PEARL JAM TEN TURNS 30
AREN’T EXACTLY A BAND PRONE TO NOSTALGIA. THAT SAID, LEAD GUITARIST MIKE McCREADY DOES ACKNOWLEDGE, WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE BAND’S DEBUT ALBUM, TEN — WHICH, GIVEN THE INCREDIBLE SPEED AT WHICH THEY MOVED IN THE EARLY DAYS ALSO DOVETAILS WITH THE ORIGIN OF PEARL JAM ITSELF — THAT HE LOOKS BACK AT THAT TIME AND MARVELS AT HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN.
“I go, ‘How did that all happen? And why did it happen?,’ ” he tells Guitar World. “And I still don’t have answers for that, other than, you know, fate or time or luck or talent.”
Likely, it’s a combination of all those things. But however it came together, the fact remains that Ten, released August 27, 1991, and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, was not only an unequivocal smash — 13 million copies sold in the U.S., and counting — but is also one of the defining pillars of Nineties rock, with a reach and influence that has loomed large for decades.
Indeed, you’d be hard pressed to find a rock fan, um, alive today that isn’t intimately familiar with the record. From the slippery riffs and deep-in-the-pocket groove of “Even Flow,” to the chest-beating lick that opens “Alive” and the explosive, extended McCready solo that closes it, to Eddie’s Vedder’s commanding bellow in “Jeremy” (not to mention the indelible accompanying video), the musical moments on Ten soundtracked a generation and continue to resonate today. Thirty years on, they feel almost foundational.
And beyond these grand sonic gestures, a deeper dive into Ten uncovered more aggressive, tightly coiled fare like “Why Go,” “Porch” and the wah-drenched “Deep,” while moody, esoteric tracks like “Release,” “Oceans” and the much-beloved “Black” revealed a band adept at crafting subtly textured and swelling soundscapes, and working with a wider palette of sounds than the hit singles let on, or that peers and the press often acknowledged.
Given how seasoned and fully formed Ten sounds, it’s amazing to think that Pearl Jam existed for only a few months prior to its recording. The five-piece we hear on the record — McCready, Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Dave Krusen — played their first show, billed as Mookie Blaylock, in October 1990. Roughly six months later, they were in Seattle’s London Bridge Studio laying down songs with producer Rick Parashar.
And yet, even if the band was
