Your First Pearl Jam Recollection?

Unkept

Back in the day, when the grunge thing was first happening, I myself was about 21 years old. A bit of a music snob, I honestly believed that with a few exceptions, the 80's were easily the darkest days for music. This thread isn't about 80's music so just hold up...

When the 90's hit and Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam exploded, I was all for it. Stripped down production (although listening to TEN, it was recorded very 80's production -wise) still...the trend was dark, hardcore, and just a breath of fresh air..

Now, I wasn't an angst ridden teenager, and I had a great family life, etc...so I didn't neccesarily connect to the content, and generally it was all a bit ominous and heavy for my personal reality..Still...great songs, and I liked that the bands took themselves seriously...no more songs about groupies....

But when I first heard Pearl Jam, it was the song Alive, which I actually thought was a pretty positive songabout persaverance, but that was after it grew on me, which took a while...honest to god,..I thought 'Alive' was the new Lynrd Skynrd...not a new version of that seminal Southern Rock band (who I don't care for) but actually a new single from Lynrd Skynrd...I thought the label was trying to hip them up, and in the wake of Fate No More, the fusion of Hip-Hop beats to Rock and Roll being the trend...well...I wasn't a fan...

In fact the Song Why Go was what sucked me in and got me to check out TEN, like anything new, it took a few spins to sink in, but once it did I was hooked...

I didn't become a hardcore freak until the release of Yield...but I'd always liked the band more and more and more with every release...

Anyway. I think about that initial impression, and my general indifference and it makes me chuckle...Cause it's just stupid how much I'm into the band 17 years later...

How about you all?

Anyone,...Anyone...?

LONGRD

Unkept wrote:

Back in the day, when the grunge thing was first happening, I myself was about 21 years old. A bit of a music snob, I honestly believed that with a few exceptions, the 80's were easily the darkest days for music. This thread isn't about 80's music so just hold up...

When the 90's hit and Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam exploded, I was all for it. Stripped down production (although listening to TEN, it was recorded very 80's production -wise) still...the trend was dark, hardcore, and just a breath of fresh air..

Now, I wasn't an angst ridden teenager, and I had a great family life, etc...so I didn't neccesarily connect to the content, and generally it was all a bit ominous and heavy for my personal reality..Still...great songs, and I liked that the bands took themselves seriously...no more songs about groupies....

But when I first heard Pearl Jam, it was the song Alive, which I actually thought was a pretty positive songabout persaverance, but that was after it grew on me, which took a while...honest to god,..I thought 'Alive' was the new Lynrd Skynrd...not a new version of that seminal Southern Rock band (who I don't care for) but actually a new single from Lynrd Skynrd...I thought the label was trying to hip them up, and in the wake of Fate No More, the fusion of Hip-Hop beats to Rock and Roll being the trend...well...I wasn't a fan...

In fact the Song Why Go was what sucked me in and got me to check out TEN, like anything new, it took a few spins to sink in, but once it did I was hooked...

I didn't become a hardcore freak until the release of Yield...but I'd always liked the band more and more and more with every release...

Anyway. I think about that initial impression, and my general indifference and it makes me chuckle...Cause it's just stupid how much I'm into the band 17 years later...

How about you all?

Anyone,...Anyone...?

My PJ story from the Yield thread
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?p=5067196#post5067196

LongRd. wrote:

I was only 15 when Yield came out and raised by a single mom. I was poor as hell. But I always like PJ's singles on the radio.

I honestly think I had about 7 or 8 tapes during my early-mid '90's, and their Appetite For Destruction, Rollings Band, AIC's Tripod self titled, and obvious Dookie & Smash, Green Day & Offspring were huge in '94-'95.

Once I got a job, bought a CD player and BOOM!, Yield was the first one I devoted my hard earned money to. I think it's because their were the only "Grunge" band left. Nirvana was no more, Soundgarden just broke up, and AIC (well, Layne had issues).

...and I was addicted since.

That's my Yield story. hehe

BTW, it's Faith No More and they're one of the greatest and most underrated bands ever :mad:. They weren't a "Hip-hop/Rock band" they were an "experimental band" = rock, metal, jazz, electronic, soul... but you're probably basing FNM on the "Epic" single. Lastly, I'd like to say Mike Patton is God!

Stone Is God

Unkept wrote:

I didn't become a hardcore freak until the release of Yield...but I'd always liked the band more and more and more with every release...

