The Fixer (song)
The Fixer is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam . The lyrics were written by singer Eddie Vedder , the music was co-written by drummer Matt Cameron and guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard , The Fixer was released on August 24, 2009 as the first single of the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer (2009). The song rose to number two on the Billboard Rock Song Charts and reached number three on the Billboard Alternative Song Charts. The Fixer was released with the B-side Supersonic .
Composition and recording
Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics for The Fixer , while the music was mainly written by Matt Cameron, with assistance from Mike McCready and Stone Gossard. Cameron wrote most of the music in 2008, Gossard and McCready finished the song with the bridge. Cameron's demo version can be found on the 2011 album "PJ 20" under the name "Need to Know".
Producer O'Brien actively supported the band in arranging the song. In an interview with Rolling Stone in February 2009, Vedder discussed what kind of song could fit the description of The Fixer :
“That could have been a seven-minute, weird, sideways kind of artsy song with a cool groove… I tinkered with it after everyone left and we shrunk it down and turned it into something else .... I'm thinking about set lists: Will this be a song we'll play every night? "
Stone Gossard said of the song:
"With that song, Matt came in with a riff and we worked out a few different arrangements. Then Ed took it and re-arranged it with Pro Tools , to get the parts he needed in the right place. You don't want to get a final arrangement for a song before he's had a chance to screw around with it, because once he gets it, it can all change. What you thought was a chorus can end up being a verse. There was a real collaborative effort on the whole album. Ed, in particular, worked with everyone on their songs. "
Music video
Cameron Crowe directed the video for the song. The video was filmed at The Showbox in Seattle , Washington in May 2009. The video shows a filmed live performance by the band instead of a narrative video. It was released in August 2009.