The Cavern
Rock & Words
PEARL JAM
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why
Why, why can't it be, can't it be mine"
"C"
Main Decade: 90's
Main Eras:
Grunge (1989-???)
Key Members:
Eddie Vedder, Vocalist
Jeff Ament, Bass
Mike McReady, Lead Guitar
Stone Gossard, Second Guitar
Key Songs:
Black, Yellow Ledbetter, Even Flow, Jeremy, Alive, Why Go, Animal, Daughter, Go, Do the Evolution, W.M.A., I am Mine, Not For You, Leash, Masters of War, Off He Goes, Corduroy, Better Man, Spin the Black Circle, W.M.A., Last Kiss, Sitting on a Dock, Wishlist, Man of the Hour, Brain of J, Sometimes, Tremor Christ, Break On Through, Porch, Immortality, Faithful, Smile
Pearl Jam is my second favorite grunge band. Frankly, I'm not even sure if they're a grunge band, but since everyone categorizes them as such, and many even say they're the best in the genre… what can you do? And no, my first favorite grunge band isn't Nirvana, not by a long shot. If you look it up, you'll see it's Alice In Chains.
This has led to heated arguments with Hiz, who's one of the people who considers Pearl Jam the definition of grunge. Another argument we have is about our favorite album by the band. She prefers Yield or No Code, while I think this one, their debut album, is the best in their entire discography. Anyway, it's a matter of taste, and if you're coming here to rant about these things and shout that Kurt is the absolute god of the genre, save your time. Like I said, it's a matter of taste.
The story of Pearl Jam is also fascinating, and quite different from the formation of most bands. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard had been together in one of the pioneering grunge bands, Mother Love Bone. The group was just beginning to gain traction with their debut album, Apple, recorded with Polygram in 1990. Just months after its release, when Mother Love Bone was starting to make a name for themselves, their vocalist, Andrew Wood, died of a heroin overdose. The band disbanded amidst the shock and grief. Shortly afterward, Gossard met another guitarist, Mike McReady, whose band Shadow had also just broken up, and they started rehearsing with just two guitars. They quickly developed a strong chemistry, with McReady taking on lead guitar, creating a sound that would ultimately become fundamental to their sound, thanks to his powerful guitar arrangements and riffs. Mike suggested to Stone Gossard that he get back in touch with Ament to add him on bass, and so the trio began rehearsing and polishing songs. Since none of them sang, not even for themselves, the tracks were initially purely instrumental, with carefully crafted arrangements and atmospheres. They went into a studio and, with the help of some drummer friends, recorded their first demos, all instrumental: “Dollar Short,” “Agytian Crave,” “Footsteps,” “Richard’s E,” and “E Ballad.” Do the names sound familiar? Probably not.
The idea behind the demo was to finally recruit a permanent vocalist and drummer. They invited Jack Irons, the original drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers who had recently been replaced by Chad Smith, but he declined. Instead, he took several demos to L.A. to distribute among friends to see if anyone was interested. It might sound cruel, but Jack Irons did more for Pearl Jam by taking those demos to the band than the Peppers did in three albums.
Anyway, Eddie Vedder was a Californian surfer who also occasionally sang in an amateur band called Bad Radio. By chance, he ran into Jack in San Diego in late 1990, who gave him those demos. Vedder was captivated by the atmosphere they created. He was coming out of a painful breakup and his mood was dark and desolate. He no longer wanted to sing upbeat Californian rock, but something with denser atmospheres, and what he heard on the cassette was exactly what he was looking for. He drew some inspiration from the beach, and by the time he got home, he already had lyrics for most of the songs. Dollar Short began with “Son, she said, have I got a little story for you,” and Agytian Crave started with “I admit, what’s to say, yeah / I’ll relive it without a pain…” For those who don’t know, these are the songs Alive and Once, respectively, which would later be renamed as we know them.
Eddie sent the demo with his vocals and lyrics to Seattle. When Jeff and Stone heard the recording with Eddie’s voice, they were so impressed that they financed Vedder’s trip to Seattle for an audition that was actually unnecessary. The idea was more about discussing their future plans, seeing where Vedder would move, and formalizing his joining the band. When Eddie arrived, he already had the lyrics for “E Ballad,” which would be titled “Black,” a raw and brutally honest song dedicated to his ex-girlfriend. The rest, as they say, is history.
