Thirty years and the Pearl Jam album ‘Ten’

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.

(The album Ten by the band Pearl Jam was released August 27, 1991).

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.

(Cover art for the CD Single for Alive by Pearl Jam).

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.”

(From left, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder, Dave Krusen and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam).

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.

(The album Ten by the band Pearl Jam was released August 27, 1991).

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.

(The album Ten by the band Pearl Jam was released August 27, 1991).

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

Anthony Everitt and the book ‘Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death’

Alexander the Great lived almost 2,400 years ago. Serving as a king of Macedonia, a territory in south-central Balkans that comprises north-central Greece, southwestern Bulgaria, and the independent Republic of North Macedonia, lived from 356 BCE to 323 BCE. Alexander the Great served as king of Macedonia for 13 years, from age 20 until his death at the age of 33.

(Marble Bust of Alexander the Great).

The book Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death by Anthony Everitt is a review of the life of the military and political leader taught by Greek philosopher, scientist, and intellectual Aristotle. Everitt aims to offer a glimpse of Alexander the Great, as much as can be done through the lens of time without modern tools or direct evidence, as he existed and was judged in real terms during his lifetime.

(Anthony Everitt wrote the book Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death).

The book itself takes the reader through Alexander the Great‘s military conquests through Greece, Persia, and ultimately to India, kicking off what the world understands as the Hellenistic age that started with Alexander‘s death. The aim of the book, in part, is to remove some of the mythology added to the story of Alexander through different cultural reviews of the man in order to give a truer sense of the man from an evaluation of him, again, through the lens of his own age.

(Entry of Alexander into Babylon by Charles Le Brun).

The story of Alexander the Great within Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death shares with the reader a relatable depiction of the man as he ascends to power through military accomplishment, leadership and, above all, competent and generous handling of men under his command. Alexander took power after his father’s assassination by avenging (through death) those responsible for his father’s murder. Alexander, too, killed those who opposed his assumption of the Macedonian crown. Taking over campaign already sanctioned by his father prior to said father’s death, the path to power was begun.

(Alexander Consulting the Oracle of Apollo by Louis Jean Francois Lagrenée).

Much of the book recounts subsequent regional conquests undertaken by Alexander the Great, demonstrating a military leader who campaigned for territory, influence and, in many ways, magnanimous rule over his own people as well as those who lost sovereign control to the Macedonian campaigns. The reach of the cultural and land conquests undertaken by the forces led by Alexander were enormous. The overthrowing of a Persian empire, a talented field commander, and the glorification of war were all parts of Alexander the Great‘s legacy. In summarizing the life of the commander, Anthony Everitt acknowledges that in modern times that Alexander the Great would be considered a war criminal. Greece, the Middle East, and Egypt were the ruling powers after Alexander the Great.

(The book Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death was written by Anthony Everitt).

The book Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death by Anthony Everitt was an entertaining, non-fiction read for me. I grant the book 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, February 5, 2020