![]() ![]() Stone Gossard, who wrote the music, plays a dojo, with a subtle but substantial-enough rhythm. The rest of the band establishes something like the setting for a musical psychodrama, within which Vedder will work out some serious issues. Vedder makes it clear that these memories are of a love that is very much in the past. Vedder’s reference to himself as the “earth” to his partner’s “sun” is beautiful enough, though it also foreshadows a certain over-reliance on another person. Vedder’s first lines, and he is the band’s lyricist, are typically murky, yet poetic, and reference sheets, a woman’s legs, and some cosmic, timeless love. The music starts with pretty acoustic guitar and Vedder’s soft but soulful moan. Consequently, Pearl Jam became a model of stability and longevity in that Seattle music scene.įor the Unplugged performance of the song, each of the band’s five members is seated on stools in front of a dark, shimmering backdrop, and a small but rapt live audience. Shortly after the band’s initial commercial breakout, they would consciously step back from the spotlight, and start a long, steady run of success with a smaller but devout following. But Vedder and company were able to stay grounded enough. ![]() In the band’s performance of “Black”, they would convey an epic personal struggle, rife with loss and anger, but they would also find their humanity in the process.Īt the time of “Black”, Vedder had his own struggles, including dealing with the aftermath of a troubled childhood in song, and then the crush of instant and immense fame. Vedder filled arenas with his voice, while still managing to be poetic and even intimate at the same time. The group possessed the power of arena rockers like The Who, the edginess of punk, and a unique and iconic singer in Eddie Vedder. “Black” was first heard on Pearl Jam’s 1991, breakout debut album, Ten, the first in a run of multi-platinum and platinum albums, and then played on Unplugged the following year. If all any of us really want is some truth, few performances deliver more than “Black”, and especially the live, acoustic version from the group’s set on the then-popular, MTV Unplugged television series. In doing so, the music resonates deeply with fans, from the top-40 crowd to classic-rock diehards to serious hip-hop fans. There is a lot of pain and, famously, angst at the heart of grunge, but the music is also inspiring in that it often directly addressed that darkness in a raw and authentic manner. Grunge was rooted in traditional rock, but also brought serious punk and metal influences to the mainstream. But there is a reason that people loved, and still love, grunge, and there is a reason that those groups blew up the pop charts and MTV’s video rotations in the ’90s. In fact, of the four most well-known grunge bands, three of their front men would die prematurely either of heroin addiction, with the 2002 death of Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, or suicide, both Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, in 1994, and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, in 2017. While today the genre is well-regarded as an important part of the history of popular music, it is also generally associated with a lot of pain and, famously, angst. To briefly recap, grunge was the last major, American-born, rock ‘n’ roll movement (coming right before Britpop took off). “Black” provides a blueprint of sorts for navigating the challenges that so many are facing today. This is especially true with the live MTV Unplugged performance of this heavy and, yes, quite dark song. Saying that a song can change your life is often a cliché, but Pearl Jam’s “Black” can probably help change some lives. This may be a perfect time to look back to one particularly remarkable song from the early 1990s and a time when the so-called Seattle grunge scene ruled popular music. What to do with our feelings of intense disappointment, existential crisis, and rage? Do we ignore them, suck it up, and move on as best we can? Do we turn inward, and punish ourselves for not handling things better? Do we lash out at our transgressors, real or perceived? Or are there other options? Given the realities of life in 2022, many have had to address some tough questions. Anxiety levels have shot up and depression rates tripled during the first year of COVID, alone. Issues of mental health have perhaps never been more at the forefront of American life than during these bizarro-world, COVID/lockdown/BLM/MAGA-years of 2020 to the present.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |