Learning PJ

Cahoots

I am glad to say I was lucky enough to get in on the early days of Pearl Jam's career when I was 18. I evolved with the band over time. The No Code and Yeild days remain my favorite times as a fan. (jack irons maybe?)

I often wonder about new fans? Whats the process? Where did you get in? Was it your older brother? Did you buy the last record and go backwards? Did you catch on from the classic rock stuff and work your way up?

not for me?

Nice I get to tell my music story!

When I was about 8 years old I would say, I was only exposed to pop-music, like N-sync...

I had never been satisfied with any of the music I had heard up to this point, and thought i just didn't like music. One day my brother and I were watching T.V., and I heard some great voice with guitar like I have never heard before. My brother only stayed on that channel for a few seconds before changing it, and refused to change it back. I am almost 99% sure now, this was Nirvana. So now I knew that I liked some music, but I didn't know what it was.

Fast Forward 3 years. I start liking Blink-182, and Offspring somewhat but not a lot. I would listen to these bands just so I could say I listened to music ans not bean outcast. For a brief period after that I think I like Linkin Park...ewww.

Then in 8th grade I feel really unsatisfied with life, and sitting at my computer one day I decide that I need good music. I go on limewire and download all the songs by all the rock bands I can think of (Zeppelin, Sabbath, AC/DC, Metallica). Just like all the biggest names in rock that I could think of. At this point in time I still didn't really know Pearl jam existed except for I had heard the name.

My friend then introduced me to grunge. I went my first semester in 9th grade with only listening to Nirvana. This is when I got my first Pearl Jam, AIC, and Soundgarden too. I soon got tired of only Nirvana and started listening more to other bands. I got into Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and The Who a lot. By this time I was actually buyng CDs of a lot of bands. Then I started listening to pearl Jam a lot in the beginning of 10th grade.

Now I love Pearl Jam, with also loving Screaming Trees, CCR and the Who, but with PJ being way on top!:D

That's my story

McCreadyFan

for me it was listening to Jeremy, Alive, Even Flow and Black on the radio that made me decide to buy Rearviewmirror. Greatest decision ever. From there I downloaded all their stuff, which led me to buying the rest of the discography.

landstreicher

McCreadyFan wrote:

From there I downloaded all their stuff, which led me to buying the rest of the discography.

nice to read, that you were bying the albums later...
I can´t stand people downloading music even from there favourite bands and don´t want to give away money for the musicians work!!!
Cause it is still work, creative work, but in the end their profession!!

washedinblack91

i dunno if i belong here or not, i'm kind of in the middle...
see, ten came out when i was 3 (well technically 2, my birthday was in sept) and so i didn't really care that much, i was more into aerosmith and the police (my mom's doing. my favorite song at that time was janie's got a gun). my mom would leave the radio on when we would drive places so i listened to what was on that year, which was pj, nirvana, soundgarden, things like that. i remember at an early age i always liked pj, though i didnt know who they were at the time. it wasn't until i was 12 that i declared pearl jam my favorite band. i would always listen to the radio and tried figuring out who my favorite band was cuz hey, shouldn't everyone have a favorite band? so i thought to myself and realized that i knew more pearl jam songs than any other band. so basically, because my mother refused to listen to more children oriented music and put on rock radio stations, i got into pearl jam. i chose them from the other bands that i could have gotten into, like godsmack, my first choice for favorite band (which got quickly turned down when my dad saw the parental advisor sticker on the cd. hey, those really do serve some sort of purpose ). i've liked them for years, ever since ten, but i didn't actually get into them until middle school, so i had a lot of backtracking to do, since that was when binaural came out so i had a lot of albums that i've missed in between. it's almost like i loved the band, then went on hiatus for like 10 years, and had to go back and discover everything i missed.

oh, and like not for me? i was also into "crappy" bands like n*sync, backstreet boys, every other boy band, and of course the spice girls! gotta love em

Thoughts_Arrive

4 or 5 years ago I think, downloaded Ten & Vs.
Then I bought these albums.
Then after a while downloaded No Code & Yield.
Fell in love at that point, and purchased everything they got almost.

pjamaholic

I got in after Yield, which was my first album of theirs, and have never looked back. Wish I'd discovered them sooner.

not for me?

washedinblack91 wrote:

oh, and like not for me? i was also into "crappy" bands like n*sync, backstreet boys, every other boy band, and of course the spice girls! gotta love em

Haha! I remember singing "If You Wanna Be My Lover".

