Ten (Pearl Jam album)
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| Ten | |||||
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| Studio album by Pearl Jam | |||||
| Released | August 27, 1991 | ||||
| Recorded | March 27, 1991 – April 26, 1991 at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington | ||||
| Genre | Grunge | ||||
| Length | 53:24 | ||||
| Label | Epic | ||||
| Producer | Pearl Jam, Rick Parashar | ||||
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| Pearl Jam chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Ten | |||||
Ten is the debut album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and drummer Dave Krusen to form Pearl Jam in 1990. Most of the songs began as instrumental jams, to which Vedder added lyrics about topics such as depression, homelessness, and abuse.
Ten was not an immediate success, but by late 1992 it had reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart. The album produced three hit singles: "Alive", "Even Flow", and "Jeremy". While Pearl Jam was accused of jumping on the grunge bandwagon at the time, Ten was instrumental in popularizing alternative rock in the mainstream.[1] The album has been certified twelve times Platinum in the United States and remains Pearl Jam's most successful album.
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[edit] Background
Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament had played together in the pioneering grunge band Green River and then Mother Love Bone during the 1980s. Mother Love Bone's career was cut short when singer Andrew Wood died of a drug overdose in 1990, shortly before the release of the group's debut album. Devastated, it took months before Gossard and Ament agreed to play together again. The duo started jamming with fellow Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, building up material. The three then went into the studio for separate sessions with Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and former Shadow drummer Chris Friel to record some instrumental demos.[2] Five of the songs recorded—"Dollar Short", "Agytian Crave", "Footsteps", "Richard's E", and "E Ballad"—were compiled onto a tape called Stone Gossard Demos '91 that was circulated in the hopes of finding a singer and drummer for the trio.[1]
San Diego musician Eddie Vedder acquired a copy of the demo in September 1990, when it was given to him by former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. Vedder listened to the demo, went surfing, and wrote lyrics the next day for "Dollar Short", "Agytian Crave", and "Footsteps". "Dollar Short" and "Agytian Crave" were later retitled "Alive" and "Once", respectively. Gossard and Ament heard the demo with Vedder's vocals and lyrics, and were impressed enough to fly Vedder out to Seattle for an audition. Meanwhile Vedder had also written lyrics for "E Ballad", retitled "Black". Vedder arrived on October 13 and rehearsed with the band (now joined by drummer Dave Krusen) for a week, writing eleven songs in the process. Vedder was soon hired as the band's singer, and the group signed to Epic Records shortly thereafter.[1]
[edit] Recording
The band, then named Mookie Blaylock, entered London Bridge Studios in Seattle in March 1991 with producer Rick Parashar to record its debut album. A few tracks were previously recorded at London Bridge in January, but only "Alive" was carried over from that session. The album sessions were quick and lasted only a month, mainly due to the band having already written most of the material for the record. "Porch", "Deep", "Why Go", and "Garden" were first recorded during the album sessions, everything else had been previously recorded during demo sessions at some point. McCready said that "Ten was mostly Stone and Jeff; me and Eddie were along for the ride at that time."[3]
The recording sessions for Ten were completed in May 1991. Drummer Dave Krusen left the band once the sessions were completed, checking himself into rehab.[2] The album was mixed in June in England by Tim Palmer, who was joined by the band. Palmer decided to mix the album at Ridge Farm Studios in Dorking, a converted farm that according to Palmer was "about as far away from an L.A. or New York studio as you can get."[1] Palmer made a few additions to the already-recorded songs, including having McCready finish up the guitar solo on "Alive" and tweaking the intro to "Black". Palmer overdubbed a pepper shaker and a fire extinguisher as percussion on "Oceans".[1]
In subsequent years, band members have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the album's mixing turned out. In 2001, Ament said, "I'd love to remix Ten. Ed, for sure, would agree with me...It wouldn't be like changing performances; just pull some of the reverb off it."[3] In 2006, Vedder said, "I can listen to the early records [except] the first record...it's just the sound of the record. It was kind of mixed in a way that was...it was kind of produced."[4] In 2002, Gossard said, "It was 'over-rocked', we were novices in the studio and spent too long recording, doing different takes, and killing the vibe and overdubbing tons of guitar. There's a lot of reverb on the record."[5]
[edit] Music and lyrics
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"Even Flow" Sample of "Even Flow", the second single released from Ten. The song pairs a funky riff by Stone Gossard with lyrics by Eddie Vedder about homelessness. "Jeremy" Sample of "Jeremy", the third single released from Ten. The lyrics for "Jeremy" were inspired by a true story in which a high school student committed suicide in front of his classmates. It features prominent usage of Jeff Ament's 12-string bass guitar, which is pivotal to the sound of the introduction and end of the recording. - Problems playing the files? See media help.
Several of the songs on Ten started as instrumental compositions that Eddie Vedder added lyrics to after he joined the band. Vedder's lyrics for Ten deal with subjects like depression, suicide, loneliness, and murder. The album also tackles social concerns such as homelessness ("Even Flow")[6] and the use of psychiatric hospitals ("Why Go").[7] Many listeners interpreted "Alive" as an inspirational anthem due to its decidedly uplifting instrumentals and chorus. Vedder has since revealed that the song tells the semi-biographical tale of a son discovering that his father is actually his stepfather (his real father having died long ago), while his mother’s grief turns her to sexually embrace her son, who strongly resembles the biological father.[8] The song "Jeremy" and its accompanying video were inspired by an incident where a high school student shot himself in front of his classmates.[9][10]
"Alive" and "Once" formed part of a song cycle Vedder called the Mamasan trilogy (the third song, "Footsteps", appeared as a B-side on the "Jeremy" single). Vedder explained that the lyrics told the story of a young man whose father dies ("Alive"), causing him to go on a killing spree ("Once") which leads to his capture and execution ("Footsteps"). It was later revealed that Vedder's lyrics were inspired by his long-held hurt in discovering at age 17 that the man he thought was his father was not, and that his real father had already died.[1]
As mentioned above, Ten dealt with dark subject matter but is almost universally considered to be a high water-mark of the early 1990s alternative rock sound, with Vedder's unusually deep and strong (and later much imitated) voice alternating between solidity and vibrato against the unrestrained, guitar-heavy, pure rock sound that harkened back to Led Zeppelin and other rock bands of the 1970s. Ten's musical style, influenced by classic rock, combined an "expansive harmonic vocabulary" with an anthemic sound.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class=