Music Monday: Temple Of The Dog and early Pearl Jam

This week, I'm here to talk about one of the most iconic bands of the 1990s and beyond. I'll be focusing on their early years, because I'm not a real fan. I'm just someone who really enjoyed their early albums and then drifted away as they became more niche. I realize their niche is huge. I know they have countless die hard fans. And if you love their later stuff, that's super awesome. I'm just not as familiar with it, nor has it ever been a part of my personal soundtrack. But the early stuff? That was huge for me. So, it's Music Monday, and we're talking about Pearl Jam.

In the late 1980s, Mother Love Bone was an up and coming band in the Seattle music scene. Tragically, just before their debut album was due to be released, frontman and songwriter Andrew Wood passed away. In the wake of his death, members of the band joined up with members of another up and coming band, Soundgarden to create a tribute album. On background vocals on several of the songs, and as half of one duet, you can hear the voice of a young man named Eddie Vedder, who Mother Love Bone members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament had just auditioned as a lead singer for their next band, Pearl Jam.

Temple Of The Dog

This album is a permanent part of my personal biography. In the early 1990s, I was a regular at a Tel Aviv bar called "Hakelev Hameashen." The name literally translates to "The Smoking Dog." Temple of The Dog became an unofficial house album for the place, which prided itself on its current, hip music. The Smoking Dog was an iconic bar. I believe it would have been well remembered as a defining bar at the time, if it weren't for the fact that the bar's owner asked the nightlife reporters, who were pretty much all regulars, not to write about it. After a change in ownership, the bar would eventually close on November 4, 1995. The night was supposed to be a big blow-out party following the big peace rally. But then Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and it became the end of an era for much more tragic reasons. I digress, but this is all relevant to the album's first song, written and sung by Soundgarden's lead singer, Andrew Wood's roommate, the great, late, Chris Cornell. This song is directly about Andrew Wood and his death. This is Say Hello 2 Heaven:

Sample lyric:

He came from an island
Then he died from the street
And he hurt so bad like a soul breakin'
But he never said nothin' to me

The album's third song, and first single, was considered almost a throwaway song by Cornell. But when he came to sing it for the band, young Eddie Vedder, who was waiting for a rehearsal for the band that would become Pearl Jam picked up a mic and joined him, singing the lower register parts of the song, which didn't work as well for Cornell's voice. The result was magic. This song is about Cornell's fears that his art is worthless, only worth taking money from the rich. This is Hunger Strike:

Sample lyric:

But it's on the table, the fire's cookin'
And they're farmin' babies, while the slaves are all workin'
And it's on the table, their mouths are all chokin'
But I'm goin' hungry (Goin' hungry)

I usually focus on singles and hits, but I'm gonna feature two songs from the album that were neither, but are favorites of mine. The first is about a messed up relationship. This is Call Me A Dog:

Sample lyric:

You call me a dog
Well, that's fair enough
'Cause it ain't no use to pretend
You're wrong
When you call me out I can't hide anymore
I have no disguise you can't see through

Finally, a song about the commercialization of religion. About buying a wooden crucifix, and hoping in vain that it brings success. This is Wooden Jesus:

Sample lyric:

Wooden Jesus where are you from?
Korea or Canada, maybe Taiwan?
But I didn't know it was the holy land
But I believed from the minute the check left my hand
And I pray

Ten

Pearl Jam's debut album is, inarguably, one of the greatest debut albums of all time. Because Pearl Jam are still a going concern, and have an active and rich youtube channel, I am going to try and restrict myself to songs that are available on the official youtube channel. This will make the post shorter than it would otherwise be, but such is life, and the songs they have put up there are bangers. We'll start with the album's second song, and second single. It's a song about being homeless. This is Even Flow:

Sample lyric:

Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don't know, so he chases them away
Oh, someday yet, he'll begin his life again
Life again, life again...

The album's third song was the band's very first single, one of their greatest hits, and the first song they ever played together. It's a disturbing song about a mother telling her son that his dad is actually his step dad. And then sleeping with her son because he looks like his dad.

Sample lyric:

"Is something wrong?" She said
Of course there is
"You're still alive." She said
Oh, and do I deserve to be?
Is that the question?
And if so, if so, who answers?
Who answers?

The album's fifth song was never released as a single, despite urging from the label. The band felt it was too personal. Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics to the song on his way up from San Diego to Seattle. It's a song about letting go of a first relationship, and I'm going to share the version from the band's unplugged, because they never released a studio version online, or a video. This is Black:

Sample lyric:

And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds
Of what was everything
Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black
Tattooed everything

In 1992, I was watching a LOT of MTV. Most in their 20s was, at the time. And watching MTV meant seeing this next song's video a LOT. It's based on a true story of a young man shooting himself in English class. It is also about a young man in Eddie Vedder's school, who shot up one of the rooms in the school. It is very arguable that the lyrics are way too simplistic for either situation, but as a young man in his 20s who had a difficult time in school, socially, it hit me like a brick. This, obviously, is Jeremy:

Sample lyric:

Daddy didn't give attention
To the fact that mommy didn't care
King Jeremy the wicked
Ruled his world

VS

I bought VS the moment it was released, because I loved the previous albums so much. But I never connected with it as much. In the Venn diagram of songs I liked and songs available on the official youtube channel in a studio version, you'll find one song, which is a powerful song about child abuse. This is Daughter:

Sample lyric:

She holds the hand that holds her down
She will rise above

Vitalogy

I really did mean to stick to songs on the official youtube channel. But how is this song not available on it? Vitalogy is another album I owned, and can barely recall now. Except for this song, a song Vedder wrote and performed back when he was in high school, a painful song of a bad relationship. This is Better Man:

Sample lyric:

She lies and says she's in love with him
Can't find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red
Can't find a better man
She lies and says she still loves him
Can't find a better man

That One B Side

Yeah, that's not an album name. And also, there's no studio version on the official channel. When the dam cracks, it breaks, I guess. Illustrating just how great an album Ten was, this song was an outtake, released as the B side for Jeremy. It was later released in Best Of compilations. What's it about? Your guess is as good as anyone.

Sample lyric:

Unsealed on a porch a letter sat
Then you said, I wanna leave it again
Once I saw her on a beach of weathered sand
And on the sand I wanna leave it again, yeah
On a weekend wanna wish it all away
And they called and I said that I want what I said
And then I call out again
And the reason, oughtta leave her calm, I know
I said, I don't know whether I'm the boxer or the bag

Pearl Jam would go on to have several more albums, and are one of the most successful touring bands in the world. But this is where my story with them ends.

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