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letter from Jeremy's mother

Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
in The Porch
I saw this on Facebook on the Official Ten Club members page, not sure if it is real (seems like it is), if it is I would hope the band would reach out to his family if they haven't already, I can't help but feeling bad reading it

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    ItIsAllAboutPJItIsAllAboutPJ S.B., CA Posts: 829
    If this truly is authentic, it really is very sad and unfortunate.
    Unintended consequences are so difficult to anticipate.
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    If this truly is authentic, it really is very sad and unfortunate.
    Unintended consequences are so difficult to anticipate.

    unfortunately for the band, I think if they could go back and change anything, one thing would be not releasing Jeremy as a single and making that video, I know how sensitive all the band members are, and this is the last thing they would of ever wanted
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    cottagesteezecottagesteeze St. Paul, MN Posts: 218
    I don't understand how the song makes them a "fan" of the kid. The song is not saying he was cool for doing that..
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    hedonisthedonist standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
    Reminds me of the mood of Corduroy, people wanting a piece or a part of you.

    (must preface with the above "if") - but yes, if so, what a weight on an already-heavy burden.

    That said, I can't / wouldn't presume to know what virtual strangers would want. Maybe the fact that it has helped (continues to help?) others who are nearing that breaking point is something to consider.
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    cottagesteeze said:

    I don't understand how the song makes them a "fan" of the kid. The song is not saying he was cool for doing that..

    the same shit was said by people after Kurt blew his head off and people still romanticizing it, which I think takes a fucked up kind of person to think that way, nothing romantic about suicide unless you are donating your organs so others could live, then I could see it
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    ItIsAllAboutPJItIsAllAboutPJ S.B., CA Posts: 829
    Maybe if Ed hadn't of used the name "Jeremy".
    The song would have made the same impact for the band but not been so personal for the family. Although, I'm sure it would have come out in interviews how the song was influenced by the article Ed read.
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    Maybe if Ed hadn't of used the name "Jeremy".
    The song would have made the same impact for the band but not been so personal for the family. Although, I'm sure it would have come out in interviews how the song was influenced by the article Ed read.

    the sad part is there were much better songs that they could of used for a single, they had already used Even Flow as a single, ironically my two least favorite songs on Ten
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    bootlegger10bootlegger10 Posts: 15,540
    edited March 2015
    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    Maybe if Ed hadn't of used the name "Jeremy".
    The song would have made the same impact for the band but not been so personal for the family. Although, I'm sure it would have come out in interviews how the song was influenced by the article Ed read.

    Yeah, I could see how the family could be put off 25 years later that a band is singing a song about their son at a rock concert and every singing along having a good time. I don't think PJ did anything wrong though. It is just unfortunate the young children/adults can get twisted ideas in their heads.
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    ItIsAllAboutPJItIsAllAboutPJ S.B., CA Posts: 829
    Big Bank Hank said:

    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    Maybe if Ed hadn't of used the name "Jeremy".
    The song would have made the same impact for the band but not been so personal for the family. Although, I'm sure it would have come out in interviews how the song was influenced by the article Ed read.

    the sad part is there were much better songs that they could of used for a single, they had already used Even Flow as a single, ironically my two least favorite songs on Ten

    Yeah... I hate that song too, skip it every time it's played. It was nice when they semi-retired it, unfortunately they brought it back lately. I guess the record execs saw the commercial value in the subject matter. The guys didn't have much power back then + I'm sure they really liked the song at the time.
    Once would have made a good single IMO. :)
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    Big Bank Hank said:

    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    Maybe if Ed hadn't of used the name "Jeremy".
    The song would have made the same impact for the band but not been so personal for the family. Although, I'm sure it would have come out in interviews how the song was influenced by the article Ed read.

    the sad part is there were much better songs that they could of used for a single, they had already used Even Flow as a single, ironically my two least favorite songs on Ten

    Yeah... I hate that song too, skip it every time it's played. It was nice when they semi-retired it, unfortunately they brought it back lately. I guess the record execs saw the commercial value in the subject matter. The guys didn't have much power back then + I'm sure they really liked the song at the time.
    Once would have made a good single IMO. :)
    yeah Once or Garden are way better IMO
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    cp3iversoncp3iverson Posts: 8,640
    Jeremy is still one of my top two songs from the album! Release being the other.
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    ldent42ldent42 NYC Posts: 7,859
    edited March 2015
    I'm calling BS if only for the fact that she mentions getting emails about it yet that letter was clearly either written on a typewriter or made to look like it was. If you were writing a letter to someone about something like this would you really be bothered to mess with the font like that? I think not.

