The Name Pearl Jam

PJammer4life
PJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,672
edited September 2008 in The Porch
All these years have we overlooked the sly humor Eddie, Jeff, Mike, and Stone have in using the name Pearl Jam?? It is obviously a take on pearl(an off white color) and jam(semen). From guys who used to hang with the Jim Rose Circus and the RHCP,,this makes much more sense than Aunt Pearl's Hallucigenic recipe..and even Ed's recent explanations. I mean it's hard to be the best rock band in American history and go back and say..yeah..we thought it would be funny to name ourselves afer jizz...but anyone think they thought the double meaning would be funny..??
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Comments

  • mattmidgett
    mattmidgett Posts: 130
    Wasn't this term recently used on a TV show? Californication or It's Always Sunny in Philly? I have a friend who isn't in to the band at all call and ask me if this is how the band came to be named Pearl Jam.
  • Stone Irons
    Stone Irons Posts: 430
    Well, according to the band it doesn't refer to that at all.
    Can't escape from the common rule...
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  • youngster
    youngster Boston Posts: 6,576
    no one in or affiliated with the band has ever gave an explanation to where the name came from.Ed said it was his Great grandma Pearls jam recipe early on, but later said he was joking.
    He who forgets will be destined to remember.

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  • this is not for you
    this is not for you Posts: 240
    Stone Irons wrote:
    Well, according to the band it doesn't refer to that at all.


    just like immortality's not about cobain....;)
  • The Stugots
    The Stugots Posts: 306
    mattmidgett wrote:
    Wasn't this term recently used on a TV show? Californication or It's Always Sunny in Philly? I have a friend who isn't in to the band at all call and ask me if this is how the band came to be named Pearl Jam.

    It was Weeds.
  • petrocs
    petrocs Posts: 4,342
    come on people...everyone knows its an anagram...its clearly

    Per Jamal

    so someone named Jamal named the band :D
    Shows:
    9/24/96 MD. 9/28/96 Randalls. 8/28-29/98 Camden. 9/8/98 NJ. 9/18/98 MD. 9/1-2/00 Camden. 9/4/00 MD. 4/28/03 Philly. 7/5-6/03 Camden. 9/30/05 AC.
    10/3/05 Philly. 5/27-28/06 Camden. 6/23/06 Pitt. 6/19-20/08 Camden. 6/24/08 MSG. 8/7/08 EV Newark, NJ. 6/11-12/09 EV Philly, PA. 10/27-28-30-31/09 Philly, PA., 5/15/10 Hartford,5/17/10 Boston, 5/18/10 Newark, 5/20-21/10 MSG
  • jstock
    jstock Posts: 76
    They did finally explain the name (supposedly), in a 2006 RS interview:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/pearl_jam_the_second_coming/page/3

    Legend has it that Vedder wrote the lyrics to the songs in one burst, while surfing. That particular story, he tells me in his Chicago hotel room, is "100 percent true." But he concedes that another oft-told tale is less accurate: that the name Pearl Jam came from Vedder's great-grandmother Pearl, who, he used to claim, was married to an American Indian and was in the habit of making preserves spiked with various hallucinogenics. His great-grandma really was named Pearl. The rest is, indeed, "total bulllshit."

    Told of Vedder's admission, Ament and McCready seem relieved. They cough up the true -- if less romantic -- tale behind the band's name. Brainstorming in a Seattle restaurant to come up with something, anything, to replace their original name, Mookie Blaylock (inspired by the NBA star), Ament came up with "pearl." The band didn't settle on the second half of its name until a 1991 trip to New York to sign a deal with Epic Records. Gossard, Vedder and Ament drove out to see Neil Young play Nassau Coliseum. "He played, like, nine songs over three hours. Every song was like a fifteen- or twenty-minute jam," says Ament. "So that's how 'jam' got added on to the name. Or at least that's how I remember it."
  • petrocs
    petrocs Posts: 4,342
    jstock wrote:
    They did finally explain the name (supposedly), in a 2006 RS interview:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/pearl_jam_the_second_coming/page/3

