Formed after the demise of Gossard and Ament's previous band, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with their debut album, Ten, in 1991. Ten stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for nearly five years, and has gone on to become one of the highest-selling rock records ever, going 13× platinum in the United States. Released in 1993, Pearl Jam's second album, Vs., sold over 950,000 copies in its first week of release, setting the record for most copies of an album sold in its first week of release at the time. Their third album, Vitalogy (1994), became the second-fastest-selling CD in history at the time, with more than 877,000 units sold in its first week.
One of the key bands in the grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam's members often shunned popular music industry practices such as making music videos or participating in interviews. The band also sued Ticketmaster, claiming it had monopolized the concert-ticket market. In 2006, Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame."
Pearl Jam had sold more than 85 million albums worldwide by 2018, including nearly 32 million albums in the United States by 2012, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 in its first year of eligibility. They were ranked eighth in a readers' poll by Rolling Stone magazine in its "Top Ten Live Acts of All Time" issue. Throughout its career, the band has also promoted wider social and political issues, from pro-abortion rights sentiments to opposition to George W. Bush's presidency. Vedder acts as the band's spokesman on these issues.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Jam
Studio albums
Ten (1991)
Vs. (1993)
Vitalogy (1994)
No Code (1996)
Yield (1998)
Binaural (2000)
Riot Act (2002)
Pearl Jam (2006)
Backspacer (2009)
Lightning Bolt (2013)
Gigaton (2020)
Fatal
Pearl Jam Lyrics
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How warm are his eyes
You'll see it's not a reprise
Did he arrive
Too late and too tethered away
To put on his suit and his tie?
How good is he?
Or ego telling him which place to park
Did he relate, the message is clearly hardly
Grounds for dismissal outright
Grounds for dismissal outright
I wake up and wait up
When anger's in fashion
I wake up and wait up
It echoes through the mansions
I wake up and wait up
When April's in may, oh uh oh
I wake up and wait up
The answers are fatal
The answers are fatal
When I wait up and wake up
The answers are fatal
If he's truly out of sight
Is he truly out of mind?
If he's truly out of sight..
The lyrics to Pearl Jam's song Fatal are open to interpretation, but it seems to be about a relationship that has ended, and the singer is questioning whether the other person truly cared for them. The questions about the other person's goodness and warmth are meant to challenge their sincerity and depth of feeling. The lines "Did he arrive / Too late and too tethered away / To put on his suit and his tie?" suggest that the other person was perhaps unreliable or inconsiderate, and didn't make an effort to show up when it mattered most. The singer wonders whether the other person's heart or ego led the way when it came to decisions about the relationship, and whether they truly related to the singer or just used them for their own purposes. The line "The answers are fatal" implies that the truth about the relationship could be devastating if revealed.
The chorus, "I wake up and wait up / When anger's in fashion / It echoes through the mansions / When April's in May," could be interpreted as the singer's emotional state after the end of the relationship. They are waiting for answers and feeling angry about what has happened. The line "It echoes through the mansions" suggests that their pain and frustration is reverberating through their entire being and perhaps even beyond. The reference to April in May could suggest that the singer is stuck in a transitional phase, moving from one season to another, and trying to make sense of their emotions.
Overall, the lyrics to Fatal are haunting and introspective, leaving the listener to wonder about the true nature of the relationship and the emotional state of the singer.
Line by Line Meaning
How good is he?
Questioning the character of a person. What is his true nature?
How warm are his eyes
Looking for the warmth and kindness in his eyes that can tell what he's about.
You'll see it's not a reprise
There's something different about him, something that's not like before.
Did he arrive
Did he make it on time?
Too late and too tethered away
He seems to be tied down, restrained from something.
To put on his suit and his tie?
To dress up accordingly, is he really serious about this?
How warm is his heart
Checking if he has a good heart and does he genuinely care.
Or ego telling him which place to park
Is he guided by his ego, the sense of self-importance, or does he park where's convenient?
Did he relate, the message is clearly hardly
Trying to connect with the message but it's difficult to understand.
Grounds for dismissal outright
It's not good enough for immediate dismissal, but it's not great either.
I wake up and wait up
Can't sleep, too much on my mind.
When anger's in fashion
When rage is more visible and acceptable than love.
It echoes through the mansions
Even for the wealthy, the anger remains the same.
When April's in may, oh uh oh
Temporary, seasonal things, like Spring, can only last so long before they change.
The answers are fatal
The truth is not the one I want to hear.
If he's truly out of sight
If he's really gone, what am I supposed to do?
Is he truly out of mind?
Does he even remember me, now that he's gone?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: STONE GOSSARD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind