When did you first hear Pearl Jam and when became a fan?

sce675

Around 2005 or 2006 my older sister gave me Yield because she thought I'd like it. She bought Yield because her friend told her that Black was on it. When I put it in my CD player the first thing I thought was, "Whoa! That guy's got a deep voice." At the time I was listening to My Chemical Romance and other higher voiced singers. So, I just put the CD on the shelf and forgot about it for a while. Then I heard World Wide Suicide on the radio and I said, "Hey, that's that band my sister likes!" The station was giving out concert tickets to the first person to call in after they played 3 Pearl Jam songs in a row. I tried but I only knew what was on Yield and World Wide Suicide. Then a little while later I was watching a video for Guitar Hero 2. The guy playing was playing Life Wasted. After that I thought I'd check them out on iTunes. I've been listening to them ever since. I went to my first show last summer, signed up for the 10 Club in January, and I'm looking forward to Backspacer this fall!

Oh, and I'm 17

Cabbie

The first Pearl Jam song I ever heard was Life Wasted. Its on Guitar Hero 2 and only a cover, I was in 8th grade at the time. I deicided to pick up the album and listened to it occasionally, never paying much attention. It was pretty much my first album and after awhile it grew on me, so I asked for Ten for Christmas. I had basically the same experience with it as Avocado, I didn't even listen through the whole album until months after I received it. Even though I didn't listen that much I picked up Vs. and went through the same ordeal. For some reason I felt compelled to pick up the rest of the albums, and after awhile it just clicked. I became addicted. Now I have over 500 of their songs (I'm sure thats nothing to some of you). The majority of this happened in the last 9 months, I can only imagine being exposed to their music for 18 years. Even though my time with their music has been brief, I know they have affected my life greatly, I guess the teenage years are a major time for development. I only wish they were popular among my age because I am the ONLY fan in my whole school. Everyone else listens to metalcore trash.

HeavyHands

SM300890 wrote:

I only wish they were popular among my age because I am the ONLY fan in my whole school. Everyone else listens to metalcore trash.

Welcome. You have superior taste in music. Now to develop the rest of your skills...



Stay thirsty my friend

LOTeK

For me, the first that I heard was Even Flow on MTV in late '91 I'd guess. At the time I mostly listened to hard core rap and hip hop like all of my friends. Hearing Pearl Jam only once made me go out and buy Ten. The song that pulled me in and changed the music I listen to forever was Black though. I still remember hearing it for the first time so vividly.

I came home with the cd and started listening from the beginning. I liked them all but then track 5, as I knew it at the time, came on. Black Just blew me away, I wish I had the words to describe how the song made me feel. I listened to it 5 times before going on with the rest of the cd. It can still give me chills 18 years later.

While I own every Pearl Jam album, I will be going to see them live for the first time. Just bought tickets for me and 2 friends to ACL in October. Can't wait!

eddievendeer

My brother listened to them all the time when I was younger. The first album I heard from them was prob. Vitalogy. I didn't really understand anything at the time, but grew to love them when he let me borrow the Avocado album. Inside Job is a masterpiece.

Jimmy Cashew

Ahh the memories! I remember sitting an exam in school and someone had scratched on the desk 'Pearl Jam fuckin' rule!'. Below it someone else had scratched 'Pearl Jam suck, Guns 'n' Roses Rule!' That was 1995 (i think!) and I had never heard of Pearl Jam so I asked a friend who was really into music and he gave me a tape of Vs.

It's strange because I clearly remember going to get it from his house on a Saturday in June and I put it on the stereo when I got back. Listening to Go was one of the most memerable things of my life everything about it was amazing! Been a fan ever since but only got round to joining TC about 3 years ago.

It always amazes me how clearly I can remember that day, it was life changing!!

blondieblue227

That reminds me.....


when I got Vs it was my first time with a cd player. I loved using the back button on the beginning of Go. I was like ‘whoa, cool I can listen to the kickass drum part all day!’

it's a silly tidbit, i know....

oneforeachday

super thread. love hearing the stories. to the one poster who lost someone to cancer... Livestrong my friend.

