Jeremy (song)
Encyclopedia
"Jeremy" is a song by the American grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

 band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...

 that features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...

 and music written by bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

. "Jeremy" was released in 1992 as the third single from Pearl Jam's debut album, Ten
Ten (Pearl Jam album)
Ten is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and...

(1991). The song reached the number five spot on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

charts. It did not originally chart on the regular Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 singles chart since it was not released as a commercial single in the U.S. at the time, but a re-release in July 1995 eventually brought it up to number 79. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003). A remixed version of the song was included on the 2009 Ten reissue.

The song especially gained notoriety by way of its music video (directed by Mark Pellington
Mark Pellington
-Life and career:Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He directed The Mothman Prophecies, a 2002 film starring Richard Gere dealing with mysterious deaths foretold by a strange red-eyed flying creature, Mothman, as well as Arlington Road in 1999 starring Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges....

 and released in 1992), which was put into heavy rotation by MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 and became a hit. In 1993, the "Jeremy" video was awarded four MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

, including Best Video of the Year.

Composition

"Jeremy" is in the key of A, and intertwines the parallel modes of major and minor frequently. It features prominent usage of Ament's 12-string
Twelve-string bass
The twelve-string bass is an electric bass with four courses each of three strings.Normal tuning is eeE-aaA-ddD-ggG, with one string of each course tuned similarly to the corresponding string of the four-string bass, and the remaining two strings tuned to the octave.-Notable 12-string Bassists:*...

 Hamer
Hamer Guitars
Hamer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars. Founded in 1973 by vintage guitar shop owners, Jol Dantzig and his business partner Paul Hamer. Early instruments featured guitar designs based on the Gibson Explorer and Flying V...

 bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, which is pivotal to the sound of the introduction and end of the recording. The song starts off with the bassline and quiet harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...

 notes also on the 12-string bass, and continues in a sedate vein until after the second chorus, when densely layered guitars and vocals gradually enter. At the end the instruments gradually fade out until all that is audible is a clean guitar and the 12-string bass, like the intro. Both instruments play a descending minor key melody, fading out with one single note.

Lyrics

"Jeremy" is based on two different true stories. The song takes its main inspiration from a newspaper article about a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle from Richardson
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 99,223. In 2011 the population was estimated to be 107,684. Richardson is an affluent inner suburb of Dallas and home of the Telecom Corridor with a high...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 who killed himself in front of his English classmates at Richardson High School
Richardson High School
Richardson High School is a High school in Richardson, Texas, United States with a 2006 enrollment of approximately 2500 and a student/teacher ratio of 12.8.-Background:...

 on Monday morning of January 8, 1991 at about 9:45 am. In a 2009 interview, Vedder said that he felt "the need to take that small article and make something of it—to give that action, to give it reaction, to give it more importance."

Delle was described by schoolmates as "real quiet" and known for "acting sad." After coming in to class late that morning, Delle was told to get an admittance slip from the school office. He left the classroom, and returned with a .357 Magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...

 revolver. Delle walked to the front of the classroom, announced "Miss, I got what I really went for", put the barrel of the firearm in his mouth, and pulled the trigger before his teacher or classmates could react. A girl named Lisa Moore knew Jeremy from the in-school suspension program: "He and I would pass notes back and forth and he would talk about life and stuff," she said. "He signed all of his notes, 'Write back.' But on Monday he wrote, 'Later days.' I didn't know what to make of it. But I never thought this would happen."

When asked about the song, Vedder explained:
It came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. Sixty-three degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood. That's the beginning of the video and that's the same thing is that in the end, it does nothing … nothing changes. The world goes on and you're gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back.


The other story that the song is based on involved a student that Vedder knew from his junior high school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He elaborated further in a 1991 interview:
I actually knew somebody in junior high school, in San Diego, California, that did the same thing, just about, didn't take his life but ended up shooting up an oceanography room. I remember being in the halls and hearing it and I had actually had altercations with this kid in the past. I was kind of a rebellious fifth-grader and I think we got in fights and stuff. So it's a bit about this kid named Jeremy and it's also a bit about a kid named Brian that I knew and I don't know...the song, I think it says a lot. I think it goes somewhere...and a lot of people interpret it different ways and it's just been recently that I've been talking about the true meaning behind it and I hope no one's offended and believe me, I think of Jeremy when I sing it.

