Jeremy
Pearl Jam
How to study this song
The card for “Jeremy” is built from 52 study entries at B1-: 23 English words, 7 adjectives and 22 verb forms. Begin with pictures, mountain and sun: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 22 distinct forms against 7 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level part of the list will already be familiar; the rest is what closes the gap.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pictures | dibujos | disegni | dessins | desenhos | tekeningen | Bilder |
| mountain | montaña | montagna | montagne | montanha | berg | Berg |
| sun | sol | sole | soleil | sol | zon | Sonne |
| arms | brazos | braccia | bras | braços |
What this song teaches you
Level · B1-
- Vocabulary words
- 23
- Adjectives
- 7
- Word combos
- 11
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 22
- Quiz questions
- 35
More English songs at this level
Background
About the song
«Jeremy» is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, from Seattle. It appears on the band’s debut album, «Ten», which Epic Records released on 27 August 1991, and it came out as the album’s third single in August 1992, after «Alive» and «Even Flow». The singer Eddie Vedder wrote the words and the bassist Jeff Ament wrote the music. The band recorded it at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, producing it together with Rick Parashar, and it has become one of the best-known songs of the grunge years of the early 1990s.
Pearl Jam was formed in Seattle in 1990. The guitarist Stone Gossard and the bassist Jeff Ament had already played together in Green River and Mother Love Bone, and the lead guitarist Mike McCready joined them soon after. Their search for a singer reached Eddie Vedder in San Diego through a demo tape: he recorded his own vocals over the instrumental tracks, sent the tape back and was invited to Seattle, where he joined the group within a week. For a short time the band played under the name Mookie Blaylock, a basketball player, before it chose the name Pearl Jam. Dave Krusen played the drums on «Ten». In 2017 the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility.
The music began with Jeff Ament, who had written two pieces with a twelve-string bass guitar in mind; when the instrument arrived, one of them became «Jeremy». The song already existed before the band’s tour as the opening act for Alice in Chains in early 1991. It starts with a quiet, ringing bass figure and then grows step by step: the guitars and drums get heavier with each section, and Vedder’s voice moves from a low, almost spoken tone to long, intense cries. For the final recording Ament added a twelve-string bass and a cello, which he called a big production for the band at that time. He has also said that the song nearly stayed off the album, and that in the end it was one of its best takes.
The lyrics are based on a real event. In January 1991 a fifteen-year-old student took his own life in front of his class at a high school in Richardson, Texas. Vedder read a short newspaper report about it and, as he explained years later, felt that he had to take that small article and turn it into something. He has also mentioned memories from his own school days. The song does not describe the event itself. It tries instead to understand the loneliness, the lack of care at home and the cruelty at school that can surround a young person before such a tragedy.