Had to register, been lurking for a long time, to point out this massive amount of bullshit: Pearl Jam's "Jeremy": Why This Song Sucks over at LA Weekly.
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:42 pm Posts: 17495 Location: Surfside Beach, SC Gender: Male
oh good. I hope this begins a new trend to replace the "ranking" trend. Let's start more individual song threads on top of the SOTM threads we already have and talk about them all over again.
Comatose DOES NOT SUCK!
_________________ I remember thinking, "that's really gay". -- Cameronia
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:37 pm Posts: 15767 Location: Vail, CO Gender: Male
who says this song sucks?! WETF tTHIS song RULZ!!. its what MAade them pearl jam!! heres why it is excellent!!!!
I love Jeremy, and while it isn’t my favorite Pearl Jam song by a long shot, it is an excellent song that does not deserve a fraction of the shit that it gets.
Musically it’s got one of the more famous beginnings in rock music history, with a slow, brooding build that sounds like it’s leading somewhere important (and it is). Once the verses start the music gets a little buried in the mix though. It carries the song along, but this is clearly going to be Eddie’s show, and he doesn’t disappoint. Jeremy is one of Eddie’s stronger vocal outings, with a deep, rich performance that gives the lyrics extra power and depth
Lyrically Jeremy is slightly uneven. The first verse is terrific, with some wonderfully evocative lyrics, with pictures of a bloody apocalypse forshadowing what is going to come. The prechorus gives Jeremy the sympathy that he need to make the song poigniant. And the vagueness of the King Jeremy the wicked line is well done—wtihout punctuation it could mean a number of different things
King Jeremy the Wicked ruled his world—Here Jeremy is the villain, a bad kid in charge of his own little violent fantasy
King Jeremy, the wicked ruled his world—a much sadder line—here Jeremy lacks power and control—he’s just a kid at the mercy of abusive forces he cannot control
I’ve always loved the simplicity of Jeremy spoke in class today. It leaves what was said vague (until the video, at any rate), but the urgency surrounding the delivery of the lyric (more from the music) tells you that you know what was said was important, and the final Try to forget this…lyrics make it clear that whatever was said was something shocking, and something permanent, something that no one will be able to escape for a long time.
The second verse is the weak link here. It’s supposed to demonstrate that Jeremy is a troubled, confused kid starting fights and trouble (from the standpoint of an observer, not from the standpoint of Jeremy) but it just isn’t that compelling. I would have rather seen more from Jeremy’s perspective
The outro lasts a little too long, but it is powerful enough that I don’t mind too much. Like the end of black (deep too), it is just wordless howls and worlds falling apart, music for someone whose life is shattering around them with them unable to do anything to stop it as it bleeds into the ominous final notes.
This is one of those songs that has held up live on the strength of audience participation—being able to sing the woah’s with a room full of 15,000 people (congrats on your tour by the way Europe) is always a powerful experience and Jeremy is always a concert highlight for me
The video does destroy some of the ambiguity of the song. I don’t remember what I thought about the song before the video came out, but I think I may have thought it was about Jeremy killing his classmates rather than himself (it works better as suicide—it’s a sadder song that way). Fortunately the story part of the video is so well done that I don’t care (although the shots of the band jumping around are so f’ing stupid)
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:37 pm Posts: 15767 Location: Vail, CO Gender: Male
%chance this thread turns into a legit thread discussing how the song has sucked since 1998 cause of matt cameron and eds voice? And also how it sucks now because they play corporate gigs and dont care about music anymore.
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