    Legend has it that Vedder wrote the lyrics to the songs in one burst, while surfing. That particular story, he tells me in his Chicago hotel room, is "100 percent true." But he concedes that another oft-told tale is less accurate: that the name Pearl Jam came from Vedder's great-grandmother Pearl, who, he used to claim, was married to an American Indian and was in the habit of making preserves spiked with various hallucinogenics. His great-grandma really was named Pearl. The rest is, indeed, "total bulllshit."

    Told of Vedder's admission, Ament and McCready seem relieved. They cough up the true -- if less romantic -- tale behind the band's name. Brainstorming in a Seattle restaurant to come up with something, anything, to replace their original name, Mookie Blaylock (inspired by the NBA star), Ament came up with "pearl." The band didn't settle on the second half of its name until a 1991 trip to New York to sign a deal with Epic Records. Gossard, Vedder and Ament drove out to see Neil Young play Nassau Coliseum. "He played, like, nine songs over three hours. Every song was like a fifteen- or twenty-minute jam," says Ament. "So that's how 'jam' got added on to the name. Or at least that's how I remember it."

    was Jamal there? :)
    Shows:
    9/24/96 MD. 9/28/96 Randalls. 8/28-29/98 Camden. 9/8/98 NJ. 9/18/98 MD. 9/1-2/00 Camden. 9/4/00 MD. 4/28/03 Philly. 7/5-6/03 Camden. 9/30/05 AC.
    10/3/05 Philly. 5/27-28/06 Camden. 6/23/06 Pitt. 6/19-20/08 Camden. 6/24/08 MSG. 8/7/08 EV Newark, NJ. 6/11-12/09 EV Philly, PA. 10/27-28-30-31/09 Philly, PA., 5/15/10 Hartford,5/17/10 Boston, 5/18/10 Newark, 5/20-21/10 MSG
  • pearljamjen
    pearljamjen Posts: 13,578
    petrocs wrote:
    was Jamal there? :)

    lol is that YOUR name or something? :p;)
  • pc_loadletter
    pc_loadletter Posts: 164
    mattmidgett wrote:
    Wasn't this term recently used on a TV show? Californication or It's Always Sunny in Philly? I have a friend who isn't in to the band at all call and ask me if this is how the band came to be named Pearl Jam.


    weeds
  • JimBerkell
    JimBerkell Posts: 579
    I guess I've always thought the name 'Pearl Jam' to be goofy. I've just gotten so used to it over the last 17 years, I don't even question it. But I have to wonder if I hadn't heard their music or of the band(i know that's impossible) I may not think to check them out these days just cause of the goofy name... Luckily that doesn't matter... haha.
    "You could have licked the lips of God, but you chose the pavement..." ~ These Arms Are Snakes
  • Viggo
    Viggo Posts: 274
    I heard of Pearl Jam at the same time the movie Space Jam came out (the one with bugs bunny and Michael Jordan). My first album was Pearl Jam - Live on Two Legs. I thought it was something connected to the movie. Soundtrack or something.

    Haha:D
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  • SENROCK
    SENROCK Posts: 10,736
    cropduster82 wrote:
    no one in or affiliated with the band has ever gave an explanation to where the name came from.
    i dont ever do this here but in this case i have to say......WRONG!!! And only cuz its funny. Ed DID give the exxxplanation to the name at the irvine show in 2003. He motioned with his hands as if he was placing something on a wall and said "all we were after was good initials.......*motioning* good....initials......." then he looked over at Phil Jackson. :D
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  • Left Porch
    Left Porch Posts: 846
    PJammer4life wrote:
    All these years have we overlooked the sly humor Eddie, Jeff, Mike, and Stone have in using the name Pearl Jam?? It is obviously a take on pearl(an off white color) and jam(semen). From guys who used to hang with the Jim Rose Circus and the RHCP,,this makes much more sense than Aunt Pearl's Hallucigenic recipe..and even Ed's recent explanations. I mean it's hard to be the best rock band in American history and go back and say..yeah..we thought it would be funny to name ourselves afer jizz...but anyone think they thought the double meaning would be funny..??