I hear that. I went to college and befriended a Pearl Jam fan, he in turn got about four or five us us who all hung out together into Pearl Jam HARD. We had a quad in our dorms and when people came over to party they knew that all that would be played was Pearl Jam. That was one of the first things that my college sweetheart and I talked about. We broke up and I stole her Holland 92 bootleg. Still have it to this very day.

Steve Dunne

Girlfriend liked Ed's voice. I liked the hooks/riffs/jams. A great combo.

PureandEasy

Dive bar in Philly back in 92 - Black

enough said

itsevobaby

long story short...loved alive & even flow, jeremy even more, became obsessed with ten....but it was the 1993 MTV performance of animal & RITFW just before the release of Vs. that started me on the path of the complete fanatic. never looked back :cool::)

i'll never forget christian slater's introduction...."here to perform a new song for the first time anywhere, ladies & gentlemen, pearl jam"

*in kicks animal, ed growling into the mic, jeff jumping around like a flea & i just sit there completely stunned for the next 10 mins* :eek:

lephty

i remember buying my first pearl jam CD single Jeremy. I chose the only one in the pile that looked different than all the other Jeremy singles. Now it's a collectible:)

BinFrog

Same story I always post:

I was 15, had just bought Ten after hearing Alive on the radio in late '91 and loving it. So I'm sitting on my floor blasting Alive for the first time on my stereo, and my dad walks in and proceeds to give it a thumbs down. I knew I was onto something.

BinFrog

itsevobaby wrote:

*in kicks animal, ed growling into the mic, jeff jumping around like a flea & i just sit there completely stunned for the next 10 mins* :eek:

I had the same reaction. I was just floored by that performance. Ed's intense indifference, Jeff jumping up and down like a rabbit, Stone grooving, Mike wailing, Dave beating the sh*t out of the drums....it was awesome.

genie

that's pretty strange how you could confuse Lynyrd Skynyrd with Pearl Jam their lyrics and sound is very, very different.

My first recollection of listening to Pearl Jam was when i picked up Vs album in a charity shop. At that time i was looking for some grunge bands to get into ( after hearing Nirvana ). And so i bought the cd, and the first two tracks, Animal and Go where perfect. I mean truly perfect, it's the sort of syle of music i always want to hear..........and the rest is history

Horos

I had bought Apple (MLB) after reading about MLB in a fanzine. The first time I heard Alive it was introduced as the band that was MLB. Went out and bought Ten immediately and the rest is history. Saw PJ for the first time about a week after the MTV performance of Animal.

otis mcfluster

This is my story from an old thread:

The first time I heard PJ...

...I hated it.

I was 11 years old and my buddy gave me his copy of "this rad new album he bought called Ten, by this new group Pearl Jam" to borrow on the school bus.

I took it home and immediately recorded his PJ tape onto a blank cassette tape so I would have a copy, and so I could listen to it on my walkman while I mowed the lawn. I didn't listen to any of the album while it recorded so I could do my long division homework in silence; just pressed play on the PJ tape, then record on the blank tape, & turned down the volume knob to 0.

When the recording process finished, I pressed rewind for a few seconds and then play. It started in the middle of the Release montage at the end of the album. My first thought was, "what the hell is this jungle-funk garbage."

I pressed stop, very disappointed that I had been led astray by my usually dependable friend who was apparently getting into really weird experimental music.

Needless to say I threw REM in the old walkman and mowed the lawn. And I wouldn't revisit Ten until a few days later after some prompting from my buddy.

I had never been so happy to be so wrong. And the Release montage at the end of the album eventually grew on me.

itsevobaby

BinFrog wrote:

I had the same reaction. I was just floored by that performance. Ed's intense indifference, Jeff jumping up and down like a rabbit, Stone grooving, Mike wailing, Dave beating the sh*t out of the drums....it was awesome.

fuck yeah, all that before they even bought out Neil! it was the first time i heard them doing RITFW as well, amazingly intense. i've destroyed my video from watching it too much, really hope they put together an anthology type dvd one day that chronicles all these kinds of performances, eg. MTV 93, unplugged, pinkpop, atlanta 94, benaroya etc.

pools of maroon

itsevobaby wrote:

fuck yeah, all that before they even bought out Neil! it was the first time i heard them doing RITFW as well, amazingly intense. i've destroyed my video from watching it too much, really hope they put together an anthology type dvd one day that chronicles all these kinds of performances, eg. MTV 93, unplugged, pinkpop, atlanta 94, benaroya etc.

