First PJ song what you ever heard

The alive music video.
Hail hail.

Alive 1991

Jeremy. I remember watching the video. I guess on MTV.
I thought Eddie was scary. Didn't listen to Pearl Jam again until 2004! Not intentionally. Just in my own little world working and raising two boys. I don't think Eddie's scary anymore.

vickisomoya said:

Early 90's, I heard "Black" on the radio driving in my blue firebird from St. Pete to Tampa. I remember thinking "who's voice is that?" like Ed already was someone big. He sounded to me like he had been doing it for years. And familiar. Such raw natural talent. Plus the song was so moving and sad.

Shortly after I happened to see the "Even Flow" video where he stage dives into the crowd. I was like holy hell what the fuck was that?! IT WAS AN EXPLOSION! The whole thing...Ed, the guys thrashing, the pit moshing, the SOUND OF it. Just awesome.
I was really attracted to it but I didn't know why. My friends and I were always into MADONNA and that 80's electronic pop music. I was musically confused.
Not too long after, I started dating a hard rock drummer who was into even heavier stuff, Metallica and Tool and also Frank Zappa. I started appreciating the energy and musicality in rock music in general.

Much later I heard the song "Given to Fly". It was completely spooky because the lyrics are almost verbatum to something I had written in a journal. It was "Given to Fly" that made me actually buy the album TEN! Then I heard the song "Release".
The line under my senior picture in my high school yearbook reads...
"I'll ride the wave, where it takes me."
But I graduated in 1981.
So I consider myself a LIFELONG PEARL JAM FAN FROM A PAST LIFE.

nice..

Jennaroth wrote: »

First song was propably Jeremy or Even flow - definetly something from Ten anyway. I remember the first time I saw the music video for Even flow, I got chills down my back when Eddie stagedived. First song from PJ that really touched me was Black.

Welcome Jenna! :-h

Alive. When it's first days of seen on MTV

Alive when a buddy through it into my other buddy's CD player in his 1984 TransAm. It was in 1991, and Bill told us we had to hear this new band. I was in the backseat and Bryn's stereo system was awesome for the time period. I heard music I had LONGED for. Just like Chris Cornell said, the first time I heard EV sing I heard a person, I heard emotion, I heard someone who felt what I felt. I didn't immediately understand the lyrics, but the pain was evident.
I immersed myself in the Ten album after I bought it. I would listen to it over and over in my room, loving the guitar and bass and drums, and EV's voice and lyrics. I spent time trying to decipher the lyrics and then interpret them in the mind of an outcast teenager. We were all outcasts.
It is amazing to me how different the song meanings are now compared to what they were the. To me. Just like this phenomenal itself, as its apparent the song Alive has an entirely new meaning than for what it was originally.
Pearl Jam was a blessing in my life when I needed it. I found music I could identify with, because until Pearl Jam, nothing gripped me, not even Nirvana. I liked Nirvana, but Pearl Jam, I LOVED and still do.

Mine is a bit of a strange story. I am 44...didn't listen to PJ when i was younger...I was too busy trying to be a grown up to enjoy my young adulthood. Married before I was 20, intensive university education, high finance career building, kids etc. By the time I realized that I had missed out I was in my early 40's and had grown apart from my husband-at-the time. i had met a man who became a friend to me at that time like none other. He understood the angst and the sadness and the fear and the guilt I was facing as I was readying myself mentally to tell my husband of 23 years that I wanted a divorce. While at the airport on my way out to see my husband I was texting this friend who suggested I turn on youtube and listen to the song Better Man. I did. What hit me in that moment sitting in the departure lounge as I sat and listened to the words he sang and absorbed the meaning in it was truly profound. I realized that I was at a crossroads. That I could find a million reasons to stay. To not make the hard choice to leave. But this was my life. This WAS in fact my choice to make. I truly did deserve the chance to find a Better Man for me. As I sat there bawling like a baby in that airport that day it was an awakening of sorts for me. I listened and re listened to Better Man that day over and over again, and then I found and consumed In Hiding and then Nothingman, and Rearview Mirror and Alive and Daughter....and by the time my delayed flight finally took off I had become the oldest new fan I suspect there is.

There is a postscript to this story. Since that day a year and a half ago I have become a student of everything about Pearl Jam; their history; their music and their culture. I have travelled around the world as a disciple of the band...even getting as far as the 4th row from the rail at their concert in Trieste. In less than a year I saw them play 7 times. And that friend that showed me my way to Pearl Jam that day has been by my side at every one of those concerts. And now he is also sharing a home and life with me. I truly have found my Better Man ;-)