The Spice Girls were hot! And the fastest way to a girl's heart was through the Spice Girls back in 1st grade. That's how I got my first girlfriend.

TheDecline13

My god this thread is making me feel fucking old!

giventofly0812

saw the jeremy vma performance on vh1 and got hooked, then the live shows began for me, and i was addicted

Anon

i got into PJ in May of this year... in short, (cause i could probably make this very long & boring...), i've always kinda-sorta known of 'jeremy',and every time it would occaisionally come on, i'd say to myself 'hey-- i really like this!!' after hearing it one random time, i decided to check out what else the band did. i went on this website, browsed around sites, checked out their albums, and a month later, i joined the pit and was HOOKED on everything and anything PJ!!! i really love loving this band. they really are unlike any band out there. i'm proud to be keeping PJ alive (if you will....) and well in the younger generation!
LONG LIVE PEARL JAM!!

youngster

I remeber in late 91 my friend telling me about a new band from Seattle called Pearl Jam. I remember seeing the Jeremy video on MTV a couple days later and was in awe of how great it was. I was on a field trip in school in 92 and remember drawing a comic strip to the song Jeremy on the school bus which I think I still have somewhere. Also, when I bought Vs, I paid cash and one of the $1 bills had the Evenflow lyrics written EXACTLY as they were on the Ten liner notes. I remember my attention to detail as a 11 year old was keen and the thought of defacing money for the sake of PJ was worth it. Still waiting to see if I get that dollar bill back someday.

kara5419

Let's see...I am 20 so for me it started when i was about 13 (2002ish). my dad has Alive on a CD he made and would always play it when we we're driving somewhere. I kept asking him who sings that song and he said Pearl Jam. The funny thing is my dad is not a huge PJ fan at all he just liked the song. Then i heard Small Town and was like " i didn't know PJ sang this song too!" Same thing with betterman. So i stole my dads Ten album and listened to that for a while. When i bought Rearview Mirrior is when i started to really "get" PJ. Songs like dissident, Light Years, I am Mine..etc just got me hooked. I saw them in 2006 and when they ended with YLB with the lights on and the place was still packed i was just speechless....

What i love so much about the band is i am always finding something new with them. They never satisfy me as my love for them keeps growing. I always find a new way to fall in love with them. I never get tired of them as a new song or new bootleg sparks my interest. Riot Act grew on me big time and it might be my favorite album

what does suck is that no one i have ever come across except maybe 3 people listen to PJ. I always go on and on about them to my friends but they don't care. I just want to vent and talk about Pearl Jam for hours with someone who gets it. I guess that's the beauty of it because it's like my secret obsession.........

kara5419

ha ha i know right...I really think the best kind of people are PJ fans

GrungeRock1991

Cahoots wrote:

I am glad to say I was lucky enough to get in on the early days of Pearl Jam's career when I was 18. I evolved with the band over time. The No Code and Yeild days remain my favorite times as a fan. (jack irons maybe?)

I often wonder about new fans? Whats the process? Where did you get in? Was it your older brother? Did you buy the last record and go backwards? Did you catch on from the classic rock stuff and work your way up?

Haha, I wish my older bro liked them, but he reallys dislikes them. My father got me into them like he did a bunch of other Great bands. He gave me Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy, and I was hooked. I bought the rest over a span of a few months. Love those ones too. I was born 12/28/91, so I'm sad to say I have not been able to grow up with them like you. But I would have been right there with you man!

canadajammer

I was bout 15 or 16 years old at the time, when I first heard about Pearl Jam from my brother. I really liked some of the songs, so I went out and bought the Toronto 2000 boot from the music store. Sometimes, Insignificance, Black, Baba O'reilly were all great from that show...

