Citizen Dick: Remembering Pearl Jam’s Ten
It’s wholly fitting our first proper “Citizen Dick” segment would feature Pearl Jam’s 10. Citizen Dick, a fictional band from the movie Singles, featured several members of Pearl Jam. I’ve also been listening to a shitload of Pearl Jam since the release of the fabulous Gorge box set.
I remember buying Ten in the summer of 1992. I’d just graduated, gotten my license, and my first car. “Even Flow” and “Jeremy” had been all over the air waves. Nirvana had broken through with “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The Pacific Northwest — where I’d just moved from the year before — was creating shock waves through the music world and I was ready for it. I’d been exposed to some of these bands while living out west and they began taking the world by storm shortly after our move. I wonder if those two things are related. I’d like to think so, maybe some of these guys will send me a “thank you” check. Eddie? Are you reading this? I moved to Alabama so your band could sell records. I think it’s the least you can do.
I went to River Oaks Mall in Decatur, AL (it’s now called something else, I think it’s now Colonial mall) and bought the album at Disc Jockey (a music store I’d later work for in Colorado). If I remember right, the album was still being sold in the old CD longboxes. I know they were wasteful packaging, but I liked those things! I didn’t have a CD player in my car so all I could do was shred the package, open the disc, and stare at it in anticipation as I drove back to my house. Ten has been with me ever since.
It’s a great record, yet I don’t hear it or hold it in the same reverent terms as so many people my age do. This album connected with a lot of people on an intensely emotional level, but never got inside me like that. I liked the singles. I did connect with it, musically. I connected with the emotion in Eddie Vedder’s vocals, but never had the sense his words were describing me, speaking to me, or speaking for me. I now sit and wonder if one of the reasons I didn’t get as far inside this record as others is the way it is tracked. I didn’t really think about it until I looked at the back of the CD today:
- Once
- Even Flow
- Alive
- Why Go
- Black
- Jeremy
That’s one hell of an opening salvo! Three of those songs were pretty big singles of the time and “Black” became a famous anthem in its own right. “Once” is an energetic opener. “Why Go” isn’t extraordinary but works as a bridge from the first three songs to the next two. I rarely made it all the way through these six songs without going back to listen to one or more of them again. “Oceans,” “Porch,” “Garden,” “Deep,” and “Release” are less memorable for me, although I now love “Release” after hearing it on some of the official bootlegs the band has released.
How does it stand up today? I think I like it more now than I did then because I’ve now discovered the second “side” of the album. There is a slightly dated sound to the record, but the mix and mastering mostly hold up and the songs absolutely do. Pearl Jam wrote greater songs in the years that followed but they may never have been this consistent. Ten belongs in the discussion of great debut albums.
Filed under: Tags: Citzen Dick, Pearl Jam
it’s still a great record, even after all these years.
interesting how completely different our experiences were of the times. you were just out of school, i was 8 into a marriage that was headed for disaster about two years later. the emotion and angst had an effect on me, but obviously for different reasons.
It really holds up well. I won’t say I was surprised, but I hadn’t listened to it all the way through in awhile until yesterday. It holds together well and the individual songs are still great.
The emotion and angst, as you say, are universally understood even if the reasons for the connection are very individual and personal.
I really wish they’d release a fully remixed version of this album. Based on the examples on Rearviewmirror, the album would not sound dated at all if they took the somewhat murky mix off of it and just let it rock naturally like the rest of the band’s albums do.
I was working at the University radio station at Northeastern and pretty much had access to all the CDs the station manager decided not to play so I got to sample a wide variety of music that was never to make it onto the air.
Until I got to Ten.
I was likely stoned and/or drunk at the time but I listened to the entire album, by myself, in it’s entirety and it was incredible.
I had my own show (that I put flyers up asking people not to listen or call in so I could play whatever I wanted) on Sunday nights from 10PM to 4AM so I pretty much did play whatever I wanted.
My next show I opened with the entire album. Minutes after it had finished I actually got a phone call (!). It was the station manager. He wanted to know what the hell I just played and if there were any more copys of it.
As far as I know, I was the first person to every play Pearl Jam on air in Boston.
sgallier [at] da g funky mail dotts com (that obscure enough?)
You know, Tom, it’s interesting you mention the RVM set. The two songs from Singles which I don’t think were remixed but were remastered sound so different to my ears that it’s almost unnerving — especially “State of Love and Trust.” I wouldn’t mind seeing this album get a little TLC for its 20th, but I hope they’ll avoid the temptation to be too aggressive with the EQ.
I’m very surprised there hasn’t been some kind of “deluxe edition” of Ten yet. I’d be happy just to have the original album, remastered, and then the remix with some bonus b-sides added as the second disc.
PJ strikes me as a band that will object strenuously to the “churning” of their albums for corporate profits, so I’m not holding my breath. A 20-year anniversary edition wouldn’t feel too bad to me, but I’m not counting on one.
Lost Dogs collected a lot of their B-sides including those from the Ten era.
Eddie Vedder’s voice on “Even Flow” sounded like Vaughn Monroe singing “Racing with the Wind”,which was enough to make me not even curious about the rest of the CD.Never listened to another note of Pearl Jam.