Music Appreciation Professor Discovers The Lyrics To 'Yellow Ledbetter'

In one of the most shocking research discoveries to ever come out of Marquette University's campus, professor of music Gregory Carpenter has discovered the actual lyrics to the Pearl Jam song 'Yellow Ledbetter'. Even after Pearl Jam frontman and lead singer Eddie Vedder had "given up all hope" on finding the actual lyrics to the song and considered the search to be dead, Carpenter kept on pushing and found all of the words to the legendary song.

"To be honest with you folks, the fans always want me to play it at shows and I've just kind of gone out there and made random noises and put together words that didn't construct actual sentences. The fans love it still and so does my 16 month old nephew, its one of the few songs he can sing along with," Vedder said.

Ledbetter had been released as a B-side to the 1991 hit single "Jeremy" and instantly became a cult classic song amongst avid grunge fans. The song continued to have strong radio play throughout the nineties until it was eventually released in 2003 on the 2-disc "Lost Dogs", a Pearl Jam album containing rare songs and B-sides from the band. Not many were able to decipher the lyrics, but this fact was never able to hurt the songs popularity.

Carpenter was first inspired to find out what was really being sung after he first heard the song over a decade ago when he listened to 102.1 FM. We asked Carpenter to take a trip down memory lane for us, "Ah yes, I remember back when it was acceptable to have long straight greasy hair and complement that with a flannel jacket and some cutoff jean shorts. I saw the kids on the street in my car and tuned into what they listened to. I loved that Yellow Ledbetter song, I thought it was something about a wizard, but I wasn't sure, but I WAS curious."


If there were iPods in the 90's, these kids would have definitely had 'Yellow Ledbetter' on their playlists.

Professor Carpenter's curiosity fueled numerous research efforts that totaled many hours over the course of several years, but it all paid off in the end. Using very high tech computer software, a dictionary, and some duct tape, Carpenter officially constructed everything Vedder sung and was able to write it out in line with the chord progression. Carpenter was able to receive a personal handshake and a pat on the back from none other than Eddie Vedder himself.

"I was just so relieved to know that the lyrics were found and they were okay," Vedder explained, "At one point I was getting ready to call the people from CSI or Without A Trace so we could form a team to track them down because I just lost hope. But now I know that I should never give up hope on anything, and maybe I will write an undecipherable song about that."


And for his next act, Carpenter will attempt to explain the meaning behind the lyrics of "Rooster" by Alice in Chains. We wish him luck.