|
The idea for "Jeremy"
"Jeremy" is a song based on a true happened story. Eddie Vedder saw an article in a newspaper by which he was inspired to write the song (see also lyrics).
It was January 8th, 1991, when a morning as usual at Richardson High School ended in a complete chaos. Jeremy Wade Delle (16) shot himself in front of all his classmates and his teacher, by placing a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. He was dead immediately. The motives for this horrible suicide are still a matter of suppositions. The newspapers only wrote that he was a troubled kid and that his parents were divorced.
In a daily newspaper some eyewitnesses told their stories, of which I quote two:
When the accident happened, Brian Jackson (16) was buisy opening his locker. He said: "I heard a loud bang like someone had just slammed a book on a desk. I thought they were doing a play or something. But then I heard a scream and a blond girl came running out of the classroom and she was crying." He looked into the classroom because he was curious of what had happened, although he was very frightened. "The teacher was standing against the wall crying and shaking. Some people were standing around her holding her as if to keep her from falling."
Howard Pierre Felman, an 11th-grader, said that at first students were joking about the noise, thinking that someone was playing around. "But then we heard a girl running down the hall screaming," he said. "It was a scream from the heart."
When Eddie wrote the song he gave Jeremy more background than was known in real. As you can read in the lyrics, he made you think that the only reason for the suicide was that his parents never showed interest in him. But the known facts don't exclude other possibilities. This is only one of them.
Go to top of page
The early years of Eddie Vedder
Eddie was born on December 23th 1966 in Evanston, Illinois (near Chicago). Untill his 5th he had a good youth, but then his parents started an orphanage which was often a very busy place. Before that he was the oldest of four boys, but now he had brothers who were often older than him and all had different backgrounds. Their tastes had much influence on Eddie. He came in touch with soul, R&B and Motown, because those were the main types of music to which the orphans listened.
When he was eight, Eddie moved to San Diego (1974). He needed his music very much, because it was a rough time for him. Especially "Quadrophenia" of The Who cheered him up when he was feeling down again. It took him a long time before he was able to tell what made him so angry with his family. In 1993 he told Cameron Crowe of Melody Maker that he never liked who he thought was his father. When Eddie was sixteen, his mother told him that his stepfather wasn't his real dad. Until that day he lived as Eddie Mueller, but his real last name appeared to be Severson (full name: Edward Louis Severson Junior). That was a year after his parents had moved toI love to discus animals and their behaviors. So, email me any information you might have. Thank you.
(More Stuff Will Be Added)
|