Anyway, I was hooked on that one album and I haven't looked back since.

slightlystoned

I do remember in 96 or 97 when i was 8 or 9 listening to the radio( mainly 99x here in Atlanta) and hearing EvenFlow, Jeremy, and Black. I did not know who sang these songs at the time. I can remember when Last Kiss was all over the radio, even though I wasnt a fan of it that much. In 2001, my uncle, a PJ fan from the beginning, came to visit from Seattle where he lives. He brought me all of the 2000 boots because I had expressed an interest in PJ in a phone conversation. I was hooked from the time I put the first one in the cd player. I actually didnt purchase an album until 2003 when my uncle again gave me the boots from 03'. Even though Im not proud of it now, I downloaded all their albums but have actually purchased all of them since. They will always be my number one.

Brez

Cahoots wrote:

I am glad to say I was lucky enough to get in on the early days of Pearl Jam's career when I was 18. I evolved with the band over time. The No Code and Yeild days remain my favorite times as a fan. (jack irons maybe?)

I often wonder about new fans? Whats the process? Where did you get in? Was it your older brother? Did you buy the last record and go backwards? Did you catch on from the classic rock stuff and work your way up?

I got into them in like '04 when I found Ten (I'm only 17). From there I just bought everything I could by them, and at first I wasn't into the newer stuff. As my taste for music grew I got into it, really into it.

But I would KILL to have seen PJ in '98, definitely my favorite period of the band's history as well.

I hate to say it, but Ed's voice ain't what it used to be.

greaticedtea

i knew of them since i was really young, my brothers were into them. i think my middle bro had a stickman shirt back in the day. i really had no interest in the band for a long time though.

fast forward to my middle school/high school years and i'm listening to heavy stuff but start to expand my taste a little more. my buddy is playing some PJ in his car and i decide to give them a chance. picked up rearviewmirror a few months later after borrowing some of my bros cds and the rest is history.

thecory

I always liked them but I became a huge fan when they played a concert on the radio. it was at jones beach in 2000. i was 14. after that they were tops.


edit: does anyone else remember that? my cousin was there but I rememer sitting on my bed with the radio. it was so exciting. the dj , maybe booker, coming on and talkin about what they were wearing and stuff as they came on. the whole thing was so cool.

Stu42

January of 2006 i heard word that Pearl Jam was releasing a new album, and despite the fact that i hardly listened to pearl jam, i was excited about it. I had bought ten years ago, but i was too young to really get it.
Anyway, I got pretty excited about this album, even though at the time i wasn't really into music beyond the occasional album. Got the avocado, and was obsessed with it. It was exactly what i wanted in music and i started searching out more.
Talked to one of my friends about it, and it turned out he was a huge pearl jam fan, so he burned me copies of vitalogy and vs, and from that point on theyve been my favorite band, eventually buying all the studio albums (and now my first vinyl). Since then been able to convert a couple other into hardcore fans, and made plenty of other people recognize the greatness. PJ made me a fan and music lover for life.

Cahoots

Wow... What I find most interestig is the impact RVM Greatest Hits has had on attracting new fans.

I guess I discovered the Rolling Stones through an old vinyl copy of "Hot Rocks" (best greatest hit record ever) and I was 15 years late.

For those of you that missed the early days. Imagine being stuck in a terrible prison of glamor rock radio. It sucked. Rock N Roll was trying to find its way out but it was failing. As a result classic rock radio started to get alot of attention and there was a resurgence of recylced stuff. Rap and Hip Hip were coming on strong (some of the best rap ever) and the industry hadn't had any fresh ideas for a long time.

When the early adopters found the sound coming from Seatlle and brought it into high schools the music went around like wild fire. There were these great multiband tours (RHCP, PJ, Nirvana on one bill) and about 6 months later it was mainstream and bigger than ever.

It was crazy. Ironically I never really like PJ until I saw them live. I always thought 10 was abit too airy. Still do.

