old thread archived here

Share the story of the first time you heard this album

ve told this story on here before, but I got into Pearl Jam via Weird Al Yankovich. In 1991-1992 my music tastes were still stuck in 80's radio hits and holdovers. I still loved hair metal and people like Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. My two favorites artists (and I use the term loosely with the first one) were Poison and Weird Al Yankovich. I had heard of the band nirvana but knew none of their music. Then one fateful day I saw the video for Weird Al's Smells Like Nirvana. And not only was it funny as hell but I actually really liked the music in the song. So I went out and bought a cassette of nevermind (I didn't own a cd player yet).

I was immediately hooked, and I think I played nothing but that tape for two-three months over the summer. Then the fall came around and I got my first job (this would have been the start of my sophmore year of high school), and with the money I made I bought my first cd player. Now I needed cds to go with it, so I joined Columbia house--and I got my favorite poison records, prince and madonna's greatest hits, and nevermind. I also was vaguely familiar with REM so I got eponymous. I had one selection left and I had heard that this band Pearl Jam sounded like Nirvana. I had not heard a single song by them but I decided to get it on a whim.

So the cds came and I was in my room doing homework one night and decided to listen to this pearl jam record. It was on as background. Once came on and it was pretty good, and then Even Flow started and before the song was over I knew that I had found a new favorite band and that I would never be able to listen to half the shit I used to ever again (it was still too soon for me to appreciate it ironically or nostalgically). I had never heard anything like it and it really was one of those "I'm never going back again" moments. I was just utterly blown away by pretty much the whole record. The only other specific moment I remember was listening to Garden, which started skipping really cleanly early in the song (before the lyrics) and because there was no noticable pause I just thought this song was like ten minutes long before I bothered to go look at the timer.