    *disclaimer: this is a smart ass comment, meant to be taken as a joke, not seriously.
    Post edited by ldent42 on
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    ldent42 said:

    I'm calling BS if only for the fact that she mentions getting emails about it yet that letter was clearly either written on a typewriter or made to look like it was. If you were writing a letter to someone about something like this would you really be bothered to mess with the font like that? I think not.

    without knowing the details, a lot of people still type letters, especially old people and she would have to be in her 60's at least, it is plausible, that is why I qualified my opinion with "if it is true", it certainly is possible, there certainly are whacky people who like Pearl Jam, they get tossed out of the Facebook groups all the time, you see some creepy shit you would never expect out of a Pearl Jam fan, fortunately they are the fringe minority, but even one of these whackos a month would be tough to deal with for the family
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    PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,543
    edited March 2015
    Maybe this will encourage PJ to take the song out of rotation, and then something good could come out of the bad. =)

    (But FWIW, i have my doubts about the authenticity of this letter, really just because of the timing... I mean, why now? Plus, no signature or anything... anyone could have written that. But who knows.... Anyway, there was nothing wrong with PJ writing this song. But it is weird that it's become a song of celebration, just like Better Man has - joyful singalong about domestic violence. Just strange to me)
    Post edited by PJ_Soul on
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    ldent42ldent42 NYC Posts: 7,859
    Hank I was joking. We need a smart ass font.
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    jasonrolfejasonrolfe Posts: 474
    Big Bank Hank said:


    yeah Once or Garden are way better IMO

    I completely understand that there are dedicated fans (since we are 20+ years after the release) that don't enjoy hearing songs like Even Flow and Jeremy because they have been played so often in concert, or on MTV, or on to the radio. I feel that they did pick the best songs from a commercial standpoint at the time for exposure which lead to their success. We need to understand that at the time that these videos came out they were new songs and PJ wasn't playing arenas, they were playing club shows; if they didn't make videos for the most commercial songs where would we be right now? The Jeremy music video was huge from a breakout standpoint. And IMHO as much as I love them, Once or Garden would not have done much on the Billboard chart. I have no issue with the decisions they made back then re: Jeremy and Even Flow and Alive, but I hold that as a different concern than the fact that some of those songs may get played too often in the last decade.

    I have no opinion about the authenticity of the letter, but an interesting topic to discuss.
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    jasonrolfejasonrolfe Posts: 474
    Big Bank Hank said:

    ldent42 said:

    I'm calling BS if only for the fact that she mentions getting emails about it yet that letter was clearly either written on a typewriter or made to look like it was. If you were writing a letter to someone about something like this would you really be bothered to mess with the font like that? I think not.

    without knowing the details, a lot of people still type letters, especially old people and she would have to be in her 60's at least, it is plausible, that is why I qualified my opinion with "if it is true", it certainly is possible, there certainly are whacky people who like Pearl Jam, they get tossed out of the Facebook groups all the time, you see some creepy shit you would never expect out of a Pearl Jam fan, fortunately they are the fringe minority, but even one of these whackos a month would be tough to deal with for the family
    I understand the doubt, but I do remember the 90's as a transition point between type writer and email. It does dance closely between the time that we switched one and another, but we also don't know the date of the typed letter and there was definitely a long overlap in the 90's where people used both technology, especially as adoption of email was slower for the older generation, but emails may have come from the younger generation. Agree that it is worth questioning.
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    jasonrolfejasonrolfe Posts: 474
    ldent42 said:

    Hank I was joking. We need a smart ass font.

    I clearly interpreted the same as Hank but I will leave my response unedited. Cheers.
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    ldent42 said:

    Hank I was joking. We need a smart ass font.

    LOL, got it, a stoner day off for me today
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    amethgr8amethgr8 Posts: 766
    I didn't see this on PJ FB page. if you open the image, at the very bottom you can see something was whited out. If this is from Jeremy's mother, I don't think its something we should be discussing.