My bro introduced me to PJ in early '92. Joined the club that yr (lapsed 2x, 214,xxx number now, damnit). I had a demo CD from Epic records... had Alive on it... played that thing about 4,000 times.

love em. always have. keep on rockin.

kazmo

I was watching the MTV video music awards (recored it so that I could see GNR who were getting the Video Vanguard!) and PJ performed Jeremy. I was mesmerised and kept rewinding the tape to catch the name of the band as they were introduced (if memory serves it was Dana Carvey and he was doing a George Bush impression and I couldn't quite catch what he was saying ) Anyhoo, finally worked it out and went straight to HMV to buy Ten.

I was masively into them through Vs and Vitology, then my music influences started to change and other than seeing them in '96 I didn't really listen to them until recently. I have now realised the error of my ways, have purchased the back catalogue and am going to see them in Manchester and London

Byrnzie

I heard Ten in 1991 or 1992, and bought the c.d, but was listening to a lot of other stuff at the time and didn't really get into them. I then pretty much forgot about them until I listened to the Dead Man Walking soundtrack and heard Long Road. I really liked Vedders voice on that song and wanted to hear more. I asked a friend who had a load of PJ cd's to lend me what he thought was the best album. He lent me Yield. I didn't play anything else for about a year or two after that. I was hooked on Yield. I couldn't believe it was as good as I thought it was and so just kept on that same album, before slowly checking out their other albums.

TT8270

bump

mikeleachfan

I didn't become a fan until Senior year of high school (2002)

My high school English teacher and her husband got me hooked. Before I was old enough to drive, she would pick me up and take me home. I first got to listen to Binaural in 2000 in her car. I remember hearing Nothing as it Seems. The part from 3:21 to about the 4 minute mark got me hooked, but I didn't buy an album until Riot Act. I did manage to snag the I am Mine cd single before Riot Act was released. Before I finally got Binaural, I used to think Nothing as it Seems was called Light Years. Last time Pearl Jam played in Alabama was April 9th 2003. My teacher went to the show, went home, took a nap, and came back to school to teach hours later.

Next time whether they play B-ham or Atlanta, we decided a couple of years ago that we would go together.

Some Die Just To Live

First heard them in 92' in high school, but really became a fan when my dad who was 45 at the time ( i was 16)took my friend and I to see them at the Ex in Toronto in 93', with Soundgarden and Uncle Neil. It was amazing, my dad almost got in a fight because some guy took his seat when he went to get us a drink. The guy wouldn't get up so my father picked him up and tossed him down a couple rows. I'll never forget it.

State of Mind

First heard them on the radio in 2001 while riding in the car. Asked my husband who played the song (It was Elderly Woman behind a counter in a Small Town) and he said Pearl Jam. I was 34 at the time and had spent years raising kids and not really listening to much more than Raffi and other kids music! So I went to our local library and checked out a 2000 boot. It was of a Philly show, since that's where I'm from. And I thought they sucked!!!! (Can you believe that! :oops: ) But, then I read somewhere online that Ed was a huge Who fan and that made me think twice because The Who was my first love! So back to the library I go and get the same boot. Can't understand many of the words, so I went online to check out the lyrics and am blown away!! I spent the next two years educating my small self in all things Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam was just what I needed at that point in my life. I felt like my own person again and not just someone's mom. Took my brother to see them in 2003, and it was the first live PJ show for both of us! Now, I am proud to say that both my daughter and son are PJ fans too. Have seen PJ with my daughter 3 times and will be taking my son for the first time to one of the Spectrum shows. I feel just as, if not more, excited to watch him have his first PJ experience as I feel to be going to the show myself! Hubby is not into concerts and he just smiles, shakes his head and enjoys watching me obsess!!!!!

pandora

Jeremy video on mtv 91 or 92? late at nite in bed
I became a lifelong fan immediately- he is a powerful force

mach271

Fall 1992---ALIVE

Hooked ever since.....

