Day 19: Pearl Jam, Jeremy | 30-Day Song Challenge 🎶

Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam get dark on “Jeremy,” a song that definitely makes you think about life on Day 19 of the 30-Day Song Challenge.

Embracing the trendiness of social media, The Musical Hype unleashes its own, month-long version of the 30-Day Song Challenge.

---

Day 19 Prompt: A song that makes you think about life

---

“Jeremy spoke in class today / Clearly, I remember / Pickin’ on the boy / Seemed a harmless little fuck / But we unleashed a lion / Gnashed his teeth.” One of the heaviest songs from both Songs Centered Around or Referencing Suicide, Vol. 1 and the 30-Day Song Challenge is  “Jeremy.”

“Jeremy” is a gem from Ten, the 1991 debut album by Pearl Jam.  “Jeremy” is a song, written in narrative form, depicting a teenage boy, clearly unappreciated in his life, who ultimately commits suicide.  Hmm, definitely feels perfect for Day 19, a song that makes you think about life.

“Dead lay in pools of maroon below
Daddy didn’t give attention
To the fact that Mommy didn’t care
King Jeremy the wicked
Ruled his world.”

A powerful music video helps to make “Jeremy” feel even more authentic. Even more powerful is that the song was inspired by a real-life Jeremy who committed suicide in front of his teacher and classmates by gun.  The music video finds Jeremy kill himself, but in the censored, distributed version, it confusingly ends with his classmates covered in blood.  Is there a school shooting, mass murder vibe here? No, Rob Galluzzo clarifies that director Bruce Ashley’s “intention is that his blood is literally on their hands”.

Perhaps the reason why “Jeremy” makes me think about life is that too often, we don’t mind how we treat others.  By bullying someone else, we a literally making their life a living hell.  There are many “Jeremys” in the world and rather than treat them badly or ignore them, we must be better, kinder, and more compassionate people.

---

Pearl Jam • Ten • Epic • 1991

Day 19: Pearl Jam, “Jeremy” (30-Day Song Challenge) 🎶 [Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, Epic, The Musical Hype, Pixabay]

---