Do you remember when you first heard Pearl Jam?

peyotejam4ever

Oh Man! I was in 8th grade and I just got my first boombox cd player. My brother was in college and we would fight alot and we did not see eye to eye on many things. But one of the best things he ever did for me was when he brought home a copy of Ten and said play this. He left the cd and went back to college. He always asks me why the hell I listen to Pearl Jam so much? I just look at him and grin.

Gary Carter

i rember watching the alive video on mtv. one of my cousin give me a cassatte tape of ten.

Omarama

we had a left over audio file of even flow on our computer.i heard it and got interested.then dad mentioned he had a copy of ten and i could "give a listen but he didn't think it was startling" lol i remember hearing ten and thinking, shit this is amazing!!

Diluted_Soul

I think the first PJ song I heard was Do the evolution ever since then I was hooked. I never had a Song speak to me so much about the things I as well believed and thought it should be said. ALthough I was a little late for the whole PJ explosion, I still love the band and are by far the most amazing musicians and buisinous men in the world. True people to look up to, they make music for what it is. Kudos!

GreenMonkey

Yea I was in 10th Grade (1991??) and I saw the world premier of "Jeremy"; that just blew me away and I've been an advent fan ever since.

prytocorduroy

Mines dumb. It was in the late 90s and I remember watching WCW one day and seeing Chris Jericho come out (at the time his entrance music was an Even Flow cover). I loved it and started talking about how good it was and my friend was like, "you dumb ass, that's not original, it's Pearl Jam!" After he told me that I went out and bought Ten, and liked it a lot, but ever since I got Vs. PJ have been my favorite.

I always had known about Daughter and Betterman but never knew it was PJ. I have to say Even Flow got me hooked.

Eraserhead

I borrowed Ten from a friend of mine about 10 years ago. I hated it.

Somehow I ended up with a copy of it about a year or so later, and somethink clicked on the 2nd time of asking. A bit later, I saw the DTE video and I was hooked on getting more of their stuff, instead of them becoming one of those bands where you just have 1 or 2 albums of, but don't really appricate a great deal.

chris01

Like Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine, my introduction to Pearl Jam was the same for all three, my brother had them first.

conguita

I remember perfectly.
I was watching a portuguese tv show that with all sort of different video music.
I was recording "give it away" on my vcr, and they presented PJs Even Flow... my sisters boyfriend said "Oh, these guys are interesting" and i just left it recording.
i was 12, didn't like the music that much, but looked at eddie and said... "ok"....
the 2nd time i heard it, loved!! couldn't stop!!!

Clarissa

The first time I heard Pearl Jam was when I saw their Evenflow video on MTV, first the sound caught my eye, then Eddie Vedder climbing the ceiling, I still love that video & song. But Alive is one of the most important songs of theirs to me because, even though my story is not exactly the same as the songs, I can soo relate to it. I found out at the age of 12 that the man I believed was my father really wasn't, I didn't have a clue about my real biological father. It really messed me up for all of my teenage years & still even in my early 20's, but the first time I heard that song was the first time I had ever in my life found someone who understood my pain, so it means a lot to me.

MJSilvestri

Yeah I was a Junior in HS and I was managing a band my friends were in we had a deal were each week one of us would buy an album from a new band that we had heard of but never heard.

It was my turn and we went down to Trax On Wax to buy The Mother Love Bone Album which they did not have but they did have an album with a sticker that said features members of Mother Love Bone, so I bought that.

Brought it back to my friends basement and we listened to it like three times in a row and then on and off through out the rest of the weekend. I can just remember how much I loved it and how much Ten spoke to me right away and how I liked it more and more and on deeper and deeper levels each time...

darthvedder88

It was the year 1992 and I was 4 years old...I know, sounds rediculous, but it's true. This was the first time I had seen the music video for Jeremy, and for some odd reason, I thought it was really good, but I didn't know why. Throughout the year, I remember Jeremy being played on the radio off and on, and I can even recall hearing Betterman and Who You Are as well. But it wasn't until I entered high school as a freshman, that I really found out it was Pearl Jam. I was sitting in my recliner in the living room listening to music choice, and all of the sudden they played Pearl Jam's Even Flow. When I heard it, IT BLEW THE FUCK OUTTA ME!!! Soon afterwards I bought the album "Ten" and it changed my life. There, I gave my 2 cents...

Betterman77

The Alive video was just comming out back in 1991, I was in grade 8, thought thier music sounded so different than what was already out there, So when ten came out I bought it and the rest is history!!!!!

solat_girl

It was 1993 or 1994, saturday afternoon, me and my sister were listening to the radio and Even Flow began to play, I knew who they were because my sister was into them at that time, but I had never really heard one of its songs until that moment. I thought they were great and since then I've been a fan, my sister though isn't a fan since No Code.

New Orleans Dude

i only first heard them a year or two ago from a friend. i was born in 1990, so i didnt really hear them back then. now theyre one of my favorite bands

depopulationINC

I don't remember when I first heard PJ...but almost every song is now attached to a memory.

darthvedder88

depopulationINC wrote:

I don't remember when I first heard PJ...but almost every song is now attached to a memory.

I know how you feel man. WHY DID PPL HATE NO CODE?!!! So what if it was experimental?! It was still mindblowing!!

Carlos D

I was falling asleep listening to the radio and Elderly Woman came on.The 'hearts and thoughts they fade...' line was quite memorable I thought.This was also around the time of Riot Act so I heard I Am MiNE a little while after.And then I got Ten off my sisters a month later for Christmas and me and Pearl Jam lived happily ever after.......................................................THE END.