I wore my video down as well with that show! great memories! I first heard "Ten" in 92 when i was starting out on my joinery apprenticeship, i was working with an older guy called Trevor (he was about 22!) and he played it on this massive getto blaster about 10 times everyday, after a few days i couldn't get the sounds out of my head and the following weekend i went and bought my own copy on tape. I had never connected to music so strongly ever and i played it endlessly for the next year, I was almost having a heart attack waiting for the new song on that mtv award show, was it gonna be as good as the first songs? what were they gonna look like? it was just so intense! I needn't have worried, it was everything and more! the passion, the energy... things were never gonna be the same for me again, at that moment i knew this was my band and my music.... PS thanks Trevor! werever you are!

itsevobaby

pools of maroon wrote:

I wore my video down as well with that show! great memories! I first heard "Ten" in 92 when i was starting out on my joinery apprenticeship, i was working with an older guy called Trevor (he was about 22!) and he played it on this massive getto blaster about 10 times everyday, after a few days i couldn't get the sounds out of my head and the following weekend i went and bought my own copy on tape. I had never connected to music so strongly ever and i played it endlessly for the next year, I was almost having a heart attack waiting for the new song on that mtv award show, was it gonna be as good as the first songs? what were they gonna look like? it was just so intense! I needn't have worried, it was everything and more! the passion, the energy... things were never gonna be the same for me again, at that moment i knew this was my band and my music.... PS thanks Trevor! werever you are!

ha great post

yeah i remember thinking the same sort of thing, the 2nd album anticipation was killing me!

Get_Right

Casual fan after ten
bigger fan after Vs
Vitalogy-wow this band kicks ass

Why wont they tour
Then the true epiphany

spin the black circle from Randalls 2 96


NOW THATS A FUCKING ROCK BAND

stargirl69

I had hated most of the 80's stuff,it was disgustingly overblown and narcissistic.
I was going through a rough time,was suffering bad insomnia and had quit my job.One night I couldn't sleep and turned on the t.v.There was a music programme on.I was already into Soundgarden and had heard rumbles of a new wave of American bands coming through.The music article was about some of these bands.There was a very short interview with Ed and Jeff then Alive was played.I was utterly blown away and spent the next week trying to find out about this band and a single/album release finally managed to order a 7" vinyl copy of Alive.Ten wasn't due to be released for another few months I took the single with me every time I visited friends and insisted they listen to this band.
The 80's were finally gone and I was heading into the the most exciting years of my life with the help of the best music in years and a change in my life forever.

scpjfan

Even Flow video on Much Music. My Dad used to give me hell for turning his stereo up too loud when it was on.

pools of maroon

itsevobaby wrote:

ha great post

yeah i remember thinking the same sort of thing, the 2nd album anticipation was killing me!

Ah yes great times... it was so hard back then being a pearl jam fan in N.Ireland! to hear any mention of them was extremly rare! with no internet then, i felt like the only person on earth who was into them. I probably was the only guy in ireland wearing nike air boots and wearing knee length shorts in the winter though!

The Waiting Trophy Man

My sister had a bunch of music videos on tape and one of them was even flow. That was my introduction, which was sometime in the spring of 1992. I liked them from the very beginning. I can still remember listening to jeremy before the video came out, before it got overplayed on much music/radio. And I can just remember listening to Ten on the bus, to and from school. That was 16 years ago this year. I'm 32 now, so I've been listening to Pearl Jam for half my life now.

brainofPJ

i was in 7th grade i think and a bunch of kids were walking around with Ten tapes...

a bunch of problem 'childs' so i thought i wouldn't like the music.

fast forward to my junior year...i kept hearing some songs on the radio.

bought Ten, Vs, No Code, from BMG...they sat around in my car for a couple of years.