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    Ledbetterman10Ledbetterman10 Posts: 16,728
    "We've done really well with teenage death songs" ---Eddie, Lost Dogs liner notes (Last Kiss section)

    I've always found that quote to be both hilarious and COLD at the same time. I mean, he was a real kid who shot himself. And even though this alleged letter from Jeremy's mom is most likely bullshit. If you put yourself in his family's shoes circa 1993, you fucking hate Pearl Jam. But again, the letter is bullshit. His parents probably never even heard the song. Daddy didn't give attention and mommy didn't care. Remember?
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    darthvedderdarthvedder Posts: 2,478
    The song is not 100% about Jeremy. Eddie has said that it's also from his own experience, about a kid he went to school with. IIRC, he said it was partly about this kid who shot up a fish tank in class?
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    SaravaSarava Naperville, IL Posts: 1,998
    Ledbetterman10 said:

    "We've done really well with teenage death songs" ---Eddie, Lost Dogs liner notes (Last Kiss section)

    I've always found that quote to be both hilarious and COLD at the same time. I mean, he was a real kid who shot himself. And even though this alleged letter from Jeremy's mom is most likely bullshit. If you put yourself in his family's shoes circa 1993, you fucking hate Pearl Jam. But again, the letter is bullshit. His parents probably never even heard the song. Daddy didn't give attention and mommy didn't care. Remember?

    If you listen to the Santa Barbara boot from 07/13/06, he intros Last Kiss with nearly the same words. But he attributes them to Johnny Ramone telling him 'you guys have done really great with teen death songs'.
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    ldent42ldent42 NYC Posts: 7,859
    jasonrolfe said:

    ldent42 said:

    Hank I was joking. We need a smart ass font.

    I clearly interpreted the same as Hank but I will leave my response unedited. Cheers.
    i fixed it now. I think I'm funny. That's all that matters. :wink:
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    The JugglerThe Juggler Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,293
    Big Bank Hank said:

    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    If this truly is authentic, it really is very sad and unfortunate.
    Unintended consequences are so difficult to anticipate.

    unfortunately for the band, I think if they could go back and change anything, one thing would be not releasing Jeremy as a single and making that video, I know how sensitive all the band members are, and this is the last thing they would of ever wanted
    This is a fake letter.

    Also, at lunch with Ed and Stone yesterday, this topic was broached and they both, to a man, talked about how proud they were of Jeremy and the ensuing video. If they had to do it all over again, they absolutely would have done things the exact same thing.

    One of the big misconceptions of the guys is how sensitive they are. Always makes me laugh when I see a fan say that. They're a bunch of hearltless pricks who just so happen to make awesome music.

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    2-feign-reluctance2-feign-reluctance TigerTown, USA Posts: 23,143
    The Juggler said:

    Big Bank Hank said:

    ItIsAllAboutPJ said:

    If this truly is authentic, it really is very sad and unfortunate.
    Unintended consequences are so difficult to anticipate.

    unfortunately for the band, I think if they could go back and change anything, one thing would be not releasing Jeremy as a single and making that video, I know how sensitive all the band members are, and this is the last thing they would of ever wanted
    This is a fake letter.

    Also, at lunch with Ed and Stone yesterday, this topic was broached and they both, to a man, talked about how proud they were of Jeremy and the ensuing video. If they had to do it all over again, they absolutely would have done things the exact same thing.

    One of the big misconceptions of the guys is how sensitive they are. Always makes me laugh when I see a fan say that. They're a bunch of hearltless pricks who just so happen to make awesome music.

    If you'd like to know more, send me a pm.
    Why not just keep posting what you know Juggler? You clearly have the inside track.
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    mcgruff10mcgruff10 New Jersey Posts: 27,888
    If I read this correctly, This letter was written 6 years ago. Seems like old news to me. Why open a can of worms?
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    badbrainsbadbrains Posts: 10,255
    There are def whacky fans no doubt OP
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    mcgruff10mcgruff10 New Jersey Posts: 27,888
    badbrains said:

    There are def whacky fans no doubt OP

    Totally agree. Not sure how you can pin this one on the band.
    I'll ride the wave where it takes me......
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    Big Bank HankBig Bank Hank Seattle, WA Posts: 8,639
    mcgruff10 said:

    badbrains said:

    There are def whacky fans no doubt OP

    Totally agree. Not sure how you can pin this one on the band.
    not attempting to pin it on the band, I just feel bad as a Pearl Jam fan, that there are any other "fans" out there that would do shit like that
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