Songfacts®:

• Pearl Jam first recorded "Brother" for their 1991 debut album, Ten, but at this point it was just an instrumental. The song didn't make the album, but it showed up on some bootlegs and in 2003 was included on the rarities compilation album Lost Dogs.
  
  When the band re-issued Ten in 2009, Eddie Vedder added lyrics and they included this new version. The song proved surprisingly popular, shooting to #1 on the Modern Rock chart thanks to heavy airplay. It was Pearl Jam's fourth #1 on that tally.
• Eddie Vedder went Orwellian with the lyrics, referencing "Big Brother," the overseer in the classic novel 1984. The guy in the song decides to give up the fight, crack open a beer and watch TV.
• Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament explained to Billboard magazine why the song wasn't included on the original release of Ten: "I was really, really into that song. Stone (Gossard, rhythm guitar) wrote that song musically. There was a point during the recording of Ten that Stone was like, 'Eh, I'm over it.' And I was like, 'No! Let's work on it.' We actually got in a big fight about it in the studio. It didn't end up getting worked on anymore. It got to a point and Stone was over it. I think maybe to some degree Ed (Vedder, vocals) probably wasn't totally happy with where it was at, so it never came out. I think there's great guitar on that song."
  
  Ament added that it was then included in instrumental form on Lost Dogs as a compromise. He said: "I think at that point Ed still didn't want the vocals on it, so Mike (McReady) just threw a bunch of guitar on top of it."
• "Brother" hit #1 on the Modern Rock chart on March 28, 2009, displacing "Love Hurts" by Incubus, which was released in 2006 and had been revived by the popular Los Angeles radio station KROQ. Both Pearl Jam and Incubus were signed to Epic Records.
• The 2009 re-issued Ten album was digitally remastered and remixed by Pearl Jam's longtime producer Brendan O'Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine) as part of a catalog re-release campaign. He didn't work on the original release but helmed Peal Jam's next four albums. The version of "Brother" with lyrics was one of six previously unreleased tracks included on the record.
• Pearl Jam played "Brother" on February 7, 1991 when they were opening for Alice in Chains at Florentine Gardens, Los Angeles. They played it again at a show in 1993, but then mothballed it until 2099, when they started playing the version with lyrics.