The Most Enduring Band Of My Generation

It’s been said that Pearl Jam is the new Grateful Dead. Now, forgetting that it was me who said that, and with no disrespect to any remaining Dead Heads, I think that idea is just about as precise and inspiring as another one of my profound statements, that professional hockey is barbaric, bloody, primal and absolutely beautiful. But putting aside my anger issues for a moment and focussing on the amazingly redemptive power of Vedder et al, allow me to recount my first introduction to them in December of 1991. I was a freshman in college and home on winter break. I found myself watching MTV one day, this was back when they actually played music videos – a crazy thought in itself. Sandwiched between Ozzy’s “Mama I’m Coming Home” and Arc Angels “Living In A Dream” was a new band called Pearl Jam playing a live single “Alive”. This song wept of passion, exuberance, lamentation and persistence. It was immediately a delicate mix of enduring sadness and anthemic grandeur. It not only proclaimed a resolute “fuck you”, but one with quite tears of resignation. This spoke to me unlike any music I had ever experienced.

From the opening drones of “Once” to the fading prayer of “Release Me”, Ten was filled with songs that made sense to me in some sort of primordial, subconscious way. In fact, I would say in hindsight that Pearl Jam had successfully tapped into the collective subconscious of an entire generation in a way that only few artist throughout history have been able to repeat. This connection, however, became the catalyst for their snowballing startdom, a position to which Vedder appeared allergic, an almost unchangeably anti-star. This became the main ingredient in what I have always interpreted as their ongoing desire to weed out those who “love the tunes” from those who truly connect with their music on an unspoken level. Throughout Vs. and Vitalogy you can hear their struggle to branch out and evolve while trying to keep one foot dancing with the date that brought them to this party. Those collections are rife with fantastic songs and their struggle still stands as one with better art than most. However, with No Code and beyond, their music seemed to be an increasing attempt to alienate those hangers on who dare not look too deep within themselves, lest they find the monsters they fear.

With the next two released, the aforementioned No Code and Yield, they tested their own boundaries of convention and musicality. Mike McCready continued to express his bluesy soul, as Ed began to tap more into his punk roots all the while Stone and Jeff held down the foundation as they continued to wander through an almost Spinal Tap-ish string of drummers. With the advent of Binaural, Pearl Jam finally cohered into the fullness of what they had struggle to capture. With the addition of Matt Cameron on drums, they finally became what, ironically they began as, Temple of the Dog all grown up.

With the collapse of Soundgarden and the unrest with Jack Irons at the drum throne, Matt Cameron became more than a natural fit – he was the prodigal come home. While he was never a member of the band, he was family and his consummation of that relationship was the final piece of the puzzle that created the Pearl Jam matured, defined, and fully unique sound they have become.

With the next four releases (Binaural, Riot Act, Pearl Jam and Backspacer) they never ceased to grow and evolve. In fact, each release continues to stretch and grow its audience as, I am sure, the band continues to grow through each period of writing, recording and touring. What they have grown into, however, is a band who lives on the road and shares those experiences excessively. Between 2000 and 2001, they released 72 live cds and had the record for the most albums to debut on Billboard’s 200 at the same time. However, they were just cutting their teeth. The next year, they released another 73. Today, they total more than 340 official live bootlegs. Official. This doesn’t count the hundreds of audience taped bootlegs that circulate through websites, fans clubs and bit torrents.

Pearl Jam have successfully cultivated a cult following that travels with them, purchases multiple live bootlegs, and records hundred of their own bootlegs. They tour tirelessly, but what’s more important is that they create tirelessly. Each set is an organic creation that lives, breathes and repeats nothing of its former incarnations; they are masters of improv. This omni-creation is what makes them both enduring and consistently relevant. Their constant evolution and reexamination of themselves, their individual contributions and their collective assertions into the collective psyche of a generation of empaths who will carry with them the lessons learn, the pains felt and the joys celebrated.