"Who You Are" is a song by American rock bandPearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by drummer Jack Irons and guitarist Stone Gossard, "Who You Are" was released on July 30, 1996 as the first single from the band's fourth studio album, No Code. The song topped the US BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart and the Canadian Alternative 30 chart. It also peaked at number 31 on the BillboardHot 100, number two on the UK Rock Chart, and reached the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Norway, and Finland—where the song reached number two and became the band's highest-charting single. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, Rearviewmirror . On Pearl Jam's greatest hits album, "Who You Are" has a slight lyric change. Instead of "circumstance, clapping hands", it's "avalanche, falling fast".
Origin and recording
"Who You Are" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by drummer Jack Irons and guitarist Stone Gossard. The polyrhythmic drum pattern for the song was inspired by a Max Roach drum solo that Irons heard at a drum shop when he was eight years old. Irons said, "To turn my drum music into a song is pretty challenging, but the guys have been really supportive of me doing it, and we've worked some things into a few songs." Vedder played an electric sitar on the song, giving it an Eastern-influenced sound. Regarding the song, Vedder said, "We realized that we had an opportunity to experiment."
Release and reception
Vedder has admitted that the choice of "Who You Are" as the first single for No Code was a "conscious decision" intended to keep the size of the band's audience down. "Who You Are" was the most successful song from No Code on the American rock charts. The song peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, number five on the BillboardMainstream Rock Tracks chart, and number one on the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia, Austria, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Thailand. In Canada, the song reached the top ten on the RPMSingles Chart and later charted on the Alternative 30 chart where it reached number one and became Pearl Jam's first single to top that chart. It came in at number 17 on that chart's year-end issue. "Who You Are" reached the UK top 20 and peaked at number five on the Australian Singles Chart, charted at number 34 in the Netherlands, reached the top 30 in Sweden, and was a top-ten success in Norway and Finland. It is Pearl Jam's highest-charting single in the latter country. The song was also a moderate top-twenty success in Ireland and New Zealand. David Fricke of Rolling Stone said that the song has an "Indo-Bo Diddley glow" and called it a "buoyant electric variation on Vedder's recent collaborations with Pakistani vocal god Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan." Christopher John Farley of Time also identified an influence of Vedder's collaboration with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, stating, "The spiritualized, bass-heavy "Who You Are" is a solid number, but it clearly owes a lot to Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with whom Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder worked on the sound track to the film Dead Man Walking." Vedder denied that his collaboration with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan had any influence on the song. The song is featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 film, Chicago Cab. It was also featured in the Cold Case episode "The Long Blue Line" in 2009.
Live performances
"Who You Are" was first performed live at the band's September 14, 1996 concert in Seattle, Washington at The Showbox. Following Irons' departure from the band in 1998 the song was dropped from set lists. After the band's March 9, 1998 concert in Sydney, Australia at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, the song was not performed live for a period of ten years. "Who You Are" finally made a return appearance at the band's June 11, 2008 concert in West Palm Beach, Florida at the Cruzan Amphitheatre. The song has since returned to Pearl Jam set lists. Live performances of "Who You Are" can be found on various official bootlegs.
