for the flag. I just, I don't hope he comes home in a box or a bag", and "And I know that he's just following his path. As long, as long as it's not a box or a bag." On the official bootleg release of 7/11/03 – Mansfield, Massachusetts, Vedder sings in the first verse "I think of him when I go to bed, and he's coming home in a box or a bag." Vedder has been known to change the lyrics of the song when singing it live, so it is difficult to know if what he is singing at the time are the original lyrics from 1991. In the liner notes for Lost Dogs, McCready said:"A riff loosely based on something...I had during the 'Ten' sessions. I thought it was pretty. Eddie started making up words on the spot and we kept them. I still don't know what it's about and I don't want to! I love it. Fans like it too!" Vedder said in an online chat that the song was written around the time of the Gulf War and added that "it's an anti-patriotic song, actually." On August 7, 2008, at a solo performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, Vedder took a question from the audience requesting that he explain the meaning of "Yellow Ledbetter". At first, Vedder joked, "Wait...you mean there's lyrics?" He went on to talk about how the song took as its subject a friend of his from Seattle whose brother served in the first Gulf War. His friend received a "yellow letter" in the mail informing him that his brother had died in the war. Vedder and his friend then went for a walk. On this walk, the friend, whom Vedder described as "alternative looking", happened by a house with an American flag flying and people on the porch. He stopped and gestured to the flag, as if to salute it, but the people on the porch glared at him disapprovingly due to his appearance. Reception Without being released as a single, "Yellow Ledbetter" peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994. The song has become a favorite among fans of the band. Although the song was not released on any of Pearl Jam's studio albums, it remains one of their