"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam
The first time I laid eyes on this video was in about 6th grade (1994/1995). VH1 was no doubt spinning the Billy Joel "In the Middle of the Night" video for the 10th time that day when Casy brought over a VHS tape of - hold your breath - 6 hours of taped MTV music videos! Do you have any idea what kind of excitement that produces in a 12 year old, MTV-less small town girl?! Her brother lived in a far off, magical land (Grand Forks, I believe it was) and had graciously gave her a tape recording MTV for all to enjoy.
Boy am I glad he did. I did a lot of growing up the day I saw this video.
I distinctly remember seeing the gun at the end on our tape. A gun! This clearly was a pre-Columbine world. I'll bet this video is nowhere near the airwaves today, even in a heavily edited form. And I didn't realize (spoiler alert) until Casy's mom mentioned that Jeremy killed himself at the end, not his classmates. Had she not said that to this day I'd still be thinking he killed them, not himself. Am I the only one who made that mistake?
I also loved this video because Jeremy reminded me of the love of my life at the time, Brad Renfro:
That is, before he turned into a total crackhead and OD'd or fell off a bridge or whatever classy form of crackhead death he chose.
So I hope I have effectively scared the pants off of you with Eddie Vedder's demonic, vein-bulging look. And reminded you not to pick on the quiet kid with a crappy home life. The consequences, as we have learned since more innocent times when this video came out, could be dire!
People make fun of me cuz I watch Real World Challenges cuz that's a show you watch in hs. I tell them I didn't have MTV until college and they don't believe me. Then I tell them that cell phones just started working in my home town this year. Again - they think I'm lying.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it - of course he shot himself. That's how he spoke in class that day. 'Jeremy spoke in class today'. I just rewatched the video and read the lyrics and I dont' know if I woulda figured it out - but I'm one of those ppl at the end of the movie that says - so what just happened in the movie; I didn't follow.
Oh Brad Renfo....Remember we kept rwd and ffd the vhs tape to see the millisecond his butt was on the tv in. I just looked it up - I am wrong it was Devon Sawa BONITA.
This is good stuff....keep them coming.
Yep, Devon Sawa in Now & Then. We watched it at a slumber party at Chelsey's. Remember it like it was yesterday!
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