Pearl Jam, Woodstock, and the meaning of Music 8-30-09
Some people, including my Dad, over the years have marveled at the dedication that my sister and I have to the band Pearl Jam. I would like to write about that dedication and the meaning of music to me....
First, with Pearl Jam...I will start by saying that the concert at the United Center this month was the 15th time that I have seen Pearl Jam. The first concert I went to was in 2000 at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. I then saw them at the United Center in Chicago, the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI, the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids with the Vote for Change Tour, flew to Kitchener, Ontario with my sister and saw them there, two more shows at the United Center in Chicago, one at the Van Andel in Grand Rapids with my brother Mike, one at the Palace again (my first date with Steve!!!), two shows at the stunning, breathtakingly beautiful Gorge Ampitheatre in George, Washington, Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Chicago, two shows in Camden, NJ with Mo and Philly Mike (the 2nd night was when Mo and I won the ticket lottery and were front row center!!!!!!!!!!), and then this last show in Chicago.
Why, some ask, would I see a band 15 times? (Mind you, my sister has seen them more as she has access now to all the East Coast shows.) There are so many reasons - more than just "they're my favorite band". I believe that music can change the world, but especially, and in this case, I believe that music can change a person....
Pearl Jam and Nirvana burst onto the scene in 1991 with their debut albums of "Ten" and "Nevermind", respectively. I was in the 8th grade - having just started in the public schools after 7 years in Catholic school. I was different from all the other kids, having skipped 2 grades. And, especially in junior high, I was made to feel different. I was treated so differently by everyone, and in many cases kids were very mean to me. Unfortunately, this lasted for many more years to come. Making friends was difficult. I also think that with puberty the chemicals in my brain changed to the point where we learned that my brain didn't make serotonin at the normal levels that it should be making that chemical - leading to the beginnings of a lifelong battle with depression. I was full of angst, sadness, anger, and had a much greater sense of the things that were wrong in the world and a frustration with how to right those wrongs.
Along came alternative music...Pearl Jam and Nirvana in particular captured that angst, that anger, that rage, that sadness, and that sense of things not being right in the world. And they did it in a way that was so new, so amazing, so rocking....Immediately I found an outlet. Here was the music that was talking about everything I was feeling...only talking about it better than I could. The guitars and pain in vocals amplified my emotion....and the music, frankly, kicked ass.
Through the music and what was called the "grunge" era of the early '90s I finally felt like I had a niche...I made friends who were all of that same musical persuasion. We traded underground and bootleg cassettes, we embraced it.
Sadly, Nirvana would not evolve as Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994....Amazingly, a friend of mine had killed himself just a week before. I remember feeling very very lost during that time and I am saddened that I had similar thoughts....and it was actually Pearl Jam's song "Alive" (ohhh - I'm still alive, yah...) that saw me through that time.
As years have gone on, the days eventually became less dark and angsty, but the outrage at the state of affairs in the world over the last decade or so has not faded. Pearl Jam evolved musically, developed and grew up, but as a band they have stayed on the pulse of political and social issues - anti-war, liberal, supporting the same causes that I support, introducing me to new causes, and their music has stayed poignant and relevant and still manages to kick ass....They have never sacrificed their politics and their beliefs - and I share their politics and their beliefs. Being a Pearl Jam fan and going to shows is showing solidarity in the liberal progressive causes they champion. As a band, they donate proceeds from every show to various charities, including the National Day of Service, the Free the West Memphis 3 fund, Sweet Home New Orleans, lots of individual music school programs for disadvantaged youth, a large number of environmental organizations, most famously the SurfriderFoundation, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, the Innocence Project, the Native American Rights Fund, NARAL, the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood. How could you go wrong?
When I am at a Pearl Jam show, nothing else in the world can bring me down - the music has me singing and dancing (even with bronchitis!) and brings such joy. They are funny and talented and amazing musicians....I'm madly in love with them...
