Illegal Foreign Object

Being the face of something with worldwide popularity is no easy task, especially when it’s more than you ever bargained for. Such was the plight of Eddie Vedder after Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, a record that, upon its release, the singer hoped would sell 40,000 copies.

Ten sold 13 million copies.

I understand that the emotional stability of a famous singer is pretty low on the list of cares for the general public — the gig is certainly not the same as spending all day digging ditches or picking strawberries — but if being a frontman was easy, we’d all be doing it.

With fame comes plenty of perks, but there’s a lot you give away in the process. Your time becomes their time, regardless of how much you need it for yourself. If you take a stand, you’re labeled an ingrate, a sell-out, or an egomaniac. The media can break you just as quickly as it can make you. Pearl Jam got a little taste of this courtesy of Time Magazine right before the release of Vs. Vedder and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain turned down the cover, so the magazine grabbed a live shot of Eddie and plastered it on the cover. Twenty-five years later, the writer of the Time piece, Christopher John Farley, told the Washington Post, “I wanted the face to be Nirvana, but their handlers had played a little bit coy as to whether they would talk to me.” That statement stinks of hubris.

The band members were at their collective breaking point when they convened at Potatohead Studio in February 1993 to rehearse the songs that ultimately became Vs. — they, Eddie, in particular, had had enough of the attention. When the band moved to The Site in Nicasio, California, in March 1993 to begin recording, things only got more agitated for the grumpy singer. While drummer Dave Abbruzzese called it a “paradise”, Vedder slept in his truck to combat the plush surroundings. “How you make a rock record here,” he pondered.

Lyrically, Vedder was already behind the 8-ball — the previous summer, two of his journals were stolen from him during a show in Sweden. “One had all kinds of lyrics in it — the other was real personal,” said Vedder. “The stuff that [they] stole was irreplaceable.” To this day, it isn’t uncommon to see Eddie on stage with a notebook nearby. Fool me once, shame on you…

Still, with all the piss and vinegar of a man (and a band) with nothing to prove (but something to prove), “Go”, “Blood”, “Rats”, and “Leash” all came together during the first week of recording. By May, Vs. was completed, no small task considering the pressure the band felt to follow the historic Ten. “Recording Vs., there was a lot more pressure on Ed,” said bassist Jeff Ament. “He was having a hard time finishing up the songs; the pressure, and not being comfortable being in such a nice place.”

Whatever hurdles Pearl Jam faced before and during the recording process, Vs. is arguably its finest moment. Where Ten was a more traditional-sounding rock record, Vs. is a bloodletting from beginning to end. Pearl Jam would never again sound as raw or as hungry as it did during this era.

“Go” opens Vs. with Abbruzzese and Ament digging into a driving groove before guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready kick the door wide open with a wall of noise, followed by Vedder’s frenzied caterwaul.

Somehow, “Animal” ups the ante, the band smoldering away with a viciousness it never displayed (or didn’t possess) during Ten.

“Blood” might be Eddie Vedder’s finest moment as a lyricist and vocalist. On it, Vedder gnashes his teeth, barks, then clamps down with one helluva bite on the exposed spindly leg of the print media and its role in breeding discontent within the Seattle music scene by pitting bands against each other. 

♫“Spin me round/ Roll me over/ Fucking circus/ Stab it down/ One-way needle/ Pulled so slowly/ Drains and spills/ Soaks the pages/ Fills their sponges”♫ 

Vedder doesn’t sing “It’s my blood” — he shrieks his throat raw with all the venom and rage of a man with nothing to lose and even less to give.

The singer’s at it again on “Rats”, his disgust bubbling up to the surface within the first thirty seconds. A groovy-as-balls bass thump from Ament carries this song throughout. Also, kudos to the band for avoiding getting sued by Don Black and Walter Scharf for the “Ben, the two of us need look no more” lyric.

“Glorified G” raises an emphatic middle finger toward gun owners — more pointedly, at Pearl Jam’s drummer. Eddie was incensed after learning Abbruzzese purchased a gun. When he confronted him about it, Abbruzzese reportedly said, “In fact, I bought two.” Thus, the “Got a gun, fact I got two/ That’s okay, man, ’cause I love God” lyrics that open the song. This moment was also likely the beginning of the end of the drummer’s time in the band (and his unfair exclusion from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2017). 

When Pearl Jam puts the knives away, beauty pours forth from their collective effort. “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” and “Daughter” are stunning mid-tempo ballads, and “Indifference” is a haunting, sparse reminder that sometimes, less means so much more.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of Vs., but today is the 30th anniversary of the day I made the trip to the record store to buy my copy. It lived in my car for a solid year (until I accidentally left it sitting on the dash the following summer and the Texas heat warped the cassette). Vs. is one of those albums that calls out to me frequently. It covers a wide range of emotions — it’s an album that works for all seasons and all reasons.

Tracklist:

1. Go 10/10
2. Animal 10/10
3. Daughter 10/10
4. Glorified G 9/10
5. Dissident 10/10
6. W.M.A. 9/10
7. Blood 10/10
8. Rearviewmirror 8/10
9. Rats 9/10
10. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town 10/10
11. Leash 8/10
12. Indifference 8/10

Grade: 93