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)

Love You Hate You
Pearl Jam Lyrics

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Here I stand with head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she's gone I can't go on
Feeling two foot small
Everywhere people stare
each and everyday
I can hear them laugh at me
And I hear them say

Hey, you've got to hide your love away
Hey, you've got to hide your love away
How can I even try?
I can never win
Seeing them hearing them
In the state I'm in
How could she say to me
"Love will find a way"?
Gather 'round all you clowns
Let me hear you say;

Hey, you've got to hide your love away
Hey, you've got to hide your love away

Overall Meaning

In Pearl Jam's "Hide Your Love Away," the singer is speaking from a place of pain and isolation. He feels small and powerless, as if he doesn't belong in the world around him. He feels as though people are laughing and staring at him, taunting him for his love and the vulnerability it represents. He speaks to his lost love, noting that he can never win her back and that the very idea of doing so seems impossible in the state he's in.

Yet, he still hears her words ringing in his head, specifically her affirmation that "love will find a way." This hope conflicts with his current feelings, and he turns to the "clowns" around him for validation, asking them to join in his pain and hide their own love as well.

The song's lyrics are able to capture both the intensity of heartbreak and the struggle to reconcile that pain with greater hope. The unnamed narrator in the song speaks to listeners who may have felt out of place or rejected in their own love lives, urging them to remain hopeful even in the face of tragedy.

Line by Line Meaning

Here I stand with head in hand
I am standing with my head in my hand, feeling lost and confused.

Turn my face to the wall
I am trying to hide my face from the rest of the world.

If she's gone I can't go on
If my love is gone, I feel like I cannot continue on with life.

Feeling two foot small
I feel small and insignificant.

Everywhere people stare
People are staring at me wherever I go.

each and everyday
This happens every day, consistently.

I can hear them laugh at me
I can hear people laughing at me and making fun of me.

And I hear them say
I hear them saying things about me.

Hey, you've got to hide your love away
You need to keep your love hidden and secret.

How can I even try?
I feel like there's no point in even trying.

I can never win
I can't succeed or prevail.

Seeing them hearing them
I see and hear what is going on around me.

In the state I'm in
I am in a difficult emotional state.

How could she say to me
How could she tell me...

"Love will find a way"?
"Love will find a way"? How is that possible?

Gather 'round all you clowns
Come on, all you fools and jokers.

Let me hear you say;
Tell me...

Hey, you've got to hide your love away
You need to keep your love hidden and secret.

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOHN LENNON, JOHN WINSTON LENNON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, PAUL JAMES MCCARTNEY

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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