When you find yourself in a new social situation, it is often the most innocent tidbits of information that draw you to those who end up becoming your friends. For example, someone might state that they love a certain band or movie or book that you also love. Just like that, the ice is broken and away the two of you go, building the foundation of a relationship on the common ground that you both share. It is a comforting feeling to find someone who feels the way that you do regarding something that you hold dear. In many cases, that initial bonding process expands to include other commonalities. If we are lucky, that person who has entered our life as a new friend stays around and becomes like family. Having such people in our lives is an invaluable treasure.
Pearl Jam is a rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in the early 1990s. They are considered to be one of the founding bands of the Grunge movement, along with Nirvana, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden and others. The lineup of Pearl Jam has remained fairly steady for well over thirty years now with Eddie Vedder as lead singer, Jeff Ament on bass guitar, Mike McCready on lead guitar, Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar and Matt Cameron on drums. The late 1980s/early 90s was a great time to be a music fan in Seattle. The scene there was thriving. One of the first bands to emerge from the pack was a band called Mother Love Bone. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard both played in that band before joining Pearl Jam. Mother Love Bone was critically acclaimed and was poised to potentially be what Pearl Jam ended up becoming before Pearl Jam was ever a thing. Just like PJ, Mother Love Bone had a charismatic, talented lead singer named Andrew Wood. As the 90s began, they released their one and only album called Apple. From that album came the hit song “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” which is actually two songs that have been melded together. This song was a strong local favourite in and around Seattle but really gained fame by being included on the soundtrack of the Cameron Crowe-directed movie Singles. Unfortunately, the weight of fame lays heavier on some shoulders than it does on others. Frontman Andrew Wood overdosed on heroin just days before Apple was to be released. The fame that the band achieved as a result of the album’s release was never enjoyed by Wood or by his bandmates and family who, instead of celebrating their success, were forced to mourn the loss of their friend. *(you can listen to “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” here. ***The lyric version is here).
While there was always a certain amount of competitiveness among bands in an environment such as the one that existed in Seattle during the Grunge era, there was also a greater sense of community and camaraderie. After the death of Andrew Wood, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard took several unrecorded Mother Love Bone songs to their friend, Chris Cornell. Cornell was lead singer of Soundgarden at the time. Ament and Gossard knew that they needed someone with excellent vocal abilities so they turned to Cornell and asked him to help them commemorate their departed friend. Chris Cornell agreed. The initial sessions went so well that an entire album of songs was recorded. All involved agreed that this tribute would seem awkward if the new music was released under the Mother Love Bone name. Releasing it as Soundgarden was ruled out, too. So instead, Ament, Gossard and Cornell formed a new side project band on the spot and called it Temple of the Dog. Temple of the Dog’s most famous song became a tune called “Hunger Strike”. This song was originally meant to be sung as a solo piece by Chris Cornell, who wrote the lyrics to it. However, while rehearsing the song, Cornell was never truly comfortable with how his vocal parts were sounding. Listening in on the recording session was a young man from San Diego named Eddie Vedder. Vedder had only just come to Seattle to meet Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, with whom he had been corresponding and sharing song ideas. That relationship had grown to the point where Ament and Gossard had invited Vedder to visit with them in Seattle. While on that initial visit, Vedder found himself at the Temple of the Dog sessions. As he watched Cornell labour over the vocals, Vedder asked if he could help out. What started out as a solo evolved into a duet between Vedder and Cornell. Looking back on it now, that pairing of Cornell and Vedder helped bring both into the national spotlight. As time went on both men would achieve legendary status as two of modern rock’s most powerful and unique voices. The collaboration on “Hunger Strike” also goes to prove the community-minded nature of the Seattle music scene in the early 1990s. *(you can listen to “Hunger Strike” by Temple of the Dog, featuring Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder here. ***The lyric version is here).
As Vedder, Ament and Gossard got to know one another, they reeled in another Seattle friend named Mike McCready. McCready’s last band had broken up and he was looking for new opportunities. Together, the four young men, along with then drummer Dave Krusen, agreed to form a new band which they called Mookie Blaylock, after the baseball player of the same name for the New York Mets. The band called Mookie Blaylock quickly evolved into the band we know today as Pearl Jam. But what was it that has allowed Pearl Jam to remain so consistently intact when so many other bands came and went just prior to those five guys agreeing to join forces? Well, unfortunately, the common ground upon which the members of Pearl Jam built their friendships was death. As mentioned earlier, it was the death of Mother Love Bone lead singer Andrew Wood that brought Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard together with Chris Cornell. It was at this Andrew Wood tribute recording session that became Temple of the Dog, that Eddie Vedder became a player in the Seattle musical relationship matrix. But what cemented Vedder’s credentials, as it were, with his new bandmates was that death had played a prominent role in his life, too.