Release and reception

While the "Jeremy" single was released commercially to international markets in 1992, the commercial single was not released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. "Jeremy" was released as a single in 1992 with the previously unreleased B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

s "Footsteps" and "Yellow Ledbetter
Yellow Ledbetter
"Yellow Ledbetter" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready, "Yellow Ledbetter" was an outtake from the band's debut album, Ten...

", both of which can also be found on the compilation album, Lost Dogs
Lost Dogs (album)
Lost Dogs is a two-disc compilation album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 11, 2003 through Epic Records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA in the United States.-Overview:...

(2003), the former as an alternate version, and the latter of which can also be found on the band's greatest hits compilation, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003). "Jeremy" became the most successful song from Ten on the American rock charts. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts. The "Jeremy" single has been certified gold by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

. At the 1993 Grammy Awards
Grammy Awards of 1993
The 35th Grammy Awards were held in 1993. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Eric Clapton was the night's big winner, winning 6 awards including Album of the Year.-Award winners:*Record of the Year...

, "Jeremy" received nominations for Best Rock Song
Grammy Award for Best Rock Song
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre...

 and Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...

.

Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the song reached the top 40 on the Canadian Singles Chart
RPM (magazine)
RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

. "Jeremy" reached the UK Top 20. It peaked at number 93 in Germany, reached the top 40 in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, and was a top ten success in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.

Chris True of Allmusic said that "Jeremy" "is where Pearl Jam mania galvanized and propelled the band past the 'Seattle sound' and into rock royalty." He described it as a "classic buildup tune" and proclaimed it as "arguably Pearl Jam's most earnest work and one of their most successful singles." Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 said, "'Jeremy' is the most pat Freudian psychodrama on an album full of them."

In March 2009, "Jeremy" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

series as a master track as part of the album Ten.

Original video

In July 1991, Vedder became acquainted with photographer Chris Cuffaro. Vedder suggested Cuffaro film a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for the band. On Vedder's insistence, Epic
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

 gave Cuffaro permission to use any song off Ten. He decided on "Jeremy", which was not intended to be released as a single at the time. Epic refused to fund the clip, forcing Cuffaro to finance it himself.

Cuffaro raised the money by taking out a loan and selling all of his furniture and half his guitar collection. He first filmed several scenes of a young actor, Eric Schubert, playing the part of Jeremy. Cuffaro and his crew spent a day filming Schubert playing the part of Jeremy. The scenes with Pearl Jam were filmed in a warehouse on Pico Boulevard
Pico Boulevard
Pico Boulevard is a major Los Angeles street that runs from the Pacific Ocean at Appian Way in Santa Monica to Central Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California, USA...

 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 on October 4, 1991. A revolving platform was rigged at the center of the set, and the members of the band climbed on it individually to give the illusion of the song being performed as a crew member spun the giant turntable by hand. Vedder appeared with black gaffer's tape around his biceps as a mourning band for the real Jeremy.

To save money, Cuffaro did all of the post-production himself. He finished the video after six months, but it was ultimately rejected by Epic. Cuffaro's version was never broadcast, and lived on only in bootlegs. It is currently available on his website.

Official video

By the time Cuffaro finished his music video, Epic had warmed up to the idea of releasing "Jeremy" as a single. Music video director Mark Pellington
Mark Pellington
-Life and career:Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He directed The Mothman Prophecies, a 2002 film starring Richard Gere dealing with mysterious deaths foretold by a strange red-eyed flying creature, Mothman, as well as Arlington Road in 1999 starring Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges....

 was brought in to handle the project. Pellington said that he "wasn't a huge fan of the band, but the lyrics intrigued me—I spoke to Eddie, and I really got connected to his passion." Pellington and Pearl Jam convened in Kings Cross, London
Kings Cross, London
King's Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. The area formerly had a reputation for being a red light district and run-down. However, rapid regeneration...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in June 1992 to film a new version of the "Jeremy" music video.

Working with veteran editor Bruce Ashley, Pellington's high-budget video incorporated rapid-fire editing and juxtaposition of sound, still images, graphics and text elements with live action sequences to create a collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 effect. Actor Trevor Wilson portrayed Jeremy. Wilson filmed his classroom scenes as Jeremy at Bayonne High School
Bayonne High School
Bayonne High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, operated by the Bayonne Board of Education....

 in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The video also featured many close-ups of Vedder performing the song, with the other members of Pearl Jam shown only briefly. Some of the stock imagery was similar to the original video, but when it came to the band Pellington focused on Vedder. Vedder thus serves as the video's narrator. Ament said, "It was mostly Mark and Ed’s vision. In fact, I think it would have been a better video if the rest of the band wasn’t in it. I know some of us were having a hard time with the movie-type video that Mark made, because our two previous videos were made live."

The video premiered on August 1, 1992, and quickly found its way into heavy rotation on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

. Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

described the music video as "an Afterschool Special from hell." She stated that "when Eddie Vedder yowls the lyric 'Jeremy spoke in class today,' a chill frosts your cranium to the point of queasy enjoyment." The success of the "Jeremy" video helped catapult Pearl Jam to fame. Pellington stated, "I think that video tapped into something that has always been around and will always be around. You're always going to have peer pressure, you're always going to have adolescent rage, you're always going to have dysfunctional families." The video won four MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

 in 1993, including Best Video of the Year
MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year
The MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year is the main award handed out at the yearly MTV Video Music Awards. It was first awarded in , when The Cars won it, and has been given out since. Eminem has been the most nominated solo artist, male solo artist, and act in this category, having been...

, Best Group Video
MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video was first given out at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards; and in 2007, going along with how the VMAs were revamped that year, the award was renamed Best Group, as it awarded the artist's body of work for the full year rather than a specific video...

, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video
MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video was first given out in , and it was one of the four original genre categories added to the VMAs that year. That year, though, the award was called the Best Heavy Metal Video. From 1990 to 1995, the award was called the Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, and...

 and Best Direction
MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction
The following is a list of MTV Video Music Awards winners for Best Direction in a Video. In 2007, the award was briefly renamed Best Director, but it returned to its original name for the 2008 awards....

.

Video summary

In Pellington's video, Jeremy is shown being taunted by classmates at school, running through a forest, and screaming at his parents at a dinner table. Jeremy is the only character that actually moves throughout the video. Most of the other characters in Jeremy's life are in stationary tableau. Shots of words such as "problem", "peer", "harmless", and "bored" frequently appear onscreen. Also, the phrase Genesis 3:6 appears, which references the creation of sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

, specifically Eve
Eve
Eve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...

 eating from the Tree of Knowledge
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
In the Book of Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of knowledge was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. . God directly forbade Adam to eat the fruit of this tree...

 and giving some of the fruit to Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...

. As the song becomes more dense and frenetic, Jeremy's behavior becomes increasingly agitated. Strobe lighting adds to the anxious atmosphere. Jeremy is shown standing, arms raised in a V (as described in the lyrics at the beginning of the song), in front of a wall of billowing flames. Jeremy is later shown staring at the camera while wrapped in a US flag, surrounded by fire.

The final scene of the video shows Jeremy striding into class, tossing the balled up late pass he had been sent for to the teacher and standing before his classmates. He reaches down and draws back his arm as he takes a gun out of his pocket. The gun only appears onscreen in the uncut version of the video. The edited video cuts to an extreme close-up of Jeremy's face as he puts the barrel of the gun in his mouth, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger. After a flash of light the screen turns black. The next shot is a pan across the classroom, showing Jeremy's blood-splattered classmates, all completely still, recoiling in horror. Prior to the shooting scene, Vedder is at seen making a "finger gun
Finger gun
The finger gun is a hand gesture in which the subject uses their hand to mimic a handgun, raising their thumb above their fist to act as a hammer, and one or two fingers extended perpendicular to it acting as a barrel...

" gesture and pointing it at his head, as a form of foreshadowing
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...

. A blackboard, where all the harsh terms and phrases had been scrawled, is shown dangling presumably where Vedder had been singing.

Controversy

MTV restrictions on violent imagery prevented Pellington from showing Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger at the climax of the video. Ironically, the ambiguous close-up of Jeremy at the end of the edited video, combined with the defensive posture of Jeremy's classmates and the large amount of blood, led many viewers to believe that the video ended with Jeremy shooting his classmates, not himself.

Pellington himself dismisses this interpretation of the video. He said, "Probably the greatest frustration I've ever had is that the ending [of the "Jeremy" video] is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates. The idea is, that's his blood on them, and they're frozen at the moment of looking." He had filmed a scene where Jeremy is shown putting the gun in his mouth, but this footage was edited with a zoom effect for the MTV version of the video so the gun was not visible. Pellington also filmed a slightly different take of the classroom Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942...

 sequence. In the MTV version of the video there is a brief shot of Jeremy's classmates making a gesture that could be either the American Bellamy salute
Bellamy salute
The Bellamy salute is the salute described by Francis Bellamy to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance, which he had authored. During the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance, it was sometimes known as the "flag salute"...

 or the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 Hitler salute
Hitler salute
The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...

