Book review: On Track…PEARL JAM – every album, every song (Ben L Connor)

SonicBond Publishing [Publication date: 15.07.22]

Pearl Jam are the last band standing from the grunge explosion of the 1990’s. But there’s so much more to them than that. The quality of their music has shone like a beacon down the last 30 years. They collaborate and share, promote new bands, and deliver spine-tinglingly good live shows. And if that’s not enough, they are a band with a voice about social causes.

This book in the ‘On Track’ series by Ben L Connor explores all this and more. It rightly starts with the roots of Pearl Jam through their founders, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament in the bands Green River and Mother Love Bone. A few more pages are dedicated to the excellent and seminal ‘Temple of the Dog’ album recorded by members of Soundgarden with the future Pearl Jam in tribute to Mother Love Bone’s charismatic singer Andrew Wood, who had died in 1990.

The early history is important and Connor describes how Pearl Jam had not simply come out of nowhere when debut album ‘Ten’ went mega, as it might have appeared particularly to a UK audience. In describing ‘Ten’ as an important album, there’s further context setting in terms of the how the music scene looked and felt at that time of that release.

This relating of Pearl Jam’s material to other landmark albums and bands seeks to emphasise their place in rock n roll’s pantheon of greatness. It is a recurring theme throughout the book and arguably is a fraction overdone. As is the over-generalisation and segmentation of audiences into Baby Boomers, Gen-Zers, etc. But maybe that’s just my personal railing against pigeon-holers.

A wide range of quoted sources are used to provide informative descriptions of songs and albums, which together with Connor’s readable style and personal views (whether you agree with them or not) build to give a comprehensive sense of the band’s journey.

There’s a great quote to introduce the ‘Mirror Ball/Merkin Balll’ releases which sums this up: ‘By 1995 it seemed like Pearl Jam wanted to pick a fight with everybody – the music industry, concert promoters, record critics, their fellow bands and even their own fan base. But they managed to find one friend who was bull-headed and iconoclastic as they were: Neil Young’. The ‘Merkin Ball’ EP that resulted from this collaboration is one of the best in the band’s catalogue imho.

The post-grunge albums – from ‘Yield’ (1998) onwards – are given very fair treatment, if a little less space than the earlier material. The book makes a point of describing the narrative behind Eddie Vedder’s lyrics, where this is needed. Particularly on some of the more personal songs, but also exploring their relationship with, for example, global politics and organisaed religion. Connor weaves in informative detail about the circumstances which brought about recording of some songs, such as the ‘Leaving Here’ cover on the ‘Lost Dogs’ compilation.

The book wraps up with an overview of various live albums, videos, solo albums and a stab at ranking Pearl Jam’s best albums and songs, which serves as a discussion piece if nothing else. The bibliography is thorough.

There’s lots to like here, with plenty of material packed in to a brief volume. Amongst the many books and articles dedicated to Pearl Jam, this is worth a look. ****

Review by Dave Atkinson

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