Carlos D

I was falling asleep listening to the radio and Elderly Woman came on.The 'hearts and thoughts they fade...' line was quite memorable I thought.This was also around the time of Riot Act so I heard I Am MiNE a little while after.And then I got Ten off my sisters a month later for Christmas and me and Pearl Jam lived happily ever after.......................................................THE END.

Carlos D

I was falling asleep listening to the radio and Elderly Woman came on.The 'hearts and thoughts they fade...' line was quite memorable I thought.This was also around the time of Riot Act so I heard I Am MiNE a little while after.And then I got Ten off my sisters a month later for Christmas and me and Pearl Jam lived happily ever after.......................................................THE END.

GummiBeer

was september of 91, i was watching Much Music in my brothers room. Even Flow came on, watched it. We looked at each other and said.....this is the greatest stuff ever. then we ran down stairs and went to a music store and bought my first Cd...I still have it

hellbent1

.... I can't remember!!!! I believe it was the Jeremy video....
shame on me shame on me

threecrookedhearts6

Sitting on the couch with my daddy...

Like some others, I was late on the Pearl Jam 'bandwagon'. When Last Kiss came out I was nine or ten and my dad was in love with the original so I always ended up listening to PJ's version and it grew on me. My father died when i was twelve and a couple years later I started listening to alternative radio stations and heard Evenflow, Betterman, Jeremy. Once I realized they were the same band of Last Kiss I thought I was somehow destined to find this band and their music has kept me and the memory of my dad Alive. Present tense was the song that sparked my intense passion for Pearl Jam's lyrics and sounds. Unfortunately I can no longer listen to Last Kiss but it's all been worth it!

mikes plectrum

I remember distictly. I went away to uni in 1990 and at some point my mate gave me a going away present, it was an audio cassette with Ten on it, labelled simply "10".

After playing it I was blown away, however I had no idea who they were, and I lost contact with the mate. Doh

After a million plays the cassette was so stretched it was playing slower !! (do you remember that "technology" ?? LOL).

Eventually like 6 months later someone stumbled into my room and went " hey you're into Pearl Jam". I nearly kissed the guy, and went straight off the spend huge amounts of grant on the real version. At this point I couldn't believe how much faster the original was !!

happy dayz

Obsidian22

Must have been in 1991. Iwas 18 I think, my last year of high school(grade 13 in ontario, Canada). I was dating a guy who played lead guitar in a band called Roxy LAne. I went to his jam session, and in between the jam we listened to Faith No More's Epic. Someone had 10 and played it on tape cassette. We were all floored and later stoned. No one left till the album was played in it's entirety. Days and confused, but clearly moved and astonished .
Thank you Pearl Jam for Being Purely yourselves every step of your ways.You all rock.

bacchanal

18 years old...in my friend adams car....evenflow!!! rocked my rorld!!! before that i was listening to garth brooks and wearing shitkickers!!!

moegossard

Spring of 92 at my friends place.

turquoisetrouble

I was a sophomore in college in 1991-92, and there was some real positive press in the school paper for the band. They were supposed to be really good, and I was like, well, how can they really impress me? The people in the dorm room next to me, actually had an article about them with their picture posted on their door. These were the same neighbors that played Nirvana's Nevermind for me for the first time (played for me through the wall), and I actually loved that just from hearing that through the wall. PJ is different than Nirvana, no doubt. But anyways, the first song I heard was Alive, and I loved it. It was probably on MTV, when I first heard it, I have a slight memory of standing in the "common room", and getting a really, really good feeling hearing that song. It was catchy, and the melody and message of the chorus just blew me away. Kinda like how Nirvana blew me away (hate to throw them in the same boat, but that was my experience). It was a famous one-two punch with those two. But, I never bought Nevermind (didn't have to, everyone else did), but I did buy Ten, and I did buy the Singles soundtrack, and I loved, loved, loved PJ that year.

rustyguitar

I first saw the Alive and Even Flow vids on Much Music (I think I was about 13 or 14 years old) and IMMEDIATELY ran out to get the cassette...yes, cassette - didn't have a CD player yet. Anyway...I remember being SOO blown away that I called up some friends and said they HAD to hear this tape. So we all get together, I throw it in the boom box and get 'er rolling. I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to see what they would think. The tape barely got through the intro to Once and they said it was shit. They pulled it out and put in some crap like Technotronic (remember Pump Up the Jam?). I was damn near devastated. I couldn't believe that they didn't hear the amazing things I was hearing. A couple of years later they were sporting PJ shirts. Hosers.

CiNJaM

I was in sec school and some friends brought the tape, I didn´t like it at first ´coz I was into a "pop" stage, but then a young teacher I liked =P played BLaCK and the rest is history... just loved Eddies voice, lyrics and strings... wow!

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"...and still gives his love, he just gives it away, the love he receives is the love that is saved.. sometimes it´s seen a strange spot in the sky, a human being that was given to fly..."

CiNJaM

I was in sec school and some friends brought the tape, I didn´t like it at first ´coz I was into a "pop" stage, but then a young teacher I liked =P played BLaCK and the rest is history... just loved Eddies voice, lyrics and strings... wow!

______________


"...and still gives his love, he just gives it away, the love he receives is the love that is saved.. sometimes it´s seen a strange spot in the sky, a human being that was given to fly..."