Pearl Jam is an American grunge/alternative rock band formed in Seattle, Wa… Read Full Bio ↴Pearl Jam is an American grunge/alternative rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guitar), as well as Matt Cameron (drums), who joined in 1998. Keyboardist Boom Gaspar has also been a touring/session member with the band since 2002. Drummers Jack Irons, Dave Krusen, Matt Chamberlain, and Dave Abbruzzese are former members of the band. Pearl Jam outsold many of their contemporaries from the early 1990s, and are considered one of the most influential bands of the decade, being dubbed as "the most popular American rock and roll band of the '90s".

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)

Girl
Pearl Jam Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Thieves in the window
Trouble down the hall
The resin white ceiling
Blood, dripping, flows
Out on the front line
Preachers sweep the earth
Out on their backsides
With nothing in common, with no problem

She's just a girl
Just, just a girl, yeah
Just one time around
She has little chance to make good
Distance of her lie
Decided in the woods

Burning fires
She's led to police
This maid in progress
Betrayin' your mother's need for a shelter

Oh, just a girl
Just, just a girl
Just one time around
She had little chance to make good
Treats them now, she's young
But it can be taken away
Just one time around, can be taken away
We all make mistakes

Hush my baby
Don't you cry
You're my little alibi
Oh baby, please
I need some sleep
Now be taking
You with me

Just a girl
Just a girl
Just a girl
Just a girl

Just a girl
Just a kid, yeah

Overall Meaning

The song "Girl" by Pearl Jam portrays the life of a young girl struggling with her circumstances. The lyrics suggest that the girl is surrounded by criminal activities and illegal behavior. The thieves in the window and trouble down the hall suggests a setting of a rough neighborhood. The lines, "The resin white ceiling, blood, dripping, flows," might suggest a violent altercation that has taken place. The lyrics suggest that the girl is aware of her surroundings yet shows little hope for her future. The chorus, "Just a girl, just, just a girl, yeah. Just one time around. She has little chance to make good. Distance of her lie. Decided in the woods," implies that the girl has already faced hardships, and her chances of success seem slim. The distance of her lie is a metaphorical representation of how much she needs to cover up to escape her unfortunate circumstances. Despite the hardships that the girl faces, the song implies that she is not a lost cause, and there is still some hope for her to get out of her situation.

Later on in the song, the lyrics imply that the girl might have been caught up in illegal activity herself. The line, "Burning fires, she's led to police," implies that the girl has been involved in arson and had to face the consequences of her actions. The line, "This maid in progress betrayin' your mother's need for a shelter," suggests that the girl might have burned down her own home, leaving her mother homeless. The chorus repeats, emphasizing the girl's vulnerable state and how one mistake can take away everything she has.

Overall, the song "Girl" portrays the hardships and struggles of a young girl in a rough neighborhood. The lyrics imply that despite the unfavorable circumstances, there is still hope for the girl to change her life around.

Line by Line Meaning

Thieves in the window
There are burglars lurking outside

Trouble down the hall
There is some disturbance in the adjacent rooms

The resin white ceiling
The roof is made of white resin

Blood, dripping, flows
Blood is flowing and dripping

Out on the front line
Referring to the battlefront or any other frontline of an activity

Preachers sweep the earth
Religious preachers travel and propagate the religious beliefs among people

Out on their backsides
The preachers are going out in the field and doing ground-level work

With nothing in common, with no problem
The preachers are accepting everyone without any discrimination, even if they do not have anything in common with them.

She's just a girl
A young girl is being referred to

Just, just a girl, yeah
The girl is being referred to repeatedly

Just one time around
She has only one life to live

She has little chance to make good
She does not have many opportunities to succeed in life

Distance of her lie
The distance of her life journey

Decided in the woods
The course of her life has been decided by her upbringing and environment

Burning fires
Something is causing intense or extreme distress

She's led to police
She has been forced to take refuge with the police

This maid in progress
This young girl is still developing and has a long way to go

Betrayin' your mother's need for a shelter
She is disobeying or neglecting her mother's need for a place of safety

Treats them now, she's young
She is being mistreated at a young age

But it can be taken away
Her life can be taken away at any moment