The other reason that I love going to Pearl Jam shows has to do with my sister. My sister and I have developed such a tremendous friendship in our older years, and part of that comes from a shared love of the band and the fact that out of 15 shows I have been to, 11 have been with her. We GET each other, and we GET our love of Pearl Jam. We have used Pearl Jam as reasons to go on trips or to go and visit each other - I schedule visits to the east coast to see Pearl Jam, she comes to Chicago to visit and see Pearl Jam, together we went to Kitchener, Ontario to see Pearl Jam, our first and so far only front-row experience was together last year in New Jersey, and the year before we paid homage to alternative music, Seattle, and Pearl Jam through a trip out west to Seattle, over the mountains, and to the Gorge at George, Washington. Pearl Jam brings us together...and for that I am most grateful....
Pearl Jam is also a matchmaker, of sorts. My first date with Steve was to a Pearl Jam show - during the rare occasion that I don't go with my sister to a show I have to find someone else for my 2nd fan club ticket, so I invited Steve one year to go with me...and the rest, as they say, is history. Mo and Philly Mike would never have met if it weren't for Pearl Jam - they were both fan club members who chatted on an internet site together and attended a group meet-up of users of that site. That was how they met, and now they've been together longer than Steve and I.
Finally, pragmatically speaking, it's easier to get tickets and get to shows these days, and Pearl Jam concerts are always AMAZING....I have loved every single one....so I say, why not?
So Pearl Jam changed me and my life and therefore indirectly changes the world through a changed me....
But music has the power to change the world in many other ways as well - the most memorable example of that being Woodstock. This month marked the 40th, yes, 40th, anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair: An Aquarian Exposition. Now, being raised by the intelligent, socially informed, politically and culturally in touch parents that we were raised by, we grew up knowing that what happened on the farm was something that embodied the ideals and principles of an entire generation. What happened at Woodstock was never replicated...could never be replicated....it happened because of the events of the 1960s, the awakening of the sexual revolution, the civil rights advances, but most importantly Woodstock was a statement against the things that had developed in 1968 - the worst American casualties in a questionable war to date due to the Tet offensive, increasing anti-war movement developed as as result, the leader of the civil rights movement gunned down in his prime, the hopes and dreams of an American politic desperate for a leader who could pull us out of Vietnam, work toward greater rights for immigrants and minorities, who would push us to hope and work toward our hope, gunned down before those things could be realized. Too much violence that year spawned the idea that maybe a music festival could bring together the antithesis of that violence - 3 days of peace and music.
And it did. Woodstock was the pinnacle of the ways that things could be - that maybe there was hope for peace after all - maybe that peace was through music....For those people who attended Woodstock it was a life-changing experience....Unfortunately, the Woodstock generation as a movement was stymied when the National Guard gunned down 4 unarmed students at Kent State several months later. Then we knew, collectively, as a nation, that the hopes that had been put forth by John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, and even Malcolm X (who was adopting a nonviolent standpoint before his assassination), those hopes and dreams that had been revived by Woodstock, they were quashed through Kent State and Nixon. Any trust or belief in the government working for the people, by the people, of the people, was eliminated. There was a paradigm shift in the post-Woodstock era that was away from peace and love and the end of war through non-violence. There was a shift from the hopes and dreams laid out by the leaders when they were slain....it was as if Woodstock was one last attempt to change the world that was inevitably changing for the worse. The music laid out how that world could be - how we could create that world...
Unfortunately, the darkenss that began with Altamont and led to Kent State removed any possibility that we would ever regain that innocence, that hope, that promise of the generation. But for those 3 shining days, the possibility of the future lay ahead....we thought we would get somewhere....that music would change the world.
It is those ideals that shaped Woodstock that I think are still relevant ideals to adhere to, to live by - those ideals that with music, you can bring together half a million people have 3 full days of just peace and music....and it is just that....music bringing peace...
My love affair with Woodstock was instilled in me from birth, seemingly. My parents raised us that way - we listed repeatedly to the albums and had discussions at a young age about what the social and political climates were that framed the event. When I was a freshman in high school, the first term paper I ever wrote was called "Woodstock: What Happened on the Farm". Clearly I picked up my parents ideals that came from that generation and that came from the political and social figures of the 60s - the Kennedys, MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, the sexual revolution, the breakdown of gender barriers, gay rights movements, civil rights, equal rights...these all come from this ball of happiness that I like to think of as my History degree (My degree is in 20th century American history with a specific focus on Vietnam-era history).
So while I think that music can impact a generation, and the coming together to celebrate music like Woodstock is world-changing, Music is also powerful to save a life, and to change a life....
