“Jeremy” Song Analysis
“Sixty-four degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood”. January 8th, 1991, if you were alive and old enough, then memory should serve you right that it was a normal day. For Jeremy Wade Delle and the Richardson Texas High School, it wasn’t. The tragic events at this high school lead to the inspiration of Pearl Jam’s 1992 single “Jeremy” that’s remembered not only by its ambiguous lyrics but also it’s highly controversial music video. This song was a pioneer music taking political stands throughout the 90’s like gun issues, violent music videos, and school shootings.
On the morning of January 8th, 1991 Jeremy Wade Delle was late to his second-period English class which lead to his teacher requesting a tardy slip from the office. Minutes later Jeremy returned with a .357 magnum revolver said “Miss, I got what I really went for”, and proceeded to commit suicide in front of the class. Later that year Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder was reading a newspaper article about the incident and the article started out by saying “Sixty-four degrees and cloudy in a suburban area”. He read the article and thought this kid made a sacrifice and killed himself to get revenge on his classmates you treated him poorly, just to get a paragraph in the newspaper, eventually life goes on and the world never changes. Vedder also said that this song is to prove that even though that in a way suicide and school shootings aren’t the answer, inside one should value life, prove those who bullied you wrong and treat people with respect and kindness. To me, this song is still very pertinent in today’s world because we, as a nation, don’t treat people the way we should. After the incident, all Jeremy’s fellow students said things like “He never looked like he had anything wrong with him. He always made a joke over everything” and to many, seemed oblivious to the trouble they were putting him through. Also, another classmate whom Jeremy often trade notes with said “He signed all of his notes, ‘Write back.’ But on Monday he wrote, ‘Later days.’ I didn’t know what to make of it,” she said. “But I never thought this would happen.” After further research, I found the entire note that he gave Nancy ( the person he trades the notes with)
Sorry, Nancy, by the time you get this letter I will have blown my head off, aka suicide, better known as (last way out). News flash — not your fault. It’s Michelle’s along with about 137.5 other problems. I was just writing to see if you wanted to go to the funeral. Call my house and ask for my Dad, 690–5338. At least you didn’t have to hear the boom. Love, Jeremy Wade Delle
Granted he mailed the letter to her and she received it later, but someone would’ve had to notice he was acting different, but no. This lead to the efforts of Pearl Jam creating a song that brought this topic to the mainstream news — to give Jeremy, in a recognition and make others aware of an issue that was soon going to take over the 90’s and later generations. Some of the first lyrics in the song include “Daddy didn’t give attention, to the fact that mommy didn’t care”, meaning his parents didn’t give him attention or notice when he needed it the most. In a world where violence is dominant, random acts of kindness can make a difference in certain peoples lives.
Another aspect of the song includes a person experience Vedder had while in junior high. “I actually knew somebody in junior high school, in San Diego, California, that did the same thing, just about, didn’t take his life but ended up shooting up an oceanography room. I remember being in the halls and hearing it and I had actually had altercations with this kid in the past. I was kind of a rebellious fifth-grader and I think we got in fights and stuff. So it’s a bit about this kid named Jeremy and it’s also a bit about a kid named Brian that I knew and I don’t know…the song, I think it says a lot. I think it goes somewhere…and a lot of people interpret it different ways and it’s just been recently that I’ve been talking about the true meaning behind it and I hope no one’s offended and believe me, I think of Jeremy when I sing it.” This event is documented in the second part of the song and ties the two tragedies together. Vedder had also stated in another interview that he was got into a fight earlier with the kid and that from that day forth he knew that he had to change his ways. “Jeremy” focuses on the effect of bullying and how it ruins people. The chorus “Jeremy spoke in class today” references that outlash of students who are harassed and their decisions that are affected by other people. The early 90’s when school shootings were very uncommon, and suicide wasn’t a main focus of concern. There were later documented instances when students had the idea to take a gun to school and lash out all their anger, however, do to “Jeremy” they didn’t. On the flip side, the song has also caused violence and served as an inspiration to certain people. In 1996 a student proceeded to succeed in a school shooting. Later in the trial, the student claimed that “Jeremy” gave him the idea to commit the crime. Though there are many interpretations of the song, Pearl Jam insists that it serves to inspire the correct treatment of people and the effect one person has on many lives if we don’t.
