The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 505

Number 505

Pearl Jam

"Even Flow"

(1992)

................Genre: Grunge...............

art by shanzid

Pearl Jam, the working mans Nirvana. Here's an old Pearl Jam joke, which they themselves come up with ..... Question: "How many members of Pearl Jam does it take to change a light bulb?" Answer: "Change?! Change? We're not gonna change for anyone! Do you hear me? Not for anyone." Nirvana may have changed the music world in the early 90's but it was Pearl Jam who kept it running and all the time keeping the faith. I like this quote from Stephen Thomas Erlewine is the best, it sums PJ up to a T .... "The members of Pearl Jam have earned a reputation for taking themselves too seriously, fighting huge corporations, and refusing in general to play by the rock-and-roll handbook. And while they've tried to change their angst-ridden image, that's a daunting task when you carry the burden of being branded the last great spokesmen of your generation." Yep, thats the price of rocking in a free world. ~ crowbarred

The Band

need skateboards

Pearl Jam rose from the ashes of Mother Love Bone to become the most popular American rock & roll band of the '90s. After vocalist Andrew Wood overdosed on heroin in 1990, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament assembled a new band, bringing in Mike McCready on lead guitar and recording a demo with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron on drums. Thanks to future Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, the demo found its way to a 25-year-old San Diego surfer named Eddie Vedder, who overdubbed vocals and original lyrics and was subsequently invited to join the band (then christened Mookie Blaylock after the NBA player). Dave Krusen was hired as the full-time drummer shortly thereafter, completing the original lineup. Renaming themselves Pearl Jam, the band recorded their debut album, Ten, in the beginning of 1991, although it wasn't released until August; in the meantime, the majority of the band appeared on the Andrew Wood tribute project Temple of the Dog. Ten didn't begin selling in significant numbers until early 1992, after Nirvana made mainstream rock radio receptive to alternative rock acts. Soon, Pearl Jam outsold Nirvana, which wasn't surprising -- Pearl Jam fused the riff-heavy stadium rock of the '70s with the grit and anger of '80s post-punk, without ever neglecting hooks and choruses; "Jeremy," "Evenflow," and "Alive" fit perfectly onto album rock radio stations looking for new blood. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide]

Ten

Nirvana's Nevermind may have been the album that broke grunge and alternative rock into the mainstream, but there's no underestimating the role that Pearl Jam's Ten played in keeping them there. Nirvana's appeal may have been huge, but it wasn't universal; rock radio still viewed them as too raw and punky, and some hard rock fans dismissed them as weird misfits. In retrospect, it's easy to see why Pearl Jam clicked with a mass audience -- they weren't as metallic as Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, and of Seattle's Big Four, their sound owed the greatest debt to classic rock. With its intricately arranged guitar textures and expansive harmonic vocabulary, Ten especially recalled Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. But those touchstones might not have been immediately apparent, since -- aside from Mike McCready's Clapton/Hendrix-style leads -- every trace of blues influence has been completely stripped from the band's sound.

shampoo? wha?

Though they rock hard, Pearl Jam is too anti-star to swagger, too self-aware to puncture the album's air of gravity. Pearl Jam tackles weighty topics -- abortion, homelessness, childhood traumas, gun violence, rigorous introspection -- with an earnest zeal unmatched since mid-'80s U2, whose anthemic sound they frequently strive for. Similarly, Eddie Vedder's impressionistic lyrics often make their greatest impact through the passionate commitment of his delivery rather than concrete meaning. His voice had a highly distinctive timbre that perfectly fit the album's warm, rich sound, and that's part of the key -- no matter how cathartic Ten's tersely titled songs got, they were never abrasive enough to affect the album's accessibility. Ten also benefited from a long gestation period, during which the band honed the material into this tightly focused form; the result is a flawlessly crafted hard rock masterpiece. ~ [Steve Huey, All Music Guide]

The People vs Pearl Jam

With the success of Ten, Pearl Jam became a key member of the Seattle grunge explosion, along with Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. The band was criticized in the music press; British music magazine NME said that Pearl Jam was "trying to steal money from young alternative kids' pockets". Nirvana's Kurt Cobain angrily attacked Pearl Jam, claiming the band were commercial sellouts, and argued Ten was not a true alternative album because it had so many prominent guitar leads. Cobain later reconciled with Vedder, and they reportedly became friends before Cobain's death in 1994. Pearl Jam was criticized early on - most notably by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain - as being a corporate cash-in on the alternative rock explosion. Over the course of the band's career, however, its members became noted for their refusal to adhere to traditional music industry practices; including refusing to make music videos and engaging in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster. In 2006, Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame. ~[wikipedia]

Roll Call.....

For more Pearl Jam visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #116

For Jimi Hendrix see Number 718

For Led Zeppelin see Number 957 & Number 577

For Eric Clapton see Number 537

For U2 see Number 661

For more U2 visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #129 & #038

For Robert Plant see Number 845

For James Hetfield visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #033

What does Rolling Stone think of PJ?

All hail seattle's new sons of Zeppelin, still kicking and shrieking with a whole lotta moxie. Soundgarden bolts out of the starting gate on Badmotorfinger with a nifty high-speed inversion of the "How Many More Times" riff on "Rusty Cage." It then proceeds to upend the entire Zep-lick apple cart, stitching melodic fragments and jarring time signatures together with Frankenstein enthusiasm and hauling the results over hot guitar coals. "Jesus Christ Pose," a searing put-down of somebody with a major crucifixion complex, is as good as Badmotorfinger gets, a runaway train ride of stammering guitar and psycho-jungle telegraph rhythms.

art by ~ sinke

On Ten, Pearl Jam – descended from the late, lamented Mother Love Bone – hurtles into the mystic at warp speed. Singer-lyricist Eddie Vedder sometimes lets his words get way ahead of his good intentions: "I don't question/Our existence/I just question/Our modern needs" ("Garden"). Focus instead on his voice – a ragged, enraged mongrel blend of Robert Plant and James Hetfield – and the Pearls' surprising, and refreshing, melodic restraint. They wring a lot of drama out of a few declarative power chords swimming in echo. Temple of the Dog is not a band but a one-off project recorded in memory of Love Bone vocalist and OD victim Andrew Wood, with members of both Soundgarden and the future Pearl Jam exorcising their grief with the amps at full crank. If for nothing else, buy it for the eleven-minute requiem "Reach Down," a fiercesome death-rattle blues that may some day come to be regarded as Seattle's own "In My Time of Dying." ~ [RS:DAVID FRICKE 1991]