Listening to Do the Evolution, Tremor Christ, and Blood while on the road, getting inklings of the feelings I had when I first heard these and other Pearl Jam songs. It's easy to forget, for songs to lose their original impact after 400 listens. But I can still remember the excitement in hearing a new Pearl Jam song for the first time--the novelty of discovering in 1991 that bands could have other songs besides those included on an album, hearing a new song unexpectedly on the radio, reading a work-in-progress song title in a magazine interview and wondering if the description does the song any justice.

A new Pearl Jam record is coming out in just over a month. Whenever a new record is released I think about the release days of all their previous albums and the times of my life that coincided with those records. My musical tastes have grown exponentially since 1991, but a new Pearl Jam record still feels like a big event.

1. Ten

Who beyond the Seattle city limits was in the know enough to be looking forward to this record before it came out? I was probably listening to Young MC. But it found its way to me eventually. My best friend taped a few videos off of MTV and let me borrow it. The tape included Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike", and "Even Flow". First off, I think I was impressed to see the same singer in both bands, which gave me a sense of the community of musicians all working together in various forms. I was also taken by Eddie's voice, like millions of others. It was the first time rock music affected me. It wasn't the impenetrable anger of Pantera, the old-guy-at-the-club sleaze of Aerosmith, or the hair-metal of Warrant and a thousand other bands. Pearl Jam was instantly recognizable to me as rock music that meant something. What that something was, I didn't know exactly, but it was convincing, and I wanted to be a part of it. I bought the Ten cassette and played it over and over. One side would end, I'd flip it over, and so on and so forth. I bought the Stickman t-shirt with the fake sheet of paper "taped" to the back, and was baffled to see "Wash" and "State" among the handwritten list of songs. At some point, a friend clued me into the Singles Soundtrack, which he enjoyed for the Soundgarden tracks, but which I NEEDED to hear what were to me, obscure songs like "Breath" and "State". Then for my birthday one year my family drove to Boston, and I found a record store that sold imported CDs, and blew $26 of my birthday money on the Japanese Alive single, which featured just four songs: Alive (live), Even Flow (re-recorded), Wash, and Dirty Frank. I felt like the world's biggest fan.

All of this was long before the advent and explosion of the internet, where all information was rumor, and where luck was a major consideration for music collectors. I'll continue my history of my relationship with Pearl Jam's soon, with my first official release date, for Vs.

Songs on my radar:

Once
Even Flow
Alive
Why Go
Black
Jeremy
Oceans
Porch
Garden
Deep
Release
Even Flow (re-recorded)
Alive (live)
Wash
Dirty Frank
State of Love and Trust
Breath

Throughout 1992 and 1993 I busied myself by trying to learn as much about Pearl Jam as possible. I heard rumors of songs like "Yellow Ledbetter", which had yet to become a radio staple, and "Footsteps" of the fabled Mamasan trilogy. I remember a Rolling Stone concert review that talked about a new song called "The Whipping", and "Leash". Then the same magazine put out an exhaustive article that covered the recording process for what would become Vs. I was out of my head with excitement for the new song titles, including "Brother" and "Angel".

Eventually songs started making their debuts on the radio, and I distinctly remember hearing "Dissident" in my mothers car on the way home from school one day. I couldn't believe it. I was about to have twice as much of my favorite band. I scoured the glossy advertisements in the Sunday paper to catch my first glimpse of the incredible sheep artwork, still one of my favorite album covers from any band. I didn't end up buying Vs. because my father surprised me with it when he came home from work on its release day. He told me that a friend from work also bought it, as well as the single for "Go", which featured a song called "Alone". It would be a while before I would get my hands on that. In the meantime, I sat in my basement every day after school and listened to the CD from start to finish. My first CD player was a stereo component deck handed-down from one of my dad's friends. It skipped the hell out of a lot of discs, but played Vs. just fine. I studied the liner notes religiously, stunned by the rage of "Blood", and the seance atmosphere of "Indifference," which seemed to capture perfectly the mixed up teenage feelings I was having at the time.

On the radar:

Go
Animal
Daughter
Glorified G
Dissident
W.M.A.
Blood
Rearviewmirror
Rats
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
Leash
Indifference


Next up: Vitalogy and b-sides!

Am I missing somehing?
Why no replies to this thread?
Can't wait to read more.
I remember all those feelings too
I think back and it just freaks me out how long its been since my first listen
of Ten in my car cassette deck
I was driving home after work where I had just purchased it on an aquaintances recomendation.
I was really lucky to work in a music store at that time and to have allot of "insider" info.
I always kept an eye on anything PJ related and since we had access to imports well lets just say i was very lucky.

