Do you remember when you first heard Pearl Jam?

hellbent1 · April 2006

.... I can't remember!!!! I believe it was the Jeremy video....
shame on me shame on me

threecrookedhearts6 · April 2006

Sitting on the couch with my daddy...

Like some others, I was late on the Pearl Jam 'bandwagon'. When Last Kiss came out I was nine or ten and my dad was in love with the original so I always ended up listening to PJ's version and it grew on me. My father died when i was twelve and a couple years later I started listening to alternative radio stations and heard Evenflow, Betterman, Jeremy. Once I realized they were the same band of Last Kiss I thought I was somehow destined to find this band and their music has kept me and the memory of my dad Alive. Present tense was the song that sparked my intense passion for Pearl Jam's lyrics and sounds. Unfortunately I can no longer listen to Last Kiss but it's all been worth it!

mikes plectrum · April 2006

I remember distictly. I went away to uni in 1990 and at some point my mate gave me a going away present, it was an audio cassette with Ten on it, labelled simply "10".

After playing it I was blown away, however I had no idea who they were, and I lost contact with the mate. Doh

After a million plays the cassette was so stretched it was playing slower !! (do you remember that "technology" ?? LOL).

Eventually like 6 months later someone stumbled into my room and went " hey you're into Pearl Jam". I nearly kissed the guy, and went straight off the spend huge amounts of grant on the real version. At this point I couldn't believe how much faster the original was !!

happy dayz

Obsidian22 · April 2006

Must have been in 1991. Iwas 18 I think, my last year of high school(grade 13 in ontario, Canada). I was dating a guy who played lead guitar in a band called Roxy LAne. I went to his jam session, and in between the jam we listened to Faith No More's Epic. Someone had 10 and played it on tape cassette. We were all floored and later stoned. No one left till the album was played in it's entirety. Days and confused, but clearly moved and astonished .
Thank you Pearl Jam for Being Purely yourselves every step of your ways.You all rock.

bacchanal · April 2006

18 years old...in my friend adams car....evenflow!!! rocked my rorld!!! before that i was listening to garth brooks and wearing shitkickers!!!

moegossard · April 2006

Spring of 92 at my friends place.

turquoisetrouble · April 2006

I was a sophomore in college in 1991-92, and there was some real positive press in the school paper for the band. They were supposed to be really good, and I was like, well, how can they really impress me? The people in the dorm room next to me, actually had an article about them with their picture posted on their door. These were the same neighbors that played Nirvana's Nevermind for me for the first time (played for me through the wall), and I actually loved that just from hearing that through the wall. PJ is different than Nirvana, no doubt. But anyways, the first song I heard was Alive, and I loved it. It was probably on MTV, when I first heard it, I have a slight memory of standing in the "common room", and getting a really, really good feeling hearing that song. It was catchy, and the melody and message of the chorus just blew me away. Kinda like how Nirvana blew me away (hate to throw them in the same boat, but that was my experience). It was a famous one-two punch with those two. But, I never bought Nevermind (didn't have to, everyone else did), but I did buy Ten, and I did buy the Singles soundtrack, and I loved, loved, loved PJ that year.

rustyguitar · April 2006

I first saw the Alive and Even Flow vids on Much Music (I think I was about 13 or 14 years old) and IMMEDIATELY ran out to get the cassette...yes, cassette - didn't have a CD player yet. Anyway...I remember being SOO blown away that I called up some friends and said they HAD to hear this tape. So we all get together, I throw it in the boom box and get 'er rolling. I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to see what they would think. The tape barely got through the intro to Once and they said it was shit. They pulled it out and put in some crap like Technotronic (remember Pump Up the Jam?). I was damn near devastated. I couldn't believe that they didn't hear the amazing things I was hearing. A couple of years later they were sporting PJ shirts. Hosers.

CiNJaM · April 2006

I was in sec school and some friends brought the tape, I didn´t like it at first ´coz I was into a "pop" stage, but then a young teacher I liked =P played BLaCK and the rest is history... just loved Eddies voice, lyrics and strings... wow!

