lived band consiting of Bruce Fairweather and Doug Gilmore of Mother Love Bone among others.
The "pre-'Ten' demos" or "Early 'Ten' demos" consists of the following:
NOTE: This tape is a compilation of studio sessions, spanning from the early pre-'Ten' days to early 1992.
Another known Ten sesssion tape consists of the following:
Ten session tape - recorded at London Bridge Studios: Seattle, WA on January 29, 1991
NOTE: The tracklist is possibly incomplete. It is uncertain whether this session and "Rough Mix 4-26-91" were recorded at the same time.
Ten "First Takes": London Bridge Studios, Seattle, WA - recorded March 27, 1991
NOTE: This tape is not circulating. It has never circulated. Only those close to the band have this tape.
Ten "Rough Mix" - Recorded between January 29 and April 26, 1991 and mastered April 26, 1991
NOTE: This tape is indeed a rough mix of Ten and was given to Epic big-wigs. Noticeable differences include a "click-track" to start "Jeremy" and the first version of "Oceans" (later renamed "Oceans (Remix)" on the "Even Flow" single).
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