; in the original cut of the video this scene is longer.

After "Jeremy", Pearl Jam backed away from making music videos. "Ten years from now," Ament said, "I don't want people to remember our songs as videos." The band did not release another video until 1998's "Do the Evolution
Do the Evolution
"Do the Evolution" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Do the Evolution" is the seventh track on the band's fifth studio album, Yield . Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the...

", which was entirely animated.

In 1996, a shooting occurred at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Washington
Moses Lake, Washington
Moses Lake is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 20,366 as of the 2010 census. Moses Lake is the largest city in Grant County.-Background:...

 that left three dead and a fourth injured. The legal defense team for the shooter, Barry Loukaitis
Barry Loukaitis
The Frontier Middle School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on February 2, 1996 at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, Washington, United States. The gunman, 14-year-old Barry Dale Loukaitis , killed his algebra teacher and two students, and held his classmates hostage for ten minutes...

, stated that he was influenced by the music video.

After the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...

 in 1999, MTV and VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

 rarely aired the video, and mention of it was omitted in retro-documentaries such as I Love the '90s. It is still available on the internet, on websites such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

. It can also occasionally be seen playing at Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2006, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and...

 locations. The video has been getting airtime on VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...

 and MTV Hits
MTV Hits
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. The format of the network resembles that of the classic MTV before the additional of other programming to that network in the 1990s and their slow decline of music video programming...

 programming as of 2006, and is currently in circulation via late night playlists featured on Scuzz
Scuzz
Scuzz is a British music television channel owned and operated by CSC Media Group . It launched on 17 April 2003 and has gone on to be the highest-rated rock TV station on UK satellite. The channel plays a broad range of rock and all its subgenres...

. The video was included in MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

's list of the 12 most controversial videos. The reason was because of the topic of suicide, and recent school shootings. The scene of Jeremy with the gun in his mouth was not shown. It was also included on VH1's countdown of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s" at number 11, with several clips of the video shown, including part of the ending. The uncensored version of the video was shown as part of the retrospective "Pearl Jam Ten Revisited" on VH1 Classic in 2009 prior to the album's re-release, including the shot in which Jeremy puts the gun in his mouth. The closing scene was also parodied in the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...


in the episode "Baby Talk".

Live performances

"Jeremy" was first performed live at the band's May 17, 1991 concert in Seattle, Washington at the Off Ramp Café. Pearl Jam performed the song for its appearance on MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged
MTV Unplugged is a TV series showcasing many popular musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show has received the George Foster Peabody Award and 3 Primetime Emmy nominations among many accolades.-Unplugged:...

in 1992. Pearl Jam also performed "Jeremy" at the MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

 in 1992. The band had intended to perform the Dead Boys
The Dead Boys
The Dead Boys were an American punk rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. Among the first wave of early punk bands, the Dead Boys were initially active from 1976 to 1979, briefly reuniting in 1987, 2004 and 2005.-Formation and 1970s punk rock era:...

 song "Sonic Reducer
Sonic Reducer
"Sonic Reducer" is a punk rock song written by Gene O'Connor and David Thomas during their tenure in Rocket from the Tombs, which made its debut on the Dead Boys 1977 album Young, Loud and Snotty...

", but MTV insisted that it play "Jeremy" since the song's music video was already in heavy rotation. (It had been released after the deadline for that year's awards.) At the end of the intense performance, Vedder managed to sneak in a reference to the Dead Boys song by singing the first line of "Sonic Reducer", "I don't need no ... I don't need no mom and dad." Live performances of "Jeremy" can be found on the "Animal
Animal (Pearl Jam song)
"Animal" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released in 1994 as the third single from the band's second studio album, Vs. . Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist Stone Gossard. The song...

" single, the "Dissident
Dissident (song)
"Dissident" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released in 1994 as the fourth single from the band's second studio album, Vs. . The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...

"/Live in Atlanta box set, various official bootlegs
Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs
The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...

