Imagine a world where PJ never existed

:shock: then and then

that is all

Back in 1996, I traded my Oasis "What's the Story (Morning Glory)" CD for this other, "older" CD titled "Vs". I figured I'd get the most outta Oasis as I could, since I didn"t care for it. I was in the 5th grade. Best fuckin trade EVER!!

What all happended after that....well.....words don't really do it any justice.....

Thorns2010 wrote:

Hmmmmmm.....

Interesting question this is.

As I tell to anyone who will listen, I love music, music is my life, but when it comes to bands, I don't have a top 5, or top 10. Why?? Because it is Pearl Jam #1, and then everyone else, depending on my mood. No band has reached this level of 'obsessiveness' that I have for Pearl Jam. And the closet band that came to that was Nirvana.

Sadly, after a little while of buying all I could about them, and the bootlegs at the local record store, I realized something. Why be so into, so heavy into a band that isn't making NEW material?? At the end of the day I realized it was a waste of time.

So, long way round to an answer to this question, if Pearl Jam never existed, I'm sure I would have found some other early 90's band to be into. Because without Pearl Jam, who is to say Soundgarden would break up? Or that Kurt would kill himself? Or that Alice In Chains would be on hiatus until Layne's death?

I think for me, at this point, the bigger question is not 'What if Pearl Jam never existed' but more so, 'What am I going to do when Pearl Jam ends?'

And for that.....I have no answer, no answer at all.

I agree 100% with all of this. I think this is the most well said of any response to this question. It seems like the consensus is well, "I would like Nirvania more".......No fucking shit.. The whole world would like Nirvana more had kurt not killed himself.

The early 90's had a pretty fucking great group of bands but like you said Pearl Jam is #1.

My folks who are huge hippes are all abour pearl jam and that is a beautifuel thing.

"Thorns2010 wrote:

Awwww......I wish my parents understood Pearl Jam, hell understood music!

I find it a bit strange to me, that music is a BIG part of my life, but the rest of my family just never seems to 'get' it. But at the very least they are accepting of my love/care of it.

This might be getting a little heavy for this topic, but the last gift I received from my mother, before her untimely death was my birthday gift last year, 2008. She got me a plane ticket to NYC so I could see Pearl Jam at MSG.

At the time I was ecstatic to get it, and little did I know, less than 2 weeks later it would be the last thing my mother ever gave me.

First things first, I grew up with "hippie"parents who are both phd's and professors and love all types of music, one of their first dates was woodstock. It is pretty scary how much my mom knows about pearl jam. The stories my dad tells me about hendrix and the dead are just insanse, him sneaking under stages and shit.

What your mother did is just outstanding. I just listened to a segment on NPR Talk of the Nation about terminal cancer and how people/families handle such situations. I have the upmost respect for your family and wish you all the best. Please PM me if you are intersted in the segment.

I am 100% disappointed in how I handled my fathers cancer and although it was not terminal I am incredibly ashamed in how an only son should react. I acted as if he had no chance of dying.

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Thorns2010 wrote:

Awwww......I wish my parents understood Pearl Jam, hell understood music!

I find it a bit strange to me, that music is a BIG part of my life, but the rest of my family just never seems to 'get' it. But at the very least they are accepting of my love/care of it.

This might be getting a little heavy for this topic, but the last gift I received from my mother, before her untimely death was my birthday gift last year, 2008. She got me a plane ticket to NYC so I could see Pearl Jam at MSG.

At the time I was ecstatic to get it, and little did I know, less than 2 weeks later it would be the last thing my mother ever gave me.

First things first, I grew up with "hippie"parents who are both phd's and professors and love all types of music, one of their first dates was woodstock. It is pretty scary how much my mom knows about pearl jam. The stories my dad tells me about hendrix and the dead are just insanse, him sneaking under stages and shit.

What your mother did is just outstanding. I just listened to a segment on NPR Talk of the Nation about terminal cancer and how people/families handle such situations. I have the upmost respect for your family and wish you all the best. Please PM me if you are intersted in the segment.

I am 100% disappointed in how I handled my fathers cancer and although it was not terminal I am incredibly ashamed in how an only son should react. I acted as if he had no chance of dying.

Hmmm....to be in that kind of environment growing up....I'm not sure what to think/say. Dad is an accountant, mom was a nurse. So they are/were very well educated people, but not on the level of what you had growing up.

And to think, what they have left behind is me (and 2 brothers, and for now 2 grandkids ) , a lost/confused soul along the way. I'm sure if they could do it all again, they would have found some way, some chance to 'make' me be a better person. And mayhaps they did, and have, by making me be a person who questions life, and questions what it is to be alive, but at the same time loves it all the same.

I appreciate the offer to continue this conversation via PM, but anything, and everything I have to say need not be hidden away from the general public. I am a very open person, and to some, maybe a little to open, but so be it.

And in regards to my mother, sadly (or thankfully, depending on how you look at it, from a suffering standpoint) she did not die from cancer. I forget the medical/technical explanation for it, but it was a bleeding stroke, brought on by an aneurysm. So, 1 day she was alive, and the next.....gone. And be that as it may, and since I have not gone through/experienced the pain of loosing a loved one through cancer, I can still look myself in the mirror, and be happy for what I have.

And to bring this around, to be somewhat related to the topic at hand, be happy for what we ALL have. Or at least what we all have on this board, and that is Pearl Jam. I don't know for sure where I'd be without them, and I know I will never know what ALL of us would have without them. But, I do like to think, maybe in simplistic terms, but that Pearl Jam brings us all TOGETHER. But that good or bad, but at the end of the day, most people I have interacted with, because of this band have been wonderful/amazing people, and for that, I could find nothing in the world to trade for that. So thank you, and thank you all on here, and thank you to the band for bringing together a strange and eclectic group of people together.