The music video is also open to interpretation of the viewer. With scenes of bullying, bible verses, students covered in blood, and U.S. Congress talking about shootings the video is clear yet hard to understand while it has many underlying meanings. First the bible verses Genesis 3:6 which is the first known for the creation of sin in the world, and also Mark 5:13 that alludes to “the unclean spirit entering”. The idea behind this was to show that sin was still at large in the early 90’s and that no one was aware of it, and the unclean spirit entering refers to Jeremy walking into the class to fulfill his idea. Secondly, the video shows Jeremy running through a forest filled with paintings, Jeremy in class making drawings that aren’t shown until the end, and students covered in blood. The idea of Jeremy in the forest refers to the unclear journey that we all face in life. With paintings of a wolf, suit, and dress, and Jeremy on top of a mountain there are many different meanings to these. The wolf is meant to resemble anger and the path of violence it leads to. As for the suit and dress, that’s meant to show Jeremy’s parent neglecting to show Jeremy attention as previously stated. Lastly, the drawing Jeremy creates are meant to show the process of him being bullied and how he was working on the plan for a while and when his drawings are shown at the end of the song, that means that he killed himself and his drawings or plans were clear and seen by everyone. In the aftermath of all this Congress finally started to notice an issue that would later become a large problem in the late 90’s. There are barely audible voices in the intro to the video that can be heard saying “It is very relevant in America today” meaning that after Jeremy’s actions and Pearl Jam’s efforts people started to notice the elephant in the room. Later events in the 90’s like Columbine were defining moments of the decade that was littered with riots and shootings. It wasn’t until then that society took notice of these acts and started taking action. The ending of the video was what nearly caused the video to be banned by MTV and VH1. The video shows Jeremy walking into a classroom, tossing his teacher an apple, then facing the class and reaching into a bag, followed by students awe-stricken and covered in blood. The meaning behind this wasn’t meant to be taken literal but to show the students had blood on their hands. Like the note said there were about 137.5 other problems that lead to Jeremy taking his life. When his fellow classmates ridiculed he decided they had to suffer. The video was edited and revised many times until it was accepted by MTV. Pearl Jam tried to make the video as disturbing as possible to show the raw affects these kinds of events have on people and how real of an issue it is. The song and video climbed charts and received many awards in the following years, however after the Frontier High School shooting and song connection “Jeremy” was played less often as its lyrics were too ambiguous to understand the real meaning. Then the final straw was pulled. April 20th, 1999 two Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred 13 members of the school. Although “Jeremy” wasn’t a direct motive for the students, the distant ties the song had to shootings and other violence lead to MTV and VH1 rarely airing the video do to out-lash and misinterpretation. Even though that wasn’t the true intentions of the song many people used it against its true purpose.
With all the violence and crime the world has faced in the past 20 years it is astounding that people don’t change the way they treat others. Bombings, school shootings, suicide, and riots are a large part of society that people don’t like but won’t do anything to stop. Eddie Vedder took a troubled child’s actions and gave it purpose. The idea that, after someone takes their life, all they get is an article in the news. Until recent people didn’t get the full story because no one gave them the full story. With the actions of Jeremy on January 8th, 1991 Pearl Jam decided to do what few artists had done before, take a tragedy and make a positive example of it. The last part of the song fades out with Eddie Vedder repeatedly saying “Try to forget this, try to erase this from the blackboard” referring to the idea that when events like this happen people get over it and the world moves on but it’s still going to be a part of society and people’s lives. The everlasting impression of Jeremy Delle and the song have made on the world has lead to many positive movements about finding help and anti-suicide. Even though people knew about these issues, “Jeremy” brought the topic to the front of everyone’s mind and made it clear that something had to be done, people had to change the way they treated others. To me, it’s hard to understand why we treat people poorly, and why we can’t all get along. Yes we all have differences that make us who we are, but be the candle in a world of darkness, sit with the outcast, help that person who’s bullied, treat others with respect because if we all did that then maybe Jeremy wouldn’t have committed suicide and maybe Pearl Jam wouldn’t have had to make an example of him.