Riding the Wave

Created by a band whose members have deep roots in the Seattle scene, Pearl Jam’s debut does a slow-burn on its way to becoming one of the era’s defining statements — and a reflective touchstone for millions who connect with its anthemic paeans to compassion, loss, triumph and pain, particularly in live settings.

TV-14

Live in Philadelphia April 29, 2016

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam in performance from Philadelphia in 2016. The blistering three-hour concert kicks off with the band playing its multi-platinum-selling debut album “Ten” from beginning to end. A Coda Cornerstone Collection.

Watch Full Movie on

Story

‘Ten’ in Concert: ‘We’re still alive’

Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut, “Ten,” really isn’t a concept album or a rock opera in the mold of singer Eddie Vedder’s rite-of-passage record, The Who’s “Quadrophenia.” But it’s got a theme all the same in that many of the songs are about outcasts who have had decisions made for them, who have been given little or no voice in their destiny. The final song, “Release,” amounts to a slow-burn prayer for deliverance.

Continue

Story

Not a Perfect Ten, But Still Unstoppable

I think of Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut album, “Ten,” as the equivalent of the 19th-century writer Mary Shelley’s most famous novel, “Frankenstein.” Shelley wrote a number of books, but it’s hard to imagine that any of her other novels will ever outsell or outshine “Frankenstein,” which is pretty much what can be said for Pearl Jam’s musical output after “Ten.”

timeline

A Pearl Jam Timeline, 1984-1992

Before Pearl Jam, there was Green River, Mother Love Bone and Mookie Blaylock, and the gas-pumping surfer dude that would connect them. Here’s a year-by-year look at the road to Pearl Jam’s debut album, “Ten,” and its immediate aftermath, when the Seattle sound went global.

Film

The Kids Are Twenty

Two hours of full-length performances, stemming from footage shot for the “Pearl Jam Twenty” film.

Story

Say It Ain’t So, Lemmy

No less an authority than Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister once advised a bandmate that there were very few hard, fast rules in rock, but one of them was “don’t wear shorts on stage.”

More Collections

Trawling for Adventure

Phish flouts predictability

Raw Power

AC/DC defines no-frills rock for five-plus decades

A Guitar God at the Volcano

Jimi Hendrix in 1970, the final year of his life

Inside the Motor City Madhouse

Creem magazine upends journalism

Wax Trax!: Industrial Rabble-Rousers

The industrial music revolution begins

Our Cookie Policy

To help us bring the stories between the songs to life, we use cookies and similar technologies to personalize your experiences. For more information, please refer to our

Cookie Policy.