A final statement - from Joni Mitchell but co-opted by CSNY:
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong,
And everywhere there was song and celebration,
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies above out nation
First, with Pearl Jam...I will start by saying that the concert at the United Center this month was the 15th time that I have seen Pearl Jam. The first concert I went to was in 2000 at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. I then saw them at the United Center in Chicago, the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI, the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids with the Vote for Change Tour, flew to Kitchener, Ontario with my sister and saw them there, two more shows at the United Center in Chicago, one at the Van Andel in Grand Rapids with my brother Mike, one at the Palace again (my first date with Steve!!!), two shows at the stunning, breathtakingly beautiful Gorge Ampitheatre in George, Washington, Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Chicago, two shows in Camden, NJ with Mo and Philly Mike (the 2nd night was when Mo and I won the ticket lottery and were front row center!!!!!!!!!!), and then this last show in Chicago.
Why, some ask, would I see a band 15 times? (Mind you, my sister has seen them more as she has access now to all the East Coast shows.) There are so many reasons - more than just "they're my favorite band". I believe that music can change the world, but especially, and in this case, I believe that music can change a person....
Pearl Jam and Nirvana burst onto the scene in 1991 with their debut albums of "Ten" and "Nevermind", respectively. I was in the 8th grade - having just started in the public schools after 7 years in Catholic school. I was different from all the other kids, having skipped 2 grades. And, especially in junior high, I was made to feel different. I was treated so differently by everyone, and in many cases kids were very mean to me. Unfortunately, this lasted for many more years to come. Making friends was difficult. I also think that with puberty the chemicals in my brain changed to the point where we learned that my brain didn't make serotonin at the normal levels that it should be making that chemical - leading to the beginnings of a lifelong battle with depression. I was full of angst, sadness, anger, and had a much greater sense of the things that were wrong in the world and a frustration with how to right those wrongs.
Along came alternative music...Pearl Jam and Nirvana in particular captured that angst, that anger, that rage, that sadness, and that sense of things not being right in the world. And they did it in a way that was so new, so amazing, so rocking....Immediately I found an outlet. Here was the music that was talking about everything I was feeling...only talking about it better than I could. The guitars and pain in vocals amplified my emotion....and the music, frankly, kicked ass.
Through the music and what was called the "grunge" era of the early '90s I finally felt like I had a niche...I made friends who were all of that same musical persuasion. We traded underground and bootleg cassettes, we embraced it.
Sadly, Nirvana would not evolve as Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994....Amazingly, a friend of mine had killed himself just a week before. I remember feeling very very lost during that time and I am saddened that I had similar thoughts....and it was actually Pearl Jam's song "Alive" (ohhh - I'm still alive, yah...) that saw me through that time.
As years have gone on, the days eventually became less dark and angsty, but the outrage at the state of affairs in the world over the last decade or so has not faded. Pearl Jam evolved musically, developed and grew up, but as a band they have stayed on the pulse of political and social issues - anti-war, liberal, supporting the same causes that I support, introducing me to new causes, and their music has stayed poignant and relevant and still manages to kick ass....They have never sacrificed their politics and their beliefs - and I share their politics and their beliefs. Being a Pearl Jam fan and going to shows is showing solidarity in the liberal progressive causes they champion. As a band, they donate proceeds from every show to various charities, including the National Day of Service, the Free the West Memphis 3 fund, Sweet Home New Orleans, lots of individual music school programs for disadvantaged youth, a large number of environmental organizations, most famously the SurfriderFoundation, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, the Innocence Project, the Native American Rights Fund, NARAL, the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood. How could you go wrong?
When I am at a Pearl Jam show, nothing else in the world can bring me down - the music has me singing and dancing (even with bronchitis!) and brings such joy. They are funny and talented and amazing musicians....I'm madly in love with them...
The other reason that I love going to Pearl Jam shows has to do with my sister. My sister and I have developed such a tremendous friendship in our older years, and part of that comes from a shared love of the band and the fact that out of 15 shows I have been to, 11 have been with her. We GET each other, and we GET our love of Pearl Jam. We have used Pearl Jam as reasons to go on trips or to go and visit each other - I schedule visits to the east coast to see Pearl Jam, she comes to Chicago to visit and see Pearl Jam, together we went to Kitchener, Ontario to see Pearl Jam, our first and so far only front-row experience was together last year in New Jersey, and the year before we paid homage to alternative music, Seattle, and Pearl Jam through a trip out west to Seattle, over the mountains, and to the Gorge at George, Washington. Pearl Jam brings us together...and for that I am most grateful....
