Songfacts®:

• Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready wrote the music for this song, with lead singer Eddie Vedder adding the lyrics. They recorded it during sessions for the band's 2002 album Riot Act, but it didn't make the cut. Instead, it was issued as the B-side to the "I Am Mine" single and included on the 2003 rarities compilation Lost Dogs.
  
  McCready explained: "I was excited about it but I wanted it to sound heavier than it actually did when we recorded it. I liked how it came out, but it just didn't work with the rest of [Riot Act]. Even I had to admit it, but I didn't want to. It was relegated to B-side-dom. Originally it was supposed to be more of a crunch-type thing. It just came out a little bit lighter than I thought. But people seem to dig it when we play it live. I'm proud of it. I like the song."
• The lyrics were inspired by the writings of Howard Zinn (1922-2010), a historian Eddie Vedder admired. The line, "You can't be neutral on a moving train," is the title of a book by Zinn published in 1994.
• The band Social Distortion was an influence on the music. Vedder and McCready wrote the song after seeing one of their shows in Los Angeles.
• The song was left off the Riot Act album because it didn't fit with the other tracks; what Eddie Vedder called "One thing is not like the other syndrome." Vedder loves the song though. "For a while, it was my favorite number we recorded for Riot Act, he said in the Pearl Jam book Twenty. "It should have been the single."