Do you remember when you first heard Pearl Jam?

zants

I was 13, my brother came back from a holiday in the US and he brought Vitalogy with him. Betterman just killed me!

guitarist_4_pearljam

I was six, my brother had a friend from Seattle, WA.. He sent my brother a copy of this live show from a band called Mookie Blaylock. The sound quality sucked, and my bro gave it to me... wasn't to long till I saw the Jeremy video and said HOLY SHIT! or something to that effect. 10/22/90 is the date on the bootlegged concert.. Live at the Off Ramp Cafe. "Holy Shit" may not have been the exact phrase I thought, but still that was the feeling. And I still have that Bootleg.

pjmmr_gal

I first heard Pearl Jam when I was 10 years old (1996). I've been crazy about them since then.. still have their first few albums on cassette. and forgot everything about Metallica...

insomniaisevil

i was in...jr. high i think and heard evenflow on the radio...i was instantly hooked. i loved them from that point forward, but i have to say that vitalogy was the point that they dug their claws in and completely sucked me in!

Drifting

I was a sophomore in high school on a bus ride to a track meet and I heard "Black." I was instantly hooked. I went back and asked the kid that was playing who it was and later that day, I listened to the entire album in complete and utter awe. The next day, I bought my own copy of Ten and have been a junkie ever since.

For that reason, Black will always be a special song to me.

snail

i heard evenflow when i was like 11? when it first came out, and i liked it. I loathed Jeremy, until a friend of mine convinced me to listen past the "At Home--" part (i hated that part, i don't know why). As for Alive, i had a similar experience w/ the biological father part (not the rape part, haha). so it was hard to listen to my dark secret played on the radio. plus i never got the life affirming thing from it. when i was down, one of my uncles would put his arm around me and say "Cheer up. It could be worse. You could be on fire, like this!" and he'd pantomime being on fire. that's how i heard the "i'm still alive" part, bitter, angry and sarcastic. But i eventually heard Black-- someone was playing ten during lunch-- and that's when i really got into them. My brother got me the tape (he bought Vs for me first, because i wasn't sure of the title), and i listen to it a few times that night, and fell asleep to it. The instrumental after release scared me.
wow, that's long! but super relevent.

cashworth

i remember mi first pearl jam song being black. i was sitting at a mates place after soccer one night and he threw on black and ive been hooked since. its now mi all time favourite song

LoriDee64

I first heard them back in 1992 when Ten came out. My younger sister brought the CD to have our father listen to it on his sweet old 70's stereo system. (Great reciever). I had heard them myself but never the entire CD and it was unbelievable.!

Later dated a guy who played me Yield and Ben Harper alot when I was over to his place.

I am a rythym fanatic and when the vocals have rythym too, well...I close my eyes and it takes me to a different place as I sing each phrase with the song.

South of Seattle

I was in Advanced PE and was one of the only sophomores in that class. The seniors used to totally F$@% with me cuz I was the little sophomore.
Once they realized I could hold my own the invited me to hang out. They were jamming Temple of the Dog and Ten. They invited me to see PJ at the roseland but I couldn't go because I was only 15. Once I graduated I was still friends with the guys and they took me to the Blind Melon/PJ/Neil Young show.

The rest is history.

einatshaul

It was Jeremy, cause I was in Jr., and hooked on MTV... for some reason I thought for a while that it was a solo singer: Pearl, or mr. Jam and he was really appealing in a special way...

quickly got over that and been hooked eversince...

riantLoVEsu

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

Well i already said in another thread how i got to know them. But I didnt care for them at all at the time either. I mean Liked eddie's voice, but I never understood what he was saying (still dont most times..smiles...)


Heres mud in yer face!

nik

Watching late night rock Noisy Mothers and Mike was on with Layne Staley doing promo for Mad Season. Played some clips from AIC song and then played Alive and it blew me away....next day went out and bought ten and have been hooked ever since.....

BrinkofForever

The first time I heard them was working at McDonalds with this guy who looked like a cross between Butthead and Chris Cornell with a porn mustache. 10 had just came out but not hit big. He brought a mix tape in to play while we were closing... it had some Soundgarden, Metallica and Pearl Jam on it. I dug it instantly. Bought the album and listened to Release every day at 5 in the morning while walking to work. It was almost a religious experience... the San Luis Obispo streets were usually still covered with fog and traffic was non-existant. I could simply walk and lose myself in the music.

VforVEDDER

When 10 came out i was 7, my brothers thrashed it and i was so happy that my brothers loved rock compared to my friends brothers who liked...POP crap!... The neighbours were upset at us coz thats all they heard.

someone else in this thread mentioned that the songs have memories attached to them, and this is how it is for me.

Because i was young when they came out most the memories are of me drifting to sleep on my couch after school, with my brother playing Pearl Jam.

I've been hooked since i was seven!

faithfull79

Can't remember the first time I heard it, But the first time I LISTENED to it was March 22 '98, When my new girlfriend FORCED me to listen to YIELD six times in a row. I fell in love that night. Not with the girl, but with YIELD and Pearl Jam.

---Thanks, Kate. Things didn't work out between us, but I owe you one for Pearl Jam.

jorg_rock

Don´t remember clearly which one was first, but the two first times listened to Pearl Jam were at Saturday Night Live playing Alive, and the video on MTV, later listened to the MTV Unplugged and became a fan. I was 11-12 years old.

D_Dee

My cousin introduced me to Pearl Jam 1995 and I was hooked. Not long after I was jumping up and down to their concert @ Eastern Creek in Australia (and convinced I would marry Eddie!) Amazing experience that I will never forget.