    That's pretty funny stuff, I'll go with it. They were named Mookie Blaylock before Pearl Jam, so it's not like they take the name too seriously.
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  • GivenToJam88
    GivenToJam88 NJ Posts: 1,187
    pc_loadletter wrote:
    weeds

    which episode?
    2006: 5/28
    2008: 6/19, 6/24, 6/25
    2009: 6/14 (EV), 10/27, 10/28
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    2014: 10/19
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    2018: 8/20, 9/2, 9/4
  • Noonie
    Noonie Posts: 93
    Well I heard the name Pearl Jam before I could speak English, so I always kind of took it as is... I wonder if they realized what it sounds like to people after it was too late, lol.
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  • PJammer4life
    PJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,672
    Ed: "We should call the band Pearl Necklace..that would be funny..
    Jeff: "Nah..it should have something related to music..like Neil Young and his long ass jams.."
    Stone: "How about Pearl Jam??"
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • youngster
    youngster Boston Posts: 6,576
    SENROCK! wrote:
    i dont ever do this here but in this case i have to say......WRONG!!! And only cuz its funny. Ed DID give the exxxplanation to the name at the irvine show in 2003. He motioned with his hands as if he was placing something on a wall and said "all we were after was good initials.......*motioning* good....initials......." then he looked over at Phil Jackson. :D

    Never saw the show or heard the boot so I stand corrected. I read a book and countless mag articles about it and it said in all of them that the name has never been explained on how they came to that. So I was going off of that.
    He who forgets will be destined to remember.

    9/29/04 Boston, 6/28/08 Mansfield, 8/23/09 Chicago, 5/15/10 Hartford
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  • Lerxst1992
    Lerxst1992 Posts: 8,107
    jstock said:
    They did finally explain the name (supposedly), in a 2006 RS interview:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/pearl_jam_the_second_coming/page/3

    Legend has it that Vedder wrote the lyrics to the songs in one burst, while surfing. That particular story, he tells me in his Chicago hotel room, is "100 percent true." But he concedes that another oft-told tale is less accurate: that the name Pearl Jam came from Vedder's great-grandmother Pearl, who, he used to claim, was married to an American Indian and was in the habit of making preserves spiked with various hallucinogenics. His great-grandma really was named Pearl. The rest is, indeed, "total bulllshit."

    Told of Vedder's admission, Ament and McCready seem relieved. They cough up the true -- if less romantic -- tale behind the band's name. Brainstorming in a Seattle restaurant to come up with something, anything, to replace their original name, Mookie Blaylock (inspired by the NBA star), Ament came up with "pearl." The band didn't settle on the second half of its name until a 1991 trip to New York to sign a deal with Epic Records. Gossard, Vedder and Ament drove out to see Neil Young play Nassau Coliseum. "He played, like, nine songs over three hours. Every song was like a fifteen- or twenty-minute jam," says Ament. "So that's how 'jam' got added on to the name. Or at least that's how I remember it."

    Damn, I never heard this story until this morning surfing reddit. I was at that show,at the genesis of PJ! Neil was incredible in the early 90s!
  • EnterThanman
    EnterThanman London, ON Posts: 1,057
    youngster said:
    no one in or affiliated with the band has ever gave an explanation to where the name came from.Ed said it was his Great grandma Pearls jam recipe early on, but later said he was joking.
    Not true. Stone has said they wanted to work the word Pearl in because they all liked it, and then after they watched a Neil Young concert they added the word jam. It’s a boring enough story to be true, but I like the OP’s version much more. 
    The member formerly known as Scratched Vinyl

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