Pearl Jam is also a matchmaker, of sorts. My first date with Steve was to a Pearl Jam show - during the rare occasion that I don't go with my sister to a show I have to find someone else for my 2nd fan club ticket, so I invited Steve one year to go with me...and the rest, as they say, is history. Mo and Philly Mike would never have met if it weren't for Pearl Jam - they were both fan club members who chatted on an internet site together and attended a group meet-up of users of that site. That was how they met, and now they've been together longer than Steve and I.
Finally, pragmatically speaking, it's easier to get tickets and get to shows these days, and Pearl Jam concerts are always AMAZING....I have loved every single one....so I say, why not?
So Pearl Jam changed me and my life and therefore indirectly changes the world through a changed me....
But music has the power to change the world in many other ways as well - the most memorable example of that being Woodstock. This month marked the 40th, yes, 40th, anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair: An Aquarian Exposition. Now, being raised by the intelligent, socially informed, politically and culturally in touch parents that we were raised by, we grew up knowing that what happened on the farm was something that embodied the ideals and principles of an entire generation. What happened at Woodstock was never replicated...could never be replicated....it happened because of the events of the 1960s, the awakening of the sexual revolution, the civil rights advances, but most importantly Woodstock was a statement against the things that had developed in 1968 - the worst American casualties in a questionable war to date due to the Tet offensive, increasing anti-war movement developed as as result, the leader of the civil rights movement gunned down in his prime, the hopes and dreams of an American politic desperate for a leader who could pull us out of Vietnam, work toward greater rights for immigrants and minorities, who would push us to hope and work toward our hope, gunned down before those things could be realized. Too much violence that year spawned the idea that maybe a music festival could bring together the antithesis of that violence - 3 days of peace and music.
And it did. Woodstock was the pinnacle of the ways that things could be - that maybe there was hope for peace after all - maybe that peace was through music....For those people who attended Woodstock it was a life-changing experience....Unfortunately, the Woodstock generation as a movement was stymied when the National Guard gunned down 4 unarmed students at Kent State several months later. Then we knew, collectively, as a nation, that the hopes that had been put forth by John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, and even Malcolm X (who was adopting a nonviolent standpoint before his assassination), those hopes and dreams that had been revived by Woodstock, they were quashed through Kent State and Nixon. Any trust or belief in the government working for the people, by the people, of the people, was eliminated. There was a paradigm shift in the post-Woodstock era that was away from peace and love and the end of war through non-violence. There was a shift from the hopes and dreams laid out by the leaders when they were slain....it was as if Woodstock was one last attempt to change the world that was inevitably changing for the worse. The music laid out how that world could be - how we could create that world...
Unfortunately, the darkenss that began with Altamont and led to Kent State removed any possibility that we would ever regain that innocence, that hope, that promise of the generation. But for those 3 shining days, the possibility of the future lay ahead....we thought we would get somewhere....that music would change the world.
It is those ideals that shaped Woodstock that I think are still relevant ideals to adhere to, to live by - those ideals that with music, you can bring together half a million people have 3 full days of just peace and music....and it is just that....music bringing peace...
My love affair with Woodstock was instilled in me from birth, seemingly. My parents raised us that way - we listed repeatedly to the albums and had discussions at a young age about what the social and political climates were that framed the event. When I was a freshman in high school, the first term paper I ever wrote was called "Woodstock: What Happened on the Farm". Clearly I picked up my parents ideals that came from that generation and that came from the political and social figures of the 60s - the Kennedys, MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, the sexual revolution, the breakdown of gender barriers, gay rights movements, civil rights, equal rights...these all come from this ball of happiness that I like to think of as my History degree (My degree is in 20th century American history with a specific focus on Vietnam-era history).
So while I think that music can impact a generation, and the coming together to celebrate music like Woodstock is world-changing, Music is also powerful to save a life, and to change a life....
A final statement - from Joni Mitchell but co-opted by CSNY:
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong,
And everywhere there was song and celebration,
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies above out nation
posted by Kate @ 10:28 PM
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