Pearl Jam

Its fucken hilarious what Isolation brings up in people. As I write this, the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown and aside from what is actually going on in the world further than 10 feet from our front door, it feels as though we’re all just trying to cope in any way we can. And I don’t mean coping in the real struggle kind of way, because if we really look at it, there are peeps out there who are really struggling to find a place to sleep tonight, a meal to eat or a way to keep their kids from harm who don’t give two fucks about a virus that is keeping everyone off the streets. I’m talking about first world coping, and as much as that phrase may make me feel awful for those who have those real problems, I’m eternally grateful to the universe for allowing me to have first world coping problems instead …any other kind.

So we all find ourselves on social just that little bit [or maybe lot a bit] more than usual and the most universal topic is of course, music. I can’t tell you the last time I scrolled through my feed and saw ten posts in a row a) without ads and b) all talking about the same thing. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit that the “I’ve been nominated to post my top ten albums…” vibe has edges laced with a little bit of cheese. But its the cheese I really like, especially when the filling is choka-block full of people’s music history.

I said in a post recently that I think that you can tell more about a person from their top ten music influences than a ten page bio about them. And I have learned a lot about a lot of people in the past few weeks.

So here I am choosing albums that aren’t necessarily my favourites, but the ones that influenced me the most, and as my dear mate Nick Andrew pointed out this morning, “It seems the majority of choices from those I’ve been watching came from our early teens through til our late 20’s ….. and really those times that helped mould who we are.” And he’s absolutely right.

I would never say this for everyone, but that time in our lives where we break free from a family dynamic and are asked to create our own real individual idea of ourselves is so formative that the music often becomes a defining aspect of who we want to cocoon into.

Enter Pearl Jam and their debut album. Ten.

I was 16. My world wasn’t exactly the most emotionally robust that it could have been and for an overly sensitive young man who was simply yearning for something or someone to speak to him with the honesty of a drunk uncle, I discovered myself in a group of friends that became my family. Diverse, opinionated and entirely dysfunctional.

I think that we were all looking for something that you could smell coming from the kitchen but wasn’t on the menu. Something real. And it pretty much goes without saying that the music that we all bought to this perfect mish mosh of a collaboration defined my music tastes forever but also helped me define myself as that individual of a human being and not just doing.

I still remember hearing ‘Alive’ for the first time. I don’t think I’d heard much anything like it ever before. It was like rock enmeshed in velvet. I think I still feel like this about Pearl Jam. For all of their so called grunge influences, there is something warm about the way they make their music. Its like they make their music, then put it in a wool wash to make it a little fuzzy around the edges and for that sensitive young man who was on his knees just unknowingly asking for some sort of music that was hard enough to be as angry as he was but to soften it enough to not have any sharp edges, ‘Ten’ took two steps forward and introduced itself as my new drunk uncle.

So, like most drunk uncles with a distinct lack of filter and a disregard for ‘the establishment’, ‘Ten’s’ third release and sixth track listing ‘Jeremy’ was the one that cemented them as something not of the current landscape. I had a mate point out what the song was about and back before the internet was phrased used when fishermen made a good catch, it took a session or two of sitting down and pressing stop and rewind a hundred or so times on my Panasonic RX-C36 to write down the lyrics. If you’ve never heard the back story to this song, it might be worth a listen. Not because its just a fucken kick arse song, but that in 1991, on the tipping point of 80’s commercialism and 90’s X-Gen driven rebelliousness [which was still monetised as best as they could] here was music talking very clearly about a pretty tragic scenario.

It may not have even been so much about the story [although it kinda was when it came out] but in hindsight, I think it was just the bravery of band seemingly reaching out to me and offering me something different. Something real. Even though your parents might have squirmed at the idea of it. Thank you again drunk uncle.

I killed this album for a good while I reckon. It was on repeat, and when I say repeat, I mean I had to turn the tape over all the time. 11 songs that became the introduction to a whole new genre which I class as the foundation to both my musical and actual worlds. Soundgarden, Alices in Chains, Nirvana, Janes Addiction, RHCP, RATM….It wasn’t so much the music, but more what they were saying inside the music. Thankfully, most of the music was epically kick arse, but when drunk uncles start getting super real after their third bottle of scotch, they stop being offensive and you start to ask whether you should be drinking scotch as well. Luckily, there was enough scotch to last a lifetime and fill me with enough courage to dive into music I thought and truly felt was representative of who I wanted to be.

Just as an aside, I know that this album especially resonates with a lot of surfers [for good reason] but the last track ‘Release’ I still have in playlists that I listen to often. It became like a small anthem for me at that earnest stage of my life and with no hint of humour or sarcasm, is as relevant today as it was nigh on three decades ago.

Then came ‘Vs’. Bloody Hell! If I didn’t love these guys enough as it was, their sophomore album was different…but awesome. Still angry. Still fuzzy and hard at the same time. It soon became just as familiar as ‘Ten’…and so the Pearl Jam journey began to grow.

At times I’ve wandered in and out of their ongoing journey. Thrashing some albums…not vining with others, but never has there been a band so consistent in their world view and consequently their music that I will always invite them in and will be determined enough to give every entry into their songbook enough of a listen to really know whether I vibe with it or not. I could seriously write another 1000 words on these dudes easy.

Luckily, their 11th studio album that was released a moth ago, has made its way fairly swiftly up my PJ albums preferences. In some ways its very Pearl Jam. In others, there are all sorts of music influences that you can tell have made their way in. Least of all the Pixies influenced ‘Dance of the Clairvoyants’. Now, you can love it or hate it, but to me it just speaks of a group of musicians who don’t know any other way other than to keep on keeping on.

Like most every great band [most…not all], its a perfect storm of musicians contributing to make the sound that they do. Maybe this is why I vibe with these guys so much. Because they act like a family. Sure, we all know how easily identifiable Eddie Vedder’s voice is. He’s the front man and that comes with a fair slice of attention, but unless you are a die hard fan, not many people can reel off the names of other band members so easily. Like I said, they act like a family. They don’t need to steal limelight. They don’t need to one up each other. They seem to all be 1/5 of a tight knit group. There is something about this that I really admire. I think that coming on to 30 years as a group speaks more than any over brief artist review could ever sum up.

So, as everyone is having to deal with….themselves [!], I wanted to write about a band that helped me define myself at a very young age and that I still find as impactful at times. To paraphrase Nick’s comments again “There have obviously been plenty of lessons learned between now and then, however from a musical journey and influence point of view, it was back then that we felt the new, the emotions, the love and the turmoil. Music and words helped us develop courage, empathy…and all the rest” And I could’t agree more.

Everyones journey is different [thank fuck], but if there is a part of you that is still yearning for something unfound, music often isn’t the answer, its the doorway. For me, that drunk uncle on the other side of the doorway was my saviour. These days it may be anything from a tea drinking, foul mouthed grandma to a dirty stoner bogan. Follow your kids through the door. Discover it for yourself. It doesn’t matter. Thats the point I figure. To go through the door to find out who’s waiting on the other side.

M/

~ Article updated April 2020