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Tyler: Peter, tonight we’re taking on an album—nay, a CD—from your youth. Pearl Jam’s debut release, Ten, spun off quite a few hits and was seen as up there with Nevermind as hallmarks of a new “grunge” movement in rock.

How’d you come to Ten?

Peter: When I was 16 years old I bought a stereo with a 3-disc changer, which was convenient because for a long time I only owned three CDs – REM’s Document, Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, and Ten.

This is, by my count, our 26th album chat. And in all that time, this is only the second record we’ve done from my junior high/high school years. So this really feels like an album I lived through. I experienced it live, in real time. And, more importantly, I was a part of it. This was my scene. I was very into grunge music and the Alternative music boom that it started. We talk about a lot of different eras and genres and movements in music history, and for most of them, I’m just a tourist. I’m just visiting. Not so here.

How familiar were you with Ten prior to this?

Tyler: I knew “Jeremy” from MTV, of course, and over the years would hear other cuts from the album on local Cincinnati FM rock station WEBN. My sister, too, owned a copy, so I’ve long been aware of the now-iconic cover photo.

Coming into this exercise, nonetheless, I was fairly green.

Peter: It’s all very exciting. Tackling a big one like this. One from my life! If you don’t like something on here, keep it to yourself. These are my memories.

Kidding, of course.

Mostly.

In all seriousness, I feel like I lived through an inflection point in the history of rock & roll. I think it was as important as the Beatles arriving in America or the emergence of punk rock. The late ’80s really were a godforsaken wasteland in popular music. I mean, my older brother found things to like – REM, The Cure, U2, etc. – but a lot of it was underground stuff you didn’t hear on the radio. All of that changed after “Teen Spirit.” It’s hard to talk about Ten without mentioning Nevermind and Nirvana. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were like Jordan and Pippen, except they were both Jordan.

Lastly, before we begin, I’d like to point out that they had no idea what was coming. There was no way they could have known that Ten would go on to sell over 13 million copies worldwide. That “Alive,” and “Jeremy,” and “Black,” would become the anthems of a generation. Nor could they have anticipated the scrutiny that such success would bring. In the years that followed Ten’s release and the meteoric rise that accompanied it, Pearl Jam, and Eddie in particular, struggled to process it all. Their success came very close to consuming them. There was a time when it did not seem likely that they would still be around today touring and releasing new music for multiple generations of fans to enjoy.

Tyler: They’ve got a new single as we write. They’re lifers.

Peter: Alright, I said my piece. Let’s get after it.

Tyler: Kicking off the show is “Once.”

Peter: This song starts with a brief snippet of “Master/Slave,” the hidden track that closes the album. It was improvised in the studio.

“Once” is one of the songs that was on a demo Eddie got from Jack Irons. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were looking for a singer for their then-unnamed band. It was an instrumental on the demo and Eddie added vocals and sent it back to Stone and Jeff. They liked it enough to fly him up from San Diego for a tryout of sorts.

Tyler: I’ll be damned. That’s a pretty dope band origin story.

Peter: Yeah. There’s more to it, but we’ve got to talk about the music. “Once” is pretty heavy.

Tyler: It is. It’s a dark song, in keeping with much of what’s to follow.

Peter: Early Pearl Jam is pretty testosterone-y. Both Pearl Jam and Nirvana attracted a certain audience that didn’t really fit with their core ethos. Lots of bro-y jocks were drawn to the aggression and crunching dynamics of grunge, and a lot of those bands didn’t like seeing the kinds of kids who had once bullied them populating the audiences they played for.

Tyler: This is emotional, emotive, work. I can only imagine the frustration artists felt seeing their deeply personal compositions co-opted by such a crowd.

Peter: You’re right about it being dark. There are a lot of heavy songs on here addressing weighty topics. Greg Kot, writing for the Chicago Tribune, called Ten “utterly humorless.” And he’s right. While Kurt and Nirvana had a silly, sarcastic side, Pearl Jam really didn’t at this point. Kurt sang, “Here we are now, entertain us,” and rhymed “mosquito” with “libido,” on a song named after a deodorant’s catchphrase. I mean, that’s straight-up goofy. There really wasn’t room for that on Ten.

Tyler: Yeah, it’s rather a gravely serious record.

