Pearl Jam Debut “River Cross” In Harrison Ford-Narrated Fake-Profound Verizon Super Bowl Commercial

Danny Clinch

Pearl Jam Debut “River Cross” In Harrison Ford-Narrated Fake-Profound Verizon Super Bowl Commercial

Danny Clinch

Between Fox’s over-the-top patriotic content and at least a few of the non-snarky commercials, last night’s Super Bowl broadcast was awfully heavy on attempted profundity. Consider, for instance, the Verizon commercial about how 5G service would not, thank goodness, change the heart of America’s bravest heroes. That ad, it turns, out, was soundtracked by “River Cross,” an as-yet-unheard song from mainstream-rock credibility avatars Pearl Jam.

Last month, Pearl Jam announced their forthcoming album Gigaton and shared first single “Dance Of The Clairvoyants (Mach 1).” Last night, we got to hear about one minute of “River Cross,” the final song from the LP. It’s slow and contemplative, and it played underneath the sound of Harrison Ford extolling the virtues of everyday heroism and 5G service, while images of firefighters flashed onscreen. At the very end of the ad, Eddie Vedder’s voice comes booming in, though you may have missed it over the sound of your own eyes rolling into the back of your head.

Everybody has a price! You can experience the ad again below.

Gigaton is out 3/27 on UMG, and we can at least be thankful that Pearl Jam did not choose to soundtrack the Budweiser ad about typical Americans.

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