In the song “Alive” which appeared on Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten, Vedder told the story of his teenage years. It was as a teenager that Vedder discovered that the man he was raised to believe was his father was, in fact, his step-father. Vedder’s biological father has died before Eddie Vedder ever had the chance to develop that typical father-son relationship. Needless to say, this revelation shook young Vedder to his emotional core. One of the ways that Vedder coped with what this revelation meant to him as a person was to write his feelings down in words. One of the things that motivated him to do so was the arrival in the mail of a cassette from Gossard and Ament of some musical riffs and other ideas that they had been fooling around with up in Seattle. So Vedder, in San Diego at the time, listened to the cassette. As he did, the music of Ament and Gossard caused him to think about his father and the bitterness he now felt toward his mother and step-father for having deceived him for so many years. *(you can listen to the song “Alive” by Pearl Jam here. ***The lyrics version is here).
However, as many of you know from your own experiences with grief, the healing that is so necessary to help you to go on with your life often takes a while to achieve, if it ever truly does. For Vedder, writing the song “Alive” for his new bandmates as a teenager was helpful in a cathartic sort of way. But that one song alone did not heal his heart. While “Alive” is about the moment he found out who his father really was and the anger and sense of betrayal that went along with it, Vedder also had to find a way to actually grieve for the father he never knew he had. That grieving process took the form of another song called “Release” that also made its way onto Pearl Jam’s debut album.
Some people meet and become friends because they share a love of a certain band or sports team. Such relationships happen all of the time. But sometimes the reason for bonding is because of the empathy that exists from having shared the same emotional experiences. The death of someone close to you evokes a series of feelings that can only truly be understood by those who have gone through it themselves. When Ament and Gossard first connected with Eddie Vedder, the connection that bonded them as the family that they were destined to become was death and loss and the grieving process. It is not just any band who would declare their existence to the world in the form of an album that contains songs about death and sadness and, at the same time, make those songs sound amazing and unique and powerful and not sad at all. But that is what Pearl Jam managed to do with their debut album Ten. As a fan of the band, it amazes me to look back upon the songs that it contains and realize that these guys were just kids, barely twenty years old when this was all put together. As much as I imagine there was nonsense and shenanigans during Pearl Jam’s early days, there is also this sense of emotional maturity that is striking. Further to that point, Pearl Jam grieved publicly in Seattle with those fans who, in turn, developed their own friendships and relationships because of a shared love of the music they were hearing. That Pearl Jam opened up in such an emotionally vulnerable manner right out of the gate showed a level of trust with their fanbase as well. Not only did the band members have each other’s backs but Pearl Jam’s fans had the band’s backs, too. The album Ten was the beginning of a loyal, trusting relationship within the band and between band and fans that has lasted now for over thirty years. In a way, it is almost like how it is when you find your people, your circle of friends, your family.
This brings me to the real reason that I chose “Release” to be the focus of today’s post. The connections that we make in life with the people we care enough to call our friends and family are among the most important aspects of our lives. That is one reason why “going home” (wherever that may be) is often an emotional experience. Not long ago I came across a video on YouTube for the song “Release”. I have always liked this song from the very first time I listened to Ten all those many years ago. But what really caught my attention about this particular rendition of the song was that it was the song that Pearl Jam decided to lead off their show the most recent time they played at home in Seattle. The song is presented in a stylish way, with the band appearing on stage completely in silhouette. But what really did it for me was the reaction of the audience. They were right there, word for word, note for note, with the band. The sense of community is very real and obvious. The confessional nature of “Release” was one of the things that endeared Pearl Jam to its fan base decades ago. Upon their return home, the members of Pearl Jam replied in kind in the form of a song about loss but more about love. That love is about what it is to be a family. Sometimes those who make up your family do so through blood relations. Sometimes those who you consider to be family are the people who have learned the songs of your heart and are willing to sing them back to you when you need to hear them most. That’s what I see when I watch this particular video for “Release” by Pearl Jam. I see family and I hear and feel the love they share. This is my new favourite video. I hope that you will like it, too.
The link to the video for the song “Release” by Pearl jam can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
The link to the official website for Pearl Jam can be found here.
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