joely_91

well my first hearing pearl jam was back in the late 90's was a huge NBA fan and saw a montage of Shawn Kemp highlights to "Go" and ended up rewinding and playing the VHS till the tape came out.. :( Then 4 years ago saw the same video in clearance in local video ezy for $4 so grabbed it again and found out that the band was pearl jam. I then ended up reading an autobiography on dennis rodman who preached about how much he liked them so first thing after finishing the book, i went and bought rearviewmirror where S.O.L.A.T, Animal and Go got me hooked. Wasnt till the reissue of Ten where i found out about this site and convinced my mother to loan me her credit card after my 19th.....uptight parents haha

cannotstaylong

I had heard the hits like Alive, Evenflow, Daughter, Elderly Woman and Betterman since right about the time that they came out. I was only like 6-8 at at that time, and didn't realize what it was. And to be honest, I was too young to be a passionate music fan of any band at the time, so none of those songs did anything for me. But a couple of years later I bought Nirvana's Nevermind as my first CD and really got into all of the Seattle/grunge music: Soundgarden, AIC, STP, the Melvins, Screaming Trees, etc.

When I was about 11 or 12 I bought Ten, and Vs. was getting into the band. My parents were driving me to a basketball camp somewhere in the sticks of western Pennsylvania one summer. We had left from Pittsburgh and on the way out they dragged me into a Barnes and Noble. I couldn't have cared less about going in a bookstore at that time but amused myself in the music section. I was just looking through all the CD's, saw Vitalogy and decided to give it a try. I listened to that CD on my walkman for the entire week at basketball camp. I skipped a couple of practices because I was so into the album. I was hooked after that. I appreciated Ten and Vs. even more, and quickly snatched up any and all PJ I could find.

It's been the same ever since. Hearing music like the Band, the Four Tops, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, etc. (all the classics) growing up with my parents, I was conscious of good music from a young age, and I began following bands when I was about 8 or 9. But none of them ever stuck with me the way PJ has. When I was young I said Nirvana was my favorite band and always would be. Then a couple of months later it was Metallica, then Soundgarden, etc. Once I got hooked on PJ, however, it never changed. I have loved many other bands over the years, but PJ has been the constant. Even when I went through my 2 year Pink Floyd craze, writing a 50-page history thesis on the Floyd and concept albums, I still came back to PJ. There's just something there for me that no other band has had. Not to take away from the other great musicians over the years, but PJ has always had something extra for me.

It's interesting. The album that got me hooked, Vitalogy, might be the album I listen to the least these days. Not even because I don't find it interesting or amazing, but I always seem to forget it. Yield consumed a good 1-2 years for me when I discovered it. It's probably the album I listen to most. At the end of the day, they are band that rises above and beyond the rest. Whether it's a new release, a new found gem of a bootleg or a christmas (easter?) single, Pearl Jam always finds a way to get back to the front of my consciousness. After all these years they remain my favorite band, and I feel safe in predicting that they will continue to be for quite some time.

PJ Colombian

Summer of 1992.. unbelievable time for music with Ten, Nevermind, and Blood Sugar Sex Magic out there.. I was a sophomore in high school..had just started driving.. I distinctly remeber cruising home from a party one night..changing the station and stumbling onto ALIVE.. I only caught the last 30 seconds or so, still my favorite McCready solo of all, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.. I was in the middle of a serious Led Zeppelin phase but immidiately went out and bought Ten.. AMAZING album..to this day I can not pick out my favorite song, probably Oceans, but too hard to call.. Proceeded to jam the shit out Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy..Got my hands on the live Dissident CD's next and was never really the same after that.. But No Code is the album that hit me the deepest on a personal level.. Pretty much my favorite album, though that's tough to call too, and Present Tense may be my favorite song of all..but that's impossible to call.. My only regret is that I didn't get to see them live in the 90's.. Finally saw them in 2000..and 10 shows later I've got the Chicago shows and ACL to come..The new songs I've heard so far are once again blowing my mind..as I know Backspacer will.. the best is yet to come!!

Nice thread.. and Thank You Pearl Jam..

notforconsumption

Around the time of Riot Act.
I had bought Binural a few moths after it came out from a tiny shop with a really small collection. I wouldn't leave unless i bought something ( i never leave a record shop unless i buy something) so i picked it up.

I heard it a few times, i liked it but didn't give much attention and then i went to that shop again and found Riot Act. I played them together a few times...and it suddenly came to me...i really liked this band!