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1* AscendedFanon: "Alive" was originally meant to be about the self-existential doubt and angst of a teenager who discovers who his recently-dead biological father is and his mother inappropriately dealing with the grief by committing ParentalIncest. Fans instead took it as an inspirational self-affirming life anthem, and Eddie Vedder eventually came to agree in a 2006 interview with [=VH1=].
2* ChartDisplacement: Their biggest hits on the Hot 100 are "Last Kiss" (a cover of a forgotten 60s tune!), "I Got Id" (because Billboard chose to count the ''Merkin Ball'' EP as a single), and "Spin the Black Circle" (helped by ''Vitalogy'' not being on CD for two weeks, so listeners went elsewhere). In contrast, "Jeremy" peaked at only 79 (in 1995, three years after its original release) while "Alive" and "Even Flow" never even charted on the Hot 100.
3* ColbertBump: ''Around the Bend'' from ''No Code'' became popular after the final episode of the web series {{WebAnimation/ONE}} used a CoverVersion of it.
4* CreatorBacklash: While he doesn't hate the music on the album, Vedder has said that ''Vs.'' was his least favorite record to work on, and that he finds it difficult to revisit without bad memories coming up.
5* CreatorBreakdown:
6** ''Vitalogy'' is a dark album, with frequent allusions to suicide ("Last Exit", "Immortality"), written in response to the pressures of stardom and the death of Music/KurtCobain (though Eddie Vedder has repeatedly denied that "Immortality" is about the latter subject).
7** A milder example is ''Binaural'', written in the aftermath of Eddie's divorce from his first wife, with him suffering from writer's block and [=McCready=] from an addiction to prescription drugs. ''Riot Act'' has some for both their backlash against UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and an incident in the 2000 Roskilde Festival where nine fans were trampled to death during PJ's show.
8* CreatorRecovery: Once Bush left and UsefulNotes/BarackObama was elected, the band recorded ''Backspacer'', which sounds much happier than the angry, politically charged and pessimistic SelfTitledAlbum (not to mention the above mentioned ''Riot Act'').
9* ExecutiveMeddling:
10** A failed instance in the band refusing to make a video for "Black", considering it too personal, and later on again for "Better Man".
11** Successfully seen in the Ticketmaster debacle, as their boycott and attempted lawsuit prevented them from touring anywhere in America but the most backwater places. They eventually had to admit defeat and resume working with Ticketmaster.
12* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The [[https://m.facebook.com/TempleOFGrunge/videos/1051104868583474/?t=2&v=1051104868583474 original music video]] for "Even Flow" was never officially released due to the band not liking how it turned out. It took until 2020 for it to be leaked to the public.
13* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: ''Ten'''s 15th anniversary edition. One of the unreleased rarities on the second disc, "Brother", was released as a single to promote the album...and almost immediately became one of the band's biggest rock radio hits in years.
14* LyingCreator: Vedder used to claim that the band's name comes from his great-grandmother Pearl's home-made jam, but later admitted that that's untrue. Some fans assume that it's a reference to semen, but Vedder's later explanation is much less interesting: they came up with "Pearl" apropos of nothing and then added "Jam" to it after watching Music/NeilYoung play a long jam set.
15* ThePeteBest: Dave Krusen, the band's original drummer who quit before they went touring for the first time due to personal issues he had at the time.
16* TroubledProduction:
17** Communications between band members during the recordings of ''Vitalogy'' dropped considerably as Eddie Vedder was taking more control over the songwriting process and Stone Gossard stopped mediating band conflicts. Mike [=McCready=] then had to go to rehab for his alcohol and cocaine addiction. Drummer Dave Abbruzzese was later fired near the end of recordings due to his disagreements with the band's actions such as their battle with Ticketmaster and his conflicts with Vedder and Jeff Ament. He was replaced by former Music/RedHotChiliPeppers drummer Jack Irons.
18** ''No Code'' is slightly worse in this aspect. Jeff Ament stated that he didn't know recording the album took place three days after it started, at one point walking out of a session due to tensions within the band. Vedder, like in Vitalogy, had complete control of the creative process, causing even more strife within the group. It got worse when Vedder started burning out and had a harder time helping with music. Unlike with Vitalogy, the recording process was very slow and, thus, a few songs were made from jam sessions. McCready said of the album, "I think we kind of rushed it a little bit." Things got better when then-drummer, Jack Irons, started getting the band to discuss their problems and the rest of the recording sessions went a bit more smoothly.
19** ''Binaural'', as Vedder suffered from WritersBlock, the band had to adjust for recording with Matt Cameron after just touring with him, and [=McCready=] was coming off a prescription drug addiction.
20* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The timing of drummer Dave Abbruzzese's departure and Kurt Cobain's passing meant that, for a brief moment, Music/DaveGrohl of Music/{{Nirvana}} was offered the spot behind the kit. Sadly, he had [[Music/FooFighters other plans in the works]], but there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDPBwBB25E footage of Grohl joining the band for an encore performance of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" on tour in 1995]].
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