Jeremy [Single] - Pearl Jam (CD 1995)

Daddy didn't give attention
Oh, to the fact that mommy didn't care
King Jeremy the Wicked
Ruled his world

I can remember the first time I heard "Jeremy". I was 12 years old. A good friend whose musical tastes I respected greatly was telling me all about a new band called Pearl Jam, and he had their first album, Ten. After hearing the brutal "Once", the incredibly intense "Evenflow", and the soaring, cathartic "Alive", I begged, pleaded, and begged some more until he finally relented and let me borrow it for the night. I promptly taped it. Listening to it on the bus ride to school the next day, I eventually came to track six, after getting lost in the sea of beauty that is "Black". Listening to "Jeremy" startled me, made me intensely uncomfortable, and delighted the hell out of me.

It starts innocently enough, with that trademark opening guitar and bass line alternating with some well-placed harmonics, creating a tense mood right off the bat. As the drums kick in, Eddie Vedder paints a picture of a boy, at home, drawing pictures of mountaintops, with him on top. It all sounds rather pleasant until Vedder ends the verse singing the dead lay in pools of maroon below. What we have here is a portrait of a boy with fantasies of power, a boy who needs those fantasies of power because he feels so helpless. His parents would rather not have anything to do with him, and Vedder even alludes to some unspeakable act of abuse when he references the day I heard... at the end of the second verse. All of this is happening as the music keeps building, even though the only real hook comes in the chorus, as Vedder wails Jeremy spoke in claaa-a-a-aaass todaaaaay, but somehow it's all very catchy--it demands the attention of the listener. By the end, as the video carries the tale to the most harrowing possible conclusion, the music continues to build into a swirl of tremendous guitars, pounding beats, and Vedder's wordless vocals. Finally, it falls off a cliff, and a guitar winds down to some plucked harmonics, ending not on a chord, but on two notes that were never meant to be played together in this song. It's tense, it's nerve-wracking, and it's brilliant.

My only qualm? Similar to my problem with the more recent Save You single, the version of "Jeremy" on the Jeremy single is the radio edit. This radio edit, however, keeps the naughty word, but fades out before the brilliant ending of the song. It doesn't kill the experience, but the album version is certainly superior.

Don't even think about reaching me
I won't be home
Don't even think about stopping by
Don't think of me at all

I did what I had to do
If there was a reason,
it was you

The next song on this wonderful single is lyrically just as intense, if musically much more relaxed. "Footsteps" is all Vedder on vocals and Stone Gossard on guitar. It takes its place as part 3 of the Mamasan Trilogy, the story Vedder came up with in his first set of demos with the band. "Footsteps" finds the subject of the trilogy on the walk to his own execution, after the traumatic events of "Alive" led him to the killing spree that is "Once". The insistent guitar line provides a mood of quiet resignation, as Vedder's lyrics outline a tale of resentment and blame for the sordid past of our protagonist. It's a sad, intense, beautiful song that no true Pearl Jam fan should be without.

I see them
'round the runway
And I know and I know
I don't wanna stay

Finally, what you see above is pretty much the only discernable lyrics I could make out in final song "Yellow Ledbetter". What does the title mean? Beats the hell outta me. What do the lyrics say? Well, not much of anything. "Yellow Ledbetter" is primarily a musical vehicle, probably given vocals for the sake of creating something for the fans to sing along to. Mike McCready does his best Hendrix impersonation all over this lighters-in-the-air chill-out song. It's no wonder the boys love to close shows with this song--it's the kind of song that may not mean much, but just leaves you feeling kinda warm and fuzzy inside. It's the kind of song you can close your eyes, stretch out your arms, and fall backward into. This song actually got some significant radio play on rock radio, and it's no wonder--musically, it's a fantastic tune, the kind of rare chill-out tune that I could hear a million times and never get tired of it.

So in three songs, we get three separate facets of Pearl Jam's personality played out to perfection. We have an intense, loud mammoth of a song in "Jeremy", we have a quiet and contemplative (but no less intense) song in "Footsteps", and a soaring mid-tempo feel-good song in "Yellow Ledbetter". The sheer variety on display and the skill with which it is executed makes the Jeremy single an amazingly satisfying listen for a CD that doesn't quite break the 14-minute mark. You know what? It's going for under a buck at Half.com. If you're a rock fan, there's no reason you shouldn't have it.

Recommended without reservation.