How did Pearl Jam come up with the song Jeremy?

[Hawkee]

I was listening to music and found a weird song by Pearl Jam named Jeremy and when I listened to it I found the lyrics creepy and I would like to know how the song became a hit and how it came to be? The video for the song is really cool like a movie? Is Jeremy a troubled kid who's a bully or does he not fit in at school and gets in trouble a lot?
How this song became a monster hit for Pearl Jam i'll never understand and was it also released in a clean version too? Because the version of Jeremy I found was the explicit lyrics version
Bestie

[Yong Fang]

Ironically I had a cousin named Jeremy (well, a son of a cousin, and I was about 10 years older than him) who killed himself. His father (my cousin) was an alcoholic, we didnt know each other well, since I lived about 500 miles away, but usually would see him every couple of years growing up.

He would up divorcing his wife who he married right after high school after getting her pregnant. My other cousin (who was also his cousin) said that years after the divorce, he got so wasted he couldn't get off the floor but somehow called his ex-wife and her husband to come and get him off the floor. It's not funny but it is in a way, I told my cousin I would rather just die on the floor before calling my ex-wife and her husband to rescue me.

Jeremy just grew up in a bad way with an older brother I didnt really know, and got involved in crime. He was arrested stealing a motorcycle and was looking at some prison time and probably due to fear of that, killed himself with a pistol. My aunt (his grandmother, who has passed) was a sweetheart of a woman who helped raise Jeremy and my father (his younger brother) told me she was beside herself with grief.

I did tell my father once that his family is a Soap Opera. He wasnt amused by that. My mother told me all families are Soap Operas, including my own relationship with my parents.

But if I listen to that song Jeremy, I think of my cousin.

[Dude111]

That songs been out along time......... Its kinda strange!!

[Edward216]

Sadly, it's based on a real incident of a student pulling out a gun and killing himself in front of his classmates and I think his name really was Jeremy. Absolutely horrible.

Ed.

[Hawkee]

Why the song Jeremy became a hit for Pearl Jam i'll never understand? Because it seemed to be very scary and the lyrics are so strange but creepy at the same time. The video for Jeremy is also very strange and I don't know how it became a hit? But the chorus of the song "Jeremy spoke in class today" is something weird. Who is Jeremy speaking to? His teacher or one of his classmates?

[dee2364]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

Why the song Jeremy became a hit for Pearl Jam i'll never understand? Because it seemed to be very scary and the lyrics are so strange but creepy at the same time. The video for Jeremy is also very strange and I don't know how it became a hit? But the chorus of the song "Jeremy spoke in class today" is something weird. Who is Jeremy speaking to? His teacher or one of his classmates?

Jeremy's spoken=he killed himself.

The song was a hit for the same reason The Dave Clark Five had a hit in the 1960s at the height of Beatlemania. Everyone was so obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain that they liked anything that reminded them of that Seattle sound. I personally couldn't stand Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots.

[jets4life]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

I was listening to music and found a weird song by Pearl Jam named Jeremy and when I listened to it I found the lyrics creepy and I would like to know how the song became a hit and how it came to be? The video for the song is really cool like a movie? Is Jeremy a troubled kid who's a bully or does he not fit in at school and gets in trouble a lot?

The song "Jeremy" is loosely based on a true story of a 15 year old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle, who committed suicide in front of his class in Dallas, TX in 1991. Delle had been reprimanded for writing a note that suggested he wanted to kill one of his teachers, who he did not care for.

The note was discovered by the school staff, and Jeremy was placed on "probation" in the school, meaning he lost the privileged of speaking in class, and had to pass notes to classmates, if he had something to say, or ask for something. I believe he also was required to meet with guidance counsellors, and attend some sort of class for troubled kids at his school.

This explains the crumbled up note that he tossed on his teachers desk at the end of the video. The back story is actually remarkably true in detail, regarding his life. His mother and father had divorced, after which I don't believe he was in contact with her. His father, who received custody of Jeremy, had started a new relationship some time after, and was usually with his new girlfriend, as Jeremy was left alone at home.

How this song became a monster hit for Pearl Jam i'll never understand and was it also released in a clean version too? Because the version of Jeremy I found was the explicit lyrics version
Bestie

As for the music video, explicit lyrics was not the reason that MTV forced the band to edit out the scene where Jeremy brings a gun into his class, and it cuts to the aftermath of the suicide where blood his splattered on his classmates in the front row, while they have shocked expressions. The fact that MTV cut out the scene where Jeremy puts the gun into his mouth,led many viewers to falsely believe that Jeremy shot his classmates.

The video itself ran, from 1992 to 1999. However, in the wake of the Columbine School Shooting on April 99, the video was banned from MTV and US television. Later on, the video was rarely shown again on MTV or any other music video channel in America, due to the belief of many viewers that it depicts a school shooting.