Thanks for the great read

keep us updated on the rest.

it's a nice read--I just don't have much to add.

It's cool to read this and see how similiar my experience is to some one else's. Post more!

We had the best time at your party. The wife and I thank you very much.

[cal mode]unbelievable[/cal mode]

This thread is cool. I'm not being sarcastic.

You like me

You're right

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'll update soon with Vitalogy. As memories come back to me I'll need to update the other entries as well.

For instance: I heard Crazy Mary before Vs. came out (though I don't think I purchased Sweet Relief until after Vs.). Plus, I didn't mention how my copy of Vs. didn't have the album name anywhere on it. You know that whole debacle.

I had sweet relief before Vs and I was wondering if songs like crazy mary and yellow ledbetter were going to be on the record. I didn't really understand how this kind of stuff worked then

Nice read

Our experiences are almost identical, but I spent $20 bucks on the Jeremy single instead...I felt so special that I heard Footsteps and Yellowledbetter years before everyone else...or at least what seemed like everyone else to me. I also spent a ton on that Bob Dylan cocert to get Eddie singing Master Of War...good times....music was so intense for me back then...so many great bands.

I bought the Alive EP Import before I even had a CD player. Just for wash and Dirty Frank.

And I was so confused when I heard Vs was the title of the second album when my tape said 5 against 1.

Ahh the memories...

In 1994, slowly but surely I found my way to the import CD singles. When you grow up in town that's 10 miles from the nearest record store, which doesn't sell imports, and over 50 miles from one that does, it takes you a while. But in 1994 I was finally able to get my hands on "Footsteps", "Yellow Ledbetter", "Alone", and parts 1 and 3 of the "Dissident: Live in Atlanta" series. Why not 2? I don't know, but I've been kicking myself for 12 years on that one. When I saw the think digipak package for Dissident, I didn't know what was inside--1,2,3, or 0 discs, and with only so much high school cash to spend, I just opted for the disc whose songs appealed to me most at the time. I never got the chance to purchase #2.

At some point, Pearl Jam appeared on Saturday Night Live (April?), and I finally got to catch what the band looked like live. I was shocked to see Eddie playing the guitar, and impressed by the new song "Not For You". Over the summer, enrolled at an international summer school in my area, I joined three kickass Venezuelan kids in playing a few songs for the talent show. I had to suffer through singing three Green Day tunes which I did not like (though were fun to sing anyway), just for the chance to sing "Yellow Ledbetter". Who knew the lyrics? No one. But I had the mumbles memorized.

Curse November. When Pearl Jam released Vitalogy I was settled into the routine--read every magazine I could find, stay glued to the radio, and wait for the Sunday paper ads to spot the new artwork. I think I was able to tape 9 out of 14 songs from Vitalogy off of the radio. Do radio stations still play every album track they can when a new Pearl Jam record comes out? I don't listen to the radio anymore. Anyway--I was all set to buy Vitalogy on its release day, but was given the big "NO" by my parents, because Christmas was right around the corner. So I had to content myself with my "Spin the Black Circle/Tremor Christ" CD single, and my radio-taped cassette until the 25th. And "Tremor Christ" alone was nearly enough to tide me over. I sensed a breakthrough for the band on this one, and fantasized about singing it onstage. "It's divine!!..... / Oh you know what it's like!" I felt this song in my bones.

Around this time I started to become aware that other kids I knew were into Pearl Jam too. In junior high in my little rural town, kids were all about wearing Starter jackets and listening to "The Chronic" as if they'd grown up in the hood (I think they still wear the same jackets). In 1994 at my new swanky-ass private school, kids were all about the Grateful Dead and Phish as if, well, damn I don't even know. But a few kids were into Pearl Jam. One of them showed me his new copy of the Vitalogy booklet and I wanted to punch him out of envy. But most of all I wanted to hear the songs clean and clear. On Christmas day, I was finally able to.


On the radar:

Crazy Mary
Footsteps
Yellow Ledbetter
Alone
Elderly Woman (acoustic)
Last Exit
Spin the Black Circle
Not For You
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Whipping
Pry, To
Corduroy
Bugs
Satan's Bed
Betterman
Aye Davanita
Immortality
Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me
Out Of My Mind
Rearviewmirror (The Frogs)

my first vitalogy was from a radio tape too. It came in at the last 20 seconds of last exit and cut out halfway through immortality. I wish I had saved it for sentimental reasons. If I knew it was going to become my favorite record of all time I probably would have