Pearl Jam achieved something most musicians can only dream of – near instant success. But this meant that, early on, the band faced accusations of riding grunge music and, more specifically, Nirvana’s coattails. When “Jeremy” was released as a single, most such doubts melted away.
“Jeremy” is an intriguing, mysterious song. It’s also one of the most important tunes in alternative rock.
Here’s what I gather to be the meaning of the lyrics and how “Jeremy” and Pearl Jam’s album “Ten” came to be.
Pearl Jam’s Journey to Making “Jeremy”
Pearl Jam’s debut album was an instant success among musicians who’d been hard at work for years. It was a complex story. Mainstream media, however, generally chose to ignore this and used Eddie Vedder, along with Kurt Cobain, as the faces of a new musical movement – grunge.
The story started, however, in 1980s Seattle. First, there had been the messy garage-growl of Green River. That’d given birth to the over-the-top glam-rock of Mother Love Bone.
Mother Love Bone and its singer, Andrew Wood, seemed destined for the type of success that hadn’t been enjoyed by a Seattle rock artist since Jimi Hendrix. But in 1990, Wood tragically passed away from a drug overdose.
Two of the band’s members, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, plotted to start a new band. They recruited guitar virtuoso Mike McCready and drummer Dave Abbruzzese.
Through a strange, remarkable cassette demo, they also found singer Eddie Vedder, a surfer and native of San Diego. Vedder’s baritone vocals did not resemble Andrew Wood’s singing in the slightest. But that was what was wanted for the new band, Pearl Jam.
As the group wrote songs, Ament and Gossard also felt the weight of tragedy. Together with Soundgarden‘s singer, and Wood’s friend, Chris Cornell, they turned that into an album and a side band. Temple of the Dog was a grunge supergroup. Vedder featured on the song “Hunger Strike” and, immediately, proved his worth.
Much of that emotion bled into the songs found on Pearl Jam’s debut, “Ten.” The intensity of the new group’s sound was matched by the topics discussed in song lyrics.
The Meaning of the Lyrics to “Jeremy”
Kurt Cobain mocked early Pearl Jam in passing. He’d called the musicians “excellent people” in a “corporate grunge” band. But I don’t think that’s entirely correct.
Pearl Jam may have sounded like a cross between Tad and Bad Company. But the band’s songs were bizarre and tense.
Some of those tunes originated on the demo cassette Eddie Vedder sent to Ament and Gossard. The three songs on the “Momma-Son” demo (“Alive,” “Once,” and “Footsteps”) tell a twisted tale of violence and bizarre family dynamics.
“Jeremy” was not included on “Momma-Son.” It is, however, cut from the same emotional cloth.
Although never publicly acknowledged, the song was, most likely, inspired by a newspaper story about 15-year-old Jeremy Delle. A sophomore high school student, the story claims that Delle had killed himself in front of his classmates.
Allegedly, Jeremy Delle had been asked by his English teacher to produce an admittance slip from the school office. Instead, the Texas-native returned to class with a gun. The song’s chorus is “Jeremy spoke in class today.”
The story also goes on to say that three of his schoolmates met similar fates in 1988.
This particular news article resonated with Vedder. When he moved to Seattle, the singer was initially known as “the quiet guy.” A creative kid prone to daydreaming, Vedder also had a difficult upbringing. Some of the troubling family stories described in early lyrics mimic events in his own life.
The Meaning of the “Jeremy” Music Video
“Jeremy” was the first real music video that Pearl Jam made in earnest. It was also the last they would produce for a very long time.
This was the third single from the monumentally successful “Ten” album. The previous two singles, “Alive” and “Even Flow”, featured live performance videos. A fourth video, for “Oceans,” would feature footage of the band members sitting on a beach or surfing.
Interestingly, the band’s friend Chris Cuffaro shot an initial lo-fi video for “Jeremy.” While the band approved it, Epic Records suggested an upgrade for the official video.
The band hated having to appear in a music video. But the film itself is compelling.
It was directed by Mark Pellington and had a considerable budget. It included actors playing Jeremy and the kids in his class. It contained collages of unsettling pictures. And, to the singer’s discomfort, it had plenty of close-up scenes of Eddie Vedder.
Once it was released in 1992, MTV played “Jeremy” on heavy rotation and eventually offered the band several awards for it. The video helped propel an already successful debut album. “Ten” would eventually sell over 21 million albums. This makes it the most successful album released by a grunge band.
Controversy Surrounding “Jeremy”
Jeremy’s story is told respectfully by the band while retaining the appropriate raw emotion. It’s what makes people connect to the song.
The video is what, for the most part, contributed to the controversy.
Trevor Wilson plays Jeremy. The lyrics and story are acted out. But the video does not to insist on the violent act itself. This is, however, because MTV restrictions made Pellington, a former employee of the station, edit out the image of Jeremy holding a gun in his mouth.
MTV also insisted that a shot of the students taking the Pledge of Allegiance be shortened. The channel reps claimed that the image could be wrongly interpreted as youths making a fascist salute.
In fact, the unedited version was hardly ever shown again on MTV. Even so, it made some viewers uncomfortable. Pellington apologised, saying, “I think that video tapped into something that has always been around and will always be around. You’re always going to have peer pressure, you’re always going to have adolescent rage, you’re always going to have dysfunctional families.“
In 1996, it was dubiously claimed by prosecutors that the video influenced a school shooting in Moses Lake, Washington.
In 1999, following the Columbine High School shootings, MTV all but blacklisted the video for a number of years.
Vedder, however, earned a reputation as an anti-gun activist, even writing the song “Glorified G” on the topic. With this in mind, in 2020, the unedited version of the music video became available on Pearl Jam’s official YouTube channel. It’s earned millions of views.
Meanwhile, the experience of starring in music videos put the band members off making them. A six-year gap followed, and in 1998, they released the fully animated “Do The Evolution.” Future videos typically feature live band performances.
The Legacy of “Jeremy” and Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” is one of the best and most famous alternative rock songs of the 1990s. It’s also one of the most famous grunge songs and the one that propelled Pearl Jam to superstardom.
I’ve included it on the list of the 100 Greatest Alternative Songs of the 1990s at number 5. Similar, but inferior lists by Rolling Stone, Kerrang, MTV and VH1 do the same.
And while darkness did surround the topic of the song, Eddie Vedder and the Seattle music scene, Pearl Jam has survived and endured. The band’s taken plenty of risks since, but has come out unscathed from battles with corporate giants. And, yes, “Jeremy” is still played at nearly every show.
