"Love is All You Need...All You Need is Love" ~ Pearl Jam, Love Boat Captain

My relationship with Pearl Jam began a long time ago, but really blossomed within the last ten years after I met Rob, the biggest Pearl Jam fan I know. In sixth grade, I received my first CD player for Christmas from my parents. Along with it, I got my first CD - Pearl Jam "Vs." I asked for the CD because in music class, a boy I had a crush on played "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town" and I wanted him to like me so I got the CD, listened to is constantly and called him with it playing in the back and just casually mentioned that I liked Pearl Jam too (I was so smooth). Over jr. high and high school, I had a casual relationship with PJ - I never bought any of their other albums, unless you count the cassette tape single of "Last Kiss." 

Dancing at our wedding to Pearl Jam

Fast forward to the fall of 2001 when I met Rob Carlson at UMass and it came up that he was a big Pearl Jam fan. My sixth grade game came back to me and I mentioned my first CD was "Vs." (I left out that it was my only Pearl Jam album). I immediately downloaded (oh the joys of free music downloads in college) a ton of Pearl Jam songs and started to realize that there was more to Pearl Jam than the orange Vs. album, Last Kiss and the other songs I heard on the radio. I started to become more of a fan and attended my first concert with Rob in September of 2004. Since that time, I have become WAY more of a fan and attended 8 more concerts and countless cover band concerts.

Philly, 2009

We have a ton of fun memories from Pearl Jam concerts - hearing "Leash" played in 2006 for the first time since 1993, an epic pre-game tailgate including flip cup in the summer of 2008, taking a road trip to Philly for back-to-back concerts in 2009, going to two concerts in one week while pregnant with Matthew - one in Boston and one in NYC.  

We incorporated Pearl Jam into our wedding - our first dance was to a Pearl Jam version of "Can't Help Falling in Love with You", our wedding bands are engraved with lyrics from "Love Boat Captain", and the last song played was "Yellow Ledbetter". There were a ton of Pearl Jam songs on my "labor playlist" including a lullaby album of Pearl Jam songs which we have used to soothe Matthew to sleep. There are many lyrics of songs that remind me of specific situations and I love that roadtrips are always made better by listening to something that we both enjoy. 

Matthew gives Pearl Jam a thumbs up

After all these memories and experiences, as I was making my "30 Before 30 list", I realized that I had never listened to each studio album from start to finish. It was a wonderful project to take on and I found some songs that were a little off my radar screen, either they don't play them much in concert or I had always thought I didn't like them. So here is my take on each album, starting at the beginning...

Updated: February 2018
In the six+ years since I wrote this original blog, we have been to six more concerts for a total of 15 for me, and we are going to at least two more this year at Fenway and a bucket list trip to see them in their home city of Seattle. Looking forward to shows 16, 17 and 18 in 2018!

Artwork from Birthday show

Some standout memories of the most recent shows are going to Chicago to see them play at Wrigley Field for the first time ..which included a massive rain delay in the middle of the show but they debuted some new music which was pretty great. We went to back-to-back shows in Worcester in 2013, right before I got pregnant with Juliette, including a show on my actual birthday. What a nice gift! We have that concert artwork framed on our bedroom wall. In the spring of 2016, we took a trip to Florida to see shows in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami for our first real trip away from the kids. Can’t wait to update after these 2018 shows!

Ten - obviously an amazing album, some of Pearl Jam's best known songs are from this CD. "Black" is one of my favorite songs, even though it's extremely sad. I think I have a greater respect for this album after seeing the PJ20 movie. 

Vs - still my favorite. It will always have a special place in my heart. My favorite Pearl Jam song is "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town." Other gems - "Glorified G"  - the music is so upbeat even if the lyrics are about guns, I will never not laugh while listening to "Daughter" (ask Dave or Rob about the story behind that), and obviously "Leash" is just pure awesomeness. I listened to this on a run once and set a personal record that I still have not beat. 

Vitalogy - not my favorite. Two songs I just couldn't stand. "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" and "Bugs" are just hard to get through. "Better Man" and "Corduroy" are pretty solid.

No Code - LOVE "Smile" and "In My Tree". I was reintroduced to "Around the Bend" which is the closest thing Pearl Jam has to a lullaby. 

Yield - For the most part, really enjoy this album. I'm not a fan of "Do the Evolution" at all, although I should just used to it because they play it live a lot. I just get creeped out by the soft singing and the video with the horses disturbs me. There are some great songs on this album though: "Low Light", "Faithful", "Given to Fly" and one of my favorite songs "Wishlist". I like a lot of the slower songs and the lyrics are just amazing. 

Binural - Terrible. Almost no redeeming qualities...it was painful to get through. 

Riot Act - Clearly I'm a fan of "Love Boat Captain" and also love "I am Mine." Some of the others are too weird/political for my liking. I'm glad they don't play many of these live. 

Pearl Jam - Awesome. This album came out when my Pearl Jam obsession had just really started but I really do like pretty much every song. "Come Back" and "Parachutes" are my favorite. My all-time favorite scene from any episode of "Friday Night Lights" has "Come Back" as the soundtrack. 

Backspacer - Also awesome. I love all of these songs and absolutely LOVE "Just Breathe." I may have got tears in my eyes in Philly when they played it acoustically with string instruments accompanying. 




Lighting Bolt - VS still holds as my favorite, but Lighting Bolt may be a close second. It’s very easy to listen to the whole album, there are no songs I dislike. There are definitely some favorites including “Sirens”, by far my favorite song on the album. I typically love the slow ones anyways but there is so much meaning to this one. This song was playing in the delivery room the moment Juliette was born. I heard her first cries with it playing in the background. You can’t beat that! This is also one of Matthew’s favorite bedtime songs for the last four years. The first time I heard it live was on my birthday and the last time I heard it was live was the day before Juliette’s 2nd birthday. They also played it at both shows in Florida, our first trip away from the kids. I have cried all four times. I also love Mind Your Manners, and whenever I listen I picture the guys (mostly Mike) running around the stage dancing. I also love the slow build up on Lightning Bolt and Pendulum. The last track, “Future Days” is amazing and obviously makes me think of Rob, the whole reason I am such a big Pearl Jam fan.



Hoping for a new album soon to review!

So there you go. I had a hard time picking a lyric for this post title since there are so many...but because ultimately it was my love for Rob which turned me into a Pearl Jam fan, I thought it was appropriate.

Feel free to leave comments about your favorite Pearl Jam songs, lyrics or memories! :)