______________

"...and still gives his love, he just gives it away, the love he receives is the love that is saved.. sometimes it´s seen a strange spot in the sky, a human being that was given to fly..."

CiNJaM · April 2006

I was in sec school and some friends brought the tape, I didn´t like it at first ´coz I was into a "pop" stage, but then a young teacher I liked =P played BLaCK and the rest is history... just loved Eddies voice, lyrics and strings... wow!

______________

"...and still gives his love, he just gives it away, the love he receives is the love that is saved.. sometimes it´s seen a strange spot in the sky, a human being that was given to fly..."

zants · May 2006

I was 13, my brother came back from a holiday in the US and he brought Vitalogy with him. Betterman just killed me!

guitarist_4_pearljam · May 2006

I was six, my brother had a friend from Seattle, WA.. He sent my brother a copy of this live show from a band called Mookie Blaylock. The sound quality sucked, and my bro gave it to me... wasn't to long till I saw the Jeremy video and said HOLY SHIT! or something to that effect. 10/22/90 is the date on the bootlegged concert.. Live at the Off Ramp Cafe. "Holy Shit" may not have been the exact phrase I thought, but still that was the feeling. And I still have that Bootleg.

pjmmr_gal · May 2006

I first heard Pearl Jam when I was 10 years old (1996). I've been crazy about them since then.. still have their first few albums on cassette. and forgot everything about Metallica...

insomniaisevil · May 2006

i was in...jr. high i think and heard evenflow on the radio...i was instantly hooked. i loved them from that point forward, but i have to say that vitalogy was the point that they dug their claws in and completely sucked me in!

Drifting · May 2006

I was a sophomore in high school on a bus ride to a track meet and I heard "Black." I was instantly hooked. I went back and asked the kid that was playing who it was and later that day, I listened to the entire album in complete and utter awe. The next day, I bought my own copy of Ten and have been a junkie ever since.

For that reason, Black will always be a special song to me.

snail · May 2006

i heard evenflow when i was like 11? when it first came out, and i liked it. I loathed Jeremy, until a friend of mine convinced me to listen past the "At Home--" part (i hated that part, i don't know why). As for Alive, i had a similar experience w/ the biological father part (not the rape part, haha). so it was hard to listen to my dark secret played on the radio. plus i never got the life affirming thing from it. when i was down, one of my uncles would put his arm around me and say "Cheer up. It could be worse. You could be on fire, like this!" and he'd pantomime being on fire. that's how i heard the "i'm still alive" part, bitter, angry and sarcastic. But i eventually heard Black-- someone was playing ten during lunch-- and that's when i really got into them. My brother got me the tape (he bought Vs for me first, because i wasn't sure of the title), and i listen to it a few times that night, and fell asleep to it. The instrumental after release scared me.
wow, that's long! but super relevent.

cashworth · May 2006

i remember mi first pearl jam song being black. i was sitting at a mates place after soccer one night and he threw on black and ive been hooked since. its now mi all time favourite song

LoriDee64 · May 2006

I first heard them back in 1992 when Ten came out. My younger sister brought the CD to have our father listen to it on his sweet old 70's stereo system. (Great reciever). I had heard them myself but never the entire CD and it was unbelievable.!

Later dated a guy who played me Yield and Ben Harper alot when I was over to his place.

I am a rythym fanatic and when the vocals have rythym too, well...I close my eyes and it takes me to a different place as I sing each phrase with the song.

South of Seattle · May 2006

I was in Advanced PE and was one of the only sophomores in that class. The seniors used to totally F$@% with me cuz I was the little sophomore.
Once they realized I could hold my own the invited me to hang out. They were jamming Temple of the Dog and Ten. They invited me to see PJ at the roseland but I couldn't go because I was only 15. Once I graduated I was still friends with the guys and they took me to the Blind Melon/PJ/Neil Young show.

The rest is history.

einatshaul · May 2006

It was Jeremy, cause I was in Jr., and hooked on MTV... for some reason I thought for a while that it was a solo singer: Pearl, or mr. Jam

and he was really appealing in a special way...

quickly got over that and been hooked eversince...

Do you remember when you first heard Pearl Jam?

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