In the mid-90s, Chris Cornell contacted Gossard and Ament with the idea of recording a kind of tribute to Andrew Wood, who had also been a close friend of Cornell's. Chris had his own band, Soundgarden, but felt he should include the musicians who had played most closely with Wood. Stone and Gossard also had a couple of songs they had recorded as a tribute to their deceased friend. The problem was how to bring two entire bands together! Chris was so impressed with Vedder's voice that he didn't hesitate to invite him to the project, although he himself would be the lead vocalist on most of the tracks. Thus, Temple of the Dog was formed, with Cornell and Vedder on vocals, Gossard and McCready on guitars, Ament on bass, and Matt Cameron, the then-drummer for Soundgarden who would later join Pearl Jam. It's one of those extremely rare cases where a supergroup is formed with members from two bands that were then virtually unknown worldwide, but which in just a few months would become some of the most important bands on the planet.
After the Temple of the Dog project, our band in question returned to the stage with a polished show and well-rehearsed songs. They called themselves Mookie Blaylock, but the NBA basketball player whose name they had taken threatened to sue, so they changed it to Pearl Jam. According to Eddie, the name comes from his grandmother, also named Pearl. Eddie's grandfather was Native American, and his grandmother made some very unusual pastes or jams, with peyote and all that. Hence the rather unusual name.
In March of '91, they went into the studio to record Ten, which would be released in August, without much expectation. It was a spectacular album, characterized by its dense atmosphere, meticulous arrangements, powerful riffs, Vedder's explosive vocals, and the tremendous personality of the entire band. Initial sales were slow, but it garnered enough recognition for Pearl Jam to be considered among the Seattle greats: Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, who would be dubbed "the Big Four." Shortly after, Nirvana broke through with Nevermind, and Cobain propelled Ten to the top of the charts. Overnight, it was among the best-selling albums, with several singles in the top ten. The band was recording videos for MTV, and the Seattle Sound was phenomenal.
Curt would later harshly criticize Pearl Jam, accusing them of sounding commercial and selling out to the system. They went years without speaking, but supposedly reconciled months before Curt's death. The Ten tour was a smash hit, and Pearl Jam became such a dominant band that they were suddenly headlining Lollapalooza. At the MTV Awards, they swept the awards with four wins, which led them to refuse to film a video for "Black" despite the record label's insistence. They subsequently refused to film any videos for any song for quite some time. The band wasn't very comfortable with so much fame. Eddie, in particular, felt besieged, without privacy, hounded in the spotlight, seeing himself on MTV all day. Ugh, it must be awful! Hahaha. Anyway, for their next album, they decided to take a complete turn, abandoning those seventies influences to make a rawer album, without atmosphere, just pure guitar riffs, more powerful and gritty. More grunge, in short.
Despite their efforts to sabotage themselves, VS sold almost a million copies in its first week. VS is the complete opposite of Ten, like the other side of the coin, but equally good. Dark, raw, ungainly, unpolished, yet devilishly perfect.
The band would continue their fight with the mainstream for years. In 1994, they clashed with Ticketmaster after realizing how inflated their concert tickets were. The band even canceled their summer tour in protest. After a court investigation dismissed the band's complaint, Pearl Jam initiated a boycott, refusing to play in stadiums or venues where Ticketmaster had a contract. The fight with TM delayed the release of Vitalogy, their third album, by months; it wasn't released until 1995.
Then came more albums, No Code and Yield, where the band began to lose that kind of menacing grunge aura. The genre itself was already dead by 1999, but Pearl Jam continued releasing albums, increasingly leaning towards an alternative sound, still not seeking commercial success, though maintaining a strong sales position. The feud with TM hit them hard, and they would never again release albums as powerful as their first three. However, they have always remained true to a style that is almost always dark, wild, and explosive, or featuring soulful ballads that deviate from the norm. Overall, they maintain a high standard, and Pearl Jam remains a name that inspires admiration and respect, even though their later albums have declined in terms of creativity and inspiration.
Pearl Jam is, therefore, one of the most influential bands of the 90s, with tremendous musicians, an excellent vocalist, and the band that would lead the transition from Grunge to Post-Alternative after Cobain's death, the breakup of Soundgarden, and the inactivity of Airplane! and subsequent death of Staley. Pearl Jam was the only one that managed to survive that traumatic transition from grunge to the new millennium, and would end up being a benchmark for the new alternative or post-alternative bands of the 2000s.
If you ask me, a much more interesting band, with greater quality, leadership, and much more consistency than Nirvana…
By Corvan
Jul/26/2011
