Glorified G – Pearl Jam

Not really obscure I grant you Hedgehog. Seeing as Glorified G was on the fastest selling album of all time (a record held for five something years) it’s kind of one of those songs that is legitimately now everybody’s.

Hello from the children of planet Earth.

But let’s consider Vs. for a moment. It’s the biggest record for Pearl Jam in terms of sales. And in expectation. Ten’s success had grown over a two year touring period. People didn’t know who they were before it got big. They loved them after a short while. But growth was the thing. Vs. Hit like a hammer all at once.

*ClAiM To FaMe WARNING*

I saw Pearl Jam’s first ever UK show before Ten was released. In a Pub, In Southend Essex. It was one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever witnessed. My school buddies and I? We swallowed up everything we could find by them. We could not wait for another record like it.

*ClAiM To FaMe ENDS*

And by the time I got to my first semester at University we sort of got one. But Vs. is a rougher, angrier affair than Ten. And that started to put some people off. Not me. I literally cannot think of a better album than Pearl Jam’s Vs. I can think of a few equals but no better.

Glorified G is the MOR moment among the fury, the head trips and the fragility on Vs. The album starts off like a mistreated Pitbull on a chain. With Go and Animal. It can later head back to that anger with Blood and Leash but not before a few detours. There was nothing as furious on Ten. These make Why Go sound like the theme from Why Don’t You? (That’s a little UK based 80’s Kids TV joke, a quality one I might add)

There was the fragile beauty of Daughter and Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town later in the record and there was the deep groovy-ness of Rats and W.M.A. to assist with any one who was partial to relaxation techniques during their listening experience. The final track had you covered there too with Indifference wafting off into the 90’s acting as if the 21st century would never come.

Then there was the problem of what was radio going to do with this album? They were left with Dissident (The live album you got by buying all 4 CD singles is one of the master strokes of bands marketing under the radar in the face of the charts) Rearviewmirror (undeniably a classic single looking for a station to play it) and Glorified G.

GG sounded the perfect fit. But if you listened to the words. It was ‘Coming for your Guns America!’ Glorified G is THE ultimate anti-NRA anthem.

“Got a gun, ‘fact I got two, that’s OK Man Cos I love God”

If that sentence doesn’t fill you with wariness. You might want to go look in the mirror. Eddie may have been in character and playing up to a pastiche but if his words ring true for you, you have to ask yourself. Why do we let this continue?

“Glorified version of a pellet gun, feels so manly when armed”