Imagine the summer of 1991. Warm weather. Pandemic free movement. MTV still played music videos on television. The album Ten by Grunge artists Pearl Jam made its debut that summer, offering the most mainstream splash for alternative rock yet. Join us for this celebration of the album Ten by Pearl Jam.
Once opens the album Ten for Pearl Jam. Originally conceived as an instrumental, Eddie Vedder added lyrics to this and other songs to form a songwriting audition for the band. The narrator goes crazy and kills people in this song.
Even Flow follows with lyrics about a homeless person who is neglected by society. The sound is decidedly more rhythmic rock than Once.
Alive returns thematically to the place Once was, with the telling of a boy who learns his dad is actually his stepfather.
In a song “about a girl who is put into a mental institution, likely against her will,” Why Go furthers the narrative, as mentioned by Songfacts. The song “outlines corrupt medical professionals encouraging sickness so they can nurse them back to health and turn them into something fake.”
Black offers insight into what Eddie Vedder said in the Pearl Jam Twenty book is “first relationships.”
Jeremy tells the story of “a boy who kills himself at school to get revenge on the students who tormented him. It is based on the true story of Jeremy Delle, a 15-year-old sophomore who killed himself in front of his English class at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, on January 8, 1991.”
Oceans reflects what guitarist Stone Gossard‘s favorite track on the album. The song is reportedly a love song to Vedder‘s future wife, Beth Liebling.
Porch later became synonymous with the pro-choice stance on abortion taken by Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder. The song itself is one of the earlier written by the band.
Garden is a metaphor for a cemetery. The song itself is a response to the Persian Gulf War of 1990 to 1991, which band lyricist Eddie Vedder was questioning.
Deep offers an angry, angsty look into ways that deep hurt can lead to wishes to thoughts of self-harm.
Release completes the album Ten as an eleventh song. The song “began as a droning riff guitarist Stone Gossard started playing,” serving as a release of feelings that the title suggests.
Matt – Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 