, the Live at the Gorge 05/06
Live at the Gorge 05/06
Live at the Gorge 05/06 is a seven-disc live box set by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on June 26, 2007 through Rhino/WEA. The box set documents the band's 2005 and 2006 shows at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington....

box set, and the Drop in the Park LP included in the Super Deluxe edition of the Ten reissue. Performances of the song are also included on the DVD Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...

and the MTV Unplugged DVD included in the Ten reissue.

Cover versions

A version of "Jeremy" by MiG Ayesa
Mig Ayesa
Miguel Alfonso Ramon Legarda "MiG" Ayesa is an Australian rock vocalist.-Biography:Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in Sydney, Australia, and has three-fourths-Spanish maternal ancestry and fourth-Ilonggo paternal and maternal ancestries. His Spanish ancestry came from Preysler lineage...

 can be found on the 2007 album, MiG
MiG (album)
MiG is MiG Ayesa's debut self-titled solo album, first released in April 2007. It is made up of rock covers with orchestral arrangements, including an arrangement of "Baby, I Love Your Way" which original artist, Peter Frampton, played the acoustic guitar in...

. The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...

 also released a cover of the song in their Live Smashing Pumpkins
Live Smashing Pumpkins
Live Smashing Pumpkins is a joint venture between the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins and the music distributor Nugs.net Enterprises to sell audio recordings "mastered directly from the soundboard" of The Smashing Pumpkins concerts from the band's 2008 20th anniversary tour of...

 album series.

Track listing

CD (US, Australia, Austria, Brazil, and Germany) and Cassette (Australia and Indonesia)
  1. "Jeremy" (Eddie Vedder
    Eddie Vedder
    Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...

    , Jeff Ament
    Jeff Ament
    Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

    ) – 4:49
  2. "Footsteps" (Stone Gossard
    Stone Gossard
    Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

    , Vedder) – 3:53
    • Recorded live on Rockline
      Rockline
      Rockline is a nationally syndicated radio interview program hosted by Bob Coburn that broadcasts live via satellite every Monday and Wednesday night from 8:30pm-10pm PT to radio stations in the United States. Founded in 1981, it is considered to be the longest running, uninterrupted program in rock...

      on May 11, 1992.
  3. "Yellow Ledbetter
    Yellow Ledbetter
    "Yellow Ledbetter" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready, "Yellow Ledbetter" was an outtake from the band's debut album, Ten...

    " (Ament, Mike McCready
    Mike McCready
    Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

    , Vedder) – 5:04


CD (UK)
  1. "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46
  2. "Yellow Ledbetter" (Ament, McCready, Vedder) – 5:04
  3. "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55
    • Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington.


7" Vinyl (UK) and Cassette (UK)
  1. "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46
  2. "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55
    • Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington.


7" Vinyl (The Netherlands)
  1. "Jeremy" (Vedder, Ament) – 4:49
  2. "Footsteps" (Gossard, Vedder) – 3:53
    • Recorded live on Rockline on May 11, 1992.


7" Vinyl (US)
  1. "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 5:18
  2. "Alive" (Vedder, Gossard) – 5:40


12" Vinyl (UK)
  1. "Jeremy" (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46
  2. "Footsteps" (Gossard, Vedder) – 3:53
    • Recorded live on Rockline on May 11, 1992.
  3. "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55
    • Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington.

Chart positions

Chart (1992) Position
US Mainstream Rock Tracks 5
US Modern Rock Tracks 5
Canadian RPM
RPM (magazine)
RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

Singles Chart
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....

32
Dutch Singles Chart
MegaCharts
MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...

59
German Singles Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

93
Irish Singles Chart
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...

10
New Zealand Singles Chart
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...

34
UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

15
Chart (1995) Position
US Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

79

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to "Jeremy" is adapted in part from AcclaimedMusic.net.
Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

"100 Greatest Videos Ever Made" 1999 19
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

United States "The 100 Top Music Videos" 1993 36
Rolling Stone United States "The 100 Greatest Pop Songs Since the Beatles" 2000 48
VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

United States "100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years" 2003 32
VH1 United States "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s" 2007 11
Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...

United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

"100 Greatest Singles of All Time" 2002 85

External links

  • Steele Shepherds Page on Jeremy Wade Delle
  • Music video for "Jeremy" (Alternate version) on Chris Cuffaro's homepage (QuickTime
    QuickTime
    QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...

    , 31 MB
    Megabyte
    The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...

    )
  • Lyrics at pearljam.com
  • [ Review of "Jeremy"] at Allmusic
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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