1998...driving home from work i was getting tired of hearing maybe a green day song for the 3rd time on the radio that day.

popped in No Code...

have been hooked ever since.

zenith

i have a pretty weird memory - gaps everywhere... im the sort of person that someone will say hey..remember when... and i'll reply "huh???'

but, strangley i remember every detail, even the smallest, of the very first time i saw pearl jam. I guess they made such a huge dent in there - half this story will loose a bit of meaning to anyone who isnt familiar with australia - canberra in particular.

anyway - i was living in a group house in canberra. I was out late one nite, and got home. The loungeroom was up a level from the hall, you had to walk up steps into this sort of french door opening. There was a black lounge - the daggy immitation leather sort. an old long wooden coffee table - two huge windows with those horrible long vinyl blinds that rattle and get caught in everything - and in the corner was a tv unit with the tv on. The room was dark - there were a few people up - we always had people there. And a late nite australian music programe - rage - was on. it never had intro's to songs. just played them, one after another. a song came on - and i sat down and watched it thinking holey shit, who is this! never heard them, or heard of them. I was hooked there and then.
went out the next day to a little shop - impact records - which at the time was still a tiny little shop in a dingy out of the way part of civic (centre of canberra) up near all the independant cinemas. Bought the little red cd single ALIVE - i still own it and it still has the little "$1.95 Special Price!" sticker on it
Impact records eventually moved into a huge shop in main civic - and its now been taken over by jb hi-fi which is a shame because i bought a lot of stuff from them over the years i lived in canberra, and just loved browsing around in there.
Pearl Jam came to canberra four years later for the first and only time - the first time i saw them live - up front and more addicted than ever.

my only regret is that i never joined 10c back then. i guess because it was a mail addy on the back of the cd's.

itsevobaby

zenith wrote:

my only regret is that i never joined 10c back then. i guess because it was a mail addy on the back of the cd's.

yeah i regret that too, always thought about it but never actually did it till many years later

The Waiting Trophy Man

itsevobaby wrote:

yeah i regret that too, always thought about it but never actually did it till many years later

Same here.

Jeremy1012

I had seen the Alive video a bunch of times and had always liked the song but my first proper memory was watching the unplugged show. Porch stuck in my head... not the song but Eddie's performance. It was mindblowing. The song that totally floored me though was Black. Just incredible.

It took me at least another year before I bought Ten. Never looked back.

Hartydog

I grew up in ME and there weren't a lot of channels on cable (I think we had 30 when I graduated from high school in 1995). But at a friend's house I saw the video for Alive but more importantly heard what may be to this day one of my all time favorite songs. It made the hair on my arms stand on end and gave me the chills

Kilgore_Trout

i was driving to the mall with my cousin (a HUGE PJ fan) when i was 5 and i can remember listening to evenflow... he used to quiz me about what song it was we were listening... hes the reason i got into PJ... there was alot of time between then and binaural that i had shitty taste in music, but then i found PJ again and 15 years later ive probably become an even bigger fan than my cousin!

Drop The Leash 10

i was 12 when my dad brought me to the 9/29/04 show and its been all uphill since

IAmMyself

In '91, I had just turned 18, freshmen year at college. Some guy knocked on my dorm door, I answered, he said listen to this right now. I still can't believe I didn't #*^! him right there and then. My life instantly changed, and it's never been the same. Thank god!

Chicagone

Alpine Valley Wisconsin 92 - raining all morning, late to the show. Went to see the Chili Peppers and Soundgarden. But when PJ came out and f'n blew up the stage, I was hooked right then and there. Soundgarden was good, Matt jammed, Peppers were so-so, but PJ stole the show. Anticipation was killing me and the next available show was the New Regal Theatre in 94. Was out of town for the madhouse on madison show :( - still sick to this day about that. But when Ed climbed the side of the theatre and did the 30 foot crowd dive, I calmy walked straight up to front row dead center and watched Ed make his way back up to the stage and I caught the last 4 or 5 shows about 10 feet in front of him. 67 shows later, toured the world, still loving everything they do. NO other band rocks like PJ since Zeppelin - period

CitizenRick

I was 20...it was late 91'...I used to hang out in my buddy Mike's garage with the same crew of about 15-20 guys every Friday and Saturday night.

We would listen to rock music, play pool and drink beer. One Friday... his older brother came home and went directly into the garage and changed out the Tesla cd we were listening to and said "check this out...it's a new band called Pearl Jam...they fuckin' rock...and the singer is really different".

Once played (wow...the singer IS different...and they do fuckin' rock!)

Even Flow played (is that a groove I hear?...and what the fuck is he saying?)

Alive played (holy shit...my soul has been saved!)

I'll never forget that night as long as I live. I finally had a true heart felt connection with music.

The ride began that night...and it's still going today.

Sorry for the length.