We’re scarcely into it here, but I feel confident saying that this isn’t rock that sounds good for its time. It’s good rock, period.

Peter: They were a good band. Right out of the gate.

Tyler: Next up: a big hit. “Even Flow.“

Peter: It was huge. I actually don’t love this one. It got played a ton. It’s hard to hear it with fresh ears.

Tyler: Didn’t Adam Sandler ape Vedder doing this song? Am I making that up?

Peter: Yeah. I’m trying to remember the bit. Was it as Operaman? Maybe? But, yeah, I remember that.

Tyler: That sounds right.

Peter: The production on this is pretty flashy for a grunge record.

Tyler: It’s quite clean and crisp.

Peter: Lots of lead guitar.

They actually don’t like the production on this album. In fact, they had their longtime producer, Brendan O’Brien, remix the record in 2009. His new version stripped away much of the reverb and other sort of classic rock production choices we hear here. It’s always struck me as a bit disingenuous when bands pooh-pooh their most commercially successful work. Show a little grace! Be thankful for your success! Swing, baby, you’re platinum!

That being said, this album is much closer to Aerosmith’s Pump, production-wise, than it is to, say, Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation or Meat Puppets II. It hurt their credibility at the time and it’s something they’ve bristled at ever since.

Tyler: I did think while listening, this doesn’t sound particularly “grungy.”

Peter: It’s true.

“Even Flow” is followed by “Alive.” Another big hit.

Tyler: How do you feel about “Alive,” which had a similar omnipresence?

Peter: I like “Alive.” It’s good.

Tyler: It’s damn near anthemic, ain’t it?

Peter: Totally. This album is packed with stadium rock.

This song is partially autobiographical. Eddie didn’t know his stepdad wasn’t his biological father until after his biological father’s death.

Tyler: Oof. That’s tough.

Peter: “While you were sitting home alone at age thirteen/Your real daddy was dyin’/Sorry you didn’t see him, but I’m glad we talked.”

Tyler: Damn.

Peter: Pretty dark.

I didn’t know this at the time, but Mike McCready is copying Ace Frehley in the guitar solo.

I would’ve been shocked. Kiss was deeply uncool at that point.

Tyler: That’s a helluva contrast indeed. But it works!

Peter: Next up is “Why Go.”

Tyler: This one was new to my ears.

It’s hard-charging.

Peter: It is. I liked that.

Tyler: Ah! But do you still?

Peter: Not as much. It’s fine. I don’t love the lyrics, or the story they tell, I guess. I don’t know if teens getting locked up in psych wards was a bigger issue in the nineties than it is today, but this feels like a bit of a reach. I don’t know, maybe I’m just out of touch.

Tyler: I doubt that. Who knows? Maybe Eddie read about it in The Seattle Times.

Peter: Is that a real paper?

Tyler: It is! I knew the name of it for some reason.

Peter: Nice. Shout out to The Seattle Times! Our favorite thing to read in Seattle. I’m guessing.

Tyler: There have to be at least a half-dozen alt-newsweeklies. Or there were. It’s Seattle!

Peter: That’s true. I shouldn’t hype them up like that. The Seattle Times is probably just pretty good, Seattle paper-wise.

Anyway, “Why Go,” is just a bit of a detour between the hits. Next up is “Black.”

Tyler: Oh, Lord, how I knew this song from countless plays on other people’s radios.

Peter: I don’t want to turn this into a therapy session, but I will say, if you’re a 16- or 17-year-old suffering from unrequited love, this song is the sound of your pain.

Tyler: Ah, those days.

I wasn’t thrilled to revisit it, but a few listens got me believing that the song is devastating.

Peter: “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life/I know you’ll be a star/In somebody else’s sky, but why, why/Why can’t it be, oh, can’t it be mine?”

Tyler: Yeah, that’s crushing. Guts me pretty good. We’ve all been there.

Peter: It’s another arena-ready anthem.

Tyler: That doo-doo-doo-so-forth lick is indelible.

Peter: Everyone can sing along.

Tyler: Have you seen them live?

Peter: I have, but it was too late. From maybe ’91 to ’94, they were incredible live. They were fine when I saw them, but you just can’t put the same energy into it in your forties and fifties. Rock and roll is for the young people.

Tyler: Our erstwhile targets the Stones might beg to differ.