Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind a Counter In a Small Town - Lyrics Meaning

Elderly Woman Behind a Counter In a Small Town, sometimes called "Small Town" is on the 1993 album Vs.

Eddie Vedder, the singer, is fascinated by the dynamics of small towns and small town people. Some people leave the small town life. Others remain because something keeps them there or they stay because they are powerful. He chose to write this song about an elderly woman working behind the counter in some small town. A man she knew in the past stops in and she wants to say hello but is to embarrassed to talk to him. She knows that he's been gone and maybe he's rich and successful now. She wishes she had gotten out of town and seen the world, but no one has ever taken her away to see it. It seems that she may have wanted to stay with him but he wanted to get out and experience the world.

The way Vedder's voice gets louder for "My God it's been so long" stresses the idea that she really wants to talk to him and probably still has feelings for him.