Pearl Jam: Before and After Grunge

In celebration of Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary here in 2011, it seems an entertaining - maybe necessary- idea to compare where the Seattle rockers sit today with where they sat when they exploded onto the music scene all the way back in 1991.

Pearl Jam found staggering, rebellious success with their debut release of "Ten." Front man Eddie Vedder once stated that looking back on those early years was like looking at an embarrassing high school yearbook photo. Pearl Jam's first three releases- "Ten," "Vs," and "Vitalogy"- were generally angry albums, however good. This anger stemmed from both Vedder's difficult childhood ("Alive,""Betterman") and the fact that anger was a common theme throughout most of Pearl Jam's grunge contemporaries: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden just to name a few. While all found success, Pearl Jam physically fared better.

Nirvana disbanded following the much discussed/debated death of front man Kurt Cobain in 1994. Alice in Chains stopped production due to Layne Staley's struggles with drug addiction, and Soundgarden came apart over "creative differences" in 1997 (though they reunited in 2010).

Pearl Jam endured. In 1996, Pearl Jam released "No Code" which found Vedder and company in a much more reflective state and were the better band for it. The anger of songs like "Alive" and "Animal" were instead replaced by the quest for love ("Hail, Hail") and longing for a deeper understanding of surroundings and those around you ("Who You Are," "Off He Goes"). All musicians are "in a constant state of becoming" Bob Dylan once said to "60 Minutes" back in 2004, so I don't mean to suggest that this is the only change Pearl Jam has undergone during their twenty years, it's just the largest and most notable. If you drew a line to separate Pearl Jam's career stages, that line would be drawn at "No Code." Pearl Jam alienated some fans who accused them of "going soft" post "Vitalogy," but one simply cannot ignore the growth in songwriting ability and accompanying instrumentation that followed on those albums. That anger of the early years never really resurfaced. The closest it came was around the time of "Riot Act" in 2002 with the band being disgusted with George W. Bush. But even then, the anger was much more controlled and less raw. Chalk it up to maturity with age I suppose. Vedder has continued this deeper, some argue better, attitude through his solo entries of "Into the Wild" and "Ukulele Songs."

As with any career that broadens in length (Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, etc.), artists have many songs that are brilliant yet remain buried and don't, for whatever reason, receive the same attention and praise of their more enduring works. Pearl Jam finds itself in a similar situation. The general public remembers Pearl Jam as the rockers who were responsible for "Jeremy," "Even Flow," and their trilogy of albums in the early 90s while holding more of an ignorance concerning their lesser mainstream material post 1996. It should be noted that the albums post "Vitalogy" are not unknown, seeing as Pearl Jam is one the biggest acts on the planet, they just were never given the same attention as the first three.

In this Pearl Jam fan's opinion, their most enduring, musically well-rounded contributions have been made post 1994's "Vitalogy." History will probably disagree.

Sources:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/02/60minutes/main658799.shtml

http://www.theporch.org/news/1996/history.html

Personal Experience