CW

kara5419

oh and besides Rearviewmirrior...the Live at THe Gorge Box Set really did it for me too...

rheadorange

my brothers are all late thirties and im 22. so they used to listen to pearl jam a lot when i was a little kid. My brother had a tape of ten an i remember him cranking alive and even flow when i was between 6-8 years old. i got the tape and loved it. Then around 10 - 12 i started buying used cds for like 3 bucks and they were the first band i got into. Live on two legs came out and so did yield sometime around 13 and i bought those immediately. I was already a huge fan and i was learning guitar during those young days and tried to play do the evolution and even flow. of course i was upset wheni couldnt. Then binaural came out and i had my mom take me late to school so i could get it in the morning, she feel in love with vedders voice and said i could get go late to school in the morning but i had to leave the cd with her during the day so she could listen to it. i got picked up after school and she was cranking it. they were coming to portland on november 2 2000, and i had to go, so for my september birthday i asked for tickets, and my moms birthday was the first of november. So i convinced her that it would be a joint present. we could go together for my birthday. and we did, she sang along as did i. i thought i was a fan before that show, but after it i was officially gone. bootlegs, live cds and lots of magazines later, and here i am. never really got into posting on this here board, but i loved them. haha i remember finding a pearl jam bootleg called b sides and on the back was a picture of stone playing bass. still have it but it got real damaged and does not play at all. oh well. bit of a family affair for pearl jam for me i guess. haha.

so-much-clearer

Well I used to hear a lot of the singles on heavy radio rotation in high school, then I developed a little obsession with Alive after I saw the SNL rerun of the performance (Eddie was on fiiiire back then and I was fascinated) but I never really got that much into them...

Fast forward to this year (I'm 22 now)... it was kind of random but I got Black stuck in my head for like a week and decided to listen to the songs I used to hear a lot, realized how much I loved Alive and Betterman... now I'm here.

mcgruff10

spring 1992, my 8th grade year...everyone was into nirvana. i remember seeing the evenflow video and i was like, "damn! this is so much better."

bought ten. i remember riding my bike my freshmen year and bought this thing called a cd when vs. came out. the only song i knew on vs. was animal because they played it at the '93 mtv video music awards.

after that i taped all that i could from tv, bought expensive boots (new songs!, new songs II, new songs III, no fucking messiah, hallungenic recipe, five against one) that ran in the neighborhood of fifty bucks. the first complete show i ever bought was at jack's music shop in red bank, nj in 1995; the double cd was over sixty dollars and had songs i never heard of like "100 pacer", "long road", "habit" and "big big waves", lol.

since then, over three hundred boots, dozens of conert posters, and i've been to 38 shows. it's been a fun ride. can't wait to bring my new born to his first show in five years. they better still be around!!!

illegal pants

Cahoots wrote:

I often wonder about new fans? Whats the process? Where did you get in? Was it your older brother? Did you buy the last record and go backwards? Did you catch on from the classic rock stuff and work your way up?

gawd i still feel like a new fan.. i think i'd still be 'classified' as one?

older bro.. i heard a few boots coming from his room, ATL 94, Perth 03.. i stole some cd's from him and went from there

not for me?

kara5419 wrote:

what does suck is that no one i have ever come across except maybe 3 people listen to PJ. I always go on and on about them to my friends but they don't care. I just want to vent and talk about Pearl Jam for hours with someone who gets it. I guess that's the beauty of it because it's like my secret obsession.........

Ya no one really in Socal listens to PJ. The only people I know who do are the people I introduced to them, and one of my teachers.

so-much-clearer

not for me? wrote:

Ya no one really in Socal listens to PJ. The only people I know who do are the people I introduced to them, and one of my teachers.

I don't believe that. I live in LA and two of my coworkers are longtime 10c members...

not for me?

So Much Clearer wrote:

I don't believe that. I live in LA and two of my coworkers are longtime 10c members...

You're right, I way over generalized. Okay well in my experiences in Socal I have not many many people at all who listen to PJ. I have met a lot of people who know what Jeremy/Alive are and some who love doing EV Evenflow impersonations.

Back_Pedal

I don't remember what exactly got me into Pearl Jam. Back before I stopped downloading music I probably DL'ed Ten on a whim about a year ago, maybe later, and went from there. I did download all the albums sadly enough, but have since got everything save for Riot Act and joined the Ten Club to try and make up for it.