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What, are you all 9?
Don't you remember "Jeremy"?
"clearly I remember... picking on the boy... seemed a harmless little fuck... but we unleashed a lion... gnashed his teeth, bit the recess ladies breast... how could I forget... he hit me with a surprise left my jaw left hurtin'... dropped wide open... just like the day... like the day I heard... DADDY didn't give affection... and the boy was something Mommy wouldn't wear...
King Jeremy the wicked... ruled his world!
...DEAD LAY IN POOLS OF MAROON BELOW...
Try to forget this... try to erase this... FROM THE BLACKBOARD---
Jeremy spoke in class today"
Sounds a hell of a lot like... Pearl, MS; Paducah, KY, Jonesboro, AK; Edinboro, PA; Springfield, OR...
and Littleton, Colorado, doesn't it?
And the video was just as literal and extremely emotional.
Oh, sure, there have been lots of songs about teenage angst and the resulting violence before and since, but only one was ever made it to MTV's # 1 video of all time (which is mostly based on their popularity), a 1992 release by probably THE most popular band to come out of the Seattle grunge scene (with ALL APOLOGIES to Kurt Kobain). The video was so disturbing, controversial and popular that Pearl Jam refused to make another one after it, even before it peaked in 1994. (This past year they finally relented.)
Funny. It may have happened, but personally, I can't recall a single incident of a kid(s) going into his school and randomly laying waste to his classmates with a gun before 1992. Actually, I can't recall one between 1992 and 1997 either, but maybe it just took a few years for the effects to kick in. Yeah, sure, many ADULTS went postal before then, but you'd be hard press to find a kid that did.
From the research I've done on all of these cases (I've saved every single article I came across), I doubt that any of the attackers were big Pearl Jam fans. (Most were good old fashioned country boys. Then we have these "Goth Confederates"-- right.) But I know very few young people that haven't seen that video. And with its psychadelic feel and a theme that resonates with many youths (everybody hates me), you might say that it's possible that it fostered an environment in which outcasts felt a Jeremy-type move might empower them.
I foolishly pointed the "Jeremy"-connection out to my stations' promotions manager during a casual conversation while we were on a "field trip" together today. She's 40, and although she had heard of Pearl Jam, she didn't know about the video.
Guess what the "feature" in tomorrow's news is going to be about?
(Actually, this isn't the first time I've accidentally influenced the direction of our news, but the other time was much more acceptable.)
So, yeah, I've pissed off X-MAN by sort of agreeing with him-- I never said the media didn't have any influence over society. But as obviously pro-First Amendment as I am, there's no way I'd condone banning "Jeremy," or Marilyn Manson, or KFDM or any other band just to prevent some kid from thinking he was justified in snapping. Our society has to accept the good and the bad that come from free speech. And you can't say Pearl Jam was instigating the violence-- their video was supposed to be a message to those who would be a Jeremy-tormentor. They can't help it if the would-be Jeremys interpreted their work in a completely different manner. It's just like people of one point of view interpreting the Confederate flag as being a tribute to their ancestors who died in the Civil War, while those from another point of view interpret it as a symbol of racism and hatred.
Now that's the end of the rational CFL. The IRrational CFL is to come. (...or has he been here all the long?)
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