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We have been huge fans for years of the song “Santa Cruz” by Pearl Jam. It was released on December 31, 2008, not on an official PJ album but on a compilation album with various artist. (Update: “Santa Cruz” was re-released in December 2019 as a single)

In April of the same year Eddie Vedder came into town and played at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium for a kick off to his acoustic tour. The Mercury News reported the following day:

The 2,000 or so who crammed into Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Saturday were thrilled just to be in the presence of rock royalty, as the lead singer of Pearl Jam took the stage for the first U.S. performance of his first solo acoustic tour.

But after nearly two hours of stripped-down Pearl Jam obscurities, living-room ukulele ditties, favorite covers, a quirky room-service anecdote, a beautiful experiment in vocal loops and several songs from Vedder’s soundtrack to Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” Vedder launched into “Pulling Into Santa Cruz,” a loving ode to Surf City penned that very afternoon in lieu of catching some waves.

“I can feel the lifting of my blues,” he sang, “pulling into Santa Cruz.”

We thought it would be fun to put the song to videos of Santa Cruz since there is no official video. Video includes drone footage from by Ernest Smith (Instagram @earnest.smith.89) and koi footage by Sergio Iribe.

Song lyrics:

Heading South a compass reads
Look at our speed, we’re going sixty-three
Look out the window as the trees go green
I look at them and they look at me
Got Neil Young on the stereo
He comes along whenever i go
Something different as i hear him now
Heading south on a familiar route (Oh yeah)
I can feel them lifting up my blues
I can see a white horizon, new
Got the feeling i just can’t lose
Rolling into Santa Cruz (yeah)
I’ve got an old friend he remembers me
From way back when we were seventeen
We got kids and we’re older now
But when i see him, we’re still seventeen
I need the beach to set me free
I need the wind to make me breathe
I need the water to wash my soul
I need my love once to let me go
I can feel them lifting up my blues
I can see a white horizon blue
Got the feeling that i just can’t lose
Rolling into Santa Cruz (Ah yeah)
(Ah ha)
Up in the North West, we got it good
Little soggy, but we’ve got it good
Can’t help thinking that I wish i would
Move my ass down to Santa Cruz
I got the feeling that i just can’t lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz
I got a feeling that i just can’t lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz (Oh)
I got a feeling i don’t want to lose
Pulling into Cruz
I got a feeling i just can’t lose
Pulling into Santa Cruz (Yeah)
(Yeah, yeah, ah, ah, nah nah)

Thanks Eddie!