Pearl Jam released "Yellow Ledbetter" in 1992 as the B-side to the Jeremy single. The song eventually found its way onot radio peaking at #21 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
The lyrics in the song are mostly incoherent and the meaning of the song has been a mystery as has the inspiration for the song title. There are two theories regarding the title of the song from Songfacts.com:
1) The name "Yellow Ledbetter" derives from an old tongue twister in which you try to say "yellow better, red better" as fast as you can. Just a few times repeated, the words become jumbled and you get "yellow ledbetter." The reason they named the song this is because the lyrics are indistinguishable just like the tongue twister.
2) It's a tribute to Huddy Ledbetter (known as Leadbelly), who was one of the founding fathers of Blues in the 1930s, and recorded much of his music while in jail for assault. Leadbelly first recorded many classic tunes which have been covered by many bands, like "Land of the Rising Sun" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night."
The real meaning, however, as stated in
Five Against One: The Pearl Jam Story
by Kim Neely, is that the title was a joke in honor of a Chicago friend of Eddie Vedder's named Tim Ledbetter.
As for the meaning of the song lead singer, Eddie Vedder, said that the song was written during the first gulf war. The story is about a young Grunge kid in flannel with long greasy hair who gets a letter in one of those yellow army envelopes telling him that his brother was killed. The kid goes for a walk to reflect and on his walk he passes a neat, middle-aged couple sitting on their front porch where an American flag flies. The boy waves at them feeling as if he relates because of the flag, but the couple judges him based on his outward appearance and they don't wave back.
Vedder says that he changes the lyrics and meaning of the song whenever he performs it to suit whatever is on his mind.
Pearl Jam "Yellow Ledbetter" 1992