Eddie Vedder Is A Vampire Essay Research

Eddie Vedder Is A Vampire Essay, Research Paper

Eddie Vedder Is A Vampire

Although at first he may seem to be just your average angst ridden lead man

for a popular rock and roll band, Eddie Vedder, the vocalist and lyricist for

Pearl Jam, may very well be a vampire. Although it is impossible to tell,

everything points to his being an immortal. An in depth analysis of his lyrics

shows that Pearl Jam’s second album, .Versus., has been used by Vedder as

sounding boards for the complex emotions and change of perspective that come

with one’s transition to vampirism. Other lyricists have used vampiric images

before – for instance Sting, in Moon Over Bourbon Street, which was written in

first person – but Vedder is unique in that his lyrics evolve over time as being

indicative of his vampiric state. Either he has become a vampire, he believes

himself to be a vampire, or he is leading a fictional double life, from which he

draws inspiration for his lyrics.

What exactly is a vampire. Numerous myths, folk tales, and works of

fiction exist on the matter of what makes up a vampire, but if they do exist,

vampires have been incredibly careful to conceal their presence from most people

(supposedly following a law known as the Masquerade), and very little is known

about them definitively. However, some basic facts are common to most sources.

These are: vampires drink blood, vampires live forever if not killed, and

vampires undergo grievous bodily harm if exposed to sunlight; this normally

kills them.

Many other things about vampires, such as their aversion to garlic,

their superhuman abilities, and their prohibition on entering abodes unless

invited, are mentioned in some sources and not others, and so it is unclear as

to how much of this applies to real vampires, and how much is pure myth.

Eddie’s vampiric tendencies became apparent in the lyrics to .Versus.,

Pearl Jam’s second album. Pearl Jam’s first album, .Ten., contains no real

evidence of vampirism, and his lyric writing style is subtly different from that

in .Versus.. In .Ten., the lyrics are often in ballad form, generally relating

tales of normal people. The songs Jeremy, Alive, Deep, and Black were all

number one hits in the U.S. from .Ten.. Eddie was not writing about himself in

these songs, and was only assuming personas for the narrative, a standard device

for composers of fiction of any kind. Thus, the lyrics were simply Eddie’s view

of the world around him, incorporating characters and situations which he could

relate to.

Eddie’s lyric writing style had change considerably in the second album,

.Versus.. Although he still wrote some songs similar to those on .Ten.,

expounding upon the specific lives of characters and the situation they

encountered (i.e. Daughter), there is also a tendency for social commentary.

The general trend in .Versus. is for the lyrics to offer a critical view of

human society, often comparing it to vampiric society. It would seem that at

this stage, Eddie had become aware of the existence of vampires, and had been

offered the chance to become one of them. This is corroborated by the lyrics.

Eddie views Vampires as a different “species” to human, with a different

society, customs, and moral code. Many of the lyrics on .Versus. are attempts

by Eddie to compare the two .species., humans and vampires. A general disgust

with the human race and it’s customs is evident, and Eddie is considering

vampirism as an alternative to all that he dislikes about human existence. The

song Rats is a good example. At first it would seem to be a comparison of

humans with rats, but even a brief glance at the lyrics would indicate that

several qualities are mentioned common to both rats and humans: .they don’t eat,

don’t sleep.. The correct interpretation becomes clear when one considers

Eddie’s comparison of humanity with vampirism. In the song, the humans are

represented by rats, and vampires by .they.. It is essentially a list of all

things bad about the human race, which Eddie hopes to rid of through the change

to vampirism:

“they don’t… lick the dirt off a larger one’s feet

they don’t push

don’t crowd

congregate until they’re much too loud

fu#. to procreate .till they are dead

drink the blood of their so called best friend”

While the last line may appear to contradict the vampiric interpretation, in

fact it strengthens it. Most known vampiric codes strictly prohibit the

drinking of a fellow vampire’s blood (known as .diablerie.), and tales exist of

vampires being ostracized for it.

Several of the other songs on .Versus. have vampiric interpretations.

Animal is indicative of Vedder’s disgust with the human race; he’d .rather be

with an animal. than with a human. W.M.A. is also a song of general disgust

with human society, focusing on the race conflict in

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